Martedi  

Dante's Florence  

Our visit begins with a stroll through Dante's Florence. You can get a head start at Frank's website: MyDante  

The Uffizi

One of the most famous museums in the world, the Uffizi gallery holds masterpieces too numerous to even  highlight but surely  one the most famous is Botticelli's Primavera. From BBC's The Private Life of a Masterpiece here's a Short Clip on Botticelli's Primavera 

(The full program is available at Netflix.)

While it's impossible to see the whole museum in a single day, our visit will trace the development of medieval and Renaissance art through the works of the master painters  of the transition. 

Mercoledi

Today we visit the Bargello and the Opera del Duomo which house great sculptural works by Michelangelo, Donatello,  and the Della Robbia.

David by Donatello

Il Bargello  

Built in 1255, the Palazzo del Popolo is the site of the  oldest seat of government in Florence. Today it is home to perhaps the greatest collection of Renaissance sculpture in Europe with its rooms of Michelangelo, Donatello, Della Robbia, Giambologna, Cellini and more.

Bargello Website  

The Opera del Duomo

The works of the cathedral, Baptistry and campanile.  While these masterpieces are beautifully displayed in this sleek, modern building, the space has been the location for  projects and maintenance of the Duomo for 600 years.  Here Michelangelo created his David.  The Opera holds Michelangelo's Florentine Pieta, Donatello's Mary Magdelene, the choir lofts of Luca della Robbia and Donatello,   the original panels from the Baptistry doors and a reconstruction of Brunelleschi work site when constructing the dome. Opera del Duomo 

Michelangelo, Pieta Opera del Duomo

 Giovedi

Master painters Fra Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli, Masolino (Little Tommaso) and Masaccio (Big Tommaso) each had a very distinctive style.  Their contribution to western art exceeds the masterpieces they executed.  Each painter's own particular sensibility, his own recognizable articulation of meaning and resonance,   profoundly influenced  Renaissance painting in Florence and beyond.

Fra Angelico, The Annunciation.

 Convento San Marco

The Dominican Convent of San Marco contains  the Museo di San Marco with its beautiful masterpieces of Fra Angelico.  The pervasive tranquility of the Convent  allows  for a  full appreciation of the works of the Beato.  Two particularly moving frescoes are here in situ of place and spirit: The Crucifixion and The Annunciation.    

The Annunciation and frescoes on the original cells of the friars resonant with a  compelling serenity so different from the altarpieces meant to inspire public worship.    

Gozzoli Chapel

Gozzoli Self Portrait

In this tiny chapel of the  Palazzo Medici is one of the most familiar fresco cycles of the Renaissance: Gozzoli's Procession of the Magi ...or procession of the Medici, Medici amici, and amici d' amici.  Glorious in its lush colors and scenery, exotic animals and characters the fresco has come to represent the rich character of the Renaissance itself.    

Santa Maria del Carmine, The Brancacci Chapel

 Executed in 1428, this fresco cycle  became a textbook on perspective and chiaroscuro for virtually every artist in the Quattrocento.  The cycle was begun by Masolino but soon after was taken over by his pupil Masaccio whose work was instantly recognized as a breakthrough in naturalism in both technique and expression.    

Masaccio

A Michelangelo Morning

The Accademia

David, and the Bound Slaves

The Accademia  

The Church of San Lorenzo

& The New Sacristy

Michelangelo's funerary chapel for the Medici with his  evocative figures  of  

Dusk and Dawn, Day and Night.   

 Church of San Lorenzo 

The New Sacristy 

The Laurentian Library  

with Michelangelo's uniquely designed vestibule and sculptural swooping standing staircase. Biblioteca Laurenziana

A Giotto, Ghirlandaio and Masaccio Afternoon

Santa Maria Novella 

Giotto's Crucifix (1290) in the nave, proximate to Masaccio's Holy Trinity (1427) - it's simply breathtaking! The master who transformed icons into human beings  and the young man who more than a century later made another leap forward by placing them in a human world. 

Here too are  beautifully frescoed chapels including the Cappella Strozzi  by Filippino Lippi and the  Sanctuary frescoes by Ghirlandaio.  These frescoes were Ghirlandaio's masterpiece.  Fascinating in their beauty and in their vivid view  into Florentine life and its characters.

The Birth of Mary, Domenico Ghirlandaio

.

Santa Croce

Santa Croce & Pazzi Chapel

The burial place of so many famous Italians - Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Ghiberti, Leonardo Bruni - it's been called The Westminister Abbey(without the weddings) of Florence .  But with Giotto's frescoes in the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels, especially those of the Bardi The Life of St. Francis; Gaddi's fresco cycle The Life of the Virgin (1332-38); a Crucifix and a limestone Annunciation by Donatello; Rossellino's Madonna del Latte...there are more masters outside the tombs than in them.   

Next to the church there's Brunelleschi's jewel, the Pazzi Chapel and in the small museo, Cimabue's great Crucifix - so badly damaged in the flood of 1966.