A tour of the city to admire Michelangelo’s masterpieces
Michelangelo served his apprenticeship at the end of the 15th century in the Florentine workshops of Ghirlandaio and Bertoldo. And a stone’s throw from the ancient sculpture garden in San Marco, where the artist studied ancient sculpture, is the Accademia Gallery, which houses his David (1501-04), the original marble statue Michelangelo was commissioned to produce as a symbol of the Florentine Republic.

This work, wrote Vasari in his Lives, "has carried off the palm from all other statues, modern or ancient, Greek or Latin; […] And, of a truth, whoever has seen this work need not trouble to see any other work executed in sculpture, either in our own or in other times, by no matter what craftsman". A statue of extraordinary evocative power, it is a supreme expression of the aesthetic and philosophical canons of Renaissance art. Besides the David, the Accademia also houses Michelangelo's Saint Matthew, the Prisoners (or Slaves) and the late Palestrina Pietà.

Other sculptural work by Michelangelo can be found in the New Sacristy of the Medici Chapels, which he worked on intermittently between 1521 and 1534. Here he produced the monumental tombs of Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, with allegorical figures of the Times of Day (Dusk and Dawn on Lorenzo's tomb and Night and Day on Giuliano's). The statues of Giuliano and Lorenzo face towards the centre of the chapel, where Michelangelo produced a Madonna and Child. An evocatively atmospheric tribute was paid to Michelangelo in March 2007, as part of celebrations commemorating Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici; in the evenings images of the designs of Michelangelo’s original project for the church – which were never realized – were projected onto the illuminated façade of the Church of San Lorenzo.

The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo houses the Pietà, begun around 1550 and intended to be for the artist's tomb; however, it was abandoned after Michelangelo himself smashed parts of it in a fit of rage. Other sculptures (Bacchus, the Tondo Pitti and Brutus) are held in the Bargello National Museum, while the only Florentine painting by Michelangelo, the Sacred Family or Tondo Doni (1504-06) is in the Uffizi. Finally, visitors to the Casa Buonarroti Museum can admire drawings and youthful works collected over the centuries by the artist's descendants.