The fine art of escapism

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This was published 13 years ago

The fine art of escapism

Your own pace ... the Duomo in Florence.

Your own pace ... the Duomo in Florence.Credit: AFP

Kamin Mohammadi dodges the queues and is rewarded at some of Florence's lesser-known galleries and museums.

Stendhal syndrome is a sickness known to afflict those of a sensitive nature who visit Florence. It's named after the French author who was left sick and dizzy by the vast amount of art he viewed on a visit to the city in 1817.

There have since been many documented cases of visitors fainting in the face of Florence's glories. Add hours of queuing to enter museums such as the Uffizi and the Accademia, jostling for space once in and then peering over heads to catch a glimpse of Botticelli's Birth of Venus or Michelangelo's David, and a visit to Florence starts to look a little dangerous for the health.

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I spent a day in the city with the galleries' chief curator, Peta Motture, who convinced me there are many gems still to be discovered in Florence that illuminate the history of art - without the risk of fainting.

We start at tourist central, Piazza del Duomo, now pedestrianised. But instead of joining the queues to climb Brunelleschi's dome, we duck into a smaller building, the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo (9 Piazza del Duomo, +39 055 230 2885, entry €6 ($8.60), where sculptures that once packed the Duomo and Baptistery now sit.

"Not many people come here," Motture promises, "but all the most wonderful original art from the Duomo is here."

Although just behind the Duomo, the museum is virtually empty. At the top of the monumental staircase stands Michelangelo's radiant Pieta. It was intended for the artist's own tomb until, Motture tells me, he broke the arm and left leg of Christ in a fit of temper, dissatisfied with the stone. They were later restored - Motture points out the cracks, which are still visible. Another figure, the beautifully mature Nicodemus, is a self-portrait - Michelangelo himself looming above the other figures, his eyes downcast.

Motture leads us upstairs to a gallery at the top where a rust-coloured figure stands alone in the centre of the room, shocking in its bedraggled emaciation. The polychrome wooden sculpture is not what one expects, either from Donatello, its sculptor, or in representations of Mary Magdalene. Hollow-eyed, wearing rags, her hands coming together in prayer, she is an intense figure, almost frightening. Motture explains that this sculpture embodies the dark mood that engulfed Florence at the end of the Renaissance. Savonarola was a hell-fire preacher who thought much Renaissance art was immoral. Donatello had come under his influence, and carved the Magdalene as a beggar, a pitiful figure whose past decadence is clear in the cadaverous lines of her repentant figure.

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Emerging into the daylight, we head for lunch. Teatro del Sale (Via dei Macci 111, +39 055 200 1492, edizioniteatrodelsalecibreofirenze.it) is an intriguing mix of private members' club, canteen and theatre. Buying an annual membership (€5) allows us entry, then we pay just €15 to serve ourselves as much food and wine as we like. After dinner in the evenings (€30), the room converts to a theatre, with entertainment ranging from tango to chamber orchestras.

After lunch, Motture suggests seeing some classic Donatellos, so we head to what was once the city jail to see the bronze David that scandalised Renaissance Florence with its nudity. The crenellated walls and tower of the Bargello (Via del Proconsolo 4, +39 055 294883, €4) feel squeezed into the narrow streets of the centre. This is Florence's oldest public building, begun in 1256, and it is said to be where condemned prisoners spent their last night. It is now one of the city's loveliest museums, being to sculpture what the Uffizi is to painting, only without those never-ending queues.

The is serene and quiet, giving plenty of room and time to digest the beauty of the works and the setting. The atmospheric courtyard is the setting for a permanent exhibition of sculptures by masters such as Michelangelo and Cellini, as well as Donatello. On the first floor, in a sweeping 14th-century hall, are some of Donatello's finest works, including a youthful David in marble, as well as the bronze David.

Leaving the Bargello, we weave our way past the shops selling leather in all colours of the rainbow, to a discreet little building near the Arno. A plaque announces it as the Horne Museum (Via de' Benci 6, +39 055 246 6406, www.museumsinflorence.com, €5), another secret Florentine gem. Herbert Percy Horne was a late-Victorian Englishman who came to Florence to study the Renaissance and filled his house with the sort of art that would have been seen in a home of the period. The collection contains works by key artists such as Giotto, Filippo Lipp and Giambologna, as well as furniture and domestic objects from the period.

Over drinks that evening at the top of the Torre dei Consorti, now home to the Hotel Continentale's Sky Bar, we discuss Stendhal syndrome and how we have been spared any such cultural indigestion. We look out at the river and the Ponte Vecchio on one side and the illuminated towers of the Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo on the other.

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer consistent beauty of Florence. But Motture has shown me that by concentrating on some of the quieter museums, you can still find yourself standing in front of a dazzling Michelangelo, almost totally alone.

- Guardian News & Media

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