Renaissance Masters: Where to See Their Work in Florence

Feb 21, 2024

6 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Updated October 2026

Brunelleschi's dome of the Florence Duomo seen from above

These are my favorite Renaissance artists and the places where you can stand in front of their work today, artist by artist. For the bigger story, read my guide to Renaissance Florence.

Botticelli: the Uffizi

The Birth of Venus and Primavera hang in the Uffizi. Seeing Primavera in person, every flower painted with care, is one of my best Florence memories. Book timed entry; the Uffizi is closed Mondays. My guide to the Uffizi has a route.

Jason GaNung taking a selfie in front of Botticelli's Primavera at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Visitors photographing Botticelli's Birth of Venus at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Botticelli's Primavera on display in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Botticelli's Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder at the Uffizi, Florence

Leonardo da Vinci: the Uffizi

Leonardo's early Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi are in the Uffizi too, a rare chance to see his Florentine years.

Jason GaNung in front of Leonardo's Annunciation at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Model machines in the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, Florence

Marble statue of Leonardo da Vinci in a niche of the Uffizi colonnade, lit at night, Florence

Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Michelangelo: David and more

The original David stands in the Accademia Gallery, also closed on Mondays. Michelangelo's tombs for the Medici are in the Medici Chapels at San Lorenzo, and he is buried in Santa Croce.

Michelangelo's statue of Lorenzo de' Medici in the New Sacristy of the Medici Chapels, Florence

Old print of Michelangelo at work in his sculpture studio, Florence

Michelangelo's Doni Tondo in its round gilded frame at the Uffizi, Florence

Michelangelo's David in the Tribune of the Accademia Gallery, Florence

Donatello: the Bargello

Donatello's bronze David, the first free-standing nude since antiquity, is at the Bargello, the city's sculpture museum.

Donatello's marble Saint George in a stone niche in Florence

Donatello's gilded bronze Saint Louis of Toulouse in the Santa Croce museum, Florence

Donatello's wooden Penitent Magdalene in the Opera del Duomo Museum, Florence

Brunelleschi and Masaccio

Brunelleschi's dome is the city's skyline; climb its 463 steps with a timed pass. Masaccio's Holy Trinity in Santa Maria Novella shows the new perspective that changed painting.

Display of Brunelleschi's dome design in the Opera del Duomo Museum, Florence

Brunelleschi's bronze competition panel for the Baptistery doors at the Bargello, Florence

Statue of Brunelleschi gazing at his dome outside the Duomo, Florence

Brunelleschi's wooden Crucifix above the altar in Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Cellini: Perseus in the Loggia

Benvenuto Cellini's bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa stands outdoors in the Loggia dei Lanzi, free to see day and night. I love it after dark; my favorite selfie from a February 2024 trip is with Perseus lit up at midnight.

Statue of Benvenuto Cellini in a niche of the Uffizi colonnade, Florence

Cellini's gold Saliera salt cellar in a museum case in Florence

Bust of Benvenuto Cellini on the Ponte Vecchio with the Arno behind, Florence

Cellini's bronze Perseus under the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence

Before the Renaissance: Dante's city

The Renaissance stood on Dante's shoulders. Follow him in my walk through Dante's Florence.

Vasari's Six Tuscan Poets, with Dante holding a book in Florence

Where to stay

The Duomo area puts the Uffizi, Accademia and Bargello within walking distance. See where to stay near the Duomo.

Fra Angelico: San Marco

The friar painter decorated the convent of San Marco with frescoes in each monk's cell, and his Annunciation at the top of the dormitory stairs stops everyone in their tracks. It is my favorite quiet museum in Florence. See my San Marco guide.

Ghirlandaio: Santa Maria Novella and Ognissanti

Domenico Ghirlandaio painted Florence as it was. His fresco cycle in the Tornabuoni Chapel behind the altar of Santa Maria Novella is full of real Florentines in their best clothes. His Saint Jerome faces Botticelli's Saint Augustine at Ognissanti church. Michelangelo trained in his workshop as a boy.

Portrait of Botticelli above the floor marker of his tomb in the Ognissanti church, Florence

Portrait of Domenico Ghirlandaio, Florence

Ghirlandaio's Adoration of the Shepherds altarpiece, Florence

Ghirlandaio's Confirmation of the Franciscan Rule fresco in the Sassetti Chapel of Santa Trinita, Florence, with Piazza della Signoria painted behind

Ghirlandaio's Saint Jerome in His Study in the Ognissanti church, Florence

Ghiberti: the Gates of Paradise

Lorenzo Ghiberti spent decades on the gilded bronze doors of the Baptistery. The originals are now inside the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, protected from weather, with copies on the building. Michelangelo is said to have called them worthy to be the gates of Paradise.

Ghiberti's bronze statue from Orsanmichele in the museum hall, Florence

Engraved portrait of Lorenzo Ghiberti, Florence

Ghiberti's North Doors of the Baptistery in the Opera del Duomo Museum, Florence

Ghiberti's gilded Gates of Paradise in the Opera del Duomo Museum, Florence

Verrocchio and the young Leonardo

Andrea del Verrocchio ran one of the busiest workshops in Florence, and Leonardo trained there. At the Uffizi, look at Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ: the angel on the left is traditionally credited to the young Leonardo, so good it is said to have made his teacher give up painting. Verrocchio's bronze David is at the Bargello.

Leonardo da Vinci's unfinished Adoration of the Magi at the Uffizi, Florence

The Baptism of Christ by Verrocchio and Leonardo at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Verrocchio's bronze Incredulity of Saint Thomas from Orsanmichele, Florence

Madonna and Child painting attributed to Verrocchio in Florence

Pontormo and the next generation

After the High Renaissance came Mannerism, with twisting bodies and acid colors. Pontormo's Deposition in the Capponi Chapel of Santa Felicita, just over the Ponte Vecchio, is one of the most astonishing paintings in the city, and it is free to see.

Vasari's frescoes in the Hall of the Five Hundred in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

Vasari's Last Judgment fresco inside the Duomo dome, Florence

Self portrait of Giorgio Vasari, Florence

Masaccio: the Brancacci Chapel

Across the river in Santa Maria del Carmine, Masaccio and Masolino painted the Brancacci Chapel in the 1420s. Masaccio's Expulsion from Paradise, with Adam and Eve weeping as they leave the garden, is one of the most human images ever painted.

Masaccio died at about twenty-seven, yet these frescoes taught a whole generation, Michelangelo included, how to paint the body. Visits are timed and small, so book ahead.

Raphael and Titian at Pitti

The Palatine Gallery in Palazzo Pitti hangs paintings as the grand dukes did, frame to frame on silk walls. Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola and La Velata are here, and so is Titian's Mary Magdalene. It feels like walking into a private collection. My Pitti Palace guide explains the rooms.

Self portrait of Raphael in a black cap, Florence

Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Raphael portrait of a young man in a black cap and red sleeves at the Uffizi, Florence

Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola in its gilded frame at Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Giotto: where it all began

A century before the Renaissance proper, Giotto gave painting weight and emotion. See his Saint Francis chapels at Santa Croce and his great painted Crucifix at Santa Maria Novella, then look up at the bell tower he designed beside the Duomo.

Giotto's painted Crucifix hanging in the Ognissanti church, Florence

Giotto's Bell Tower beside the Duomo on a sunny day in Florence

Statue of Giotto in a niche of the Uffizi colonnade, Florence

Bronzino and the Medici court

Agnolo Bronzino painted the Medici court in cool, perfect portraits. His Eleonora of Toledo with her son, in a famous brocade dress, hangs in the Uffizi, and her private chapel in Palazzo Vecchio is entirely his work.

Painted portrait of a bearded man in a red hood, identified as Benvenuto Cellini in Florence

Cimabue and the roots

Before Giotto there was his teacher Cimabue. His Santa Trinita Maestà at the Uffizi hangs beside Giotto's in the first room, and comparing them is the best art lesson in Florence.

How to plan an artist trail

Group the works by neighborhood. Day one: the Duomo museum, the Bargello and the Uffizi. Day two: the Accademia, San Marco and San Lorenzo. Day three: Santa Maria Novella, Ognissanti and across the river to Santa Felicita and the Brancacci Chapel. My Renaissance Florence guide and Uffizi guide go deeper.

The Uffizi Gallery seen from across the Arno in Florence

The Vasari Corridor running over the Ponte Vecchio in Florence

The Duomo and Giotto's Bell Tower at blue hour in Florence

Firenze Card museum pass over a view of Florence

Andrea del Sarto and the painter without errors

Andrea del Sarto, born in Florence in 1486, was called by Vasari the painter "senza errori", without errors, for his flawless drawing and color. His frescoes are some of the most beautiful in the city and much less crowded than the famous names.

See the Madonna del Sacco in the cloister of Santissima Annunziata, his frescoes in the atrium of the same church, and the Last Supper in the former convent of San Salvi, a little outside the center, which escaped destruction during the siege of 1529 because soldiers were said to be too moved to harm it.

His pupils included Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino, who led the next generation.

Benozzo Gozzoli: the Medici procession

In the Medici Riccardi Palace on Via Cavour, a tiny chapel holds one of the most joyful works of the Renaissance: Benozzo Gozzoli's Procession of the Magi, painted around 1459. The three kings ride through a Tuscan landscape, and many of the figures are portraits of the Medici and their circle.

Look for the young Lorenzo the Magnificent and, according to tradition, Gozzoli's own self portrait with his name on his hat. Visits are timed and the chapel is small, so book ahead.

Luca della Robbia and the blue and white

Luca della Robbia invented a technique for glazing terracotta sculpture in brilliant white and blue that lasted for centuries outdoors. His family workshop decorated churches and hospitals all over Tuscany.

Look up at the Ospedale degli Innocenti, where the swaddled babies by Andrea della Robbia decorate the loggia, and visit the Bargello and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo for his marble Cantoria, a singing gallery carved with dancing children.

Paolo Uccello and the battle

Paolo Uccello was obsessed with perspective. His Battle of San Romano in the Uffizi, one of three panels now split between Florence, London and Paris, shows lances and fallen soldiers laid out in careful lines. In the Duomo, his painted equestrian monument to the English mercenary Sir John Hawkwood, and his clock face with four heads, are easy to miss.

Filippo and Filippino Lippi

Fra Filippo Lippi, a Carmelite friar with a scandalous love life, was Botticelli's teacher. His Madonna and Child with Two Angels in the Uffizi is one of the loveliest paintings in Florence. His son Filippino completed the Brancacci Chapel and painted the Strozzi Chapel in Santa Maria Novella.

Tracing the line from master to pupil

What I love about Florence is seeing how the masters taught one another: Verrocchio to Leonardo, Filippo Lippi to Botticelli, Ghirlandaio to Michelangelo. The city is one great family tree in paint and stone.

Jason GaNung pointing to a gallery sign inside the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

FAQ

Where can I see Botticelli in Florence?

At the Uffizi, home of The Birth of Venus and Primavera.

Is the David in the Accademia the original?

Yes. The David in Piazza della Signoria is a copy.

Where can I see Leonardo da Vinci in Florence?

At the Uffizi: the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi and the angel in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ.

Where is Donatello's David?

At the Bargello, Florence's national sculpture museum.

Where can I see Michelangelo's tombs and chapels?

At San Lorenzo's New Sacristy in the Medici Chapels, and his own tomb is in Santa Croce.

About the author

I'm Jason GaNung, and I write every guide on Florence Life. I have spent extensive time in Florence over many trips, and I have stayed in many of the hotels and villas I cover, so my picks come from my own stays, not press releases. More about me.

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