Chiesa di Santo Stefano degli Agostiniani

The Church of Santo Stefano passes almost unnoticed to those who walk along the narrow Via dei Neri: the body of the building is narrow in the urban fabric and is in fact devoid of a facade and extremely simple and bare from ornaments, as is more suited to a convent building . The Augustinian friars began construction in 1367 and the financing of some wealthy empolese families nor allowed the rapid conclusion and the embellishment with valuable works of art. Despite the restructuring of the 18th century and the considerable damage suffered during the Second World War - the bell tower completely destroyed, no longer rebuilt - the architectural structure has remained almost original. The plan of the church is articulated by two great oratories, while massive pillars, punctuate the interior in three naves with four chapels on the left, five on the right and three apses. Just in the first chapel in front of the entrance, Masolino da Panicale frescoed the cycle of the "Stories of the Cross" in 1424: among the few surviving fragments it is interesting to note an early example of "still life". Also by Masolino, we can observe "Sant'Ivo among the pupils" in the transept and the stupendous "Madonna and Child" in the lunette above the sacristy door. The Church of Santo Stefano is an anthology of Florentine fifteenth-century art: in fact “the Annunciation” - a marble masterpiece by Bernardo Rossellino, the “Stories of the Virgin” by Gherardo Starnina and the beautiful painting on wood are preserved: “San Nicola from Tolentino that protects Empoli from the plague ”by Lorenzo di Bicci. There are also notable paintings by important seventeenth-century Tuscan artists, including Ottavio Vannini, Rutilio Manetti and above all Francesco Furini ... It should be noted that the Church of Santo Stefano degli Agostiniani in Empoli, was one of the protagonists of a series of valuable television documentaries directed by the famous art historian Antonio Paolucci (director of the Vatican Museums) to reaffirm therefore the importance that this church, plays in the artistic landscape of the Tuscan Renaissance ...