-- JaymievieveAng? - 07 Apr 2005 Located in the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata is an archetypal Renaissance building. Brunelleschi’s colonnade (1419-26) for the Spedale degli Innocenti is an example of Classical design. The Spedale (hospital) is named after Herod’s biblical Massacre of the Innocents following the birth of Jesus. It opened in 1444 as Europe’s first orphanage and is a major social monument. Many of its orphans took the last name of Innocenti and you will find many of their names in the phonebook. UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund also has offices there.

Brunelleschi’s round arches gave rise to the Classical style widely copied by Renaissance architects. * facade:

Brunelleschi’s arcaded loggia is decorated with terracotta roundels of babies in swaddling bands, added by Andrea della Robbia in 1487, reflect the building’s function as an orphanage. * swaddling:

At the left-hand end of the portico is the rota, a rotating stone cylinder on which mothers could place their unwanted children anonymously and ring the orphanage bell. The stone was then turned around and the child was taken in.

• la routa:
  

* routa inscription:

• inside:
  

Within the building there are two elegant cloisters built to Brunelleschi’s designs. The larger Chiostro degli Uomini (Men’s Cloister), built between 1422 and 1445, is decorated with sgraffito designs of cherubs and roosters scratched into the wet plaster. The smaller Women’s Cloister 1438 leads to a gallery which has several paintings donated by children from the orphanage, one of which is the Adoration of the Magi (1488) painted by Domenico del Ghirlandaio, showing the massacre in the background.

Rotonda of Santa Maria degli Angeli (1434) located in piazza Brunelleschi. * facade3:

Brunelleschi’s last great project was the Church of Santo Spirito begun in 1436 but was never finished due to lack of funds. Brunelleschi had intended that the façade of Sant Spirito should face the Arno, but this scheme was altered; so too was his plan to express the curved shape of the side chapels by an undulating exterior, and his idea of having four doors instead of the traditional three; these changes were made by the architects who completed the church after Brunelleschi’s death.

• facade2:
  

Palazzo di Parte Guelfa which Brunelleschi improved by designing the council hall on the first floor and the delicately moulded classical window frames outside (1431). Closed to the public. This building served as the headquarters of the Guelph party and the residence of its captains from around 1266, after the Guelphs began to emerge as the stronger of the two medieval factions struggling for control over Florence. Florence and Tuscany Eyewitness Travel Guide 2004

• windows:
  

The "Gate of Paradise" Ghiberti worked on the East Doors from 1424 to 1452. Commissioned in 1401, it was to mark Florence's deliverance from the plague. The trial panels were regarded as one of the first products of the Renaissance because it was so different from Florentine Gothic art. Florence and Tuscany Eyewitness Travel Guide 2004

• gates:
  
• bronze2_J-Ang.doc: early bronze tech. sources + mrc comment

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