Hi! This next video in the Florence Art Tour will take you through the Duomo complex -- so thinking
about the different structures that you can visit in different sites that are part of the Duomo
complex tour. So you can go to the duomo itself (the cathedral) and there's different options there.
You can go up to the cupola (the dome) on top of the duomo. You need a timed ticket for that. You
can go to the baptistry. You can visit the archaeological site under the duomo, which
was related to the earlier church Santa Reparata. You can visit the campanile (the bell tower), and you can
also visit the museum associated with the duomo. So we'll go through those different options and give
you some different tips and also some historical information. So jumping into the duomo complex,
you're going to have a couple of choices in terms of what you want to visit at the duomo complex.
So there's many, many different entrances and many different sites to see. In terms of visiting for
free, really the main option you have is just visiting the duomo itself. And duomo, again, just
means "cathedral" -- not dome. So it's important to keep that in mind because many people hear the word
"duomo" and they think that it's just talking about the dome of the structure itself. The word for dome
is "cupola". So it's just important to keep that in mind. So if you want to visit the site for free,
just plan on going to the facade of the church, so that would be the western entrance of the church,
facing the baptistry. And you'll generally see a line there whenever the church is open -- whenever
the duomo is open and so you would just line up there and wait your turn to go into the structure.
You can go in, and you'll be overwhelmed by the grand scale of the duomo itself.
Many people say oh there's not much to see there, but I just think seeing the size of
the structure is really incredible. You can also see that transition from the late gothic style
into that renaissance style where they start to whitewash all the walls. It's important to
keep in mind that the church originally was a church dedicated to Santa Reparata
and then -- and this was an early christian martyr who was an important saint in the city of Florence,
but later on the church was rededicated to Santa Maria del Fiore so in honor of Saint Mary, the
Virgin Mary. And it's important to keep in mind that Siena was also dedicating their church to the
Virgin Mary and that Siena was also rebuilding and enlarging their cathedral. So in 1294, the
Florentines make the decision that they need to create a larger cathedral complex. The work is
begun by Arnolfo di Cambio, who also was involved in the design for the Palazzo Vecchio -- the redesign
of the structure as more of a -- as a governmental structure, and he was also involved with the
design for Santa Croce. Arnolfo died, however, in 1302 and the work really didn't progress
until the artist Giotto, the artist and architect Giotto, began to direct the project and then later
the sculptor and and architect Andrea Pisano. The Black Death of course would hit Florence and Siena
in 1348 and this would cause devastating effects in terms of how these structures were progressing.
There's an individual named Francesco Talenti who would come in later and who begins
an even more ambitious expansion of the church -- the old Santa Reparata is completely torn down --
rather than kind of building around it any longer. And the nave is completed by the late 14th century.
The dome, however, is incomplete and this, of course, is very embarrassing for the Florentines. And so
there is a competition, and Brunelleschi is named the winner. So this dome is often referred to as
"Brunelleschi's Dome. The dome was built between 1420 and 1436, and this is often discussed as so
incredible -- that something of this grand scale could have been produced in 16 years
because 16 years is pretty fast when we think about how long some buildings take now to build,
and also how long some cathedrals in the late medieval period took to build which was often
many generations. Brunelleschi was in competition with Ghiberti on the commission or the kind of
leading of the building of the dome and kind of finishing up the cathedral. And it's important to
note that Brunelleschi and Ghiberti also competed on a Baptistry doors -- a set of baptistry doors.
The commission ultimately went to Ghiberti, but there are different versions of this
story and so there's this very famous -- these competition panels that were submitted by each
Brunelleschi and Ghiberti -- each one submitted a panel representing "The Sacrifice of Isaac," so
seeing Isaac about to be sacrificed by his father Abraham and it's important to note
that although these panels really kicked off the renaissance and kind of the time after the the
Black Death and the many decades that followed where art production was a bit slower.
These panels are at the Bargello, so you're not going to find them in the Duomo complex.
However, you will see copies of those bronze doors, the doors that Ghiberti was ultimately
commissioned to do. Those are on the south side of the of the baptistry -- if I recall correctly --
and then but [Brunelleschi and] Ghibert's panels -- the actual competition panels -- are are in the Bargello,
so it's important to keep that in mind. And then the finished [original] doors are in the museum --
the actual doors. And the copies are outside. Brunelleschi is also buried in the crypt of
the duomo. So that's something to look out for. The dome interior or the cupola interior
interior is frescoed, so be sure to walk all the way down to the end of the nave and have a look up
at the dome, so that you can see these incredible "Last Judgment" frescoes by Vasari and Zuccari.
We also have a fresco of Dante before the city of Florence this is an important reminder of
the importance of Dante as a literary figure, his prominent placement within this important both civic and religious structure.
And then there's also a significant -- two significant frescoes: The Monument to Sir John Hawkwood and the Equestrian statue of Niccolò da Tolentino.
So two important individuals who are memorialized in these frescoes although not in fully sculpted
form -- kind of in this trompe-l'oeil -- kind of tricking the eye fashion and recorded on the
side of the of the duomo -- of the cathedral. So it's really very lovely to just walk around
this space and just kind of revel in its scale and also some of those details along the wall.
And one time i just ran into a student there -- an old student that I had so be sure to take
your time and enjoy the space. It also tends to be cool in the summer, so you can enjoy that as well.
So other sites to see -- just be sure to if you do decide to get a a ticket -- if you want to climb the
dome -- you do need to get what's now known as the "Brunelleschi pass" -- so at the time of this recording,
there are three different passes that you can purchase: the Brunelleschi pass allows you to visit
all the monuments of the Piazza del Duomo with one ticket that's valid for three days. So you can
visit the dome, and you get a specific time that you need to climb that dome, and you cannot miss
that time. You can visit the campanile --the bell tower. You can visit the baptistry. You can visit
the museum and the archaeological site of Santa Reparata with the Giotto pass which is a lower level
pass. You cannot visit the cupola -- you cannot climb the cupola. And so with this pass you can visit the
campanile, the baptistry, the museum, and santa reparata. And then with the Ghiberti pass, you can
visit the baptistry, the museum, and Santa Reparata, so if you're not interested in climbing
and you don't want to go to the cupola and you don't really want to go to the campanile, then the Ghiberti pass is really the way to go.
If you're interested in going to the museum, if you're interested in archaeological sites, then go with the Ghiberti pass, but if you're interested in
climbing and if you really want to go to that cupola where you'll have the incredible views,
definitely pick that "Brunelleschi pass." So it's very important if you pick the Brunelleschi pass,
go to the duomo at the time of your climbing. So you would head up to the north side of the church,
and you will line up and then at the time of your climbing, you will head up the stairway.
It's over 400 stairs, and you'll just go along the side of the duomo then you will walk along
the interior of the cupola itself, so you'll really get up close with some of those wonderful frescoes
done by Vasari and Zuccari of the "Last Judgment" and then you head up the side of the dome, so
the great innovation of Brunelleschi's dome is that it is a double shell dome. You have
these two shells that have chains kind of holding everything together and also ribs that act as a
stabilizing feature. Brunelleschi also incorporated a herringbone pattern for the bricks, and you'll
notice this as you're climbing up which is just really wonderful to see. And then there's also lots
of debate in terms of other patterns that may have been used to help guide the curvature of the dome.
So what's interesting about the Florentine dome is that it's on an octagonal base and this was
an added complication that Brunelleschi had to deal with. If we compare it to, for example,
something like the Pantheon in Rome which is on a circular base. This is something that's going
to make it a little more challenging for Brunelleschi to complete his project and that's why it tends
to be a little bit more kind of vertical in its orientation. It's pushing that weight down, and then
you also have that lantern on top which kind of keeps those -- the dome from wanting to splay outward --
or peel outward. So you have this lantern, and that's where you'll come out on the top and have a
wonderful view of Florence. The Campanile -- designed by Giotto. You can also climb that -- you're not going
to have as clear of a view. It's also over 400 feet [correction: stairs, not feet] in terms of climbing. And it doesn't require a
a reservation, so you just go and you climb it when you have time to do that if you do
have the Brunelleschi pass or the Giotto pass. Originally, the campanile had a much more Gothic
top portion to it which had those kind of pinnacles and much more of those pointed
arches -- although you do see that in the design of the campanile below -- but they they
squared off the top of the campanile eventually to create a different look as the architectural
style progressed into the renaissance. If you get any of these passes, you will be able to visit the
baptistry and so the baptistry is just to the west of the church itself. And so you can go over to the
baptistery it's this octagonal shaped building and it has those bronze doors on three of the sides. So
be sure to go around and enjoy looking at them. Two are designed by Ghiberti and one by Andrea Pisano.
Inside you'll see some wonderful mosaics along the ceiling and that's really
what's extraordinary to go and see in this particular building. You'll be able to see
those mosaics. You'll be able to see the Last Judgment, and so it's really wonderful to go
in and see that, as well as stories of John the Baptist, Adam and Eve and other stories related
to early creation. These are going to be earlier artworks -- earlier than the renaissance.
We might call them kind of late medieval, proto-renaissance artworks that were created.
It's a really nice way to see that progression from the late medieval into the renaissance, as
you're moving through the baptistery and then into the duomo. So for example the frescoes by
Vasari and Zuccari -- those are really taking us into the late renaissance, whereas looking at the
ceiling of the baptistry that is really focused on the proto renaissance or late medieval period.
Alright, so we've covered visiting the cupola, the duomo structure itself, the baptistry, the campanile.
It's important to note that you also can visit Santa Reparata, so you can visit this
archaeological site which is going to be on the south side of the duomo, so be sure to look for
that entrance near the campanile, and with any of the tickets you'll be able to visit that site. It's
also important to note -- just one final mention of a free way to visit the duomo on Sunday of course
the duomo holds masses. It is a catholic church, and so, if you are interested in attending mass,
you would also enter from the south side. You would say something like "per santa messa" -- you're interested in
going to the holy mass, and you would be welcomed into the church. Oftentimes it is held in kind of
a side -- like in the transept or in a side chapel of the church, just because the church is so massive
that it really isn't necessary to have everyone seated in the main area of the church in order to
have your kind of every week, your weekly Sunday mass, but if that's something you're interested
in, just be sure to enter from that side entrance -- don't try to enter from the entry from the facade
entrance where tourists visit during the week. So that's important to keep in mind. Alright moving
over to the museum itself. There are many things to see in the museum because so many of the things on
the cathedral are actually copies because so many of them are kept safe in the museum. The
museum has been recently renovated. It's wonderful. It has air condition -- air conditioning and it's
just beautifully designed, so I highly recommend it and it really takes you through the history of the
cathedral. I think it's great if you can visit the cathedral then go to the museum then go back
to the cathedral to kind of notice what you've just seen so if that's possible. I highly recommend
it. So you'll enter into the museum. If you need to use the restroom, it's a good time to do that; don't
wait until you've already exited the turnstiles because they will not let you back in, and you
will need to use the restroom at the cafe that's near the exit to the church. You'll see a model of
the duomo's medieval facade and then you'll move into a large hall where you'll you will see a
recreation of an early facade of the duomo itself -- before the facade that you see today was added
which is a much, much later facade. In this main room, it's very impressive. Occasionally they have
music concerts in there, and you'll see a design or a sculpture by Arnolfo de Cambio called
the Madonna of the Glass Eyes, so she has these very luminous eyes. You will also see Donatello's Saint
John the Evangelist -- with his typical interest in kind of that Ancient Greek and Roman style -- heavy
drapery, long beards, interesting hairstyle interesting, kind of portrait-like features,
showing us that connection to the Roman tradition. You will also see Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise.
These include stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, Jacob, Moses, David, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, Joseph
and Benjamin, Joshua, and Solomon and the Queen of Sheba as well as a self-portrait of Ghiberti on
the door on the left-hand side. So obviously those are all stories from the Old Testament; these
are gilded, very luminous doors, extraordinary to see. They're all also the north doors done
by Ghiberti and the south doors done by Andrea Pisano, so I may have inverted those earlier in the
discussion. So north doors are by Ghiberti; these were the competition, these are the doors he was
he was given the commission for these when he competed with Brunelleschi in that very famous "Sacrifice of Isaac" competition,
and then again the south doors done by Andrea Pisano.
There are some wonderful sculptures to see in this museum. So there's the Mary Magdalene by Donatello --
dating to around the 1450s. This shows us Mary Magdalene as she has retreated to the desert into
the wilderness where she was said to have hardly eaten, where her body has really been reduced
to kind of this emaciated form, where her hair has grown to cover her body and she's really given
up the material pleasures of this world and is clearly moving on to a more spiritual
world as this close companion of Christ and kind of following in the way of Christ as she removed
herself from the from the world. There are many relics that can be seen in the museum as you move
along. You'll also see Michelangelo's Pietà -- not the famous Pietà of the Vatican, so it's important not
to get those confused, but a much later Pietà where we see the body of Christ in this dramatic,
serpentine pose, kind of moving from one direction to the next. He's supported by Mary Magdalene and
by his mother the Virgin Mary as well as Nicodemus, who was said to have been there at the Crucifixion.
And he [Nicodemus] has the portrait features of Michelangelo. So it's a very emotional work; it's kind of
in different states of finish, so it's very interesting to walk around and see the areas
that have been left highly polished and those that have been left kind of unfinished --seeing that
working that working mode of Michelangelo and also it's just showing some of that change
in his style from the high renaissance early in his career when he's in his 20s to one of these
final works of his career. As we move up the stairs, you'll see a gallery of all the decorations for
or many of the decorations for the campanile. These include different panels that are in this
kind of hexagon shape and then also additional sculptures by Donatello -- again highlighting that
interest in that Greco-Roman heavy drapery with portrait-like features. There's a wonderful
gallery dedicated to the study of the the cupola -- the building of the cupola and Brunelleschi
himself, so you can see Brunelleschi's death mask, and you can also see models for the cupola and for
its lantern. And also some of the tools that were used, so these interesting kind of hoisting systems
that were used for this particular structure. There's a wonderful gallery in addition to this
featuring the choir lofts, so these were done by Luca della Robbia as well as by Donatello, so you can see that consistent involvement of Donatello in the creation of the of the duomo
and the contributions to the duomo. Then, as you move through the museum, you'll also see
a wonderful altar designed in silver and then you'll also see the evolution of the the overall
exterior design of the church, so in particular the facade is something that was added so much later
in the 19th century. So this kind of dramatic period of time or this long period of time
that took place between the building of the cathedral from the late 13th century into
the into the 15th century and with designs in the 16th century as well and then moving on to
this kind of final finishing of the cathedral in the 19th century. There's also a wonderful
gift shop as you leave and, again, remember there's a cafe, too. What are some of the other options?
What are things to do and things to eat around this area? So a couple of recommendations:
if you want to have a gelato, I recommend going to GROM which is a chain, but has some great seasonal
flavors, and I always had good luck getting gelato there during the day, late in the evening. So a
great place to go if you need to get any books in English, I highly recommend the paperback exchange,
that's a great place to go as well. And then in addition to that, there's a hotel nearby called
the Hotel Centrale; I haven't stayed there, but it has a great big lobby, so it's nice for groups and
also people I know who've stayed there have had a good time -- especially if they want to stay very
close to the center of the city. And then finally, there is a very inexpensive cafeteria
that is called Self-Service Ristorante Leonardo, and I just recommend that if you
want to have some good, simple food. If you are in a family with young children, and you just want a
place to just sit and rest, go there. Be sure that you don't get distracted by the other restaurants
down below; you do need to go up the stairs and then you'll just kind of go in a line with a tray,
pick out some food; they have antipasti they have pasta; they have main courses; they have desserts,
tiramisu. You can get a big carafe of water with ice and kind of cool off on a hot day. And so those
are great options, so if you're looking for gelato, a hotel, some food, or a book, you should be in good
shape in the area around the duomo. Of course this is tourist central, so you just want to be a little
careful when making your choices in this area. So I hope this information about the duomo complex
was helpful, and you have all the information you need for your trip to the duomo complex --
or that you just enjoy kind of touring around on the computer. So share your tips for your
visit down below -- if you have any ideas -- and keep an eye out for the next video about the Accademia.