Friday, September 13, 2013

Ospedale degli Innocenti

The Ospedale degli Innocenti is a historical building in Florence, central Italy. Designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, who received the commission in 1419, it was originally a children's orphanage.
 It is regarded as a notable example of early Italian Renaissance architecture. The hospital, which features a nine bay loggia facing the Piazza SS. Annunziata, was built and managed by the "Arte della Seta" or Silk Guild of Florence. 

Above each column is a ceramic tondo. These were originally meant by Brunelleschi to be blank concavities, but ca. 1490, Andrea della Robbia was commissioned to fill them in. The design features a baby in swaddling clothes. A few of the tondi are still the original ones, but some are nineteenth century copies.

Isole Borromee