The Choir of Florence Cathedral: Transformation of Sacred Space, 1334-1572

This dissertation is a diachronic, interdisciplinary study of the Choir of the Florentine Duomo-Santa Maria del Fiore-from the earliest medieval records to the demolition of the cinquecento structure in the nineteenth century. The Choir was the sanctuary of the Florentine Cathedral where the Archbishop and some 200 clergy performed their daily rounds of Mass and Office; the stage on which, ringed by blazing torches, the obsequies of the most important persons took place and the weightiest civic actions were ceremonially ratified. In later periods it became a symbolic focus of newly emerging political and spiritual ties forging the Medici principate to the Papacy, greater Italy, and the Holy Roman Empire. Analyzing the surviving visual evidence, a large body of documentation-for the most part newly discovered-and the physical remains of the final choir itself, this study seeks to clarify the history of the monument's genesis and design, and its changing meanings as a reflection of Florentine religious and civic identity. It examines the dramatic transformations of this central project of Florentine architecture and sculpture, in terms of responses to crucial changes in liturgical and ceremonial practice in the Cathedral, of the Choir's interactions with its surroundings, and, ultimately, of its unique role as a focus of Florentine social, political and artistic life. The innovative Choir project created by the sculptor, painter, architect and entrepreneur Baccio Bandinelli-whose design included a gigantic figure of the Dead Christ on the mensa of the high altar-is examined in the light of the space's liturgical functioning and of its relation to contemporary developments in the Church. Particular attention is given to the artistic politics of the commission for the Bandinelli Choir, and especially to the sculptor's use of the project-and of his position as provisor or head of the Opera del Duomo-to secure a monopoly on Medici patronage and to generate new artistic commissions.