The church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, which was begun in 1519 at the behest of Pope Leo X (r. 1513-21), a member of the Medici family and a native of Florence, is the product of several architects: Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570), Antonio Sangallo the Younger (1484-1546), Giacomo della Porta (1532-1602), and Carlo Maderno (1556-1629). Maderno, who is interred in the church, designed the transept, choir and dome.
Dome
The facade was commissioned by another Florentine pope, namely Clement XII (r. 1730-40), to a design by the Florentine architect Alessandro Galilei (1691-1737). The main entrance is surmounted by the pope's coat of arms, flanked by an angel and an allegorical statue of Fortitude, both the work of the Florentine sculptor Filippo della Valle (1698-1768).
Facade
The facade sports a short inscription, which reads: CLEMENS · XII · PONT · MAX · A · S · MDCCXXXIV · P · IV (Clement the Twelfth, Pontifex Maximus, the year of Salvation 1734, the fourth of his pontificate).
The Visitation
John Baptises Christ
Preaching of John
Beheading of John
The four bas-reliefs illustrate scenes from the life of St John the Baptist and are the work of several sculptors, including Pietro Bracci (1700-73) and Filippo della Valle.
Nave
There is a Tuscan feel to the simple and well-lit interior, which is made up of a nave and two aisles.
High Altar
The altarpiece in the sanctuary takes the form of a free-standing sculpture of the Baptism of Christ (1665) by Antonio Raggi (1624-86).
The Baptism of Christ by Antonio Raggi
This work replaced a sculpture (1644) of the same subject-matter by Francesco Mochi (1580-1654), which can now be found in the third chapel on the left.
The Baptism of Christ by Francesco Mochi
On the side walls of the sanctuary are two funerary monuments to the Falconieri family, which were designed by Franceso Borromini (1599-1667), who is buried in the church.
Funerary monument (1746) to Alessandro Gregorio Capponi
In the left aisle, there is a very fine funerary monument(1746) to Alessandro Gregorio Capponi. The monument was designed by the Florentine architect Ferdinando Fuga (1699-1772) and carved by the French sculptor René-Michel Slodtz (1705-58).