Bargello, 2013

Inside the courtyard of the great fortress of the Bargello;
originally city hall, then the sheriff's office, then the jail,
it's now home to one of the great collections of Renaissance
sculpture and many of the assorted Medici treasures

A Giambologna 2fer: Mercury and Bacchus

Michaelangelo's unfinished Brutus

Michaelangelo's Tondo Pitti

Donatello's very early David

And his mature David, the first big bronze done since
antiquity; no, I don't think it's better than Michaelangelo's,
just far more interesting

Donatello's St. George, formerly at the Orsanmichelle

In 2011, I think we focused just on the Renaissance sculpture, missing much of the
rest of an incredible museum, here, in the Muslim room...one of Florence's major
trading partners was Ottoman Turkey

Perhaps the biggest and best Muslim lamp we have yet seen
...all glass, 15th century

Smaller metal sculpture

Now in the Mary Magdalene chapel with...

Its fresco of Dante, closer up than in 2011

And this small crucifix attributed to
Michaelangelo

In the ivory and such room, reputedly one of the West's largest collections

From Scandinavia...a knight from a Lewis Island chess set?
we wondered

Porcelains room...and much more

Just about every room is adorned with several della Robbias...
here's a large one in the della Robbia room

And not least, the Medici bronze bird collection, from one of the country villas,
done by Giambologna

San Marcos, 2013

The next day was San Marcos, the Bargello, and a bit of the Ognissanti, all separate posts. The San Marcos monastery was financed by Cosimo Medici, who sometimes retreated there, but is famous mostly for the works of the 15th century Fra Angelico, Fra Bartolomeo, and as the headquarters of the late 15th century demogogue Savanarola. We visited San Marcos in 2011, and our post from then is at http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/06/san-marcos.html. Here are a few additional pix.

Interior of the San Marcos church; rather completely updated
since 1406

Fra Angelico was one of those transitional
artists, schooled in International Gothic,
tempura on panel, lots of gold leaf, pointy
things, static things...

And working for employers who expected it

But adept at fresco and the via moderna

Thus

And thus (all these in monks' cells)

And, out in the hall, the most famous of them

By a later artist, Bonfire of Savanarola; hanging in what is
thought to have been Savanarola's cell

San Lorenzo, 2013

We got a late start Friday and saw but one sight, the church of San Lorenzo, which was the Medicis' parish church. Actually it's three sights, although all under the same roof (so to speak; actually there are perhaps a dozen different buildings), but you pay three different admissions, one for the church, one for the tombs (New Sacristy), and one for the Medici libraries. We did all this in 2011: http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/06/medici-tombs-palazzo-medici-riccardi.html, and http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/06/return-to-san-lorenzo.html. But Vicki is a big Michaelangelo fan and the church has several items of note, so we went back again. There is a pretty strictly enforced no fotos policy--actually, more guards per square foot, I'd imagine, than the Uffizi. But I was undeterred this time.

In the Michaelangelo-designed and -decorated New Sacristy: Night and Day or was it
Day and Night? "Night and Day, you are the one, only you 'neath the moon or under
the sun..."

Dawn and Dusk

Madonna and Child 

Inside the great pietra serena church, designed by Brunelleschi even as he was
doing the Duomo; passion for geometry, balance, classicism, distaste for Gothic,
then in its flamboyant stage

Donatello panels, originally for the altar, now adorning this and an adjacent pulpit

In a side room off the Brunelleschi-designed and Donatello- adorned Old Sacristy...
this curious view of the heavens...a view from Florence on July 4, 1442...matched
by a nearly identical structure in the Brunelleschi-designed and Donatello-adorned
sacristy at Santa Croce...same date, which no one yet has figured out...

As is well known, San Lorenzo never got a facade, despite Lorenzo's (the Magnificent,
not the saint) desire to have one and Michaelangelo's design; Lorenzo died and
Michaelangelo got put onto other tasks...

We'd been in Florence four days already and could stand it no more...we had to have
our bifstecca fiorentino; here it is, or what's left of the original kilogram of delight,
from our favorite of favorites, the Antico Ristoro de Cambi

Brancacci Chapel, 2013; and Uffizi

Thursday was a big day for us. Rain was forecast, so we decided it would be well to be indoors, mostly at the Uffizi. But we stopped on the way at perhaps our favorite Florence site, the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine. I blogged about it in 2011 at: http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/06/brancacci-chapel.html. If you're interested in art history, there are few more important places where you can see great change in situ. Masolino, his pupil Masaccio, and, fifty years later, Filipino Lippi labored on the walls of this chapel, but the most stunning of the work, and the one to whom credit is generally given (as co-founder of the renaissance in visual arts), is Masaccio. It's right up there with the Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel. Below are just a few clarifications and embellishments on the former post.

Self-portrait time: of the four on top, the
short guy is Masolino, nevermind the guy
looking at you, the fair-headed one is
Massacio, and the hooded guy is Brunelleschi;
Brunelleschi's mathematical theories of
linear perspective informed Masaccio's
painting, and much else; Donatello was the
third member of this group; they actually
made a road trip to Rome together, which one
might fancifully argue was the beginning of
the renaissance in art; just FYI

Definitely Italy, or possibly Spain, with laundry hanging out
the windows; oh, that's St. Peter with the halo (the Chapel
is mostly about him)

On-lookers at St. Peter's crucifixion; the one looking at you
is Botticelli, done by his friend and pupil, Lippi

Michaelangelo was sitting just about here, sketching St. Peter's
raising of Theophilus' son from the dead, when Torrigiano
cold-cocked him, breaking his nose; they were having a discussion
about Torrigiano's drawing skills...

Peter and Simon the Magician disputing before Nero; a personal favorite

Just one shot from the ("no fotos!") Uffizi: the totally
mobbed Botticelli room: our 2011 Uffizi post is at:
http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/06/uffizi.html

Descent From The Duomo Cupola; And More

Back inside, looking up at Vasari's funny people

Looking down to the nave below

Up very close with the great frescoes

Our descent continued through the great church and its
marble carpet

And its rather spare ornamentation: here, an
enormous "war leader" painting, by Ucello,
perhaps 30 feet high, that I know I posted in
2011; the new angle, you see, is that I now
really know who this guy is: Sir John Hawkwood,
English hero in the earlier Hundred Years'
War, later brigand in France and general
of the mercenary armies that fought (and won)
Florence's battles with Siena; he also fought
for the Popes and anybody else with large
enough a purse and good credit; read Barbara
Tuchman; I now also have much clearer notion
of who Ucello was...

Dante explaining to the citizens of Florence that any
resemblance between characters in his poems and actual
persons was purely and entirely coincidental...

Ground floor view of the colossal dome and colossal painting

And now in the crypt, as it were, Santa Reparata, the original
very early Medieval cathedral on the site; along with Roman
mosaics, etc.

Tomb of Brunelleschi, architect of the dome, and many other
things...

Back out on the street, a statue of Brunelleschi
looking up at his dome

Thus

A bit later, in the Duomo Museum, one of
Ghiberti's Baptistry Doors; the competition
Brunelleschi lost...

Up closer

Same cathedral (museum), a century later,
one of Michaelangelo's Pietas