A flock of Donatellos

Florence's Bargello Sculpture Gallery

What the Uffizi is to painting, the Bargello is to Renaissance sculpture. You could spend 45 minutes or two hours here, depending how much you're into the early works of Michelangelo (a wonderfully tipsy Bacchus, the Madonna of the Stairs, and a Bust of Brutus that may be a semi self-portrait), of mannerist Giambologna (his Flying Mercury and many whimsical animal bronzes intended to decorate Medici gardens), and especially of Donatello, the first truly great sculptor of the Renaissance (one of his students would later teach Michelangelo how to sculpt).

A huge room on the second floor is filled with some of Donatello's masterpieces, including a mischievous bronze Cupid and a noble marble St. George, plus two versions of a David—the first an early work in marble, the second a remarkable bronze that depicts the Biblical hero as a prepubescent young boy (it was the first free-standing nude cast since antiquity).

Via del Proconsolo 4
tel. +39-055-238-8606, www.polomuseale.firenze.it
Closed the 2nd and 4th Monday and the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sunday of the month