Part of Santa Croce's convent has been set up as a museum. In this museum you can find some important art works which were saved from the flooding of Arno River .
The water entered the church of Santa Croce bringing a gresat quantity of mud. The damage to buildings and art treasures was severe and several decades were needed to repair the damages.
You enter through a door to the right of the church facade, which spills into an open-air courtyard planted with cypress and filled with birdsongs. At the end of the path is the Cappella de' Pazzi, one of Filippo Brunelleschi's architectural masterpieces (finished after his death).
The rectangular chapel is an example of early Renaissance architecture. The plan which is based on simple geometrical forms gives us the idea of purity and pefection. Andrea Pazzi, head of the Pazzi family, whose wealth was second only to the Medici, commissioned the construction of the cappella.
Back to the first cloister you can enter the museum through the long hall of the refectory. On your right is one of the paintings damaged during the flood in 1966. Cimabue's Crucifix is one of the masterpieces of the artist who began the Renaissance innovation and teached Giotto to paint.
This is one of Cimabue's early works, painted around 1265, before his journey to Rome. That of Cimabue, whose real name was Cenni di Pepo, is a more human vision of the tragedy of Calvary.
Instead of a triumphant Christ, he paints a suffering Christ who carries the weight of the sin. The Cimabue works will be a great resourse of inspiration for Giotto and announce the Italian Renaissance style.
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