View of the Convent of San Marco

The Museum of San Marco is located in the former monastery of the Dominicans, constructed by Michelozzo in 1436 on a commission from the Medici ruler Cosimo the Elder. Michelozzo here adheres firmly to the Renaissance forms of Brunelleschi, even though his classicism has none of the other’s passion for archeological research in it. The smooth, flowing lines of the cloister’s arches create effects of light and shade which alternate in the series of vaults. Naturally the religious function and the deliberately spiritual effect of the structure, suggested by the order’s Vicar General and perhaps by Fra Angelico himself, qualify these chiaroscuro and plastic impressions. The history of San Marco is inseparably linked to the figures of the painters, Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo, and the friar Girolamo Savonarola.