Deep dives into Michelangelo and Donatello at some of the city’s main museums

The Three Pietàs by Michelangelo: No one thinks of how much blood it costs at the Opera del Duomo Museum
Michelangelo’s remarkable masterpieces are united in this stunning display in the Tribune Room at the Opera del Duomo Museum (piazza del Duomo 9). On show until August 1, the exhibition was launched on February 24 on the occasion of the Mediterranean Forum of Peace meeting that brought together the Bishops and Mayors of the Mediterranean. The religiously themed works depict the Virgin Mary mourning the dead body of Christ, with the three Pietàs varying vastly in style as Michelangelo’s artistic career and faith evolved.

The exhibition sees the Vatican (1498- 99), Bandini (from 1547) and Rondanini (1552-53) Pietàs positioned in three corners of the room, with viewers standing in the centre surrounded by Michelangelo’s poignant sculptures. The original Bandini Pietà is newly re-stored thanks to a contribution from Friends of Florence, with casts of the Vatican and Rondanini Pietàs expertly rendered to provide this unique occasion to view the three pieces in one space.

“The casts don’t look out of place next to the Florentine original”,

explains Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums,

“not only because they were carried out to perfection a few decades ago by masterful artisans, but above all because, in a time of much debate around NFT (Non-Fungible To-ken) and DOC.NFT (Digital Original Copy NFT) reproductions, they bear witness to the need for reproducing universal masterpieces of faith and art so they can be spread to a wider audience.”

The title of the exhibition takes a quote from Dante’s Paradise XXIX, Non vi si pensa quanto sangue costa for the show that represents a rare opportunity to compare and contrast the pieces. The exhibition was curated by the museum directors Barbara Jatta (Vatican Museums), Sergio Risaliti (Museo Novecento), Claudio Salsi (Superintendent of the Castle Area, Archaeological Museum and Historical Museums) and Timothy Verdon (Opera del Duomo Museum), with the project involving the Vatican Museums, Opera del Duomo Museum, Museo Novecento in Florence, Castello Sforzesco in Milan, Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the Municipality of Florence, Municipality of Milan and Fabbrica di San Pietro in a large-scale collaboration between Florence, Rome and Milan. Three plaster casts of the original Pietà will be on display in the newly designed Sala delle Cariatidi of Palazzo Reale in Milan next autumn.

Donatello, The Renaissance at Palazzo Strozzi and the Bargello National Museum
The latest Strozzi exhibition always creates a stir in the city as art enthusiasts flock to see what’s new at the centrally-based gallery. This newest show sees a deep dive into Donatello, as the multi-sited exhibition curated by Franceso Cagliotti takes place in Palazzo Strozzi (piazza degli Strozzi) and the Bargello National Museum (via del Proconsolo 4). Launching on March 19, over 130 works will be on display until July 31 as the astounding career of Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (1386-1466), better known as Donatello, is explored in this breathtaking exhibition that jux-taposes his masterpieces with those by other Italian Renaissance masters such as Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Giovanni Bellini, Raphael and Michelangelo.

This marks a historic occasion to admire and engage with the influential master’s career, in a spectacular celebration of his outstanding life’s work that’s designed as a dialogue with the city’s noted institutions and galleries, underlining the wide-ranging and incredible artistic history of Florence. The involvement of national and international bodies spreads the discussion even further, testifying this universality and ongoing influence. Alongside the exhibition, there will be a series of events at the two locations and beyond as Donatello’s traces in Tuscany are also to be discovered. 50 additional works by Donatello are scattered throughout the region, visitable as part of the Donatello in Tuscany project that starts from Palazzo Strozzi, weaves through the Bargello Museum, Orsan-michele, the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the Basilica of Santa Croce, Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, Palazzo Vecchio Museum, Stefano Bardini Museum, Santa Trìnita Museum, and continuing in Arezzo, Pisa, Prato and Siena with a map linking the 16 different places. The exhibition is promoted and organized by the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Musei del Bargello in collaboration with the Staatliche Museen in Berlin and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The Bronze Effigy of Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra at the Accademia Gallery
The Accademia Gallery (via Ricasoli 58/60) hosts nine bronze busts of Michelangelo attributed to Daniele Ricciarelli, better known as Daniele da Volterra (1509-66), in a scientific study that’s on display until June 19. The artist was a pupil and close friend of Michelangelo, whose friendship with the maestro was such that he was present when Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564, at his Roman home in Macel de’ Corvi.

A short time after his death, Michelangelo’s nephew, Leonardo Buonarroti, commissioned two bronze portraits of his uncle, followed by a third commission by his friend, Diomede Leoni. However, da Volterra died in 1566 without having completed their requests, although an inventory dating to the day after his death reports that three busts of Michelangelo were found in Macel de’ Corvi. Issues of chronology and casting of the bronze effigies have remained points to be clarified in art history studies. Over the centuries, several attempts have been made to identity the origins of the works, but no conclusive answer has ever been established. The exhibition, therefore, presents an opportunity to conduct extensive studies of the pieces through rigorous works by scholars and scientists.

The Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation digitized and 3D printed the busts in resin on a scale of 1:1, with key points and correspondences compared over the course of the research project.

“The idea for this exhibition stems from the need to make a scientific contribution to the complex relationship between originals and derivations,”

says Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Accademia Gallery and curator of the show.

“We therefore take this opportunity to offer for the first time a direct comparison of the nine busts bearing Michelangelo’s features...Almost five centuries later, it’s time to find some answers”.

Together with the three works already kept in Florence at the Accademia Gallery, the Bargello National Museum and Casa Buonarroti, the show also features important loans from various international and Italian museums, including the Louvre in Paris, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Capitoline Museum in Rome.