| The
Bargello Palace which houses at the present time the National Museum was
in the medieval Florence one of the two important public buildings, together
with Palazzo Vecchio. Example of the
Florentine
gothic architecture, it was built as a rectangular stone fortress in 1255
and later extended in the 300 to house the headquarters of the Captain
of the People (Capitano del Popolo), high-ranking official of
the government. The palace housed during the centuries various public
offices of Florence and in 1574 became the seat of the Captain of Justice
(police), known as Bargello, with the prisons.
Having become the National Museum in 1865, the Bargello is home to a prestigious
collection of sculptures and decorative arts of the medieval and renaissance
period. A mention has to be made at the collection of the renassaince
sculpture that makes the museum one of the most important in the world.
It is arranged on three floors with a pictoresque internal courtyard.
The Room of Michelangelo or Room of the 500 sculpture
hosts works by the artist himself, including the Bacco ebbro,
the Apollo David, the Bruto, as well as works by other
important artists such as the bronzes by Benvenuto Cellini made for the
Loggia in the Signoria Square and the sculptures by Gianbologna.
The Room of Donatello which houses the celebrated David
and other works by the artist, was in the 14th the "Room of the Council".
Suggestive interior in Florentine gothic style. |
Bargello
Museum - Florence
|
