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Museums and Galleries

Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia

Via XXVII Aprile 1.
Tel. 055 238 86 07

Open: 8:15am-1:50pm daily.
Closed: 1st, 3rd & 5th Sun, 2nd & 4th Mon of the month.

The cloister and refectory of what was originally a convent for the Camaldolite order of nuns are now used by the students of Florence University. On the main wall of the refectory is a fresco of The Last Supper painted in 1445-50, one of the few surviving works by Andrea del Castagno, pupil of Masaccio and among the first Renaissance artists to begin to experiment with perspective.

Conservatorio Musicale Luigi Cherubini

Piazza delle Belle Arti 2.
Tel. 055 29 21 80

Library closed to the public.

Some of Italy's finest musicians trained at this musical academy, named after the Florentine composer Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842). The conservatory owns a range of ancient musical instruments, now on display in the Palazzo Vecchio. The collection was acquired by Ferdinando, the last of the Medici Grand Dukes, and includes violins, violas and cellos made by Stradivari, Amati and Ruggeri. There is also a harpsichord by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who invented the piano in the early 18th century. The conservatory has one of the best music libraries in Italy, holding many original manuscripts by composers like Monteverdi and Rossini.

Galleria dell'Accademia

Via Ricasoli 60.
Tel. 055 238 86 09

Open: 8:15am-6:50pm Tue-Sun (occasional extended hours in summer).
Closed: 1st Jan, 1st May, 25th Dec.

The Academy of Fine Arts in Florence was founded in 1563 and was the first school in Europe set up to teach the techniques of drawing, painting and sculpture. The art collection displayed in the gallery was formed in 1784 with the aim of providing the students of the academy with material to study and copy.

Since 1873, many of Michelangelo's most important works have been in the Accademia. Perhaps the most famous of all dominates the collection: Michelangelo's David (1504). This colossal Classical statue (5.2m/17ft) depicts the biblical hero who killed the giant Goliath. It was commissioned by the city of Florence and positioned in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. This established Michelangelo, then aged 29, as the foremost sculptor of his time. In 1873 it was moved to the Accademia, to protect it from the weather and pollution. One copy of David is now to be found in its original position in Piazza della Signoria and a second stands in the middle of Piazzale Michelangelo.

The gallery contains an important collection of paintings by 15th and 16th century local artists: contemporaries of Michelangelo such as Fra Bartolomeo, Filippino Lippi, Bronzino and Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio. There are many major works including the Madonna del Mare (Madonna of the Sea), attributed to Botticelli (1445-1510), and Venus and Cupid by Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1556), based upon a preparatory drawing by Michelangelo. Also on display is an elaborately painted wooden chest, the Cassone Adimari, by Scheggia, Masaccio's step-brother. Dating from around 1440, it was originally used as part of a bride's trousseau, and is covered with details of Florentine daily life, clothing and architecture. Pacino di Bonaguida's Tree of Life (1310) is a prominent painting among the collections of Byzantine and late 13th and 14th century religious art, much of which is stylized and heavily embossed with gold.

The Salone della Toscana (Tuscany Room) is full of 19th century sculpture and paintings by members of the Accademia, and a series of original plaster models by the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini. Born in 1777, he became professor at the Accademia in 1839, a post he held until his death in 1850.

Museo Archeologico

Via della Colonna 38.
Tel. 055 23 57 50

Open: 2-7pm Mon; 8:30am-7pm Tue, Thu; 8:30am-2pm Wed & Fri-Sun.
Closed: 1st Jan, 1st May, 25th Dec.

The Archaeological Museum is in a palazzo built by Giulio Parigi for the Princess Maria Maddalena de' Medici in 1620. It now exhibits outstanding collections of Etruscan, Greek, Roman and ancient Egyptian artifacts.

A section of the second floor is dedicated to Greek vases, with a room given over to the Francois Vase, found in an Etruscan tomb at Fonte Rotella near Chiusi. Painted and signed in 570BC, it is decorated with six rows of black and red figures depicting scenes from Greek mythology. The Etruscan collection was very badly damaged by the 1966 flood and only a fraction is now on display, although restoration work is being continued. In addition to the splendid series of bronze Etruscan statues, on the first floor of the museum there are two famous bronzes. The Chimera sculpted in the 4th century BC, is a mythical lion with a goat's head imposed on its body and a serpent for a tail. It was ploughed up in a field near Arezzo in 1553 and presented to Cosimo I de' Medici by Giorgio Vasari, the artist, author and critic. The Arringatore (Orator) was found c.1566 near Lake Trasimeno in central Italy and is inscribed with the name of an Etruscan aristocrat. Aulus Metullus. The sculpture dates from the 1st century BC, and the figure, splendidly dressed in a Roman toga, appears to be addressing his audience. Part of the Egyptian collection was acquired during a joint French and Tuscan expedition in 1829. It is rich in wooden, cloth and bone artifacts, preserved in the dry atmosphere of the desert tombs in which they were found. They include a near complete chariot of bone and wood found in a bomb near Thebes (dating to c.15th century BC), along with textiles, hats, robes, furniture, purses and baskets.

Opificio delle Pietre Dure

Via degli Alfani 78.
Tel. 055 26 51 11

Open: 8:15am-2pm Mon-Sat (to 7pm Thu).
Closed: Public holidays.

Situated in the former monastery of San Niccolò, the opificio (factory) is a national institute specialising in teaching the Florentine craft of producing inlaid pictures using marble and semiprecious stones. This tradition has flourished since the end of the 16th century, when it was funded through the patronage of the Medici Grand Dukes, who decorated their mausoleum with pietre dure. There is a museum in the same building displaying 19th century workbenches, tools, vases and portraits showing pietre dure work. Several table tops decorated with pietre dure are on display: one inlaid with a harp and garlands by Zocchi, made in 1849, another with flowers and birds, designed by Niccolò Betti in 1855. A stockpile of exquisite marbles and other semi-precious stones dates back to Medici times.

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