Casa Buonarroti

Casa Buonarroti is a museum in Florence, Italy, dedicated to the artist Michelangelo. Located at the corner of Via Ghibellina and Via Buonarroti near the Basilica di Santa Croce, the institution preserves the family palace and artistic heritage of the Buonarroti family. It holds crucial early works by Michelangelo, alongside a substantial library and archive. The museum was established on the property Michelangelo once owned and lived in, which his descendants transformed into a unified palace celebrating his legacy, eventually opening to the public in 1859.

The site originated when Michelangelo purchased three adjacent plots from the Bonsi family in 1508, expanding the property with another adjacent structure from the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in 1514. He resided in the main buildings from 1516 to 1525 while working on the Basilica of San Lorenzo, later renting the properties out after moving. From Rome, Michelangelo repeatedly urged his nephew Leonardo to transform the buildings into an honorable family palace, but Leonardo only executed a partial restoration in 1553 and 1590. The complex finally received its present unified configuration under Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, who expanded the property and began constructing the palace in 1612, incorporating two of Michelangelo's own drawings into the project. He arranged four monumental rooms on the piano nobile to celebrate his great-uncle. Following the death of Cosimo, the last descendant, the house and collections were placed in a foundation and opened to the public as a museum in 1859. The building suffered damage during the Arno flood of November 1966, necessitating subsequent restoration.

The museum's holdings encompass Michelangelo's early sculptures, wax and bronze models, terracotta bozzetti, and architectural models. It also preserves a substantial corpus of the artist's drawings and correspondence. The collection extends beyond Michelangelo to include works by other artists influenced by him, a bust of Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra cast from his death mask, and frescoes depicting his life. Additionally, the family amassed archaeological artifacts, including an Etruscan funerary stele of Larth Ninie from the sixth century BC, late Etruscan sarcophagi, and Roman antiquities. A library accessible by appointment holds 10,000 to 11,000 volumes, including rare sixteenth-century editions, the family archive, and a photo library of 10,000 images primarily documenting Michelangelo's oeuvre.

The museum is particularly renowned for two of Michelangelo's earliest marble sculptures: the Madonna of the Stairs, a bas-relief from around 1491, and the Battle of the Centaurs, a high relief from around 1492. Other significant Michelangelo works include a large wooden model for the facade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, terracotta bozzetti including a river god torso and Two Fighters, and a model for the transport cart used to move his sculpture to the Accademia. In 1962, a wooden Santo Spirito Crucifix was displayed at the museum, and subsequent investigations confirmed its attribution to Michelangelo in 2001, dating it to perhaps as early as 1492. The crucifix now hangs in the octagonal sacristy of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito. The interior decoration itself constitutes a major holding, featuring early seventeenth-century commissions by Buonarroti the Younger, including Artemisia Gentileschi's Allegory of Inclination painted between 1615 and 1616, and works by Cecco Bravo, Pietro da Cortona, Jacopo da Empoli, Francesco Furini, Giovanni da San Giovanni, Domenico Passignano, Ottavio Vannini, and Jacopo Vignali.

The building is situated at Via Ghibellina 70, at the corner of Via Buonarroti, just north of the Basilica di Santa Croce. The street now named Via Buonarroti was historically called Via dei Marmi Sudici, a reference to the blocks of marble that sat blackening in the street for years as they awaited Michelangelo's use. Although often associated with the artist, the structure is not Michelangelo's birthplace, as he was born in Caprese in the province of Arezzo. The current palace was formed by unifying five buildings originally acquired by Michelangelo, a project driven by his great-nephew. The interior is dominated by the Galleria and the piano nobile, where the four monumental rooms are decorated with a precise iconographic program celebrating the artist.

Casa Buonarroti operates as a public museum in Florence, Italy. The on-site library is accessible to researchers by appointment. The institution maintains an official website. The museum's collections and historic rooms were preserved intact through strict entailments established in the will of Leonardo Buonarroti in 1678, which threatened the loss of primogeniture rights and family rents if the rooms or collections were altered, rented, or dispersed. The building underwent restorations in the 1950s and 1960s, and again following the 1966 flood, ensuring its continued role as a center for the study and display of Michelangelo's legacy and the Buonarroti family history.