The Reopening of the Bargello Museum and Brancacci Chapel

 

Residents and guests alike can choose from several museums to tour that are reopening this week—including the Bargello National Sculpture Museum and the Brancacci Chapel.

After a five-month closure that began with the Coronavirus lockdown, the treasures of the Bargello National Sculpture museum will once again become available to the public starting Tuesday, August 4 daily from 8:45 am to 1:30 pm (closed Tuesday except for August 4 as well as the third and fifth Sunday of the month).  Visitors (a maximum of 150 each hour who will enter after a thermal scanner measures the temperature of each) can once again admire Renaissance masterworks.  Donatello is represented at the Bargello by St. George and the Dragon and the Marzocco (the lion symbol of Florence) in addition to his original take on David, which predates the one in the Academy Gallery.  Michelangelo, on his part, has four sculptures, including the celebrated Pitti Tondo. Brunelleschi’s and Ghiberti’s panels in competition to be awarded the commission for the Florence Baptistery doors are also on display, along with decorative arts down the ages, ranging from ceramics to textiles.

Together with the Salvatore Romano Antiquities Foundation, the Brancacci Chapel is also finally reopening on August 7 to welcome visitors on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday only.  Hours on Friday, Sunday and Monday are 10 am – 5 pm, on Sunday 1 – 5 pm.  Sunday and Monday there will be a single ticket granting entrance that day to both the Brancacci Chapel and the Romano Foundation.

During the 1420s, Felice Brancacci wanted to decorate his family chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. The theme of the fresco cycle is the life of St. Peter, in addition to scenes from the story of Adam and Eve: The Temptation and the Expulsion from Paradise.  Brancacci could not have known how important his decision would be to art history and humanism. (rosanna cirigliano)