MICHELANGELO's Infinite Universe

Here you are in Florence, the ideal city to get to know the great genius with your tour guide!

Considered by his contemporaries the greatest painter, sculptor and architect of his time, Michelangelo has remained a legendary figure over the centuries: critics have never been so interested in an artist. He lived to a ripe old age performing countless masterpieces. Without a shadow of a doubt, his art represented the pinnacle of the Florentine Renaissance in many respects.

Here I offer you an exciting itinerary to discover several works and to reveal the complex and tormented personality of Michelangelo as well as the technique of his work. The guided tour will be an opportunity to admire the artist as a sculptor and architect:

– Visit the Academy Museum: the statue of David, an absolute masterpiece.

– Visit to the tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de Medici.

Guided tour of the Academy Gallery

The Academy Museum is one of the most visited places in Florence, and since 1873 it houses the original David, one of Michelangelo’s main works. In addition to the emblematic David, other sculptures by Michelangelo: the 4 Prisoners, the Saint-Mathieu and the Palestrina Pietà, are all manifestations of the titanic task of the artist who, starting from a single block of marble, removes the excess, eliminates the superfluous, to free the figures from the marble.  

Michelangelo and his David

Impossible not to be fascinated by this statue by Michelangelo: a Greek hero with the body of an athlete, who perfectly embodies the Renaissance Man. The anatomical perfection, the concentrated and severe gaze, and the naked body as the athletes of Antiquity, the highest degree of beauty, make the statue of David, still today, the symbol of the entire Renaissance. Made between 1501 and 1504, when Michelangelo was only 26, the David is truly sublime.

Guided tour of the New Sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo

The New Sacristy commissioned by the Medici Popes, Leo X and Clement VII,

It was built between 1520 and 1555 by Michelangelo: you will be impressed by the beauty of its architecture and the sculptures that adorn the tombs. The originality of the lines differs from the serenity of the classical forms of the early Renaissance. In the not very large room, the tombs of Lorenzo the Magnificent, of his son Giuliano de’ Medici, Duke of Nemours, of his nephew Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, of his brother Giuliano, assassinated in the Cathedral. The Dukes of Medici are represented by Michelangelo as Roman warriors, and the allegories of Day and Night, Twilight and Dawn are elongated on the volutes of the sarcophagi, recognized as the most intellectual expression of Michelangelo’s sculpture. Thanks to this guided tour, you will be able to appreciate Michelangelo’s stylistic evolution over the years, and the “unfinished” technique will take on its full of meaning. Given that Michelangelo did not complete a large number of his works, critics have wondered for centuries about the meaning and origins of this “unfinished”.

Giorgio Vasari, Michelangelo’s biographer, will say, looking at his work: “…although it is not completely finished, the perfection of the work can be recognized in its outline imperfection, which has remained sketchy”.

By choosing the 3-hour visit, we will end our journey at the church of Santa Croce where Michelangelo is buried, in a mausoleum designed by his friend and colleague Giorgio Vasari.

Along the way you will discover the streets where he lived, the house where he grew up; I will tell you many anecdotes that still accompany his legend today.