San Marco Museum
is located inside an ancient
Dominican monastery
?of
Florence
and houses the largest collection in the world of paintings by
Fra Angelico
. The charming architectural complex, masterpiece of functionality, harmony and elegance, was built between 1438 and 1444 by will of
Cosimo the Elder
of the Medici family, on a project of the architect
Michelozzo
. During the
Florentine Humanism
, San Marco monastery was one of the most important centres, thanks to the adjacent library too, once housing Greek and Latin books. Head of the monastery at the end of the 15th century was
Girolamo Savonarola
, the preacher who inspired the
Florentine Republic
, then condemned as an heretic and executed in Piazza della Signoria. But its fame has always been due to the magnificent cycle of frescoes realized by the
painter-monk Fra Angelico
. His extraordinary painting, the elegance and the delicacy of his drawing, the moving religiosity of his works makes him one of the greatest masters of the
Florentine Renaissance
. His panel-paintings are displayed in the Hospice Hall and the Large Refectory, but the big cycle of frescoes starts in the cloister and the Chapter House, till the upper floor along the corridor and inside the cells of the dormitory. The rooms of the monastery host also works by
Domenico Del Ghirlandaio
, as the
Last Supper
in the Small Refectory, works by
Benozzo Gozzoli
and many others of the San Marco School. The State Museum was opened in 1869.
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