Museum
and monument. A place to remember and celebrate
the greatness of Michelangelo and at the same
time a pompous and Baroque exhibition of the art
collections of the family. Casa Buonarroti is
one of the most extraordinary Florentine museums.
It offers in the first place the possibility of
admiring the two famous marble relief pieces,
sculptured by Michelangelo in his early years:
the Madonna della Scala, which clearly shows the
passion of this artist for Donatello and the Battle
of the Centaurs that echoes the admiration of
the artist for classic art.
It is equally suggestive to enter this 17th century
palace and connect the works by Michelangelo to
the centuries of history of the Buonarroti family,
who greatly contributed to enlarge the building
and embellish it with the aim of preserving precious
objects from different cultures (that include
the recent collection of the autograph drawings
by Michelangelo consisting of 205 precious sketches
and the equally important Archive and Library).
The building exhibits rare art collections comprising
paintings, sculptures, majolicas and archaeological
findings that are now arranged on the two floors
of the Museum. A specially equipped room displays
on rotation a small number of the drawings of
Michelangelo.
The importance of Casa Buonarroti goes far beyond
the celebration of an extraordinary personality
like Michelangelo, although it displays many of
his works and documents that have increased also
thanks to the donations and pieces transferred
here from other Florentine museums. The works
exhibited in these rooms comprise: The Crucifix
of Santo Spirito, which critics tend to attribute
to Michelangelo, the two 16th century Noli me
tangere based on the lost cartoon, the Wooden
model for the façade of San Lorenzo and
the River Divinity, which was used to prepare
one of the sculptures made for the New Sacristy.
The idea of creating a sumptuous building to celebrate
the glory of the family was an initiative of Michelangelo
Buonarroti the younger, an extraordinary man of
letters and promoter of cultural activities, who
employed for the works of the building, of the
“Gallery” and of the three subsequent
rooms, the most renown artists of Florence such
as Empoli, Passignano, Artemisia Gentileschi,
Pietro da Cortona, Giovanni da San Giovanni, Francesco
Furini and the young Jacopo Vignali. These sumptuous
rooms were chosen by Michelangelo the younger
to exhibit the most precious objects of his collection,
including the small cartoon of Michelangelo showing
a Madonna with Child and the wooden panel representing
some episodes of the Life of St. Nicholas, a masterpiece
by Giovanni di Francesco, a disciple of Domenico
Veneziano.
It is also useful to remember that the museum
organises every year exhibitions on several aspects
of the life and art of Michelangelo and on the
cultural and artistic heritage of Casa Buonarroti.
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