Santa Felicità

Although rebuilt in 1736, Santa Felicità is one of Florence’s most ancient churches, founded (or so they say) by the Syrian Greek traders who introduced Christianity to the city, and who established the first Christian cemetery in the small square in front of the church. The dome was destroyed in the mid-16th century to make way for Cosimo I’s catwalk, the Vasari Corridor, which is awkwardly part of the upper façade.

There is one compelling reason to enter, and it’s in the first chapel on the right, the ne plus ultra of Mannerism: Jacopo Pontormo’s weirdly luminous Deposition (1528), painted in shimmering chromatic pinks, oranges and blues that cut through the darkness of the little chapel.

Michelangelo wrote that ‘One paints with the head, not with the hand’: and here naturalism gives way to idea, Pontormo’s weightless figures, almost seeming to dance in a circle with the dead Christ. Flaunting all convention, a blue rag holds centre stage in the composition; there is no sign of a cross, the only background is a single cloud.