Churches: The Cathedral Museum Revisited

Each time we revisit a museum, church or other site in Florence, we see or learn something new. 

We recently revisited the museum of Florence's cathedral with friends from the U.S.  We saw that the collection has been expanded since our last visit.  In fact, we were so pleased with the additions that we decided to touch them.  See below.

Not to worry.  Alarms did not ring and guards did not pounce.  The recent additions to the collection are "touchable art", replicas of the originals.  Touchable art was added for visitors with impaired vision, enabling them to experience the museum's collection.  Touchable art also allows visitors to get up close and personal with Gothic and Renaissance masterpieces.  (In our travels in Italy, we have seen other examples of touchable art, plus braille descriptions.  Smart.) 

The museum is home to Ghiberti's magnificent Gates of Paradise.  The doors feature 3-dimensional scenes from the bible.  Each bronze panel appears to have great depth.  (Ghiberti is credited with inspiring the widespread use of perspective in Italian Renaissance art.)  The museum recently added a full-sized, touchable replica of one of the panels, The Annunciation, pictured below.

Perhaps the greatest work in the cathedral's museum is Michelangelo's unfinished work known as the Bandini Pietà, pictured below.  The sculpture features an elderly Michelangelo as the hooded Nicodemus.  The statue is well protected.  Getting close to it, let alone touching it, is not allowed. 

Thankfully, the museum a touchable replica of part of the Bandini Pietà.  

Susan gets up close and personal with Michelangelo

Thanks for revisiting the cathedral's museum with us.  We were touched by the experience. 

P.S.  The museum features a thick glass floor over a 15th century hole in the ground.  The hole was actually an experiment by architect Filippo Brunelleschi.  He built a small model of the cathedral's dome to test his herring-bone design for the dome's brick structure.  Who knew?

Fortunately for this random dude, the glass floor is very strong.