Monumental and Miniature, Light and Sound: Pacino di Bonaguida at Santa Croce

Italian Renaissance churches and the museums connected to them house impressive but often overlooked treasures in a variety of media: paint, stone, textile, glass, parchment, and precious metals and gems.  Within the walls of the Museum, Archive, and Church of Santa Croce in Florence is a group of artworks created by Pacino di Bonaguida (about 1303-about 1347) and his workshop.  Once one looks past the impressive fresco cycles by Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, Bernardo Daddi and others, and after using a bit of imagination to envision what the church looked like before Giorgio Vasari’s renovations in the 16^th century and the Neoclassical revolution of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, one finally encounters sets of stained glass windows and a pair of choir books that have survived the Black Death, floods, and a world war.  In the…