Florence III~ The Bargello

My quest to put myself in glorious old buildings continues with my visit to the Bargello, also known as the Museo Nationale.  It looks like a miniature version of the Palazzo Vecchio as it was built during the same time and has a small tower.  It has had many lives, from palace to police station to prison to museum.  So we are fortunate indeed that this glorious building, with the typical internal courtyard, is now a fabulous and rather underappreciated (from the looks of it... no hoards of tourists here) sculpture museum.

Sculpture played a specific role during the Renaissance.  Not only were these artists the ones to bring back the essence of the nude, the glory of the human form, the pulse to the marble, but they used their work in allegorical ways as well.  This sculpture is a great example of that.  It shows Florence defeating Pisa.  These two cities competed with each other throughout the late middle ages and into the Renaissance, but Florence always had the upper hand.

Florence also aligned itself with a unique biblical association.  David, the small and unassuming upstart who took on the giant, Goliath, and WON was the unofficial 'mascot' of Florence.  And here you see Donatello's masterful bronze of David, the first free-standing nude in over a thousand years:

David is in good company because there is a whole room of Donatello's work here.  His John the Baptist:

I really enjoyed strolling around this museum.  Just me.  Not the hoards.  Ahhhh..... beauty!