Via Ghibellina 70 (corner with via Buonarroti)
☎ +39 055
241752, fax: +39 055 241698
fond@casabuonarroti.it
Full price €6.5, reduced price €4.5, combined
Casa Buonarroti is the house-museum in Florence where Michelangelo and his descendants lived, who embellished the main floor of the house. It is located in via Ghibellina 70, on the corner with via Buonarroti.
Michelangelo was born in Caprese in the province of Arezzo, when his
father Ludovico di Leonardo, albeit Florentine, had moved there to hold
a public office. It is not the only residence inhabited by Michelangelo
in the city, of which there were more than one, but this one was bought
by him in 1508. He had bought three small neighboring plots belonging to
the Bonsi nobles. In 1514 the property had been enlarged by another
neighboring fund of the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, purchased by the
sculptor. Although Michelangelo was already practically resident in the
main street in Rome, he was able to stay there: he was in fact present
at the purchase deed, returning from Bologna and lived there, together
with his nephew Leonardo, during the season of the works in San Lorenzo
( 1516-1534).
The ancient name of via Michelangelo Buonarroti was
"via dei Marmi Dirty", as reported on a plate at the beginning of the
street, with reference to the blackened blocks of marble that in ancient
times lay in the street, even for years, waiting for the artist to ,
always traveling between Rome and Florence, used them for one of his
works.
That Michelangelo resided here is evidenced by the
documents in which he rented the accessory houses and, in 1525, one of
the two main houses of the complex; moreover, in the declaration linked
to the institution of the grand ducal tenth, in 1534, Michelangelo
denounced, among other things, "a house located in via Ghibellina, [...
which] is for my living". From 1539 the main building was no longer
rented, indeed from the artist's correspondence we note the interest in
a better accommodation of his relatives, in particular of his nephew
Leonardo, son of his younger brother Buonarroto, towards whom the artist
he harbored every hope of continuation of the lineage. Taking an
interest in his marriage to a woman of the city's patriciate,
Michelangelo first suggested finding a more "honorable" home, then
agreed to let the money he made available to his nephew be used to
renovate the houses he already owned.
It was only in 1553 that
Leonardo found Cassandra di Donato Ridolfi as his wife, and a year later
she became pregnant, to the great joy of the artist, now elderly and
long-time resident in Rome. Again a son was born in 1554, but a third
son, i.e. the character who would renew the family luster, would be born
only four years after the artist's death, in 1568, significantly being
called Michelangelo "the Younger".
Upon Leonardo's death, in 1599, the properties on that stretch of via
Ghibellina (also called "via Santa Maria") had been further increased
and the transformation of the buildings into a single palace had to be
started: the artist's death had in fact led a very substantial
inheritance to the family. Leonardo's sons, Buonarroto the elder and
Michelangelo the younger, therefore divided up the possessions: the
first went to the "new" building, to the other the old family home which
had not been affected by the recent renovation, and which was soon
enlarged with the purchase of an additional adjacent fund. From 1612
Michelangelo the Younger began building the building as seen today, of
which a rare, precise and detailed archival documentation remains.
The Younger used a project that included two drawings by
Michelangelo himself and in the interior decoration he had his famous
great-uncle widely celebrated with a precise decorative program.
Michelangelo the Younger died childless in 1647, and all the family
inheritance passed to the youngest of the nephews Leonardo, son of
Buonarroto, and survived by his older brother Sigismondo. Leonardo, who
had absolute veneration both for the "old" Michelangelo and for the work
of his "young" uncle, upon his death in 1684 had drawn up a particularly
explicit will (1678) regarding the maintenance of the gallery,
monumental rooms and of the family's art and book collections,
establishing particularly coercive clauses, which concerned the loss of
primogeniture rights and other family income in the event of a change in
the use of the rooms, alienation, dispersion, rent and any other
non-improvement modification.
His son Michelangelo "the Third",
author of a precious description-inventory of all the family assets,
died childless in 1697. The three surviving brothers decided to assign
the care of the palace to Filippo alone: senator, auditor, academic of
the Crusca, president in perpetuity of the Etruscan Academy of Cortona,
he made the family home a renowned center of the city's culture,
enriched by its conspicuous archaeological collections. With the death
of his brothers, without descendants, he recomposed all the contiguous
properties into a single complex, which he transmitted to his only son
Leonardo, who in turn had four children, including the well-known
Filippo, who took part in the events of the French Revolution. When
Leonardo died in 1799, none of his children was in the city to take care
of the inheritance, and the house, in the delicate period of the French
occupation, was temporarily entrusted to the spedalinghi of Santa Maria
Nuova, who compiled a precious inventory .
In 1801 the
Buonarrotis regained possession of the building, in particular of the
branch of Filippo and then of his son Cosimo, who oversaw a renovation
between 1820 and 1823, when unfortunately the staircase and the loggia
on the first floor overlooking the courtyard were lost. From the reports
of the time we learn that the twenty years of expropriation and
abandonment of the house had been disastrous: with the exception of the
Gallery and the monumental rooms, the other rooms were in serious decay,
and that only with the restorations did dignity be restored to the
'house, which was once again inhabited by Cosimo and his wife, Rosina
Vendramin.
The arbitration of the Grand Duke Leopold II had silenced the claims
of the children of Cosimo's sisters, who had initially claimed some
parts of the family inheritance in the palace in via Ghibellina, later
renouncing them.
In 1950 the building underwent a partial and in
any case important restoration promoted by Giovanni Poggi and a city
committee, with the exception of the second floor, which had already
housed the Florentine Historical Topographical Museum and which was
later used as residential apartments private. The house reopened to the
public on 26 May 1951, it was not until 1964, coinciding with the fourth
centenary of the artist's death, to see the building affected by a more
radical intervention promoted by the Ministries of Education and Public
Works and directed by the architect Guido Morozzi, with internal
adaptation works for the museum and for the foundation which led
(despite the projects elaborated in the previous decades to enrich the
front considered too simple in relation to the richness of the
interiors) to enhance the essentiality of the prospectus . In the
interiors, now completely freed from tenants, among other things, on
this occasion, the sixteenth-century entrance hall was recovered (until
then divided by partitions and corridors) and, on the top floor, a
beautiful loggia already closed .
Unfortunately, during the flood
of November 4, 1966, the structure suffered extensive damage, making it
necessary to carry out further interventions promptly by October of the
following year to affect both the external elevations and the internal
land spaces.
The building, organized on three floors for an extension of eight
axes, was born from a series of unifications, which reached their
current form starting from 1612. The prospectus shows the windows framed
by stone modini, resting on appeals equally in stone. Over the door in
via Ghibellina is a bust of Michelangelo, by Clemente Papi and Lodovico
Caselli, from 1875, modeled on a famous portrait by Daniele da Volterra
now in the Bargello. On the corner is a shield with the coat of arms of
the Buonarroti (in blue, twin in gold band; with the sewn head of Anjou,
lowered under the head of Leo X).
Around 1612 an important
building site was opened in the interiors aimed at defining a cycle of
celebratory frescoes, completed twenty-five years later (1637) to
especially interest the Gallery and the three following rooms, with the
involvement of the major artists then active in Florence , including
Empoli, Giovanni Bilivert, Cristofano Allori, Domenico Passignano,
Artemisia Gentileschi, Pietro da Cortona, Giovanni da San Giovanni,
Francesco Furini and Jacopo Vignali. The cycle exalts Michelangelo
through the most significant episodes of his life (Gallery), then moves
on to celebrate other characters of the family (Night and Day room), and
to glorify the city of Florence through the representation of its saints
(Angioli room) and its illustrious men (library).
The external appearance of the building is quite simple, only the
portal stands out, surmounted by a bronze bust, a copy of the portrait
of Michelangelo done by Daniele da Volterra and kept in the Galleria
dell'Accademia in Florence.
The main reason of interest is the
fine collection of works by the illustrious sculptor gathered over the
centuries by his descendants, starting with his brother's children
(Michelangelo never had children). The first room exhibits the
little-known archaeological collection due to the antiquarian taste of
the Buonarrotis: there are about a hundred pieces including funerary
urns and Etruscan tombstones, Roman robed statues, fragments of
epigraphs, vases and small bronzes. Also a statue of Apollo citharedo,
some ancient heads and the remains of the arm of a Discobolus, on the
upper floor testify to the lively interest of the Buonarroti family for
classical art.
On the first floor there is a bust of Michelangelo
by his friend Daniele da Volterra; here are also present the two busts
of Cosimo Buonarroti and Rosina Vendramin, by Aristodemo Costoli. The
following rooms display the family's precious ceramics, Della Robbia
sculptures, a large statue of Venus and some paintings derived from
Michelangelo's drawings or frescoes. There is also exhibited a
nineteenth-century sculpture by a young Michelangelo sculpting the mask
of a satyr and a copy of the mask believed to have been sculpted by the
young artist.
From the internal courtyard one passes to the
stairs which lead to the following rooms on the first floor. Here begins
the noble apartment: in the first room, some objects that belonged to
Michelangelo or the Buonarroti family are displayed in a display case.
In the next room, two early works stand out for their importance, which
are interesting for better understanding the stylistic evolution of the
master: the refined bas-relief of the Madonna della Scala, the first
documented work, from 1490-92, inspired by Donatello, and above all the
Centauromachy or Battle of the centaurs , sculpted at just 16 years old.
The inspiration for this work comes from the bas-reliefs of Roman
sarcophagi, but the very strong dynamism is a typical novelty of
Michelangelo. Already in this early work the knowledge of anatomy is
remarkable and the predilection for moving figures stands out, which
release a great expressive force.
In a special room you can
admire a large wooden model of Michelangelo's project for the facade of
the basilica of San Lorenzo, which was never built.
We continue
in the seventeenth-century rooms, commissioned by the literary nephew
Michelangelo Buonarroti the younger, which exalt the life and works of
Michelangelo; particularly suggestive is the path through the Gallery
dominated by the marble statue of the artist, the work of Novelli. The
main episodes from Michelangelo's life are painted on the sides. In the
ceiling there are the funeral of Michelangelo and in the center the
apotheosis of the artist, crowned by the four Arts; around it are the
allegorical figures of the Arts and the original "Inclination" by
Artemisia Gentileschi. Followed by the Camera della Notte and del Di,
the Camera degli Angeli, with the Florentine saints and female saints
(which later became a chapel), the study of Michelangelo the Younger and
the Library, with the walls dedicated to illustrious Tuscans. Here too
there are works documenting the artistic taste of the Buonarrotis and
the influence of Michelangelo's style on later artists. Also on display
is a model of the harness that was used to move the David from Piazza
della Signoria to the Accademia Museum in 1872.
The following
rooms are dedicated to the wax and bronze models used by the artist
(including that of the abandoned Ercole project in Piazza della
Signoria, later created by Baccio Bandinelli) and the torso of a river
deity (metal casting). The crucifix of Santo Spirito, another early work
that was once exhibited in this room, has been relocated to the original
church. Drawings and architectural studies by Michelangelo, taken from
the museum's vast collection, are displayed in rotation in two display
cases.
The itinerary ends with the room dedicated to the
celebration of Michelangelo in the 19th century, with statues, models,
projects, books, albums and busts dedicated to the artist.
The museum preserves two original marble bas-reliefs, a collection of drawings and the richest collection in the world of preparatory sketches by Michelangelo (or his school). Instead the CD. Torso di Fiume has now been relocated to the Academy of Design Arts, which owns it. The sketches of the Two wrestlers and the female nude are suggestive.
Michelangelo
Madonna della Scala, circa 1491
Battle of the
Centaurs, c.1492
Male Torso I, circa 1513
Male Torso II, circa
1513
Female nude, circa 1513 or 1532
Sketch for a river god,
around 1524
River God, c.1524
Two wrestlers, circa 1525
Madonna
and Child, circa 1525
Sketch for a crucifix, around 1562
From
Michelangelo
Male Nude I, circa 1501-1503
Noli me tangere
(attributed to Bronzino or Pontorno and another copy attributed to
Battista Franco)
Artemisia Gentileschi
Allegory of the
Inclination
Archive
Michelangelo's shopping list