ORCAGNA
(b. ca. 1308, Firenze, d. ca. 1368, Firenze)

Nativity and Crucifixion

1340s
Fresco
Chiostrino dei Morti, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

The Chiostrino dei Morti (Cloister of the Dead), a former cemetery already built around 1270 by the Dominicans, probably by reusing a former cloister of the canons that we know as existing in 1179, was remodeled to its current size in 1337-1350. It presents on two sides vaulted arches lowered on octagonal fourteenth century pillars with overlying gallery, supported by very projecting corbels, leading from the dormitory to the sacristy of the church.

In a corner of the cloister, today protected by a stained glass window, there is the Chapel of the Annunciation, formerly the Strozzi funerary chapel, with two frescoed walls with the Nativity and the Crucifixion, frescoes attributed to Andrea Orcagna; a third wall presented the Annunciation, but was demolished at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The frescoes, like most of those in the church and the convent, were removed, restored and replaced after the flood damages of Florence (1966).