Santa Trinitá Church. Sasetti Chapel
The church facing the palace, Santa Trínita, was founded by the Vallombrosians in the 11th century (when it was outside the city walls), and subsequently patronized by many of Florence's wealthiest families; as a result it was rebuilt many times, and could now serve as the text for a good course on Italian art history.The Sassetti family chapel, which is the rightmost of the two chapels, has his scenes from the life of Saint Francis. In the background of the Approval of the Rule of Saint Francis by Pope Onorio III (in the lunette) there are the Palazzo Vecchio and Orcagna's Loggia, while Lorenzo il Magnifico and Mr. Sassetti are in the foreground to the right, and Agnolo Polizziano is leading Lorenzo's sons, Piero, Giovanni, and Giuliano up the stairs. To the left, Saint Francis dons his habit, and to the right, in a fresco attributed to Domenico's brother Davide, he undergoes a trial by fire before the Sultan (Francis went on a crusade and returned horrified by what he'd seen). The next level down, to the left he receives the Stigmata before a realistic representation of the Santuario della Verna, an abbey in the wild mountains between Florence and Arezzo. The miraculous revival of the fallen boy occurs in Piazza Santa Trinita, and Sassetti's children fall to their knees (on the left); note the old Romanesque façade and Ponte Santa Trinita as it was before the great flood of 1557.