Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
But first, visit whichever of the next two rooms you find open.
Michelangelo Casts and Other Replica Statues
These plaster-cast versions of famous Renaissance statues by Michelangelo and others al-
lowed 19th-century art students who couldn't afford a rail pass to go study the classics.
The statues were made by coating the original with a nonstick substance, then laying
wet plaster strips over it that dried to form a mold, from which a plaster cast was made.
They look solid but are very fragile. In a single glance, you can follow Michelangelo's
career, from youthful optimism
(David),
to his never-finished masterpiece (statues from
the tomb of Julius II, including
Moses
and two
Slaves
), to full-blown midlife crisis
(while sculpting the brooding Medici Tomb statues of Lorenzo and Giuliano). Compare
Michelangelo's monumental
David
with Donatello's girlish
David
(at the other end of the
room), and see Ghiberti's bronze Baptistery doors, which inspired the Florentine Renais-
sance.
