In comparison to the sacristies of the Florentine Gothic
basilicas, which were generally imposing (
S. Croce,
S.Maria Novella), the 'Old
Sacristy' of
S. Lorenzo (1422-28),
a Medici family chapel, was conceived of by Brunelleschi as a
rather small square space (m. 11.66 per side) of supreme elegance
and geometrical purity. Square (cube) and circle (sphere), as
immediately perceivable pure geometric forms, remain the basic
modules of the spatial organization, as in the loggia degli
Innocenti. The spatial structure is defined by the network of the
pilasters, the trabeation, the molding of the arches, and the
ribs of the vaulting, all in pietra serena and ennobled by the
classical profiles, which outline fields of whitewashed plaster.
The other architectural elements the windows, the medallions, the
niches in the altar space are tangential to the lines of the main
framework so that their position is clearly defined. Manetti
testifies to the impact the novelty of the model and the
vocabulary of the sacristy had on contemporaries: "it
astounded all men both of the city and foreigners, who chanced to
see it, for its new and beautiful manner. And so many people came
continuously that they greatly bothered those who worked
there".
The Pazzi Chapel in
Santa Croce
(1429 and ff.) originated as a chapter hall with a chapel behind
the altar where the commissioning family had the right to bury
its dead. The volume of the chapel stands next to the mass of
Arnolfo's church as a structure which has no need of size to
affirm itself as a perfect finished spatial model in its
geometrically pure essentiality and regularity. The plan is
basically the same as in the Old Sacristy, but more articulated:
the square of the larger domed space is enlarged at the sides by
two short wings covered with barrel vaults.
