Santa Maria Novella Neighbourhood

Dive deep into one of the most important Italian Dominican complexes and be surrounded by magnificent art

The SANTA MARIA NOVELLA CHURCH COMPLEX is the art history course that you dreamed about which will engage the first timers & the long time Renaissance student!

In the church and the monstery we discover the  treasure trove of works by great master artists from the Medieval period through to the High Renaissance (Giotto, Masaccio, Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi – to name a some of the Greats). 

We visit the church, cloister and the famous pharmacy. 

Afterwards, we discover the surrounding neighbourhood and see the Renaissance palatial homes of the wealthy merchant patrons who commissioned the art inside the church. 

This tour provides a full, complete picture to the factors involved in art patronage and helps us understand how the Renaissance life functioned with the entwined factors of church, economics and family life. 

OR, instead of visiting the neighbourhood, after the Santa Maria Novella complex, we head over the other side of the river and we visit the BRANCACCI CHAPEL inside the Santa Maria del Carmine church. 

This chapel was frescoed in the 1420s commissioned by the wealthy silk merchant Felice Brancacci. It has been considered one of the most important sites for Renaissance art in Italy since its very creation considered to be an artistic rite of passage already only decades after being frescoed.  

If the client wishes to visit the Santa Maria Novella church + the surrounding neighbourhood + Brancacci chapel = 4 hoursÂ