Florence museums
Florence museums are known around the world to house many of the world’s greatest masterpieces by the masters of each era of the art world. Trends in painting and sculpture have set the pace for others and made times in history immortal. Florence Museums are home to some of the world’s greatest art treasure and Florence houses a mighty proportion of the Western world’s greatest heritage artworks.
Art history fans will appreciate watching the evolution of sculpture from late Gothic to Renaissance styles. Art lovers can enjoy all the artistic and monumental sites of past that lie at Florence museums.
Florence has an exceptional artistic heritage that bears marvellous testimony to its centuries-old civilization. Figures of crucial importance for Western art were born in or around the city – artists like Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting; Arnolfo di Cambio and Andrea Pisano, who broke new ground in architecture and sculpture; Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, who initiated the Renaissance; Lorenzo Ghiberti and the Della Robbia family; Filippo Lippi and Fra Angelico; Botticelli and Paolo Uccello, and the universal geniuses Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Their works, together with those of generations of artists leading right up to the 20th century, can be found in the city’s many museums. The most famous of them all is the Uffizi, one of the finest art galleries in the world, but there are also many other important and much-visited museums: the Palatine Gallery in Palazzo Pitti, which houses the paintings of the “golden age”; the Bargello National Museum, housed in a medieval palace and containing celebrated Renaissance sculptures; the Museum of San Marco, a convent frescoed by the painter Beato Angelico; the Accademia, the Medici Chapels and Casa Buonarroti; the Bardini, Horne and Stibbert Museums, the Gallery of Modern Art, the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, the Silver Museum and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure.
Galleria dell’Accademia
Founded in 1563, the first school in Europe to teach the methods of painting, drawing and sculpture.
Bargello Museum
Formerly a town hall and prison, this houses Italy’s finestcollection of Renaissance sculpture.
Archeological Museum
Home to a vast collection of Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Etruscan artifacts.
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo
Features works, carvings and tools by Donatello, Brunelleschi and Luca della Robbia, plus a section dedicated to the history of the Duomo.
Museum of the History of Science
Dedicated to astronomy, mathematics and navigation.
Pitti Palace
Built by Brunelleschi for banker Luca Pitti, later purchased by the Medici, contains several museums including The Palatine Gallery, the Royal Apartments, the Silverware Museum, the Modern Art Gallery and the Boboli Gardens.
Uffizi Gallery
Italy’s supreme art gallery, created by the architect Vasari, contains an unparalleled collection of paintings from Italy’s best known masters.
San Lorenzo
The Medici family parish church contains the Medici Chapels and mausoleum, as well as works by Donatello, Michelangelo and Brunelleschi.
Brancacci Chapel
Built inside the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, famous for the frescoes on the Life of St. Peter started by Masolino and his pupil Masaccio, and completed by Filippino Lippi.
Santa Croce
A Gothic church containing the tombs of famous Florentines, such as Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo. Alongside is the Pazzi Chapel designed by Brunelleschi.
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