Day Three

You saw the most famous David yesterday, but there are more Davids to behold in Florence. To see them, head to the National Museum (Museo Nazionale del Bargello). The building originally operated as the Medici police headquarters during the Renaissance. It became a museum in 1865 and now displays some of the most important Renaissance sculptures. Donatello’s bronze David, is notable for being the first unsupported standing bronze work since the classical times. It is considered the first major work of Renaissance sculpture. The museum also displays a second David by Michelangelo, sculpted some 30 years after his famous one in the Galleria dell’Accademia.

 

More of Donatello’s work can be viewed at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, located on the Piazza del Duomo, along with Michelangelo’s unfinished Pieta, carved between 1548 and 1555.