MUSEUMSand of Florence and surroundings GALLERIES of Florence and surroundings GALLERIES and MUSEUMS MUSEUMSand GALLERIES of Florence and surroundings Azienda di Promozione Turistica Firenze - Via A. Manzoni, 16 azienda Tel. 05523320 - Fax 0552346286 di promozione turistica Http: //www.firenze.turismo.toscana.it firenze MUSEUMSand GALLERIES of Florence and surroundings INDEX FLORENCE Museo delle Carrozze 24 Museo delle Porcellane 22 Appartamenti Reali 15 Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia 92 Battistero 108 Museo di Mineralogia e Litologia 96 Cappella Brancacci 82 Museo di Orsanmichele 64 Cappelle Medicee 29 Museo di Palazzo Davanzati Casa Buonarroti 124 o della Casa Fiorentina Antica 40 Casa di Dante 128 Museo di San Marco 34 Casa Guidi 126 Museo di Storia della Fotografia Casa Siviero 129 Fratelli Alinari 134 Cenacolo del Ghirlandaio Museo di Storia della Scienza 86 a Ognissanti 48 Museo Diocesano Cenacolo di Fuligno 50 di Santo Stefano al Ponte 138 Cenacolo di Santa Apollonia 48 Museo e Chiostri monumentali C 50 enacolo di San Salvi di Santa Maria Novella 78 Certosa 130 Museo Egizio 46 Chiostro dello Scalzo 52 Museo Fiorentino di Preistoria Crocefissione del Perugino 54 “Paolo Graziosi” 94 Duomo e Campanile di Giotto 104 Museo Horne 118 Fondazione Romano Museo Marino Marini nel Cenacolo di Santo Spirito 80 Fondazione Marini San Pancrazio 132 Text by: Caterina Caneva, vice-Director of the Uffizi Gallery Galleria d’Arte Moderna 16 Editorial staff: Publishing Deptm. APT Firenze, Lara Fantoni, Francesca Galluzzi, Luciano Leoni Museo Nazionale di Antropologia Galleria degli Uffizi 8 Images: APT and archives of the museums 90 Galleria del Costume 24 ed Etnologia Photolith: Selecolor - Florence Galleria dell’Accademia 32 Museo Nazionale Il Bargello 26 Printed by: Tipografia Giuntina - Florence Galleria dello Spedale Museo Stibbert 120 Design: Sesamo Comunicazione Visiva – Figline Valdarno ( Florence) degli Innocenti 116 Museo Storico Topografico Translation: Sinergia Alfa Galleria Palatina 18 “Firenze com’era” 74 Museo Zoologico La Specola 88 The text is updated August 31, 1999 Galleria Rinaldo Carnielo 80 Giardino di Boboli 56 Orto Botanico dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze 100 Cover image: Botticelli’s “Primavera” (detail) Giardino di Castello 60 Museo Archeologico 44 Palazzo Medici Riccardi 122 Museo Bardini 72 Palazzo Pitti 14 Museo Botanico 98 Palazzo Vecchio 68 Museo degli Argenti 20 Raccolta Alberto della Ragione Via A. Manzoni 16 Museo del Bigallo 114 e Collezioni del Novecento 76 50121 Firenze Museo dell’Opera del Duomo 110 Scavi di Santa Reparata 106 Tel. 05523320 Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce 112 Sinagoga di Firenze e Museo Fax 0552346286 Museo dell’Opificio di Storia e Arte Ebraica 136 Http://www.firenze.turismo.toscana.it delle Pietre Dure 36 Villa della Petraia 62 Introduction THE SURROUNDINGS OF FLORENCE Montelupo Fiorentino Museo Archeologico Bagno a Ripoli e della Ceramica 166 Antiquarium 142 Vinci The museums of Florence are a constel- resist the temptation of caressing some- Oratorio Santa Caterina 142 Casa di Leonardo 170 lation. Some are like large stars that shine thing we like and we want to transmit our Fiesole Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci 168 of their own light (the Uffizi Gallery, the admiration to. Area Archeologica Museo Leonardiano 170 e Museo Archeologico 144 Academy, the Palatine Gallery, The Medici Museo Bandini 146 Castelfiorentino Chapels, the Garden of Boboli), though This means that the museums of Museo Primo Conti 146 Gli Affreschi di Benozzo Gozzoli 172 there are also smaller planets that few Florence are also a problem. Managing Sesto Fiorentino Museo di Arte Sacra 172 know and are visited even less. such a complex and delicate machine is Museo Richard Ginori Certaldo really a problem. Reconciling the expecta- della Manifattura di Doccia 148 Casa di Boccaccio 174 Considered as a whole, the museums of tions of so many visitors and the need of Tomba etrusca La Montagnola 148 Montaione Tomba etrusca La Mula 148 Convento e Sacro Monte Florence form a vast and varied reality, defending a heritage that cannot be dam- Signa di San Vivaldo 174 with the diversities typical of a continent. aged beyond measure or subjected to certain Museo della Paglia e dell’Intreccio Montespertoli They display everything you can think of: risks, requires extraordinary professional- Domenico Michelacci 150 Museo di Arte Sacra 176 art and history, ethnography and folk tra- ism, specialisation and commitment. HIANTI ditions, scientific relics and excellent exam- C MUGELLO-ALTO MUGELLO-VAL DI SIEVE ples of craftsmanship, religious images and I believe I can say that the personnel Barberino Val d’Elsa Borgo San Lorenzo Antiquarium di Sant’Appiano 152 ancient classic myths, the oldest examples responsible for watching our museums is Museo della Civiltà Contadina Greve of antiquities and the most modern exam- equal to this task, regardless of the public di Casa d’Erci 178 Museo di Arte Sacra di San ples of modernity. administration to which they belong. Vaglia Francesco a Greve in Chianti 152 Parco di Pratolino - Villa Demidoff 178 Serving the people of museums and at the Impruneta Scarperia Every year the museums of Florence are same time the universe of cultural heritage Museo del Tesoro di Santa Maria 154 San Casciano in Val di Pesa Museo dei ferri taglienti 180 visited by almost six million visitors. has no voices or trade unionists to represent Museo di Arte Sacra 154 Vicchio Twelve million feet that weigh, stamp and it. It is a hard and delicate job. We try to do Tavarnelle in Val di Pesa Museo Casa di Giotto 182 consume. Twelve million hands that can our best, well aware of our limits, and yet Palazzuolo sul Senio Museo di Arte Sacra 156 touch and often do, because it is difficult to proud of our role. Museo della vita e del lavoro EMPOLESE-VALDELSA delle genti di montagna 182 Dicomano Cerreto Guidi Scavi Archeologici di “Frascole” 184 Museo della Villa Medicea 158 Empoli VALDARNO Museo Civico di Paleontologia 160 Antonio Paolucci Museo della Collegiata di S. Andrea 162 Figline Valdarno Fucecchio Museo della civiltà contadina The Head of the Monuments and Fine Arts Office Museo Civico di Fucecchio 164 di Gaville 186 of Florence, Prato and Pistoia museums and galleries STATE MUSEUMS CITY MUSEUMS SCIENCE MUSEUMS OTHER MUSEUMS MUSEUMS IN THE SURROUNDINGS THE UFFIZI GALLERY Botticelli LOGGIATO DEGLI UFFIZI 6 - FLORENCE THE SPRING GALLERIA Justus Sustermans Pontormo PORTRAIT OF GALILEO GALILEI SUPPER AT EMMAUS CAFETERIA BOOKSHOP DEGLI UFFIZI ENTRANCE AND TOILETS ACCESSIBLE TO DISABLED PEOPLE The building that is now seat of the On the ground floor it is still possi- Gallery was built in the mid-sixteenth ble to admire the remains of the ancient century by the architect Giorgio Vasari Romanesque church of San Piero (1511-1574) in a period when Cosimo I Scheraggio, which was partially de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, destroyed by Vasari to build the Uffizi. was bureaucratically consolidating this The second floor houses the Prints and recently acquired position. The building Drawings Department, which compris- was meant in fact to house the offices of es one of the most important collections the magistrates (Uffici=offices). From in the world that was started by a the beginning however, the Medici set Medici, the Cardinal Leopoldo, during aside some of the rooms on the third the 17th century. floor to house the finest works from their collection. Two centuries later, thanks to If we follow the natural layout of the the generosity of the last heir of the fam- rooms, we enter the large rooms that dis- ily, Anna Maria Luisa, their collection play the great altarpieces of Cimabue, became permanent public property. Giotto, Duccio di Buoninsegna, the first remarkable examples of western paint- The museum now comprises the ing, followed by the remarkable works rooms on the third floor of the build- of 14th century Siennese artists, such as ing, that display in chronological Simone Martini and the brothers Piero order paintings ranging from the 13th and Ambrogio Lorenzetti and the pupils to the 18th centuries. The most pre- of Giotto. The following rooms display cious and famous group of paintings of some fine examples of the International the Uffizi are however represented by Gothic style: the Adoration of the Magi by the works of the Italian Renaissance Gentile da Fabriano and another one by artists, although several sections of the Lorenzo Monaco, before actually reach- museum are devoted to the works of ing the most important rooms of the foreign artists (German, Flemish, museum that are dedicated to the early Dutch and French). Renaissance. These rooms exhibit works by Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Domenico In addition to paintings, the Uffizi Veneziano, Piero della Francesca, Beato exhibits a fine collection of Roman sculp- Angelico, followed by the elegant tures (portraits, emperors and divinities) Madonnas of Filippo Lippi, by the pre- that are displayed in the corridors deco- cious panels of the brothers Piero and rated with frescoed and sculptured ceil- Antonio del Pollaiolo to end with the ings of the 16th and 17th centuries. mythological allegories and religious 8 9 THE UFFIZI GALLERY Giotto LOGGIATO DEGLI UFFIZI 6 - FLORENCE GALLERIA MAJESTY CAFETERIA DEGLI UFFIZI BOOKSHOP ENTRANCE AND TOILETS ACCESSIBLE TO DISABLED PEOPLE paintings of Sandro Botticelli. Of this goldfinch by Raphael and the Venus of artist, the museum preserves perhaps Urbino and Flora by Titian. Even the sec- the finest collection of works, compris- tion dedicated to Mannerism is lavish ing the Birth of Venus, the Primavera, the and comprises works by Pontormo, Magnificat and Pomegranate Madonnas. Rosso Fiorentino, Bronzino down to Parmigianino (Madonna with the long It is then the turn of Perugino, neck) and famous Venetian artists such Signorelli, Piero di Cosimo and as Sebastiano del Piombo, Veronese, Leonardo da Vinci; the latter is repre- Tintoretto, and Lombard ones like sented both with the painting the Baptism Savoldo and Moroni.