After Michelangelo’s departure for Rome in 1534, it was decided that work for the completion of both the Laurentian Library and the New Sacristy (both projects designed and under his direct supervision for 14 years) continue. For Duke Cosimo I, the matter of organizing San Lorenzo as the family’s burial place was one he took to heart. For the completion of these works, he commissioned Giorgio Vasari and Bartolomeo Ammannati.

Vasari, who was the official court architect, executed the first model of what was to become the “Third Sacristy” of the Laurentian Complex, now known as Chapel of the Princes. It was conceived as a monument which would display with its splendor and ostentation the power of the Medici family in an incomparable way. Following the emerging new concepts of amazement and wonder, the Chapel of the Princes represents another fundamental moment in the events involving the construction of San Lorenzo. Unfortunately, Vasari’s projects as well as those of Bernardo Buontalenti remained unfinished, rendered too costly to continue. Instead, in 1605 construction of the mausoleum was underway according to the model approved by a committee of architects and designed by Giovanni de’Medici, who also happened to be a member of the family. Matteo Nigetti (died in 1649) initially supervised the work, but construction of the magnificent Chapel, completely covered in decorative marbles and precious stones (thanks to the incessant work of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, founded in 1588 by Duke Cosimo’s son Francesco I), is to be considered an emblem of the incompleteness of the grand Laurentian Complex. When the Medici lineage died out in 1737, the Chapel’s construction still wasn’t completed. At this time, power was handed over to the Lorraine dynasty. Work that was eventually completed on the furnishings, inlcuding ornamentation of the dome and pavement , is of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Certainly the Chapel of the Princes has no equal in Florence regarding the extensive means involved in its execution. To be or not to be, over the centuries and even up until our own time, which claims another incompleted attempt at refinishing the Chapel’s decoration.

There were other subsequent projects of importance in the Laurentian Complex besides the infinite work area of the Chapel of the Princes. The 18th century bell tower (work of Ferdinando Ruggeri, 1740), requested by Anna Maria Luisa dei Medici, decoration of the dome in the choir of the Basilica (work of Vincenzo Meucci, 1742), the 17th century interventions in the Neo-Classical and “Neo-Renaissance” of Gaspare Maria Paoletti (he’s responsible for the high altar of precious stones), and the constant modifications to the present choir we owe to Giuseppe Baccani. Until the second half of the 16th century, the choir contained frescoes by Pontormo, but which have since been lost.

The history of San Lorenzo’s unfinished facade is a separate discussion altogether. Numerous attempts and competitions were declared in order to carry out the church’s facade, but in the end, it too, remained unfinished. It now constitutes probably one of the most charming, yet crude versions of a church facade of the last centuries. It should be noted that work on the facades of many of the most important Florentine churches was being carried out during the 19th century.

After the competitions and projects that involved important architects of the Florentine Cinquecento, the one name that really stands out is that of Michelangelo Buonarroti, although he wasn’t the only one to leave a proposed design for the facade. The problem of the unfinished facade resurfaced in the 17th century, with a proposed design by the architect Pasquale Poccianti. As can be expected, his project wasn’t carried out.

Other contests for the facade were publicly announced in the first years of the 20th century, but these competitions, just like those for the lantern of the Chapel of the Princes, were without results.

Therefore, it may just be the incompleness of many constituent parts of the Laurentian Complex that produces the incisive distinctiveness of the entire monument. This can be articulated from an architectural point of view, but it’s also safe to say that San Lorenzo is a monument representative of all of the historical epochs. It’s a monument which continues to evolve under the guardianship of the Opera Medicea Laurenziana.