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Museums
and the City
Some of the most famous museums in the world can be seen in Florence,
in fact most people come to the city specifically to visit the
Uffizi, the Palatine and the Accademia galleries. The professional
guides of the AGT use the museums as a tool to illustrate and
explain the art history of the city to both Italian and foreign
tourists, (not to mention the school groups.) The Uffizi and Palatine
State museums house the collections of the grand- dukes begun
by the Medicis, who also richly embellished the city of Florence
- theatre of all their dynastic controversies- leaving us with
four centuries worth of masterpieces to admire.
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The
tour of the Uffizi gallery can take anywhere from
one hour and thirty minutes to three hours. The museum
exhibits two thousand works of art and has just as many
in storage. The paintings are displayed in chronological
order according to geographical schools of painting; hence
the Uffizi is a museum par- excellence for a general survey
in art history. The first room starts with the Enthroned
Madonnas by Giotto, Cimabue and Duccio along with other
Tuscan painters of the thirteenth century; therefore one
starts at the beginning, where figures imbibed with feeling
and pathos for the first time in Italian art history.
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Galleria degli Uffizi
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The
survey continues to the Sienese and Florentine schools
of painting of the fourteenth century on to The Birth
of Venus and The Allegory of Spring by Botticelli, then
the Journey of the Wise Men by Leonardo, the Tondo Doni
- the only detached painting done by Michelangelo. Raphaels
follow with the Madonna of the Goldfinch, Titian's Venus
from Urbino and Flora. The seventeenth century is represented
by masterpieces by Caravaggio, Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt,
etc. The survey ends in the rooms dedicated to the great
masters of European painting of the eighteenth century.
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La Galleria Palatina
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Palazzo Pitti , the official residence of the Medici grand
dukes, the Hapsburg- Loraine grand dukes and the king of
Italy when Florence was the capital, houses six museums
, the most famous of which is the Palatine gallery,
with approximately one thousand works from the Medici collections.The
Palatine gallery is displayed according to the decorative
style of the grand dukes, hence in addition to paintings
one can see precious stucco figures attached to elaborately
frescoed ceilings along with antique vases , tables and
tapestries of the period.The Palatine gallery has several
great masters, there are eleven Raphaels, thirteen Titians,
eighteen Andrea del Sartos,and more artists such as Botticelli,
Caravaggio, Tintoretto, Rubens, and Van Dyck, The visit
takes at least an hour and a half. |
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Accademia gallery dates back to the seventeenth century
and was made into a museum a hundred years later. The paintings
displayed were taken from various colllections to provide
the students of the neighboring Academy of Fine Arts good
examples to study from. The Florentine school of painting
was chosen as the best model for learning the art of drawing.
The most famous pieces of the museum belong to Michelangelo:
The David - brought here for safety reasons from the piazza
della Signoria in 1873, the four Captives or Prisoners,
Saint Mathew, and the Palestrina Pietà. Time: one
hour - one hour and a half. |
Galleria dell'Accademia
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The
city of Florence hosts sixty-nine other museums, some very
important ones like the Archeological Museum which
contains not only the fascinating Etruscan collections or
the beautiful Greek vases, but also it has one of the most
famous Egyptian collections in the world after Cairo and
Turin. |
...nel Museo Archeologico
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The
Bargello Museum, housed in a building which dates
back to 1255, contains sculptures by Michelangelo and Donatello
and many other important Florentine sculptors of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. There is also an incredible collection
containing objects of ivory, ceramics, glazed terracottas
by the Della Robbia workshop, ancient weapons and armatures.
Briefly, do not forget the Opera del Duomo museum
which has sculptures and paintings of the Cathedral of Santa
Maria del Fiore and the Baptistery. |
Museo del Bargello
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| Last,
the Palazzo Vecchio museum with the great Salone
of the Cinquecento, the monumental quarters and the council
rooms of the Florentine republic, that city-state which
governed for over two centuries, completes the tour of the
historical center, and some of its more important monuments.
One can easily dedicate a separate tour just to see the
Palazzo Vecchio. The authorized guides of the AGT will happily
accompany you to explore the incredible riches of the city
of Florence, named UNESCO SITE or " monumental heritage
for generations of all time" |
Palazzo Vecchio
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