Ex convento di San Marco, Florence

Ex convento di San Marco is the monumental part of a former Dominican convent, now an art museum, and its Renaissance architecture was created by Michelozzo. The building’s great distinction is its connection with Fra Angelico: it holds the world’s most extensive collection of his paintings and frescoes, many still displayed in the rooms where Dominican friars once lived. The cloister of Sant’Antonino opens the museum route with orderly arcades and a fresco by Fra Angelico showing Saint Dominic in adoration before the Crucifixion.

In the chapterhouse, his large Crucifixion includes not only biblical figures but also the founders of religious orders. The dormitory corridors contain forty-four cells painted by Fra Angelico between 1439 and 1443; each cell presents a scene from Christ’s life or Passion for the private contemplation of its occupant. Look toward the doorway marked by the Annunciation: this was among the images placed outside the cells for shared Dominican prayer.

San Marco also preserves the memory of Girolamo Savonarola, whose preaching made the convent his base during his brief spiritual rule in Florence. A famous manuscript library, designed by Michelozzo, belongs to the complex as well.