Florence - Cathedral Museum Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Museo di Santa Maria del Fiore)

One of the items in the anteroom is a bust of Brunelleschi who was responsible for the dome of the cathedral.

The octagon adjoining the small room contains relics from 1300 to 1800.

The Mezzanine holds one of the most famous sculptures in Western art, Michelangelo's Pietà, the marble group fashioned by the artist in his old age but never completed. The limp, broken figure of the lifeless Christ, the face of Mary with only a hint of her suffering, the grief-stricken visage of Joseph of Arimathea, possibly a self-portrait, the unfulfilled nature of the whole group (the figure of Mary Magdalene on the left was added later) - all this combines in an incomparable expression of the concept of death and man's helplessness in the face of mortality. Michelangelo smashed this piece because he was not satisfied with the quality of the marble. His pupil Calcagni reassembled the fragments and, except for the figure of Christ, added the finishing touches.

By the entrance to this room can be seen a mark showing the water-level of the Arno on 4th November 1966. The room contains statues that were incorporated in the old façade of the cathedral and which were removed before it was demolished in 1587. There is also a drawing (on the right of the entrance) dating from the second half of the 16th century showing the old façade of the Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore. The most interesting works include, along the wall left of the entrance, the statue of St Luke (by Nanni di Banco), the statue of John the Evangelist (by Donatello) and the statue of St Matthew (by Bernardo Ciuffagni); along the left-hand wall the statue of Pope Boniface VIII (by Arnolfo di Cambio). On the wall opposite the entrance the statues of "S. Reparata", the "Madonna and Child" and the "Madonna of the Nativity" (all by Arnolfo di Cambio). On the right-hand wall are "The Virgin interred in the Sepulchre" (plaster cast, by Arnolfo di Cambio) and St Augustine and St Gregory (by Niccolò di Piero Lamberti).

The greatest treasures of the Altar Room in the Cathedral Museum in Florence are the silk and gold needlework panels with scenes from the life of St John the Baptist, from designs by Antonio Pollaiolo (long left-hand wall), and the silver altar of the Battistero (left-hand wall opposite), one of the finest examples of the art of the Florentine silversmiths. It was begun in the Gothic style in 1366 and completed during the Renaissance (1480). The altar is decorated with prophets and sibyls, scenes from the life of John the Baptist and other scenes from the scriptures. The other works in the room are by 14th and 15th century artists (including Giovanni della Robbia, Tino da Camaino, Giovanni di Balduccio, Giovanni Bandini and Andrea Pisano).

This room also holds some panels from Ghiberti's "Porta del Paradiso", which were replaced in the Battistero by a replica in 1990.

The embroideries are perhaps the most important of their kind in Italy. They were designed by Pollaiolo in the late 15th century and took 23 years to complete. The finished pieces, a set of scenes ornamenting church vestments, was done in a style known as "or nue" or "shaded gold."

The Cantoria Room contains the two marble "singing galleries" which used to support the console of the cathedral organ. They stood under the dome until 1686 when they were dismantled on the occasion of the wedding of Grand Duke Cosimo III and Violante Beatrice of Bavaria. The cantoria on the left-hand wall is by Luca della Robbia (1431-1438). Against the end-wall of the room are the figures of John the Baptist (1423-1427) and of Habakkuk, known as the "Zuccone" (1434-1436), both by Donatello, who was also responsible for the cantoria on the right wall, and the group of Abraham and Isaac (1421) against the adjoining wall.

This room contains the bas-reliefs which formerly decorated the panels on the lower story of Giotto's Campanile; these were replaced by copies between 1965 and 1967. The panels with the allegorical figures are by Andrea Pisano (first two bottom panels on the long-right-hand wall, bottom row on right-hand wall opposite, bottom row on the long left-hand wall, bottom row on the left-hand wall opposite), Luca della Robbia (bottom row on the long right-hand wall), by artists of the school of Pisano (top row on the right-hand wall opposite, top row on the long left-hand wall, top row on the left-hand wall opposite) and Alberto Arnoldi (top row, long right-hand wall).

The small room holds missals and precious reliquaries together with other gold and silver works from the Cathedral Treasury. Also of interest is the original wooden model for the cathedral lantern signed by Brunelleschi.