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San Lorenzo is one of the most important churches in Florence, but from its frontage, it doesn’t exactly look inspirational. Unfinished facades aren’t rare, with Florence Cathedral only seeing its frontage being completed in the late nineteenth century, but this one has just never been completed. In 1515, Michaelangelo drew up plans for an internal and external facade, but only the former was constructed.

The Medici web-site has an image of what the external facade would have looked like if it had been completed and there have been numerous attempts, including recently, to reconstruct the frontage and to complete the works. The problem now though is that many people don’t want a historic building having a modern frontage stuck on the front of it, even if it is completed to the plans that Michaelangelo drew up over 500 years ago. So, this is probably what the facade will look like permanently, and it does have some raw beauty to it.

Donatello (1386-1466) was a sculptor, artist and architect who was born and died in Florence and his tomb is today in the crypt of San Lorenzo church. He worked on numerous projects within the church, including the Passion Pulpit, which was his last work. His burial was a prestigious one, it’s known that the sculptor Andrea della Robbia was one of the people who carried him to his final resting place, with his tomb being located underneath the altar of the church.

The inscription on the tomb reads something like:

“Here lies the body of Donatello, celebrated for reviving the ancient art of sculpting, most dear to the Medici Princes, generous patrons of the liberal arts who, as they revered him while he was alive, so they erected a tomb for him after death in a place close to their own.”

This rather grand pulpit was designed by Donatello (1386-1466) in around 1460 and it was the last of his works, sitting near to the Resurrection Pulpit which he had also designed. It’s 2.8 metres in length and 1.37 metres in height, taking into account the height of the columns, although the marble columns were a later addition.

It’s also not entirely clear that they were built as pulpits, as they’re of a strange shape for that purpose, so they may perhaps have been designed as tombs. A suggestion that they might have been used as a choir loft has been mooted, although the choir wouldn’t exactly have had much space.

There are Biblical scenes beautifully carved around the pulpit (or whatever it is) and Donatello’s elements were in bronze. Above is the south side of the pulpit, with the left-hand panel being the Flagellation, which was a section made from burnished wood added in the seventeenth century, similar to the middle panel which is of John the Apostle.

The right-hand section on the south side is though Donatello’s work, the Oration of the Garden, showing the Mount of Olives of Gethsemane. The guide suggests that this depth of perspective is so finely carried out that it was attributed to Donatello, with Bartolomeo Bellano completing the remaining parts of the section. And I’m hardly in a position to know any better to dispute that…..