Florence for a day, just because I can

Free weekend, so off to Florence for a day. Last spring, when we went to Florence as a school, I simply didn't have enough time to see all the great art, so this time, I headed back and hit three big ones.

First things first, though, food. This sandwich is the best in Italy. Hot tripe on fresh bread. Off the train and directly to the Mercato Nuovo to get it. Ate it on a crisp winter afternoon on a bridge over the Arno.....Italian life is good.

Site one, the Branccaci Chapel. This was commissioned by a wealthy Florentine in the early 1400's (Michelangelo was the early 1500's).

It tells the story of St. Peter and is in registers similar to Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel in Padua and his other work in Assisi. This one panel, the temptation of Adam and Eve is by Masolino.

His student, Masaccio (a nickname that means "fat/clumsy Tommaso" painted this AMAZING panel, the expulsion. It's a step forward from Giotto with its linear perspective and single point source of light.

The top is Masaccio's rendering of "The Tribute Money." He employs story telling by having the same character in the same clothes in different scenes in time by going from left to right. The scene on the bottom is by Fra Lippi, completed about 50 years after Masaccio passed away.

Second stop museum, the museum of the Duomo. At the entrance, a bust of Cosimo di Medici, of Cosimo the Great, the leader of the family that provided the support for the advancement of the Renaissance.

Another "Pieta" by Michelangelo. This one appears to have his face as the character being carried.

The highlight for me are the models of the Duomo by Brunelleschi himself.

This original choir is by Andrea Pisano.

I like the playful children.

The other one, also now in the museum, is by Donatello. Donatello is a big player in the next museum.....

The Bargello, which translates to "constable's office" or prison. This museum, I visited on Sunday morning at 830AM. I had it ALL TO MYSELF. A tip for all you museum goers.

The highlight is Donatello's "David". Donatello, a sculptor of the mid 1400's created his "David", the first male nude since classical times.

It's the allegory of civic virtue overcoming irrationality and brutality (hello ideas of the Renaissance) and came to be the way Florentines viewed themselves.

Also at the Bargello, are the two panels that are shown side by side that were the finalists to determine who would design the panels of the door of the Baptistry. Here is the one by Brunelleschi.

And the winner, Ghiberti. Ghiberti's is less "rigid" in the flow of the story of the sacrifice of Isaac.

Many of the statues are from a sculptor, Giambologna, that my Art History class didn't get to last year. But there is amazing sense of movement, here we have Firenze defeating Pisa.

The next three pictures are by Giambologna.

I love these "dying" heros, this reminiscent of the "Dying Gaul"

There is also great humor as well. A fun weekend, full of art!