Monday, January 24, 2011

Heraldry in Florence, Part Seven

The Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence has one of the nicest facades for the heraldry enthusiast that a building could have, I think.


Stretching most of the length of the side of the building complex (the photo above is of only a small portion of it) and continuing across the front of the church building is a colonnade with coats of arms in every alcove formed by the columns. Each coat of arms is repeated three times: Once near the top of the arch between each pair of columns,

and twice more at the base of each alcove, separated by a panel containing a cross pometty, that is to say, with two pomels, roundels or knobs, at the end of each arm.

The arms shown here, belonging to Soldanieri, given variously in Michel Popoff's Répertoire d'héraldique italienne, vol. 1, as Vair a bordure compony or and gules, Vair a bordure compony or and vert and Vair a bordure compony vert and or. The arms in the photographs here appear in the second alcove from the right (or the second alcove from sinister) in the first picture above.  They are not hatched at all, so determining the tinctures from the carvings themselves is not an option.

What a great display of heraldry!

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