The Medici Pope Leo X gave Michelangelo the commission to design a façade in white Carrara marble in 1518. Michelangelo made a wooden model, which shows how he adjusted the classical proportions of the facade, drawn to scale, after the ideal proportions of the human body, to the greater height of the nave. The work remained unbuilt. Michelangelo did, however, design and build the internal facade, seen from the nave looking back toward the entrances. It comprises three doors between two pilasters with garlands of oak and laurel and a balcony on two Corinthian columns.

In recent years, the association of “Friends of the Elettrice Palatina” and the Comune of Florence re-visited the question of completing the outer facade according to Michelangelo’s designs. To assist with the public debate, a computerized reconstruction was projected onto the plain brick facade in February 2007. As yet, no decision has been made on the project.[5]

The campanile dates from 1740.