The large Refectory of the Museum of San Marco reopens

The large Refectory of the San Marco Museum has been reopened to the public since October 1st, after a long period of closure that began last October, due to a lifting of the terracotta floor.
The vast room of the large Refectory, where the friars consumed meals together, features architecture dating back to before the renovation of the Convent designed by Michelozzo for the Medici family.

Thanks to a donation from Michael W. Scherb, it was possible to carry out the necessary work to restore the floor, the splendid fresco with the Providence of the Dominicans surmounted by the Crucifixion, created by Giovanni Antonio Sogliani in 1536, and to give a new layout and lighting to the works of art.
The fresco by Giovanni Antonio Sogliani that dominates the room, represents the Providence of the Dominicans surmounted by a crucifixion and saints, a subject that represents an alternative to the theme of the Last Supper, which was usually painted in convent refectories, such as the Last Supper by Ghirlandaio, which we find in the small refectory of the convent of San Marco.
The miraculous episode tells of how the Angels intervened to feed the Dominican friars who were left without food. There is no shortage of elegant details such as the fringes of the tablecloth, the reflections in the glasses or the colored wings of the angels.
At the bottom, the fresco is finished with a base of fake marble, which until now remained hidden by the benches of the refectory.
The room also houses important sixteenth-century paintings of the so-called School of San Marco, and a seventeenth-century wooden pulpit.