Santa Maria dei Candeli

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Santa Maria dei Candeli is a former church situated in the Borgo Pinti in central Florence.

Initially founded in 13-14th centuries as a convent; the present structure was enlarged starting 1558, with a radical rebuilding in 1703 by the Baroque artist Giovanni Battista Foggini. The ceiling is frescoed with a the Assumption by Niccolò Lapi, the right wall houses a St. Clair by Francesco Botti and a St. Augustine by Jacopo Vignali. The main altarpiece is an Immaculate Conception by Carlo Sacconi, flanked by a Transit with St. Joseph by Tommaso Redi.

The monastic order was suppressed by the Napoleonic occupation, and became successively an orphanage, an asylum, and finally a lyceum for training policemen. Renaissance frescoes detached from the refectory depict a Last supper, Annunciation, and Adoration of the Bambino, formerly attributed to Franciabigio, but which some now attribute to Giovanni Antonio Sogliani.

[edit] References

• Borsook, Eve (1991). in Vincent Cronin (general editor): The Companion Guide to Florence. Harper Collins, pages 249. ISBN000215139-1.