Florence Art Bucket List: 30 Important Paintings in Florence Italy
Right here's my guide to 30 must see artwork and work of arts in Florence Italy. The city of Florence is the cradle of art in the Western globe. Florence is home to ratings of museums, palaces, churches, as well as cloisters which contain incredible masterpieces.
The art that is present in the paintings and drawings of Florence is influenced by one time period, the Italian Renaissance. Within Florence's middle ages wall surfaces, lived the best painters of the period of time-- Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Giotto, Masaccio, Botticelli, Fra Angelico, and Giorgio Vasari.
It remained in Florence that Europe's very first museums took shape. They started in family members collections, after that turned into princely collections.
This art lover's overview to Florence takes you on a trip of 30 renowned Renaissance period masterpieces in Florence They are influential ground breaking arts.
You'll tour museums from the Uffizi Gallery to the Accademia. And top right into the spectacular palace-residences of the Medici empire, who funded a lot of these great artwork.
These amazing Florentine paintings are varied. Some are colossal fresco cyles on church wall surfaces as well as devotional paintings hidden away in dark churches. Others are classic portraits or depictions of mythology. Together, they develop the dramatization and magic that is Florence.
Our Recommendations:
Enhance Your Understanding: Deepen your appreciation of the iconic artwork "The Birth of Venus" by purchasing a comprehensive book. You can find it here: Book on Amazon.
Experience Art Up Close: Visit the Uffizi Gallery to see this masterpiece in person. Book your priority entrance ticket: Uffizi Gallery Tickets.
Unleash Your Creativity: Feeling inspired? Join a painting course in Florence to explore your artistic talents. Sign up here: Painting Course in Florence.
What Art To See In Florence
Let's take a tour of 30 masterpieces you can not miss out on in Florence.
1. Fra Angelico, The Annunciation, San Marco Monastery
Fra Angelico, The Annunciation, San Marco Monastery
Fra Angelico was a devout monk who, with Giotto and Donatello, helped change the art globe and introduce the Renaissance. His humanistic pieces, with delicate palettes, led him to be dubbed the "Angelic Painter" or Il Beato (the Blessed). Giorgio Vasari described Fra Angelico as a "rare and perfect talent."
Much Angelico's best work can be discovered in the Museum of San Marco Monastery where he frescoed the halls and monks dormitory cells. His most famous painting, The Annunciation, is among one of the most celebrated images of Western art.
This celestial masterpiece radiates a light-filled tranquility. In it, the Virgin Mary greets the Angel Gabriel in a walled yard with Corinthian columns, stimulating the Yard of Eden. Gabriel tells Mary that she will bring to life Christ.
The fresco isn't extravagant. Mary's clothing are pale. She's plunged over, as if she's already having early morning health issues.
The only detailed image is Gabriel's wings, decorated with peacock eyes. The moment of immaculate conception is symbolized by the small grated home window with light coming through right into the room, or metaphorical womb, of Mary.
There's a seriousness, an intimacy, to the scene, and there are few symbolic objects: no memento mori or crown of thorns, no lily, no book. This is not an artwork that tells you how to really feel. Rather, it summons you into its world.
The Annunciation was the last point the monks saw prior to retiring to bed. The painting was a pointer for them to claim their prayers. And it's the beginning of the cycle of frescoes that depict the life as well as passion of Christ in the monks cells to adhere to.
2. Masaccio, The Holy Trinity, Basilica of Santa Maria Novella
Masaccio, The Holy Trinity, Basilica of Santa Maria Novella
Santa Maria Novella is a stunning church with a striking polychrome as well as white marble exterior. The interior is a true marvel. And it holds among the most famous as well as revolutionary paintings in Italy, The Holy Trinity by Masaccio.
Masaccio was a very early Renaissance superhero, who unfortunately died young of malaria at just 27. Masaccio was the first artist, in art evolution, to combine single factor straight perspective into his art. This designed the illusion of space within a painting and made The Holy Trinity appear like a recess in the church.
A remarkable thing about the painting is the architectural details. Masaccio used styles of ancient Roman design-- coffers, columns, a barrel vault, capitals, and a triumphal arch.
In 1952, the Death (or skeleton) at the bottom of the Holy Trinity fresco was discovered beneath plaster. On the ghoulish skeleton, you can see words, which translate to "What you are I once was; what I am, you will be." This message advises the visitor of his/her very own mortality and future death.
3. Botticelli, Birth of Venus, Uffizi Gallery
Botticelli, Birth of Venus, Uffizi Gallery
Sandro Botticelli is the undeniable master of the early Renaissance duration. His graceful Birth of Venus is the Uffizi's most renowned art work, akin to the Mona Lisa in Paris' Louvre Museum. Botticelli spent his entire life in Florence and was a friend of the Medici family members.
Birth of Venus is a dreamlike celebration of beauty and love. It's a lush, richly symbolic, as well as groundbreaking piece. It was the very first large scale painting of a nude woman in practically 1000 years. The nudity wasn't religious either; it was pagan.
Venus, the goddess of aesthetics and love, is birthed completely grown from the foam of a wave. We see a heavenly Venus, fifty percent awake as well as vulnerable, blown by the Zephyrs. She floats on a scallop covering tended by her housemaids.
The model for Birth of Venus was reputedly Simonetta Vespucci, referred to as Italy's the majority of gorgeous woman. Venus' pose was inspired by the Medici family members's marble sculpture Venus de Medici (likewise in the Uffizi).
Botticelli was a highly skilled painter and had an understanding of human anatomy. But he likewise made objectively attractive paintings with luminescent pastel shades.
Even Venus' gold flecked hair is gleaming and even highlighted. Venus' nudity is idealized and innocent, not erotic. The painting was recovered in 1983 and 1987.
4. Botticelli, Primavera, Uffizi Gallery
Botticelli, Primavera, Uffizi Gallery
Botticelli's second most famous work is Primavera, also referred to as the Allegory of Spring. Venus is in the middle of an orange grove with a half circle enveloping her.
The choice of an orange grove is notable due to the fact that the Medici, Botticelli's chief employer, had actually adopted the orange tree as their family sign.
On Venus' left, the Three Graces (that stand for chastity, beauty, and love) dance in festivity, while Mars dissipates the clouds.
The translucent drape of their clothes is incredible. Also their hair is interwoven with pearls. On the right, Zephyrus is in hot pursuit of his designated, a fairy who changes right into Flora.
Primavera is enigmatic. Its interpretation is uncertain and has stumped scholars for centuries.
Many believe the painting portrays the realm of Venus, as sung by the ancient poets. It might also illustrate a spring wedding, and was possibly created for the wedding event of Lorenzo the Magnificent's cousin.
Normal of Botticelli, his figures are stretched, insubstantial, as well as stand in weird postures. The painting is decorative, almost the reverse of the naturalism most Renaissance painters stood up for.
But it might have been what the Medici demanded. Both Flora and/or one of the Three Graces (left wing) is a portrait of Simonetta Vespucci.
5. Titian, Venus of Urbino, Uffizi Gallery
Titian, Venus of Urbino
Titian was a Renaissance artist based in Venice. His paintings are more sensual than what his contemporaries created in Rome as well as Florence.
Venus of Urbino belongs to Florence's biggest work of arts. In it, Titian developed one of the most famous-- and provocative-- nudes of all time. By depicting her as the mythical Venus, Titian got away with it.
In the piece of art, a beautiful and languid Venus stares straight back at us, almost coyly. She remains in a luxurious domestic setup.
There's a softness to the layers of paint, that makes it a lot more sensuous. Titan also uses chiaroscuro (contrasts of light and dark) to contrast Venus' skin with the dark rich background.
There's a debate regarding who Venus actually is. Some art chroniclers believe it's a paint of a courtesan. Others believe it's a marital relationship picture. Evidence for the last theory is the existence of the dog (that stands for marriage fidelity) along with the trunk of clothing (which could be her trousseau).
With Venus of Urbino, Titian establishes the benchmark for the lying nude, which would certainly be subsequently duplicated by many famed painters-- Velasquez, Courbet, and Ingres.
Perhaps one of the most famous reiterations, directly inspired by Venus, is Edouard Manet's Olympia in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Like Titian's Venus, Manet's painting triggered a rumour when it was unveiled.
6. Raphael, Madonna of the Goldfinch, Uffizi Gallery
Raphael, Madonna of the Goldfinch, Uffizi Gallery
Raphael was another prodigious talent of the Italian Renaissance. He produced a series of work of arts prior to his sudden death at the age of 37. The Uffizi consists of one of his loveliest paintings, the serene Madonna of the Goldfinch.
The paint reveals Mary with a young Christ and his BFF John the Baptist. The goldfinch is a potent symbolic representation of the passion of Christ, of Christ's suffering.
You can see a tenderness between mom and child. Christ puts his foot on his mom's foot, as he (instead amusingly) stands in a staged and artificially elegant contrapposto posture. The Madonna does not rest on a throne any longer, but a rock. Nature has taken on the expression of God, without kingly signs.
Raphael's Madonna is a survivor. In 1547, the actual owner's house broke down, ruining the paint right into 17 parts. The painting was only 41 years old.
Back then, a painter made use of nails to set it back all together and also the cracks were repainted over countless times throughout the following years. Five centuries later on, the paint was a dour dusty brown and green. In 1998, a ten years repair returned the painting to its former glory-- with Raphael's hallmark reds, imperial blues, and gold.
7. Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child, Uffizi Gallery
Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child, Uffizi Gallery
You see this lovely painting right after coming from Room 1 of the Uffizi. In Room 1, there's three huge as well as solemn medieval paints of a madonna and child from the 13th century, including popular ones by Giotto and Cimabue.
In contrast, Lippi's Madonna and Child is like a breath of fresh air. It's humanist in approach. The boldly tinted paint feels playful.
Mary is portrayed as a gorgeous real lady who you might see on the streets of Florence. In a similar way, the angels look like children. Mary's halo is almost transparent.
Lippi was among the leading Renaissance painters in the generation adhering to Masaccio and Giotto. He was even Botticelli's teacher. You can see his influence on Botticelli. They both emphasize the decorative to large degree.
Lippi was a womanizer, who led a vivid life. In 1456, Lippi abducted a novice nun, Lucrezia Buti, and had his way with her. The result was their child Filippino Lippi, who likewise went on to end up being a widely known painter.
This painting caused a bit of a scandal. It has plenty of illicit love along with unholy models. Lippi likely made use of Lucrezia as his model for Mary, at a time when it had not been taken into consideration appropriate to depict a "fallen" woman. Mary is likewise not even looking at infant Jesus, however at the inexplicably grinning angel that could be her son Filipino.
8. Leonardo da Vinci, Adoration of the Magi, Uffizi Gallery
Leonardo da Vinci, Adoration of the Magi, Uffizi Gallery
This Florence work of art is an early incomplete painting by Leonardo. If any individual is worthy of the title "Renaissance Man," it's Leonardo.
Leonardo was a painter, polymath, innovator, astronomer, designer, anatomist, and engineer. Despite being spread too thin as well as often leaving works incomplete, Leonardo left a lasting legacy.
In 1481, Leonardo was given the Adoration of the Magi commission by the Augustinian monks of San Donato in Scopeto in Florence. But he left for Milan the following year, leaving the paint primarily unfinished.
In it, Christ has just been born. Three kings come as well as provide three gifts. Mary and Christ remain in the middle in a triangular shape.
The painting is chaotic, with many competing narratives and animated figures. The focus of the paint is the reaction of the onlookers, which Leonardo represents with psychological insight.
What's revealed in the underpainting is Leonardo's working approach. You can see the way he constructs features. You have a sense of his deep understanding of human anatomy. You can also see Leonardo's popular sfumato technique-- where colors obscure together to create an atmospherical smokiness as well as softness.
9. Florence Baptistery, The Last Judgment
Florence Baptistery, The Last Judgment
Florence's Baptistery is a key monument of the proto-Renaissance along with one of the top attraction in Florence. Its highlight is the spectacular golden Byzantine-style ceiling fresco.
It was crafted by Venetian mosaic artists in the 13th and 14th centuries. The fresco spans 80 feet back and forth. The mosaics say to bible stories.
One of the most remarkable scene is The Last Judgment, the apocalyptic tale where Jesus determines that will go to heaven and hell. Jesus is huge, 19 feet high. Seated on the rims of Heaven, he extends his hands to separate the righteous as well as the damned.
There's a shockingly low amount of people portrayed as heading to heaven, mostly clergy. Ugly devils with bat wings push the damned to the right.
Hell is dominated by a terrific horned Satan. The damned are hanged, mutilated, and tossed right into fire-- a scene which may have influenced Dante's Divine Comedy.
10. Giorgio Vasari, Frescos in the Hall of Five Hundred, Palazzo Vecchio
Giorgio Vasari, Frescos in the Hall of Five Hundred, Palazzo Vecchio
The Palazzo Vecchio's main reception room is the Hall of the Five Hundred, the Salone dei Cinquecento. The name derived from the 500 man assembly that met there in pre-Medici Florence. The hall is the biggest room in Italy built for a palace.
In the mid 16th century, the then spartan hall was lavishly redesigned by Giorgio Vasari. Vasari was a late Renaissance artist and the world's first art historian.
He painted massive frescos portraying the The Fight of Marciano, in which Florence overcame competitors Pisa as well as Siena. Vasari also painted the 39 opulent ceiling panels, speaking the life story of Cosimo I.
However prior to Vasari, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to fresco the great hall. He never completed and relocated to Milan.
Legend holds that, instead of paint over Leonardo's unfinished work, Vasari created an incorrect wall over the fresco to preserve it. After that, he painted The Battle of Marciano on the false wall.
Vasari even left a puzzling hint. On a flag on his fresco, he composed the phrase "He who looks will find." Only 15 known Leonardo's exist, making this possibility tantalizing.
Preliminary investigations suggest Leonardo's work may without a doubt lie hidden beyond the untrue wall. But, to date, additional investigation is halted. Chroniclers are hesitant to harm Vasari's frescos in favor of feasible Leonardo frescos.
11. Giorgio Vasari, Apartment of the Elements, Palazzo Vecchio
Giorgio Vasari, Apartment of the Elements, Palazzo Vecchio
On the 2nd ground of the Palazzo Vecchio are the sumptuously embellished private rooms of the Medici.
They consist of the Hall of the Elements, the Hall of Opi, the Hall of Ceres, the Hall of Jupiter, the Terrace of Juno, the Hall of Hercules, the Scrittoio di Minerva, and also the Terrace of Saturn. All the rooms are embellished with allegorical frescoes by Battista del Taso as well as Giorgio Vasari.
The highlight is the Space of the Elements, Sala deli Elementi, the first of five spaces that compose the quarters of Cosimo I. It's decorated with beautiful mythical paintings developed by Giorgio Vasari and his workshop in 1556-66.
The paints symbolize the old elements of air, water, fire and earth. The main figure in each picture is an antique god. For a fine view of Florence, you can step out onto the Loggiato di Saturno in Cosimo's quarters.
12. Pietro da Cortona, Frescos in the Palatine Museum of the Pitti Palace
Pietro da Cortona, Frescos in the Palatine Museum of the Pitti Palace
To visit the Pitti Palace is to submerse yourself in beauty and history. The palace is an extremely unique mix of splendor, in situ art collections, and gorgeous yards. It's one of the Florence's most preferred must see tourist attractions.
Without a doubt, the Pitti's most important museum is the fabulous Palatine Gallery. It occupies the left wing of the very first floor.
The gallery houses an impressive as well as priceless collection of over 500 paintings, chock a block on top of each other amid lavish stucco, gilt, as well as silk furnishings. The ceilings themselves are spectacular works of art, the first and one of the most important example of Baroque art in Florence.
In 1641, Cosimo I commissioned Baroque muralist Pietro da Cortona to embellish the ceilings of five official reception halls on the very first flooring. Cortona was renowned for his frescos in Rome's Palazzo Barberini.
He selected planetary concepts-- the Saturn Room, the Hall of Venus, the Apollo Room, the Jupiter Room, and also the Mars Room. He completed 3 of the 5 rooms himself before being recalled to Rome.
The frescos were intended to celebrate the Medici lineage as well as their virtuous leadership of Florence (a little bit of propaganda). Cortona benefited the very first time with white and also gold stucco. He painted in a neo-Venetian style. The regional painter were duly blown away.
13. Bennozzo Gozzoli, Frescos in the Medici-Riccardi Palace
Bennozzo Gozzoli, Frescos in the Medici-Riccardi Palace
The Chapel of the Magi lies in the Medici-Riccardi Palace. Though the royal residence itself is rather a brooding rusticated rock affair, upstairs in the Piano Nobile conceals one of the most precious hidden treasures in Florence-- the Chapel of the Magi. The chapel is accessed via a stairway from the courtyard.
The Chapel of the Magi was a personal chapel used exclusively for the Medici's prayer and devotion. The small church is embellished with an attractive collection of frescos painted in 1459 by Benozzo Gozzoli. Gozzoli was trained by Ghiberti as well as Fra Angelico, and thus developed a captivating narrative style.
The frescos remain in 2 parts, the Procession of the Magi on 3 walls in the primary room and the Adoration of the Magi in the chancel. The frescos are meant to glorify the majesty of life at the Medici court.
It was a form of propaganda to reveal their wide range as well as greatness. Throughout the chapel, there's an abundance of purple porphyry and gold, just to underscore the factor.
The Procession of the Magi covers 3 of the four chapel wall surfaces. Each wall surface stands for one of the three kings or magi arriving in Bethlehem to pay homage to the newborn king, bringing pricey gifts. Famous Medici appear in the guise of the magi, relating themselves with immortality.
14. Masaccio, Frescos in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine
Masaccio, Frescos in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine
The Brancacci Chapel is a supreme example of early Renaissance paint. It's completely filled with frescos by Masaccio as well as his workshop.
It's taken into consideration among the 3 essential chapels of the Renaissance, together with the Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel in Padua and Michelangelo's Sistine Church in Rome.
As I pointed out previously, Masaccio was an influential painter. A Medici rival, Felice Brancacci, commissioned the fresco cycle in 1424.
They were meant to represent the life of St. Peter, from original sin to the redemption of man. After Masaccio's death, the frescos were finished by Fillipino Lippi.
In the top registry, there's one of Masaccio's biggest work of arts, The Tribute Money. It's a story from the brand-new Testament when Christ is faced by a tax obligation collector. Christ performs a miracle, causing money to appear in the mouth of a fish.
Just to the left of The Tribute Cash is another Masaccio should see masterpiece, the Expulsion of Adam as well as Eve From Eden. An armed angel gets rid of the pariahs. Adam appears ashamed and Eve cries. It's an emotional paint.
Remarkably, Adam's private parts were painted over with fig leafs on the order of the ultra religious Cosimo in 1642, comparable to Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Vatican Museums. During restoration, the figure of Christ was gone back to the initial nude.
The Brancacci Chapel ended up being a kind of school for Renaissance artists. According to Vasari, all one of the most well known artists came to the chapel, sketchbooks in hand. Masaccio's frescos were fairly recently restored in the 1980s.
15. Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo, Uffizi Gallery
The Doni Tondi, or Holy Family, is Michelangelo's most recognized painting, aside from his work in the Sistine Church in the Vatican Museums. It's the only painting Michelangelo ever before made that wasn't painted directly on a wall.
The painting was commissioned by a Florentine vendor, Agnolo Doni, to celebrate his marital relationship and the birth of his child. The figures are rendered in a sculptural style. The old Laocoon sculpture, in the Vatican Museums, had actually simply been unearthed in Rome. It likely influenced an admiring Michelangelo.
The Doni Tondo is unconventional and seems to anticipate the late Renaissance Mannerist style. The colors of the Doni Tondo are bright and unnatural. The composition is a tough spiral posture.
The Doni Tondo is characteristic of Michelangelo's women who ... well ... look like muscular men. You almost think of Rosie the Riveter when you take a look at Mary's right bicep.
16. Caravaggio, Medusa, Uffizi Gallery
Caravaggio was the most essential and even prominent Baroque artist. Caravaggio's tale is one of expertise along with turmoil. He imitated an evil one, but painted like an angel.
Caravaggio rejected the purified idealism that defined much of the Renaissance era. He developed and made use of a darker, significantly lit palette.
Caravaggio produced naturalistic and even emotionally-charged raw art that were considered as morbid, bluntly practical, as well as shocking at the time.
Medusa was a subject right up his alley. According to the poet Ovid, Medusa was renowned for her beauty. But when Poseidon raped Medusa in the Sanctuary of Athena, Athena was ticked off. She transformed Medusa's marvelous mane of hair into snakes-- a symbolic representation of female craze.
Upon looking at her, Medusa's opponents were turned to stone. Medusa became both a lovely victim as well as a monstrous villain. Perseus vowed to acquire her head in order to quit her reign of terror.
In Caravaggio's rendition of the old belief, Medusa is shown alive and in the very moment of transformation. Her cut and deformed head is painted on canvas put on a wooden guard.
She peers right into an unseen mirror in writhing agony. Caravaggio might have inspired Bernini's later Medusa in the Capitoline Museums in Rome.
Aside from the Uffizi, there are also a couple of spectacular Caravaggio paintings in the Palatine Gallery of the Pitti Palace-- Sleeping Cupid, The Tooth Puller, and Portrait of Fra Marcantonio Martelli.
17. Andrea del Castagno, The Last Supper, Convent of Sant’Apollonia.
17. Andrea del Castagno, The Last Supper, Convent of Sant’Apollonia
Castagno's The Last Supper is an almost unknown work of art. This huge beauty covers one wall in the refectory of Florence's 15th century Sant' Apollonia convent, near San Marco.
It's a free museum, funded by the Italian state, at least in the meantime. When you go through the humble door, you leave your trademark with the custodian and also can enjoy superb art without the crowds.
Castagno belonged to the second generation of the very early Renaissance era. As a painter, he was inspired by sculpture, particularly by the work of Donatello. His The Last Supper is a painting Leonardo most likely understood, learnt, and attempted to move beyond. It's taken into consideration the initial fully Renaissance Last Supper.
Incredible in its very own right, Castagno's painting conveys incredible spiritual power in an architectonic space. It's a hugely exciting imaginary mix of forced geometric point of view, exaggerated horizontality, metaphysical symbolism, and episodic herky-jerkiness. Dressed in intricately painted togas, each devotee appears like an old Roman philosopher.
The lead character (Jesus) and the opponent (Judas) take spotlight. The betrayer Judas (no halo) is eradicated to the spectator's side of the table, and nearly resembles a satyr. The rest of the apostles are recognized by name on the plinth at their feet.
The overall optical effect resembles seeing a hallucinogenic inlaid marble table from above. There's no light source, home windows, or main marvellous Jesus, so the eye darts about this uncentered mazy space.
18. Ghiraldaio, The Last Supper: Church of Ognissanti.
Ghiraldaio, The Last Supper: Church of Ognissanti
Near the Arno River is among one of the most fantastic churches in Florence-- Ognissanti. The church and the convent were embellished by the greatest Early Renaissance masters of the times: Giotto, Botticelli, along with Ghirlandaio. But because Ognissanti is off center, it does not obtain many site visitors and is a hidden treasure in Florence.
The gallery's highlight is Ghirlandaio's beautiful fresco of The Last Supper on the back wall of the refectory. Ghirlandaio was Michelangelo's teacher. You can just see it for 4 hrs (9:00 am to 1:00 pm) on Mondays and Saturdays.
The painting is huge, covering the entire back wall of the refectory. The perspectival construction generates the illusion that the actual dining room proceeds in the fresco.
As is now increasingly typical, Judas is isolated opposite from Christ and the apostles on a lengthy horizontal table. He wears yellow, the symbol of treachery.
Usual of Ghirlandaio, the fresco is loaded with animation, symbolism, and vivid detail. It almost appears like a terrace lawn celebration, with a Paradise-like landscape.
19. Plautilla Nelli, The Last Supper, Museum of Santa Maria Novella.
Plautilla Nelli, The Last Supper, Museum of Santa Maria Novella
Dominican nun Plautilla Nelli created a ground breaking addition to the Last Supper genre. Approach ahead of her time, Nelli was a self-taught painter and innovator who ran an all woman artists' workshop out of the Santa Caterina convent.
In 1568, she embarked on her most ambitious project, a monumental The Last Supper painting featuring life size representations of Jesus along with the twelve apostles. She was likely the first woman worldwide history to paint this legendary scene.
Nelli's huge canvas is remarkable for its challenging composition, powerful brushstrokes, and adept therapy of anatomy at once when women were prohibited from examining the clinical area. Her painting was likely a workshop collaboration, with Nelli executing the drawings and painting the heads shown in 3/4 profile.
In 2015, Nelli's work was painstaking recovered over 4 years. In 2019, it was unveiled in public for the first time in 450 years. The work was installed in the Santa Maria Novella Museum, where it hangs together with work of arts by Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and Ghirlandaio.
20. Andrea del Sarto, The Last Supper, Monastery of San Salvi.
Andrea del Sarto, The Last Supper, Monastery of San Salvi
The Monastery of San Salvi houses Andrea del Sarto's skillful The Last Supper. Giorgio Vasari described the painting as an "Endless majesty with its absolute grace of all the painted figures." Experts rank del Sarto's The Last Supper second only to Leonardo's.
Del Sarto was a painter in the High Renaissance, instrumental in the development of the Earlier Mannerism duration. This painting presents Del Sarto at his artistic maturity, with ideal composition and also vibrant expressive shade.
Around the table, put together with a white table linen, all the apostles are illustrated on the very same side as Jesus. A dark haired Judas sits on Jesus' right, getting a portion of bread.
John connects in a tender expression, entwining his fingers with Jesus. Del Sarto's drawings for this and other scenes are in the Uffizi Gallery.
The most authentic part of del Sarto's Last Supper is the upper part. Del Sarto painted a perfectly foreshortened veranda where two characters, at sunset, look into a scene below. During the siege of Florence in 1530, Charles V's invading army saved The Last Supper for its sheer appeal.
21. Piero della Francesca, The Duke and Duchess of Urbino, Uffizi Gallery.
Piero della Francesca, The Duke and Duchess of Urbino, Uffizi Gallery
Piero della Francesca is an appreciated 15th century Italian painter. The Duke and Duchess of Urbino is one of his finest arts and a well known painting of the Renaissance.
Della Francesca used a cool color palette as well as feeling of geometry and formality to create his works. In addition to being an artist, Piero was a mathematical theorist.
This dual portrait made use of to be a diptych. It was pivoted like a book, with landscape scenes painted on the back. The painting is among one of the most famous portraits of the Renaissance.
It's a strange juxtaposition and unflattering portrayal of the couple. The couple face each other and look into each others eyes. They are together, yet apart. Just a background landscape, uncommon for that time in painting, links them.
The duchess' deathly white skin contrasts dramatically to the duke's bronze and warty face. She has an extremely high forehead, which was the fashion trend at that point, and a complicated braided hairdo. The duchess had actually just died as well as this was a commemorative portrait.
The duke gets on the right rather than the left, as was traditional, to camouflage a right eye lost from jousting. But his uneven nose is on full show. It's a classic cexample of the Renaissance tendency to render something awful as lovely.
22. Raphael, Portrait of Leo X With Cardinals, Pitti Palace.
Raphael, Portrait of Leo X With Cardinals, Pitti Palace
Leo X is one of Raphael's most important Renaissance pictures. The Pitti Palace acquired the painting in a "trade" with the Uffizi Gallery in exchange for the acclaimed Raphael double portrait of Agonoli Doni and Maddalena Strozzi, which is now on exhibit in the Uffizi's Raphael and Michelangelo Room.
The painting illustrates Pope Leo X, the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Leo was recognize for his lechery as well as inefficient habits. His regulations likewise resulted in the Protestant Improvement.
But there's no chaos in the portrait, aside from his rather corpulent body. Leo is clad in red, a symbolic representation of the papacy.
The structure of the picture is uncommon, with Leo appearing to be responding to somebody entering the room. The painting was admired as work of art of realistic look and naturalism. Ironically, though it was a dynastic piece for the Medici family members, it reveals two of the worst popes in the record of the Catholic Church.
23. Giotto, Frescos in the Basilica of Santa Croce.
Giotto, Frescos in the Basilica of Santa Croce
Giotto was the best painter of the 14th century, a founding father of the Renaissance. He was the first artist in two centuries to portray the similarities of genuine people.
Giotto was revolutionary in suggesting a three dimensional photographic space. He abandoned the stark outline as well as ornate patterns for figures. Instead, he made use of subtle gradations of light as well as darkness.
Giotto invested a lot of his life at Santa Croce, frescoing the Bardi as well as Peruzzi Chapels.
Bardi Chapel
An aristocratic banking family, the Bardi employed Giotto to decorate their household chapel, just to the right of the choir. In 1320-28, Giotto painted seven episodes from the life of St. Francis of Assisi, whom he directly identifed with.
The frescos show Giotto's innovative nature. The figures depart from the figurative rigidity attribute of medieval times. They have an intensely emotive faces.
Giotto's figures are illustrated as compassionate, also showing up to cry at St. Francis' fatality. The Santa Croce frescos are the highest point of Giotto's visual work. Generations of future artists were to come to Santa Croce to admire and learn from them.
The priceless frescos were painted over in the 18th century. They were rediscovered in the 19th century. But an inefficient rework harmed them. Hence, today there are some vacant patches. The chapel is currently going through an additional reconstruction.
Peruzzi Chapel
The Peruzzi Chapel features Giotto's first work in Santa Croce Giotto covered the chapel with stories of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist.
Unfortunately, the frescos are in bad condition. Giotto painted them in the secco fresco technique, where the plaster is allowed to dry prior to the oil paint is used. This is less complicated than real fresco, painted on damp plaster. But it's much less durable.
Painted three decades previously, the Peruzzi frescos are much less impressive than the Bardi frescos. Those are livelier as well as more remarkable. Still, it's thought that both Masaccio and Michelangelo studied the Peruzzi frescos.
24. Taddeo Gaddi, Frescos in the Basilica of Santa Croce.
Taddeo Gaddi, Frescos in the Basilica of Santa Croce
The frescos in the Baroncelli Chapel are considered the most important work of Forentine painter Tadeo Gaddi. He was an apprentice as well as godson of Giotto.
Construction of the Baroncelli Chapel began in 1328. It is among the most effective maintained chapels in Santa Croce, boasting a stunning altar, stained glass window, as well as ceiling cupola.
Gaddi painted the fresco cycle between 1328 as well as 1338. It represents tales devoted to the Virgin Mary. Gaddi's frescos are well-known for their narrative style, psychological acuteness, as well as reasonable detailing.
In the scene depicting the marriage of the Virgin, for example, the actual ceremony is almost lost amidst the holy burly of the guests and musicians. Just at a second glimpse do you see Mary and Joseph signing up with hands. A Paradise-like garden shows up above the high wall surface, a beautiful touch.
25. Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes, Uffizi Gallery.
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes, Uffizi Gallery
Artemisia Gentileschi was among one of the most talented painters of the Baroque duration. She rivaling Caravaggio himself. Judith Beheading Holofernes is her work of art as well as among one of the most popular paintings in Florence.
The painting depicts a traditional biblical scene, well-known with many painters consisting of Donatello along with Caravaggio. It's the Old Testament story of Judith as well as Holofernes, in which a brave woman single handedly beheads the warlord who's besieged her town in Israel.
Typically, a widowed Judith is portrayed as virtuous, delicate, or nearly disgusted by her murderous job. The real act of beheading wasn't even depicted, until Caravaggio's 1599 treatment (in Rome's Palazzo Barberini).
Artemisia's version is also bloodier, a shockingly violent beheading. The focus of the painting is Judith, not Holofernes. He looks to be almost dead, his arm or legs visually cut off as well as body radically foreshortened.
Judith is depicted as a muscle-y identified lady on a mission. She's not subtle or ashamed. She's out to get her guy with a large sword as well as rolled up sleeves.
Rivulets of blood spill onto white sheets. Artesmisia was raped by her tutor, Agostino Tassi, when she was just 17. To give her painting an autobiographical spin, Artemisia rendered Judith as a self portrait and gave Holofernes the face of Tassi.
26. Raphael, Woman With a Veil, Pitti Palace.
Raphael, Woman With a Veil, Pitti Palace
This beautiful Raphael portrait is a highlight of the Palatine Museum. It's believed to depict Raphael's lover, Margherita Luti. Raphael was a ladies man. While Raphael was painting frescos at the Villa Farnesina, he began an affair with her.
In 1520, Raphael died abruptly at just 37. The diagnosis? According to Vasari, Raphael died from "too much sex," which caused him to spike a fever. His bedmate on his last happy night? Most likely, Margherita.
Unlike much of Raphael's other work, this is an intimate portrait. The lady's right hand rests over her heart as well as her left hand between her legs. It's a Venus-like posture reminiscent of The Capitoline Venus in Rome's Capitoline Museums, equating La Fornarina with the goddess of love.
The painting has an exquisite attention to detail. Luti's beautiful face is illustrated with deep as well as penetrating eyes. She wears a pink-tinged gown of sumptuous material, executed with masterful skill by Raphael that lends a sense of depth. Rather ironically, this portrait of a baker's daughter is in the Jupiter Hall, the former Medici throne room.
27. Raphael, Portraits of Agnolo and Maddalena Doni, Uffizi Gallery.
Raphael, Portraits of Agnolo and Maddalena Doni, Uffizi Gallery
This Raphael double portrait was removed from its original in situ location in the Pitti Palace and is now in the Uffizi. The two famous and exquisite half bust portraits depict a newly married couple-- a successful Florentine merchant and his aristocratic wife.
They were commissioned by Agnolo Doni. He was the man that also commissioned Michelangelo's Doni Tondo.
The works show the influence of Leonardo da Vinci as well as were meant to compete with the Mona Lisa. The portrait of Maddalena has a similar composition as well as picture plane to the Mona Lisa-- half length in front of a balustrade against a landscape background.
But Raphael departed from Leonardo's sfumato technique, adopting an absolutely clear use of shape and color. Of particular note is the sublime matching landscape uniting the figures. While Maddalena's face is stern, that of her husband is more mysterious.
28. Fra Bartolemo, Portrait of Girolamo Savonarola, San Marco Monastery.
Fra Bartolomeo, like Fra Angelico, was a proficient painter-monk. He was essentially the next greatest painter working at San Marco as well as was influenced by the great Raphael. Fra Bartolomeo's most famous painting is a haunting portrait of Savonarola in profile.
Savonarola was known as the "mad monk." He launched an ascetic movement that would temporarily dethrone the Medici, establish a theocracy in Florence, as well as change the course of religious history ushering in the Reformation. But his rule was so stringent that Florentines rebelled, publicly executing him in the Piazza della Signoria.
Fra Bartolomeo came under Savonarola's influence in the 1490s as well as became a friar in 1500. He gave up painting for several years because Savonarola considered it decadent. But the monastery instructed him to resume to benefit the Dominican order.
In this painting, Fra Bartolomeo provides a "true likeness" of Savonarola. His prominent features and alert eyes express a steely determination.
The portrait was an homage to the charismatic reformer. It's undated and may have been painted after Savonarola's death, in veneration of his life.
29. Giorgio Vasari, The Last Judgment, Florence Cathedral.
Giorgio Vasari, The Last Judgment, Florence Cathedral
Another great masterpiece in Florence is the Vasari fresco in Florence Cathedral. Covering some 3,6000 square meters, the fresco is the largest fresco in the world.
Originally, the Duomo architect Brunelleschi wanted his dome covered in gold mosaics like the Baptistery. But that plan was never realized.
120 years after Brunelleschi's death, Cosimo I de' Medici commissioned Giorgio Vasari to fresco the dome. The Last Judgment is divided in to five zones.
Enthroned in the center is Christ the judge. The various levels separated by bands show the other players-- the elders of the apocalypse, saints, members of the Medici family, as well as the damned in hell.
In their monumentality, the figures floating against the background of heaven are reminiscent of those of Michelangelo, who Vasari revered. Michelanglo's The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel was Vasari's inspiration.
30. Fra Angelico, The Last Judgment, San Marco Monastery.
The Last Judgment is among Fra Angelico's most renowned works of art. The painting was originally in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
It was recently restored and unveiled to the public anew in 2019. The painting has a unique shape, intended as a seat back for priests during high mass.
As in most paintings on this theme, Christ sits elevated on a throne surrounded by angels as well as saints. He's judging who should go to heaven as well as hell. The bottom right section represents hell. Demons torture the souls of the wicked. A three headed Satan even chews them up.
What's unique about Fra Angelico's Last Judgment is the illusionistic perspective as well as riveting narrative. The tombs recede into the horizon, creating a sense of depth.
The concave semicircle at the top suggests the figures are seated at a distance. There are also dancing angels, possibly based on a 15th century hymn equating dancing and love.
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