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| Florence |
The Florence Accademia Gallery is best known as the home of Michelangelo's marble sculpture "David". The enormous statue was originally created to stand high up near a buttress of the Florence Duomo. Fortunately for us, the location for the sculpture was changed and now we're able to see it up close!
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| "David" by Michelangelo |
The Accademia Gallery also has many other treasures by great Italian artists.
For example, “The Tree of Life”, by Pacino di Buonaguida, beautifully represents the spiritualistic and deep concept of the Gothic art scene in Italy, during the 13th century.
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| "Tree of Life" by Pacino di Bonaguida |
This tempera and gold painting on wood dates to about 1305 – 1310. It represents a typical Franciscan subject: "the Genesis of creation and fall, with the Cross of Jesus as the Tree of Life symbolizing God‘s provision for immortality in the Garden of Eden". The centre of the painting depicts the crucified Christ, while the devil is portrayed in the cave at the base, indicating that Christ‘s death is the result of Adam and Eve‘s sin. From the trunk sprout twelve branches symbolizing the twelve Apostles. From each branch hang four medallions representing biblical events.
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| Lorenzo Bartolini's Plaster Casts Gallery |
This gallery houses a collection of plaster casts of one of the greatest Italian sculptors of the nineteenth century.
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| "Venus, taken from Titian" (Venus Reclining) by Lorenzo Bartolini |
The Accademia Gallery also has a Musical Instrument Museum which hosts the Grand Ducal collection of about 50 musical instruments.
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| Hurdy-gurdies, 1775 Jean Nicolas Lambert |
There is so much wonderful art and we haven't even seen the Uffizi Museum yet!
We took another break from Florence and headed to the Chianti region of Tuscany for wine tastings and lunch!
Back in Florence, we visited the Basilica of Santa Croce which is the largest Franciscan church in the world. It is known for its ornate artwork and for the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante, and others.
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| Basilica of Santa Croce |
This altarpiece is one of the most important painted works of the 13th century and has been on the Bardi Chapel altar since 1595.
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| "St. Francis and Twenty Stories from His Life" by Coppo di Marcovaldo |
Painted in 1245-1250, this tempera and gold on wood work depicts St. Francis standing and blessing, with a book in his left hand. The inner decorative frieze contains small busts of Franciscan friars, possibly representing the Santa Croce community of the time. The 20 stories surrounding St. Francis offers the most complete narrative of the saint's life before the Assisi cycle.
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| Tomb of Dante |
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| Tomb of Michelangelo |
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| Tomb of Galileo |
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| Uffizi Gallery |
The Uffizi Gallery is a creation of the Medici family and provides a history of the Medici through the extraordinary masterpieces they collected. I highly recommend taking a tour to learn about some of the highlights. Our guide was a passionate art historian who thoroughly explained many works and brought them to life. I can't possibly do them justice here so I'm sharing only one of the works that intrigued me.
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| "Annunciation" by Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1472-1475 |
Leonardo was 20 years old when he painted "Annunciation". There appear to be some anomalies, such as Mary's excessively long right arm. However, they disappear if you look at the painting from below and from the right. Leonardo was already displaying his artistic use of optics and perspective as he painted this work specifically for a side altar in the church of San Bartolomeo a Monteoliveto in Florence.
I'm so glad we are spending 2 weeks in Florence as there are so many beautiful things to see and do!