I had visited a lot of churches and museums during the first half of my Italy trip. I knew that when my family joined me for the second half, they would not be as interested in the artwork and history as I was. I originally had booked a ticket to the Bargello Museum for myself, but my family flew in a day earlier than expected and decided to attend the museum with me in Florence.
The Bargello Museum is a national museum that is in one of the oldest buildings in Florence. The palace was once the residence of the Bargello, which was the equivalent to the current day chief of the police. It was also a prison in the 18th century. The building has survived through sieges, fires, executions. Since the 19th century, the building has become a resting place for many sculptures throughout history. Some of the works displayed at this museum are those created by Donatello, Michelangelo, and Bacchus.
My draw to the museum was Donatello's early rendition of David. I had learned about all the famous David sculptures in my art history class, but for some reason, Donatello's depiction of David being a younger boy struck a chord in me. When I had learned it was within walking distance of my Airbnb in Italy, I knew I had to see it. The hall that displays David in the Bargello Museum is a 14th-century style room with high ceilings and allows the perfect amount of natural light to shine through the windows. The room contains some other artwork created by Donatello. The moment I saw the bronze statue of David, my eyes couldn't seem to admire anything else. I stood in front of the sculpture for a few moments in utter complete awe. A few moments passed when I started to glance around the room. It was almost like a dream. I had no one else in the room with me, and the light shone through just perfectly that morning, illuminating David in front of me. It is a moment I will never forget because I will remember that I thought the time had stopped. It was unbelievable and incomprehensible that I was standing an arm's length away from some of the more influential art ever to be created.
Once I shook myself out of my daydream, I walked into another room to find my dad, mom, and sister admiring the pieces around them. My father read about all the information regarding the artwork and moved slowly through the rooms one by one. Meanwhile, my mother and sister had huddled together, cracking jokes about pieces of art to stay entertained. My mom and sister have never been interested in artwork or art history before. Their humor is what they needed to amuse themselves. I eventually joined in on the jokes to stay entertained because my dad took a long time to make his way through the museum.
The courtyard within the Bargello Museum allowed viewers to get sunlight while viewing the sculptures, which surrounded the enclosure. The ornamentation of carvings on the inner walls added a delicate decoration to the museum. It made it seem almost intentional to the museum, rather than the residence of the Bargello from long ago. The wishing well in the middle of the courtyard had filled with sand, but the feel of being able to access the water was still there when you admired it standing perfectly in the center. The sculptures within the courtyard led your eye around the entire space to soak everything in. Many masterpieces were either life-size or taller than me, so at some points, I had to strain my neck to look up at their colossal features. I had expected the museum to be busier than it was, but the lack of people made the environment feel like the artwork was for my eyes only. To access or enter some of the rooms, you needed to walk through the courtyard. That made it feel like the well and courtyard was the center place of the overall museum.
Most of the rooms were spacious. There were lots of areas to observe and walk through. My father was still going slowly through rooms while I explored other things like artwork from different angles, the architecture of the building in which held the art, or how each room made you feel a different way. As the reflections of light that shone off the marble or bronze sculptures became different as time passed, I would be able to find something new about each piece I had seen previously. A new etch in the artwork would appear, or detailing I had never noticed before would make itself own with each new ray of lighting that would hit the sculpture. There was no way to see the same thing or element as you had before. That entertained me for a while until I realized I was on my third round around the sculptures. My father still hadn't made much progress within the museum.
Once my father finally read almost every plaque and informational booklet in the museum, we called it a day. At this point, my mom, sister, and I had finished admiring the pieces at the Bargello museum for a while, and our patience was growing thin with my dad's lackadaisical attitude when it came to time. Even though it took my family longer than I originally had thought to get through the entire museum, I was so glad I was able to see Donatello's David and step foot into one of the oldest buildings in Florence, Italy.
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