Why has that painting such a peculiar name? The name Tondo Doni means that the painting is round-shaped (tondo) and that it was painted for a commissioner whose name was Agnolo Doni.
What’s the subject? The painting focuses on the Holy Family (saint Joseph, Mary and Jesus) represented in the foreground. Joseph and Mary are sitting on the grass and are lifting Jesus up. Behind them a gray line keeps them separate from the background, where some naked people are standing in or sitting on the edges of a sort of pool. In the same pool, but much closer to the Family, there’s a boy, wearing a fur and holding a bamboo stick. That boy is saint John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin.
Is there any “secret” meaning hidden in this peculiar composition? Scholars have always tried to understand the reason why Michelangelo painted all those naked people in the background and, apparently, they found the solution. The nudes represent the pagans who are kept separate from the Holy Family because they are sinners; but their condition is not eternal: if they want, they can be baptised (this is why they are standing in the same pool as John the Baptist) and they will be able to share the same side of the painting as the Holy Family. John the Baptist, despite the uncentral position he has been given, is absolutely important in the painting, being the only bridge between the sinners and the saved ones.
Why did the commissioner choose this subject? The painting possibly was a gift that Agnolo Doni gave to his bride on the occasion of the birth of their first child and therefore the protection of the Holy Family seems particularly appropriate. Michelangelo did somenthing more: he decided that the Doni should be included in the painting, but, at the same time, he didn’t want to phisically represent them. In a very clever way he imagined them standing in front of the painting and looking at it: first of all, they are on the same side as the Holy Family, quite apart from the sinners; second, Mary’s very 3D elbow seems to go out of the painting and to invade the real space. In this way Michelangelo abolished any separation between the real world and the painting, in order to let the commissioners feel part of the painting.
Last but not least: this amazing painting still has its original wooden frame. The frame was personally designed by Michelangelo who gave the design to a specialised workshop to carve it in wood and to gild it. On top there’s a head forecoming, that’s Jesus, and two more on the right and on the left, being prophetic figures. Paying a bit more attention it’s possible to discover, hidden by the intertwined leaves and branches, the coat-of-arms of the Strozzi family (three crescent moons). This was one of the most famous families living in Florence in the past and the bride who received this painting from her husband was Maddalena Strozzi

L'articolo Michelangelo’s Tondo Doni in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence sembra essere il primo su  | Florence Tourist Guide.

To be honest since the beginning I have to tell that Michelangelo never lived in that house: that amazing building is the residence that he donated to his beloved nephew Leonardo. Michelangelo just purchased a group of houses and, when he wasn’t in Florence anymore, he commissioned the renovation works in order to make them a unique house, exactly the one that he left as a heritage to Leonardo. The house, as we see it now, is absolutely different from what Michelagelo saw and from the building that Leonardo inherited, because Leonardo’s son, Michelangelo the Younger, wanted it to be decorated by the most famous artists working in Florence in the first half of the 17th century. The decoration wasn’t meant to be just a way of beautifying the house, but moreover it was supposed to celebrate Michelangelo senior.

The heart of the project is the Gallery where you can follow Michelangelo’s artistic life thanks to the colourful images painted on the walls and on the ceiling: you will see him meeting the Medici family, popes and cardinals, receiving presents from his patrons. Nevertheless you won’t see there either all the troubles of his long life or the hard beginning of his carreer. But in the next rooms you will be allowed to admire, in the religious silence of an almost unknown place, the works he sculpted being a youg man, before going to Rome where he reached the fame with the Saint Peter Pietà. I’m speaking of the Madonna of the Stairs and of the Battle of the centaurs: both the works will make clear on one side the attention he had on Donatello’s works and on the other side the incredible life he was able to give to his figures. The next room houses other two works by him: the wooden model for the façade of San Lorenzo church and a preparatory statue representing a River God, designed to be part of the New Sacristy decoration but never made. Both these two works witness of Michelangelo’s difficult relationships with the Medici family (commissioners of both the works): the façade was prepared but never started and the New Sacristy was left unaccomplished at Michelagelo’s final departure from Florence to Rome. Looking at the River God, people can change their idea about Michelangelo: he was not only the artist who sculpted David with his perfect body, he was even the one who could represent the body of an old man, whose muscles, once strong and turgid, are progressively becoming relaxed hardly held by a wrinked skin

L'articolo Looking for Michelangelo’s footmarks in Florence sembra essere il primo su  | Florence Tourist Guide.

The crypt underneath the duomo is the most ancient thing we will see: it corresponds to the early christian church dedicated to Santa Reparata. The choice of this saint is due to an historical event: on the 8th of October (day traditionally dedicated to this greek saint) 405 the florentine Romans could resist againist the attack of a barbaric population. In order to thank the saint for the help she had given them, the Floretines decided to move the title of cathedral church from the ancient San Lorenzo’s (previuosly consacrated by saint Ambrose) to the new church.

One of the most interesting work on show in the crypt is the mosaic floor, decorated with a number of christian symbols. Beside them you can clearly read the names of those patrons who gave money for making the pavement: they payed for it and, sofar, they wanted to be remembered forever!

L'articolo The treausures of the Florence Cathedral sembra essere il primo su  | Florence Tourist Guide.

Why not, then, walking through the streets of Florence at the discovery of the places he used to attend?

I recommend to start visiting the two quarters where Boccaccio spent his childhood: the area near San Pier Maggiore, at the end of Borgo Albizi, where you can still breath an ancient atmosphere, and that close to San Felice in Piazza, with the amazing Medieval church, restored by Michelozzo and made so precious thanks to the painted cross. On the way to San Felice, stop in Santa Croce quarter, visit the Bardi Chapel frescoed by Giotto to enjoy the view of the marvellous paintings and to realize how rich that family was. For this bankers’  family Boccaccio’s father  worked and the novelist himself was employed into one of their banks in Naples.

Coming back from the Oltrarno the hidden Santo Stefano al Ponte church is worthy visiting: it’s  characterised by a Romanesque style   façade and by the presence of Buontalenti’s steps for the Santa Trinita church. Right in the Santo Stefano al Ponte church Boccaccio publically read seventeen chapters from the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri .

The most natural ending of the walk will be the Strozzi of Mantua chapel in the Santa Maria Novella church, from where the ten characters of the Decameron  left to go to the countryside in order to avoid the terrible Black Death dating 1348.

For those wishing to completely close the circle, I recommend to organize a trip to Certaldo Alto (50 km away from Florence), where they will find the palace in which Boccaccio died and the Santi Iacopo e Filippo church in which he was buried.

L'articolo In Florence following Boccaccio’s footmarks sembra essere il primo su  | Florence Tourist Guide.