Casa Buonarroti is a museum in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The building was a property owned by the sculptor

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was ins ...

, which he left to his nephew, Leonardo Buonarroti. The house was converted into a museum dedicated to the artist by his great nephew,

Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger Michelangelo Buonarroti il Giovane (baptized 4 November 1568 – 11 January 1646) was a Florentine poet, librettist and man of letters, known as "the Younger" to distinguish him from his granduncle. Education From 1588 to 1591 he studied mat ...

. Its collections include two of Michelangelo's earliest sculptures, the ''

Madonna of the Stairs The ''Madonna of the Stairs'' (or ''Madonna of the Steps'') is a relief sculpture by Michelangelo in the Casa Buonarroti, Florence. It was sculpted around 1490, when Michelangelo was about fifteen. This and the ''Battle of the Centaurs'' were Mic ...

'' and the ''

Battle of the Centaurs A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...

''. A ten-thousand book library includes the family's archive and some of Michelangelo's letters and drawings. The Galleria is decorated with paintings commissioned by Buonarroti the Younger and created by

Artemisia Gentileschi Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (, ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing profess ...

and other early seventeenth-century Italian artists.

History

On March 3, 1508, Michelangelo, who had moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

three years earlier to work on the Tomb of Pope Julius II, bought four adjoining buildings at the corner of via Ghibellina and via Santa Maria (now via Buonarroti), just north of the

Basilica di Santa Croce The (Italian for 'Basilica of the Holy Cross') is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 meters south-east of the Duomo. The ...

. He acquired another adjacent structure in April 1514. These five buildings were the nucleus of what would later become the Casa Buonarroti. From 1516 to 1525 Michelangelo occupied the two most spacious buildings, renting out the other three; in that period he was working on the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. In 1525 he moved to another residence, and all five buildings were rented out. After moving to Rome in 1534, Michelangelo became increasingly obsessed with the idea of having a "honorable home" in Florence, a palace that would represent his own family with dignity. He repeatedly asked his nephew Leonardo (1519-1599) to transform the five buildings at the corner of via Ghibellina and via Santa Maria into a family palace; however Leonardo always showed little interest in the project, committing only to a partial restoration of the complex which was carried out in 1590, 26 years after Michelangelo's death. The palace was given its present look by one of Leonardo's sons,

(1568–1647), who further expanded the complex by purchasing an adjacent lot. He had the various buildings rearranged into a unified structure; on the ''

piano nobile The ''piano nobile'' ( Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ''bel étage'') is the principal floor of a palazzo. This floor contains the main reception and bedrooms of the ho ...

'', he arranged four monumental rooms dedicated to the celebration of his great-uncle and of his family, as well as a Gallery for displaying the works of art in his collection, including Michelangelo's

and

. Michelangelo the Younger commissioned a number of contemporary Italian artists to decorate the interior rooms, including

Cecco Bravo Cecco Bravo (15 November 1601 – 1661) was an Italian painter of the Florentine Baroque school. His true name is Francesco Montelatici. Biography He trained with Giovanni Biliverti and was also close to Sigismondo Coccapani. In the early 16 ...

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

Jacopo da Empoli 250px, ''Martyrdom of St. Sebastian'', San Lorenzo, Florence Jacopo da Empoli (30 April 1551 – 30 September 1640) was an Italian Florentine Reformist painter. Born in Florence as Jacopo Chimenti (Empoli being the birthplace of his father) ...

, Francesco Furini,

Giovanni da San Giovanni Giovanni da San Giovanni (20 March 1592 – 9 December 1636), also known as Giovanni Mannozzi, was an Italian painter of the early Baroque period, active in Florence. Biography Born in San Giovanni Valdarno, he trained under Matteo Rosselli. H ...

, Domenico Passignano, Ottavio Vannini and Jacopo Vignali.

Main works in the collections

;

*''

'', c. 1491 *''

'', c. 1492 ;

*''

Allegory of Inclination ''Allegory of Inclination'' is a 1615-1617 oil on canvas painting by Artemisia Gentileschi on the ceiling of the Galleria in the Casa Buonarroti, in Florence. The painting depicts a young nude female seated in the heavens holding a compass. Her li ...

'', 1615-1616

Gallery

File:Buonarotti-scala.jpg, ''Madonna of the Stairs'' File:Michelangelo, centauromachia, 1492 ca. 01.JPG, ''Battle of the Centaurs'' File:A Gentileschi Allegoria dell'inclinazione.jpg, ''Allegory of Inclination''

References

External links

Casa Buonarroti
{{Authority control Michelangelo Art museums and galleries in Florence Buonarroti Sculpture galleries in Italy Buonarroti

History

Main works in the collections

Gallery

See also

References

External links