Casa Buonarroti in Florence
The house-museum celebrating the genius of Michelangelo
Casa Buonarroti in Florence is the house-museum dedicated to Michelangelo and the celebration of his art.
The museum's two floors, in the seventeenth-century palace on Via Ghibellina, contain the works of art put together by the Buonarroti family: paintings, sculptures, majolica pottery and artifacts. Along with these, there is the valuable Collection of Michelangelo's autograph drawings, consisting of two hundred and five papers, the largest collection of Michelangelo's papers in the world, displayed in rotation in a specially equipped room.
Among the works for you to admire, there are two famous marble reliefs, masterpieces created by Michelangelo in his early years, the Madonna of the Stairs, evidence of Michelangelo's fervent study of Donatello, and the Battle of the Centaurs, which shows his love of classical art; there is also the Wooden Model for the façade of San Lorenzo and the River God, a large preparatory model for a statue that was never made for the New Sacristy.
The idea of creating a lavish building to celebrate the family, especially the famous ancestor, was the work of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, who, from 1612 and for about thirty years, had the leading artists of the time working inside the palace, from Artemisia Gentileschi to Pietro da Cortona, Giovanni da San Giovanni, Francesco Furini and the young Jacopo Vignali. He also placed the most valuable pieces of his collection, like Michelangelo's drawing of the Madonna and Child, in the palace's sumptuous rooms. Michelangelo the Younger is also credited with elaborating the complex decoration of the Gallery, the Room of Night and Day, the Room of the Angels and the Study.
Upon his death in 1858, Cosimo Buonarroti, the last direct heir of the family, bequeathed the largest part of Michelangelo's papers, including the drawings, for public enjoyment, along with the palace on Via Ghibellina and the objects contained inside it.
The Casa Buonarroti collections also include an archaeological collection, which is less known but of great value and is partly kept in storage in the Archaeological Museum.
The museum periodically hosts exhibitions on themes concerning the cultural and artistic heritage and the memories of Casa Buonarroti, Michelangelo and his time
Accessibility information: feelflorence.co.uk
