Page 402 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

400  IT AL Y AND GREECE

6 Bargello Of the church’s many chapels,
the most famous is the Bardi
Via del Proconsolo 4. Tel 055-238 86 Chapel, decorated by Giotto
06. @ A, 14. Open daily. Closed 1st,
3rd & 5th Mon and 2nd & 4th Sun of with frescoes of the life of St.
each month, Jan 1, May 1, Dec 25. & Francis (1315–23). The Peruzzi
7 ∑ polomuseale.firenze.it Chapel houses further Giotto
frescoes. Gaddi’s 1338 fresco
Florence’s second-ranking in the Baroncelli Chapel of an
museum after the Uffizi, the angel appearing to sleeping
Bargello houses Italy’s finest shepherds is notable as the first
collection of Renaissance true night scene in Western art.
sculpture and some superb In the cloister alongside the
Mannerist bronzes. Begun in church is Brunelleschi’s Cappella
1255, the fortress-like building de’ Pazzi (Pazzi Chapel), a
was initially the town hall but masterpiece of Renaissance
later home to the chief of police architecture. The delicate gray
(the Bargello). The renovated stonework of the domed
building opened as one of Italy’s chapel is set off by white plaster,
first national museums in 1865. Gaddi’s night scene fresco in the Baroncelli which is inset with terra-cotta
The key exhibits range over Chapel, Santa Croce roundels of the Evangelists by
three floors, beginning with the Luca della Robbia.
Michelangelo Room. Here ceramics, silverware, and other
visitors can admire Bacchus objets d’art. The Salone del 8 Piazza della
(1497), the sculptor’s first large Camino on the second floor
free-standing work, a delicate holds the finest collection Signoria
circular relief depicting of small bronzes in Italy. @ A, B.
the Madonna and Benvenuto Cellini (1500–71)
Child (1503–5), and is among the artists featured. Piazza della Signoria has been at
Brutus (1539–40), the heart of Florence’s political
his only known 7 Santa Croce and social life for centuries.
portrait bust. Citizens were once summoned
Among other Piazza di Santa Croce. Tel 055-246 61 to public meetings here, and
sculptors’ 05. @ C, 14, 23. Open daily (Sun: pm the square’s statues celebrate
works in the only). & 7 ∑ santacroceopera.it events in the city’s history. That
same room is of Grand Duke Cosimo I (1595)
Mercury (1564), The Gothic church of Santa by Giambologna commemorates
Giambologna’s Croce (1294) contains the
famous bronze. tombs and monuments of
Across the many famous Florentines,
courtyard, two among them Galileo, Michel-
more rooms angelo, and Machiavelli, as well
contain exterior as radiant early 14th- century
sculptures frescoes by Giotto and his
Donatello’s statue of removed from gifted pupil, Taddeo Gaddi.
David in the sites around In 1842 the Neo-Gothic
Bargello the city and campanile of Santa Croce was
an external added, and the facade in 1863.
staircase leads In the Basilica, Rossellino’s
to a first-floor collection of effigy (1447) of Leonardo
bronze birds by Giambologna. Bruni, the great Humanist
To the right, the Salone del depicted in serene old age, is a
Consiglio Generale contains triumph of realistic portraiture.
the cream of the museum’s Close by it is the 15th-century
Early Renaissance sculpture, Annunciation by Donatello.
including Donatello’s heroic The remainder of the monastic
St George (1416) and his buildings scattered around
androgynous David (c.1430). the cloister form a museum
Restored in 2008, it is famous as of religious painting and
the first free-standing nude by sculpture. The museum
a Western artist since antiquity. houses Cimabue’s Crucifixion,
Beyond the Salone, the a 13th-century masterpiece
Bargello’s emphasis shifts to damaged in the flood of 1966,
the applied arts, with room and Gaddi’s magnificent
after room devoted to rugs, Last Supper (c.1355–60). Statue of Cosimo I in Piazza della Signoria
For hotels and restaurants see pp438–40 and pp441–3

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