I MUSEI DI FIRENZE

Ciao ciao! We went on some amazing museum tours this week! On Tuesday, for my Modern Italian class we visited the Pitti Palace! It was stunning. The Pitti Palace, is on the south side of the Arno River, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker

OUTSIDE THE PITTI PALACE

The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the chief residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a great treasure house as later generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry and luxurious possessions.

In the late 18th century, the palazzo was used as a power base by Napoleon, and later served for a brief period as the principal royal palace of the newly united Italy. The palace and its contents were donated to the Italian people by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1919, and its doors were opened to the public as one of Florence's largest art galleries.

RIDER CAUGHT IN A STIRRUP
By: Fattori
1980

Modern Art Gallery of the Pitti Palace:

Today, this large collection includes works by artists of the Macchiaioli movement and other modern Italian schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The pictures by the Macchiaioli artists were my favorite because this school of 19th-century Tuscan painters led by Giovanni Fattori were early pioneers and the founders of the impressionist movement.

DAVID

Then on Wednesday we went to the Galleria Academia, which was at one time, the first academy of drawing in Europe. The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (initially named Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno – Arts of Drawing Academy and Company – as it was divided into two different operative branches) was founded in 1563 by Cosimo I de' Medici under the influence of Giorgio Vasari (whose house I visited last weekend in Arezzo!!)

CAROLINE & DAVID

The extraordinary contribution of academics including Michelangelo Buonarroti, Francesco da Sangallo, Agnolo Bronzino, Benvenuto Cellini, Giorgio Vasari, Bartolomeo Ammannati, Giambologna line the hals of this small museum.Originally, all the members of the Accademia were male; but when the Accademia welcomed Artemisia Gentileschi as a member, her works because some of the most popular on view.

ONE OF MICHELANGELO'S PRISONERS

I loved all of Michelangelo's "Prisoners." He believed that the image was already inside the block of marble and that it was an artists duty to release it. Tomorrow I'm going to Siena with my Renaissance Art class! Ciao!