When we encounter great art, we learn more about ourselves.

AMERICAN MAGAZINE
By Edward W. Schmidt, S.J.
Donatello's Cantoria was carved between 1433 and 1438 and is considered one of the great works of the first Florentine Renaissance. (Museo dell'Opera photo)
To walk the streets of Florence is to take in art as one breathes in air. Art is everywhere, part of everyday life. Masterpieces are gathered in a couple of large palaces but also concentrated in smaller spaces that draw crowds that are both curious and reverent, on piazzas and bridges. Among these spaces is the newly conceived and renovated Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo, which reopened in fall 2015 after years of planning and work. The Opera del Duomo, the Cathedral Foundation, oversees the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and Giotto’s bell tower and the baptistery of S. Giovanni nearby. Its museum preserves art from the past from these three Florentine monuments. [More]