Florence Easter: the Easter Triduum in Florentine artworks

Florence Easter: the Easter Triduum in Florentine artworks

Florence Easter artworks, or: a trip through the iconology of the Easter – related topics in Florence and in its huge Renaissance (and not only Renaissance) heritage.

The three days between Good Friday and Easter Sunday are, along Christmas and Epiphany, the most important feasts in the Christian Catholic tradition.

A tradition that, in Florence, has been the conceptual background for paintings, sculptures and architecture.

The last days of Christ on earth are a pillar of the Christian theology and their events, from Christ Washing the Feet of his disciples and the Last Supper to the Crucifixion, the Deposition and Resurrection, are iconographic topos that have been confronted by the artist of the Medieval and Renaissance Florence and the ones whose artworks are in Florence museums.

Florence Easter artworks: The Last Supper (no, not that one)

Among the Easter – related iconography, the Last Supper is one of the most famous and the pour excellence one is the Leonardo’s fresco in Milan. Nevertheless, you can find some beautiful Ultima Cena in Florence too.

Ghirlandaio (1448 – 1494) painted three different Last Supper frescoes in the Florence area: in the refectory of the Convent of the Ognissanti (All Saints) – 1480; in the Badia di Passignano (Passignano Abbey, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, 31km / 19mi from Florence) – 1476; the one (recently restored) in the already mentioned San Marco convent – 1486.

Florence Easter artworks: Compianto… and Pietà

The Uffizi gallery is packed to the rafters with masterpieces. Many of them are incredibly popular and famous. Some of them are less know, but just incredibly beautiful. An example? The Compianto sul Cristo morto / Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Giovanni Bellini (1430 – 1516, Venetian Renaissance painter). The chiaroscuro of this unfinished painting has an incredibly modern approach to the theme.

Florence Easter artworks: Pietà (no, not that one)

While the one in Rome is Michelangelo’s most famous Pietà (Deposition), in Florence, at the Cathedral’s Museum, you can find the Bandini Pietà / Lamentation over the Dead Christ (1547-1555).

Even if unfinished, the sculpture has a poignant graveness and apparently the Nicodemus face is a Michelangelo self-portrait.

If you are in Florence per Pasqua, contact us to guide you in a journey through these and many more masterpieces!