Description
The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo is the treasure house of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Baptistery and Giotto's Bell Tower, on the northeast side of Piazza del Duomo, in Florence. Almost everything you see outside is a copy: the originals are here.
There are 28 rooms, on three floors, with over seven hundred works. The route follows the history of the monuments, from the late 1200s to the late 1800s, and has an important core of Gothic and Renaissance sculpture.
The heart is the great Hall of Paradise. Here are the three bronze doors of the Baptistery, including Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, and opposite, the life-size reconstruction of the Duomo's medieval facade, with Arnolfo di Cambio's original statues.
Michelangelo's Pietà, called the Bandini Pietà, is wounded and unfinished. He carved it for his own tomb, then, old and depressed, found a vein in the marble that broke one of Christ's legs, and took a hammer to the statue.
The museum has one of the largest collections of Donatello in the world. Standing out are the Penitent Magdalene, a moving figure in polychrome wood, and the prophet Habakkuk, known as the "Zuccone."
Then there is the wooden model of the dome, with the tools from Brunelleschi's building site. The place has a history of its own: from 1296 it was the seat of the Opera del Duomo, the institution that built the cathedral. In the 1400s Brunelleschi kept the timber for the dome here, and around 1500 in a courtyard Michelangelo carved the David.
Before the big rooms, a Sculpture Gallery gathers fragments by Tino di Camaino, Donatello and Nanni di Banco, and in the eighth room the Magdalene stands facing a fourteenth-century wooden crucifix. The route is also educational, with videos and interactive screens.
A nearby room holds the fragments of Arnolfo's facade, demolished in 1587, in inlaid and mosaic marbles. At the entrance you are welcomed by the statue group of the Glory of Saint John the Baptist, by Girolamo Ticciati, from 1732, which decorated the Baptistery's altar.
The museum opened in 1891. Between 2012 and 2015 it expanded into the spaces of the old Teatro degli Intrepidi, from 1779.
Don't miss
• The Gates of Paradise.
• Michelangelo's Pietà.
• Donatello's Penitent Magdalene.
• The wooden model of the dome.
Did you know?
• In the face of Nicodemus, in the Pietà, Michelangelo is said to have portrayed himself.
• Donatello, Vasari tells us, often urged his bald prophet to speak.
• With the advance for the Zuccone, Donatello paid his overdue taxes.
There are 28 rooms, on three floors, with over seven hundred works. The route follows the history of the monuments, from the late 1200s to the late 1800s, and has an important core of Gothic and Renaissance sculpture.
The heart is the great Hall of Paradise. Here are the three bronze doors of the Baptistery, including Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, and opposite, the life-size reconstruction of the Duomo's medieval facade, with Arnolfo di Cambio's original statues.
Michelangelo's Pietà, called the Bandini Pietà, is wounded and unfinished. He carved it for his own tomb, then, old and depressed, found a vein in the marble that broke one of Christ's legs, and took a hammer to the statue.
The museum has one of the largest collections of Donatello in the world. Standing out are the Penitent Magdalene, a moving figure in polychrome wood, and the prophet Habakkuk, known as the "Zuccone."
Then there is the wooden model of the dome, with the tools from Brunelleschi's building site. The place has a history of its own: from 1296 it was the seat of the Opera del Duomo, the institution that built the cathedral. In the 1400s Brunelleschi kept the timber for the dome here, and around 1500 in a courtyard Michelangelo carved the David.
Before the big rooms, a Sculpture Gallery gathers fragments by Tino di Camaino, Donatello and Nanni di Banco, and in the eighth room the Magdalene stands facing a fourteenth-century wooden crucifix. The route is also educational, with videos and interactive screens.
A nearby room holds the fragments of Arnolfo's facade, demolished in 1587, in inlaid and mosaic marbles. At the entrance you are welcomed by the statue group of the Glory of Saint John the Baptist, by Girolamo Ticciati, from 1732, which decorated the Baptistery's altar.
The museum opened in 1891. Between 2012 and 2015 it expanded into the spaces of the old Teatro degli Intrepidi, from 1779.
Don't miss
• The Gates of Paradise.
• Michelangelo's Pietà.
• Donatello's Penitent Magdalene.
• The wooden model of the dome.
Did you know?
• In the face of Nicodemus, in the Pietà, Michelangelo is said to have portrayed himself.
• Donatello, Vasari tells us, often urged his bald prophet to speak.
• With the advance for the Zuccone, Donatello paid his overdue taxes.