Anna Bisceglia - Gondi, a Florentine dynasty and its palazzo

An official of the Superintendency for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage of the Polo Museale Fiorentino, in charge of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella and of the district of the same name, she teaches Art History at the School of Advanced Studies of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure.

Anna Bisceglia accompanies us into the Gondi Chapel in Santa Maria Novella, another masterpiece by Giuliano da Sangallo which, with its marble essentiality, guards and embraces Brunelleschi's celebrated Crucifix, one of the exceedingly rare sculptural works by the architect of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore and the only one in polychrome wood.

It was in this chapel that, on Saint Luke's Day in 1279, the ceremony of the "Laying of the first stone" of the entire Basilica of Santa Maria Novella was celebrated by the Dominican Cardinal Latino Malabranca Orsini, who had come to Florence to mediate the disputes between Guelphs and Ghibellines. From that day the chapel has been dedicated to Saint Luke himself. For this reason, every 18 October, the day dedicated to Saint Luke, the Gondi have Holy Mass celebrated in their own Chapel, the first on the left as you face the altar.