Art in Florence – Explore the Artistic Wonders of This Great City

Florence holds one of the densest concentrations of Renaissance art in Europe, and most of it never left the city that produced it. Seven of the twelve works below hang in the Uffizi; the rest are in the Accademia, the Bargello, a Dominican convent, a small chapel in Santa Felicita and the museum behind the cathedral. Several of the pieces visitors photograph in the open air are copies, with the originals indoors a few streets away. This guide gives the date, medium, dimensions and location of each work, says what to look for in it, and sets out where Florentine art fits in the wider story of the Renaissance.

Florentine Artwork: Famous Artworks in Florence

Florence produced painters and sculptors in unusual concentration. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519), Michelangelo (1475 – 1564) and Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510) all trained in workshops within a few streets of one another, and their work, from David (1501 – 1504) to The Birth of Venus (1485 – 1486), is still largely in the city. What holds Florentine art together across three centuries is a preference for drawing and modelled form over colour and loose handling, the quality that separates it from Venetian painting of the same years.

Much of it was paid for by the Medici family, who commissioned work directly and employed artists on retainer. The Uffizi, begun in 1560 to Giorgio Vasari’s design, was not built as a museum at all: it housed the Florentine magistracies, and the name simply means offices. The Medici filled its upper floor with their collection, and it opened to the public in 1769.

Florence (2008); Steve Hersey, CC BY-SA 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The city’s buildings carry as much of the story as its galleries. The dome of Florence Cathedral, raised between 1420 and 1436 to Filippo Brunelleschi‘s design (1377 – 1446), was built without a full timber centring beneath it. The Ponte Vecchio has carried goldsmiths’ shops since 1593, when Grand Duke Ferdinando I evicted the butchers and fishmongers who had worked there before.

Ten Dates That Shaped the Art of Florence

Original or Copy: What Stands on Site Today

Some of the works most associated with Florence are represented outdoors by copies, the originals having been moved indoors for conservation. If you want to see the object itself rather than a stand-in, the difference is worth knowing before you set out.

The Uffizi and the Accademia both work on timed entry, and booking ahead is the difference between walking in and queueing. The works still in churches, Pontormo’s altarpiece among them, are seen in the room they were painted for and are rarely crowded.

Recognizing Florentine Style: A Checklist

The twelve works below share a handful of habits that recur across two centuries of Florentine workshops. Look for these when you stand in front of a piece, and the family resemblance becomes easier to place.

• Perspective treated as a demonstration, not just a backdrop. Uccello lines up broken lances along converging orthogonals and foreshortens a fallen soldier in the Battle of San Romano; the same instinct built Masaccio’s Holy Trinity, usually described as the first painting on a single measured perspective scheme.
• Sculpture made to be walked around, not set in a niche. Donatello’s bronze David is the first unsupported free-standing nude bronze of the Renaissance, cast for viewing from every side; Michelangelo’s marble David works the same way at far larger scale.
• Portraits held in strict, coin-like profile. Piero della Francesca’s panels of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza copy the format used on ancient coins and medals, rather than the three-quarter view that became common later.
• Painted architecture that answers the real building around it. Fra Angelico’s Annunciation at San Marco sets Gabriel and Mary under a loggia whose columns echo Michelozzo’s actual convent architecture on the floor below.
• Religious works still standing in the space they were made for. Pontormo’s Deposition hangs in the Capponi Chapel it was painted for, and Fra Angelico’s frescoes remain in the San Marco cells the friars saw them in daily.

Twelve Florentine Artworks and Where to Find Them

The twelve entries below run in date order, from the 1330s to the end of the 16th century. Each opens with the catalogue data, so you can see at a glance what the work is made of, how large it is and which building holds it.

Campanile Reliefs (begun 1334) by Giotto and Andrea Pisano

Giotto was appointed master of works at Florence Cathedral in 1334 and designed the bell tower that still carries his name. He died in 1337 with little more than the base standing, and Andrea Pisano completed the first two storeys. The reliefs around that base are what visitors stop for: hexagonal panels that begin with the creation of Adam and run through the trades, from weaving and metalwork to navigation and astronomy. A church exterior given over to human labour rather than to a biblical narrative is unusual, and later panels were added by Nino Pisano and Luca della Robbia. For Giotto’s painting, which broke with Gothic convention and set the direction of the early Renaissance, go to the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels in Santa Croce.

Dome of the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence; Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

David (1440s) by Donatello

Donatello’s David is a bronze youth, naked except for a laurel-trimmed hat and a pair of boots, sword in hand and one foot resting on the severed head of Goliath. It is generally described as the first free-standing nude male figure made since antiquity and the first unsupported standing bronze of the Renaissance, cast to be walked around rather than set into a niche. No commission document survives, which is why the dating is still argued; the statue is first recorded in the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici in 1469. After the Medici were driven out in 1494 it was moved to the Palazzo della Signoria, and it entered the Bargello in the 19th century. Its place in Renaissance sculpture rests as much on that casting problem as on the subject.

David (1440s) by Donatello; Donatello, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Battle of San Romano (c. 1438) by Uccello

Uccello painted three panels on the battle of San Romano, fought in 1432 between Florence and Siena. They hung together in the Palazzo Medici in the 15th century and are now divided between three museums. The Uffizi holds the central scene, the unhorsing of Bernardino della Ciarda, and it is the only one of the three the artist signed; the others are in the National Gallery, London, and the Louvre, Paris. Uccello treated the battle as a demonstration of perspective. Broken lances lie on the ground along converging lines, a fallen soldier is drawn sharply foreshortened, and the horses are built like painted wooden models, closer to geometry than to anatomy.

Battle of San Romano, the panel now in the National Gallery, London; Paolo Uccello, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza (c. 1473 – 1475) by Piero della Francesca

Piero della Francesca painted the Duke and Duchess of Urbino in strict profile, the format used on ancient coins and medals. Federico da Montefeltro is shown from the left because he had lost his right eye and part of the bridge of his nose in a tournament. Battista Sforza died in 1472, so her panel is probably posthumous. The reverses, visible in the Uffizi display, show the couple carried on triumphal chariots accompanied by the Christian virtues, with Latin inscriptions praising their conduct. Behind both heads a river landscape recedes into pale haze. Piero’s other widely reproduced work, The Baptism of Christ, was painted for a priory in Sansepolcro and has been in the National Gallery, London, since 1861.

The Baptism of Christ (probably c. 1437 – 1445) by Piero della Francesca, National Gallery, London; Piero della Francesca, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Annunciation (c. 1440 – 1445) by Fra Angelico

Fra Angelico and his workshop frescoed the Dominican convent of San Marco, rebuilt with Medici money, in the 1440s. This Annunciation is painted on the upper corridor wall facing the top of the stairs, so a friar met it every time he came up. Gabriel and Mary are placed under a plain vaulted loggia whose Ionic columns echo Michelozzo’s architecture in the convent below, which makes the scene appear to happen in the friars’ own building. There is no gold ground and almost no ornament, and an inscription beneath the fresco warns whoever passes not to omit the Hail Mary. The cells along the same corridors each hold a small fresco by the same workshop.

Annunciation (c. 1440 – 1445) by Fra Angelico; Fra Angelico, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Annunciation (c. 1472 – 1476) by Leonardo da Vinci

This is Leonardo’s earliest surviving large painting, made while he was still working in Andrea del Verrocchio’s shop. The marble lectern in front of Mary is taken directly from Verrocchio’s tomb for Piero and Giovanni de’ Medici in San Lorenzo, which ties the picture to that workshop. It came to the Uffizi in 1867 from the convent of San Bartolomeo at Monte Oliveto outside the city, catalogued at the time as a Ghirlandaio; a preparatory drawing for the angel’s sleeve helped settle the attribution. Mary’s right arm looks too long when the panel is seen straight on, a distortion usually explained by its intended position, viewed from below and to the right. In the distance the landscape dissolves into blue haze, the atmospheric effect Leonardo spent the rest of his career refining.

Annunciation (c. 1472 – 1476) by Leonardo da Vinci; Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Birth of Venus (1485 – 1486) by Sandro Botticelli

Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus shows the goddess arriving on shore in a scallop shell, blown across the water by Zephyr and Chloris on the left while an attendant steps forward on the right with an embroidered cloak. It is painted in tempera on canvas rather than on panel, unusual for a picture of this size and date, and the figures are defined by drawn outline against a flat sea rather than modelled in depth. Vasari records it in the 16th century at the Medici villa at Castello. The picture is often read through the Neoplatonic ideas circulating in Medici circles, in which earthly beauty was a step towards divine beauty, though nothing survives from Botticelli himself to confirm that reading.

The Birth of Venus (1485 – 1486) by Sandro Botticelli; Sandro Botticelli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

David (1501 – 1504) by Michelangelo

Michelangelo carved David from a single block of Carrara marble that two earlier sculptors had begun and abandoned. The Opera del Duomo commissioned it in 1501 for a buttress high on the cathedral, but once it was finished a committee that included Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli chose a different site, and in 1504 the statue was installed outside the Palazzo Vecchio, where it was read as an image of the republic standing beside its seat of government. David is shown before the fight rather than after it: the sling is over his shoulder, the weight is on the right leg, and the head turns sharply towards the unseen giant. Among the works of Renaissance art in the city it is the one most closely tied to Florentine civic identity. It moved to the Accademia in 1873, and the marble in the square has been a copy since 1910.

David (1501 – 1504) by Michelangelo; Michelangelo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Madonna of the Goldfinch (c. 1505 – 1506) by Raphael

Raphael painted this panel as a wedding gift for his Florentine friend Lorenzo Nasi. Mary holds a book and looks down at the young John the Baptist, who offers a goldfinch to the Christ child; the bird is traditionally read as a sign of the Passion. The three figures are arranged in a pyramid, a device Raphael took from Leonardo during his years in Florence, and the landscape behind them is kept low and quiet so the group holds the eye. In 1548 Nasi’s house collapsed in a landslide and the panel broke into seventeen pieces. It was reassembled at once with visible seams, and a restoration completed in 2008 removed the old repairs and darkened varnish.

Madonna of the Goldfinch (c. 1505 – 1506) by Raphael; Raphael, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Deposition from the Cross (1525 – 1528) by Pontormo

Pontormo painted this altarpiece for the Capponi Chapel in Santa Felicita, where it still hangs: one of the few works on this list you can see in the room it was made for. Ten figures fill the panel with no cross, no ladder and almost no ground beneath them, so it is not clear whether Christ is being taken down or carried to the tomb, and the picture is known under both titles. The colour is the reason people come, pink, acid green, pale blue and orange laid on with almost no shadow to anchor them. Nothing here follows the balanced pyramids of Raphael’s generation, which is what makes it a defining work of Florentine Mannerism.

Deposition from the Cross (1525 – 1528) by Pontormo; Pontormo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Venus of Urbino (1534) by Titian

Titian’s Venus of Urbino shows a young woman lying on a couch in a Venetian bedroom, a small dog asleep at her feet and two servants at a chest in the background. The reclining pose was not new: Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus of about 1510, which Titian is thought to have finished, had already established it. What Titian changed is that his figure is awake and looks straight out at the viewer, and that the setting is a contemporary interior rather than an open landscape. Guidobaldo II della Rovere bought the painting in 1538, and it reached Florence in the 17th century with the della Rovere inheritance. Whether the sitter was meant as Venus at all is still argued; the title was attached long afterwards.

Venus of Urbino (1534) by Titian; Titian, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Medusa (c. 1597) by Caravaggio

Caravaggio painted Medusa on a convex poplar shield covered with canvas, so the object is a piece of ceremonial armour rather than a picture for a wall, and the curve makes the head seem to push forward out of it. Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte commissioned it as a gift for Ferdinando I de’ Medici, which is how it entered the Florentine collections. The moment shown is the instant after the blow, not the curse: the eyes are open, the mouth is wide, the snakes are still moving and blood runs from the neck. The face is traditionally identified as Caravaggio’s own. Two versions exist; the smaller earlier one, 48 by 55 centimetres, is in a private collection.

Medusa, the earlier and smaller of the two versions, by Caravaggio; Caravaggio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Beyond the Twelve: What Else Visitors Come For

Botticelli’s Primavera hangs in the same Uffizi room as The Birth of Venus, and Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo, the only finished panel painting generally accepted as his, is a few rooms away. Ghiberti worked on the gilded east doors of the Baptistery from 1425 to 1452. Masaccio’s Holy Trinity in Santa Maria Novella is usually described as the first painting built on a single measured perspective scheme, and his frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel at Santa Maria del Carmine were copied by younger artists, Michelangelo among them. Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Beheading Holofernes is in the Uffizi, Benvenuto Cellini’s bronze Perseus stands in the Loggia dei Lanzi, and Michelangelo’s Medici tombs are in the New Sacristy at San Lorenzo.

What sets Florence apart is not only the quality of the work but how little of it moved. Donatello’s bronze is a ten minute walk from Michelangelo’s marble, Pontormo’s altarpiece stands in the chapel it was painted for, and the Medici collections stayed in the city because the last Medici heir made that a legal condition in 1737.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Type of Art Is Florence Known For?

Florence is known above all for Renaissance painting and sculpture made between roughly 1300 and 1600. Its workshops developed linear perspective, the free-standing nude and portraiture drawn from the living model, and they worked for two kinds of client at once: churches and religious orders, and wealthy merchant families such as the Medici. Florentine painting is usually distinguished from Venetian painting of the same period by its emphasis on drawing and modelled form rather than on colour and loose brushwork. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519), Michelangelo (1475 – 1564) and Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510) all trained in the city.

Where Can I See Renaissance Art in Florence?

The Uffizi Gallery holds the largest collection, with work by artists including Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. The Accademia has Michelangelo’s David and his unfinished Slaves, while the Bargello concentrates on sculpture, Donatello above all. The Pitti Palace shows the Medici picture collection hung as a 17th-century gallery, with Titian and Raphael, and the Museo di San Marco keeps Fra Angelico’s frescoes in the friars’ cells. The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo holds the originals taken down from the cathedral, the campanile and the Baptistery. Churches worth the walk include Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, Santa Felicita and Santa Maria del Carmine.

Which Famous Florentine Artworks Are Not in Florence?

A good deal of Florentine art left the city. Two of the three Battle of San Romano panels are in London and Paris, and Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ is in the National Gallery, London. Leonardo worked in Milan, Rome and finally France, so most of his paintings are elsewhere; the Uffizi Annunciation and the unfinished Adoration of the Magi are the main Florentine survivors. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling and Raphael’s Vatican rooms were painted in Rome, by artists trained in Florence.

How Much Time Do You Need to See the Main Artworks?

Two full days is a realistic minimum. The Uffizi takes two to three hours at a brisk pace and longer if you stop, and the Accademia around an hour. Group the rest by district: the cathedral, the campanile and the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo sit together; the Bargello and the Palazzo Vecchio are minutes apart; San Marco is north of the centre; Santa Felicita and the Brancacci Chapel are across the river. Reserve timed entry for the Uffizi and the Accademia before you travel.

Nicolene Burger( Multi-Media Artist, Art Writer )

Nicolene Burger is a South African multi-media artist, working primarily in oil paint and performance art. She received her BA (Visual Arts) from Stellenbosch University in 2017. In 2018, Burger showed in Masan, South Korea as part of the Rhizome Artist Residency. She was selected to take part in the 2019 ICA Live Art Workshop, receiving training from art experts all around the world. In 2019 Burger opened her first solo exhibition of paintings titled, Painted Mantras, at GUS Gallery and facilitated a group collaboration project titled, Take Flight, selected to be part of Infecting the City Live Art Festival. At the moment, Nicolene is completing a practice-based master’s degree in Theatre and Performance at the University of Cape Town.

In 2020, Nicolene created a series of ZOOM performances with Lumkile Mzayiya called, Evoked?. These performances led her to create exclusive performances from her home in 2021 to accommodate the mid-pandemic audience. She also started focusing more on the sustainability of creative practices in the last 3 years and now offers creative coaching sessions to artists of all kinds. By sharing what she has learned from a 10-year practice, Burger hopes to relay more directly the sense of vulnerability with which she makes art and the core belief to her practice: Art is an immensely important and powerful bridge of communication that can offer understanding, healing and connection.

Nicolene writes our blog posts on art history with an emphasis on renowned artists and contemporary art. She also writes in the field of art industry. Her extensive artistic background and her studies in Fine and Studio Arts contribute to her expertise in the field.

Learn more about Nicolene Burger and the Art in Context Team.