Convent of San Marco

The present convent stands on a site occupied since the 12th century by a Vallombrosan monastery which later passed to the Silvestrines; they were driven out of San Marco in 1418, and in 1438 the convent was given to the Dominican Observants. In 1437 Cosimo il Vecchio de’ Medici decided to rebuild the entire complex. The work was entrusted to Michelozzo, and the decoration of the walls was carried out between 1439 and 1444 by Giovanni of Fiesole, known as Fra Angelico, and his assistants.  Fra Angelico decorated the cells on the first floor, and other spaces in the convent, with frescoes charged with profound spiritual and ascetical meaning; he began with the lunettes above the doorways in the Cloister of St. Antoninus, which Michelozzo had built before 1440. These were not public works of art, they were painted in the private rooms of the monks who lived at the convent. Allowing them to pray and meditate solemnly over the events of Christ's life each day, in privacy. The difference between intimate objects of contemplation and public works of propaganda can be seen in the bold Annalena Altarpiece and the Descent from the Cross, also on display in the museum. Museo del Convento di San Marco

Many of the great figures of 15th-century culture and spirituality lived and worked in the convent: Cosimo de’ Medici, who had his own cell here, where he loved to pray and meditate; Fra Angelico, who painted the frecoes; and, from 1489, Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who in his sermons fulminated against the immorality of the age, and who was hanged and burnt in Piazza della Signoria (1498).