Spedale degli Innocenti
Spedale degli Innocenti
art site
Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, 50121 Firenze, Italia
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The museum is situated inside the Spedale degli Innocenti that was built to plans by Filippo Brunelleschi starting in 1419. The building was commissioned by the Wool Guild. The artworks on display all belong to the institute and reflect the calling of this old and meritorious institution, (which even today is active as a home for orphans and cultural center for children) that offered charity and care to foundlings – the so-called innocenti or innocents. Unwanted babies were placed on a revolving platform, known as the ruota that would be turned so that the nuns could receive the child on the inside. The ruota was in operation up to 1875. An infant in swaddling clothes is, in fact, the symbol we see throughout the complex, even in the Della Robbia terracottas that revolutionized the appearance of Brunelleschi’s loggia. The Pinacoteca – picture gallery – is located above the loggia. It is no coincidence that maternity is the prevailing theme in many of the paintings that include a group of outstanding pieces such as the beautiful Adoration of the Magi, by Ghirlandaio, and several renderings of the Virgin and Child by Piero Cosimo, Lucca della Robbia, Botticelli (from his early period) and a very interesting Madonna degli Innocenti who shelters a group of swaddled infants under her cloak.
art site
Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, 50121 Firenze, Italia
Show on map
The museum is situated inside the Spedale degli Innocenti that was built to plans by Filippo Brunelleschi starting in 1419. The building was commissioned by the Wool Guild. The artworks on display all belong to the institute and reflect the calling of this old and meritorious institution, (which even today is active as a home for orphans and cultural center for children) that offered charity and care to foundlings – the so-called innocenti or innocents. Unwanted babies were placed on a revolving platform, known as the ruota that would be turned so that the nuns could receive the child on the inside. The ruota was in operation up to 1875. An infant in swaddling clothes is, in fact, the symbol we see throughout the complex, even in the Della Robbia terracottas that revolutionized the appearance of Brunelleschi’s loggia. The Pinacoteca – picture gallery – is located above the loggia. It is no coincidence that maternity is the prevailing theme in many of the paintings that include a group of outstanding pieces such as the beautiful Adoration of the Magi, by Ghirlandaio, and several renderings of the Virgin and Child by Piero Cosimo, Lucca della Robbia, Botticelli (from his early period) and a very interesting Madonna degli Innocenti who shelters a group of swaddled infants under her cloak.