The Bargello

A flock of Donatellos and other great works in this sculpture gallery annex of the Uffizi

** Galleria Nazionale del Bargello (The Bargello sculpture gallery)
Via del Proconsolo 4
tel. +39-055-238-8606
www.polomuseale.firenze.it
Open daily 8:15am-5pm
Closed the 2nd and 4th Monday and the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sunday of the month

Sights nearby
* Badia [church]
Casa di Dante [museum]
*** Piazza della Signoria [square]
** Palazzo Vecchio [palace/museum]
*** Uffizi [museum]
* Museum of Science [museum]
*** Duomo group [church & museum]
Orsanmichele [church]

Where to eat nearby
* Acqua Al 2 [meal]
* Alle Murate [meal]
** Le Mossacce [meal]
Casa di Dante [meal]
* L'Antico Trippaio [snack]
*** I Fratellini [snack]
*** Vivoli [gelato]
* I Cche C'é C'é [meal]

Hotels nearby
Reid Recommends Grand Hotel Cavour [premier]
Borghese Palace Art Hotel [premier]
La Casa del Garbo Hotel [moderate]
Hotel Bavaria [super-cheap]
Hotel Santa Croce [super-cheap/cheap]
Baglioni Hotel Bernini Palace [premier]
Galigai Tower [cheap/moderate]
» More hotels near the Bargello

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Palazzo del Bargello, home to the Museo del Bargello
Palazzo del Bargello, home to the Museo del Bargello. (Photo by Kandi)What the Uffizi is to painting, the Bargello is to Renaissance sculpture—largely because this actually was the Uffizi's sculpture and applied arts collection, moved here in 1859 after it outgrew the Uffizi space.

This imposing, castle-like palazzo was built in 1255–1350 as the original "Palazzo del Popolo" seat of government. It remained the mayor's office until 1502, when it became a police headquarters and prison until 1859 (see the box below to the right).

It now contains the greatest collection of Renaissance sculpture in Florence—in fact, one of the best in all of Italy.

The baddest prison in town
After a confession had been rung out of them by the authorities inside, the bodies of particularly reviled criminals were hung from the Bargello's windows. The great artists of the day would be commissioned to come paint the portraits of the malefactors on the lower external walls as a warning to others. When Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo abolished the death penalty in 1786, the Bargello's torture instruments were ceremoniously burned in the Bargello's surviving über-medieval courtyard.You could spend 45 minutes or two hours here, depending how much you're into the early works of Michelangelo (a wonderfully tipsy Bacchus, the Madonna of the Stairs, and a Bust of Brutus that may be a semi self-portrait), or of mannerist Giambologna (his Flying Mercury and many whimsical animal bronzes intended to decorate Medici gardens).

There are also collections of fine porcelain, objets d'art, silverwork, and other decorative arts, but it is the sculpture that reign supreme—especially the works by Donatello, the first truly great sculptor of the Renaissance.

A room full of Donatellos

The David by Donatello in teh Bargello Museum
Donatello's bronze David in the Bargello Museum. (Photo by Patrick A. Rodgers)A huge room on the second floor is filled with some of Donatello's masterpieces, including a mischievous bronze Atys-Amorino cupid; the most oft-copied version of the Marzocco, the city's heraldic lion; and a terracotta bust of Niccolò da Uzzano.

There also a noble marble St. George carved in 1416 and long ago removed from its niche at the Orsanmichele. Look at the masterful panel beneath showing the saint slaying his dragon done in schiacciato, a technique of working in extreme low relief, lines often barely scratched into the marble like a sketch, that presaged by a decade the use of linear perspective in painting.

The most famous Donatellos here, though, are two versions of David.

The first a lovely early work in marble. The second David is a remarkable bronze that depicts the Biblical hero as a prepubescent young boy, naked save for his helmet and massive sword, foot resting casually atop the head of the slain Goliath. It was considered even at the time to be one of the greatest masterpieces of early Renaissance sculpture—and was the first free-standing bronze nude cast since antiquity.

The room has more than just the Donatellos. There are stellar sculptures by Desiderio da Settignano, Agostino di Duccio, Vecchietta, and Michelozzo, as well as some of the the patented glazed terracottas of Luca della Robbia and Andrea della Robbia.

I also like to point out a small work on the wall, a tumultuous Battle Scene by one of Donatello's star students, Giovanni di Bertoldo. Bertoldo would later go on to teach a talented teenager named Michelangelo how to sculpt. (Look at the similar work by a young Michelangelo in the Casa Buonarotti and you'll see Bertoldo's influence.)

The very first work of Renaissance art

Brunelleschi's Sacrifice of Isaac for the 1401 baptistry competition, in the Bargello Museum of Florence
Ghiberti's Sacrifice of Isaac for the 1401 baptistry competition, in the Bargello Museum of Florence
Two takes on the Sacrifice of Isaac for the 1401 Baptistery doors competition. Above, Brunelleschi's runner-up entry; below, Ghiberti's winning entry. (Photos by Sailko) Also in this cavernous space, along the wall, are the two finalist bronze panels of Abraham Sacrificing Isaac that, in many scholars' estimations, marked the beginning of the Renaissance. Why more guidebooks don't make a big deal out of this is beyond me.

These panels were submissions to a 1401 contest held by the powerful Arte di Calimala (Wool Guild) to pick an artist to cast images for the new North Doors of the baptistery. All the great Gothic sculptors of the day entered the contest, including Donatello, Brunelleschi, and Jacopo della Quercia.

The judges surprised everyone by picking a relatively obscure 23-year-old sculptor named Lorenzo Ghiberti. At first glance, these panels from both finalists—Ghiberti and Brunelleschi—are very similar in composition. Look more closely, though, and you'll see why Ghiberti's won.

Brunelleschi's figures look posed and still. Ghiberti's look as if we're seeing a snapshot of action, frozen in the moment.

Brunelleschi's figures are stylized. Ghiberti's are naturalistic.

Brunelleschi's figures are simply laid out in a tableau, with the main action dead center. Ghiberti's are composed to tell a story and, along with the shape and flow of the background rock, move the action dramatically around the scene, drawing your attention to the sacrifice happening on extreme stage right (offsetting it like this adds to the tension of the moment).

Brunelleschi's posed figures are seen mostly from straight on (a bent-over shepherd notwithstanding). Ghiberti uses perspective to make his angel leap toward the audience from the clouds, and stacks the shepherds on either side of the donkey both to look more natural and to help sell the illusion of depth.

In short, Brunelleschi submitted a gorgeous and masterful work of Gothic art. Ghiberti, however, submitted something new, something that made use of the most current advances and cutting-edge thinking in art.

Something worthy of being called "Renaissance."

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This material was last updated January 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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