What's Your Favorite Place in Florence?
2nd level, Room 1, Museum Opera del Duomo, Florence. Cantorie by Luca della Robbia and Donatello, for Santa Maria del Fiore, The Duomo.
Why Do You Like This Place?
Children singing in a choir and dancing in a transcendental form of Ring-around-the Rosie, playing lutes and horns, drums; Mothers singing and playing instruments, children napping at their feet, or grabbing for their hems. The faces of these children, from babies in repose to adolescent boys with fierce concentration on their faces are said to be taken from classical forms but could be viewed in any McDonalds or middle school choir today. No greater testament to the artist's gift are these people who celebrate with joy, and boredom, and love of the art of music. Sitting quietly on the burnished wooden pew in front of the reconstructed cantorie, with the originals directly in front of your gaze, their song begins to surround the room.
On the stairs leading up to the second level is the extraordinary Pieta of Michaelangelo, his late work, meant for his own tomb. He was unsatisfied with the stone and the wonderful story is that he tried to destroy it with his own hand. The part that was repaired and finished by another artist, unknown except for his lack of genius when compared side-by-side with Michaelangelo, is only one aspect of what makes this work heartbreaking. If you visit Vatican City in the morning to see his early, muscular Pieta, perfection itself, and then, in the afternoon this last work, a view of eternity itself, it will be a day well spent.
More than a decade ago, this tiny museum was refurbished. Prior to renovation it was like discovering masterpieces in your great Aunt Mary's attic, it was so dilapidated and dusty. Perhaps not quite as dramatic as Kenneth Clarke coming upon Piero della Francesco's Madonna del Parte in a cemetery church in the countryside, but a pilgrimage all the same.
Now this museum is worthy of the imprimatur of Opera del Duomo, but humble and exquisite all the same. A respite to savor after the awful beauty of the Duomo, directly outside. Sit in the room surrounded by Luca della Robbia's genius, looked down upon by the face of Michaelangelo as he faced death, rendered in as the face of Nicodemus, and it is worth it all. Art, in this place, of these artists, can be transformational. And that's the reason I travel.
Advice
- It's rarely crowded, but if you want to delight in these works alone, go one hour before closing. Ask nicely if they are closing, and the gentle guards will honor your love of the art of their extraordinary city, because they loved it before you.
