Museo dell’Opera

If you go into the Duomo (the main cathedral in the center of Florence) you really won’t find much. For one reason or another (I have heard both that it is due to the fear of pollution as well as being a distraction during mass) almost every original artwork from the inside of the cathedral, and some of the work on the outside, have been moved into the museum behind - the Museo dell’Opera dell Duomo. I went there today with one of my roommates, Moira, as well as to the Baptistery, and it was great to see all of these famous artworks again!

This museum holds one of the three Pietas by Michelangelo. Sculpting this during his 80s, Michelangelo intended this to be the top of his tomb. I think this Pieta is interesting for a few different reasons. One reason being that the face of the top figure (Nicodemus – who isn’t usually depicted in the Pieta) is supposedly a self-portrait of Michelangelo, which is a pretty rare occurrence. Another reason I find it interesting is because it shows the mass amount of talent this man possessed (since he was sculpting this in his 80s) and shows his personality. Michelangelo was a pretty short-tempered man and at one point during the creation of this statue he became frustrated or enraged and took a hammer to it. You can see lines on the arm and leg of Christ where the statue had to be pieced back together. The last interesting fact pertains to Mary Magdalene, who is on the left of the statue. You can see that she is not only slightly detached from the rest of the piece, but that she is smaller than the other figures and more “polished off”. This shows that she was not actually sculpted by Michelangelo, but most likely by one of his students.

This next statue is also one of my favorite pieces from the Duomo. It is the morbidly fascinating sculpture of The Magdalene by Donatello. I remember when I was studying abroad here my art history teacher took us to the Museo dell’Opera. When she was leading us into this room she said “this next statue is going to be the most beautiful statue you have ever seen.” Now….. when you are in a city full of amazingly beautiful artworks, it’s a little hard to imagine something that is ‘more beautiful than anything you’ve seen’, but I was intrigued. So, having that image in my head and walking into a room and seeing….. this…. I was a little taken aback! Our reactions were exactly what she had expected. When you walk up to this statue, you get a pretty creepy feeling. Standing to the right and looking at it, it feels almost as if she is going to reach out and grab you. But the more you examine the statue, the more you do realize the beauty and intensity of it. In almost every depiction of Mary Magdalene you see a beautiful, young woman. Here, you see a woman with matted hair, veins and tendons that are protruding from her leathery skin, and hollow, tired eyes that exemplifies her pain and suffering. The intensity of this statue is incredible….. even looking at her feet, you can see how she grips onto the rock with her toes and the strain it puts on her food and her leg…. It is amazing how a person can make such an inanimate object look and feel so lifelike.

After looking at many other artworks and plans/tools for the dome, we went over to the Baptistery. The Baptistery of San Giovanni is the oldest building in the square. There are three sets of famous doors in this building: the South Door by Andrea Pisano (scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist), the North Door by Lorenzo Ghiberti (scenes from the New Testament), and the East Door, better known as “The Golden Gates of Paradise” by Lorenzo Ghiberti (scenes from the Old Testament). Inside the Baptistery is the 13th-century mosaics of the dome. The section above the altar is a depiction of the Last Judgment. The rest of the dome is created by rings of stories. The first ring consists of the Choir of Angels. The second is made of stories from the Book of Genesis. The third ring has stories from the life of Joseph, fourth is stories from the lives of Mary and Christ. The fifth is made from stories of the life of St. John the Baptist, and the final ring is made of ornamental mosaics