Museums in Florence Italy

June 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 


The Uffizi Gallery

This “gallery”, one of the world’s greatest museums, displays artwork from Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Raphael, Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Goya, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Caravaggio and more than I’ve got time to list here. The museum is connected to the Pitti Palace via the Vasari Corridor, which also passes over the Ponte Vecchio.

Bargello National Museum

This museum, housed in a building built in the mid 13th century, displays works by Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Verrocchio, Michelangelo and Cellini, among many other displays.

Galleria dell’Accademia

There is a lot here, including the art academy. But what most people come here for is THE statue of David.

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Prints of Renaissance Art

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Renaissance Art Prints From art.com

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Mona Lisa, c.1507
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Buy at Art.com
Renaissance Oculus I
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Buy at Art.com
Female Head (La Scapiglia…
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Buy at Art.com
Vitruvian Man, c.1492
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Buy at Art.com
The Last Supper, c.1498
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Buy at Art.com
The Creation of Adam, c.1510 (detail)
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Medici Renaissance Patrons

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Commission of Art in the Renaissance Era

Commissioning art during the Renaissance era was a status symbol of sorts. The payoff being prestige and show of wealth. Therefore commissioning art was common among the merchant classes and somewhat competitive.

The Medici family managed to become the chief patrons of the era, going from merchant class to bankers and eventually politicians. Their goal seeming to be not just acquisition and prestige but actual influence.


If there is any question as to whether the Medici were hugely responsible for the Renaissance and the work produced during that time, one has only to look to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The Uffizi Gallery houses and displays one of the greatest collections of Early and High Renaissance art in the world – and most of that collection is what was owned and commissioned by the Medici.

The Medici used their wealth not only to build more wealth but to build prestige and exercise power and influence as well. They grew heavily into politics, ruling Florence for more than a century. And they used much of their power to help the poorer citizens and to encourage artists to flourish and produce greater and greater work.

Artists would be commissioned for years at a time. Their paintings were not just bought, but their supplies paid for, and they were encouraged to study. Michaelangelo was a great favorite.

The family was also a patron of Galileo by hiring him to tutor their children, more than one generation, over the years. Galileo named the four largest moons of Jupiter after Medici children.

Their patronage of architects rounds out this family’s far-reaching effects on Florence, the arts, history and event the world today. Many of Florence’s most recognizable buildings and features exist because of the influence of the Medici family.


This page was written entirely out of knowledge in my head that I have acquired over the years, but I did do some fact-checking on the Medici page in Wikipedia. (Just to give credit where credit is due!)

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Renaissance Era Sculpture

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Renaissance Era Sculpture – Some of the World’s Favorites:

David, Florentine Pieta – Michaelangelo

St. Matthew and St. John the Baptist – Ghiberti

Worshiping Angels, David – Donatello (He was also a student of Ghiberti.)

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Renaissance Era Paintings

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Renaissance Era Paintings – Some of the World’s Favorites:

Mona Lisa, Last Supper, Sistine Chapel – Leonardo da Vinci

The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel – Michaelangelo

Death of the Virgin – Caravaggio

Bacchus and Ariadne – Titian

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Medici Family History

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Renaissance

The Renaissance was a time of intense artisitic activity. Symptoms of this renewed interest in studying and creating art were the appreciation and outright “competetive patronage” that occurred during that time.

The Medici family were of great influence, as were churches and other affluent families of that time. Many of our greatest and most-beloved pieces were born out of that time.

The Renaissance spanned the 14th through the 17th centuries in Europe, largely centered in Florence, Italy. One of the largest reasons for the concentration in this city (Firenze) was, again, the Medici family.


A huge portion of Renaissance art was commissioned by the Church, therefore depicts religious themes and scenes. However, patrons played a huge role as well. Patrons could request paintings in a certain theme or could be included in a painting and depicted in a certain light.

The Renaissance was also a time of scientific exploration and the intense study of “realism.” Leonardi da Vinci’s paintings, drawings, notes and sketches of that time bear out that fact. The combined effect of aestheticism and realism in depicting the human and natural world worked to create pieces that take one’s breath away.

Renaissance art, with it’s study of realism and aesthetics, often highlights the beauty in our world. The realism of expression, also, creates emotion in the viewer. And when the scenes are not just of beauty, but of scenes of battle or religious or human struggle, they can illicit incredible emotion.

Such are just a very few of the reasons Renaissance art is so cherished by the world. The work, the technique, the study, the struggle, the genius, the end product – and our feeling when reviewing all of that – that is why we love art. And that is why we protect it.

Art filters life and makes it bearable.

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Art in Florence Italy

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Museums, galleries, etc! in Florence, Italy

Besides food, natural beauty and architecture, why is it we yearn to travel to Florence? For the art, of course. The product of all that flurry and fury during the Renaissance.

Museums in Florence, Italy

Medici Renaissance Art Patrons

Renaissance Era Paintings

Renaissance Era Sculpture

Medici Renaissance Patrons

Renaissance Art Prints from Art.com


The reasons for coming to Florence, when visiting Italy, seem to compete. Is it the architecture or the art? Or is it both? Or are they tied together virtually seamlessly?

The buildings which house vast collections of some of the greatest art in the world, are artwork themselves. The architecture of the churches inspire awe at their innovation and beauty. And many of the museums were originally built to house the offices of of politicians. (i.e. “uffizi” = “office” – thus the “Uffizi Gallery”). Thus the buildings were designed to impart an impression of power, strength, wealth and a great discretion of taste.

So even if you are coming to Florence strictly to see the art of Renaissance artisits, you are going to take away a much broader experience than that. You will have impressed on your soul the beauty of the architecture as well, and an entire city designed to appeal to the aesthetic of the eye and the mind.

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