Bargello

The Bargello palace was built in 1255 to house first the Capitano del Populo and later, in 1261, the Podestà, the highest magistrate of the Florence City Council, Italy. This Palazzo del Podestà, as it was originally called, is the oldest public building in Florence. This austere crenellated building served as model for the construction of the Palazzo Vecchio. Afterwards in 1574, the Medici dispensed with the function of the Podestà and housed the bargello, the police chief of Florence, in this building, hence its name. It was employed as a prison; executions took place in the Bargello's yard until they were abolished by Grand Duke Peter Leopold in 1786. It remained the headquarters of the Florentine police till 1865.

Since 1865 it has become the national museum (Museo Nazionale del Bargello), displaying the largest Italian collection of gothic and renaissance sculptures (14th - 17th century).

The museum holds masterpieces by Michelangelo, such as his Bacchus, Pitti Tondo (or Madonna and Child), Brutus and David-Apollo.

Its collection includes Donatello's David and St. George Tabernacle, Vincenzo Gemito's Pescatore ("fisherboy"), Jacopo Sansovino's Bacchus, Giambologna's La Archetectura and his Mercurius and many works from the Della Robbia family. Benvenuto Cellini is represented with his bronze bust of Cosimo I

The museum also has a fine collection of ceramics, textile, tapestries, ivory, silver, armours and old coins.

It also features the competing designs on Isaac's Sacrifice that were performed by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi to win the contest for the second set of doors of the Florentine Baptistry (1401).

Honolulu Hale's interior courtyard, staircase, and open ceiling were modeled after the Bargello.

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bargello".