San Marco Museum Tickets
San Marco Museum in Florence Ticket Reservation
Address: Piazza San Marco 3 - Firenze
Opening hours: Monday-Friday: 8.15 am - 1.50 pm; Saturday: 8.15 am - 6.50 pm; Sunday: 8.15 am - 7.00 pm.
Please note: if you are booking entrance tickets for this museum, choose compatible entrance time matching opening hours with the day of the week you want to visit the museum.
Closing: on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday and 2nd and 4th Monday of each month, New Year's Day, May 1st and Christmas Day
The beautiful Renaissance building was designed by Michelozzo and payed by Cosimo il Vecchio de' Medici for the Dominicans and hosts the museum dedicated to an important guest of the friary: the painter friar Beato Angelico.
In the guest room, on the ground floor, are gathered altar stakes painted by the painter for city churches and the neighbourhood. These are masterly examples of his adherence to the new style of the '400s and of his decorative skill in late Gothic taste. On the first floor cells with fresco paintings with evangelical subjects were done for his brothers, where the style is more austere in respect to the rules of the ordering.
Focus on Fra Angelico's Frescoes
The frescoes by Angelico at San Marco Museum
The Museum of San Marco is renowned not only for its works by Fra Angelico, but for the numerous examples of Florentine art and for the pervasive history of the Dominican Order. The presence of the fresco cycle by the great friar-artist makes it a sanctuary for Angelico’s art and transforms the Convent into one of the most important sites fro early Renaissance painting. The large number of frescoes, their specific destination and function, represent a unique moment for all painting, not just Florentine, at the beginning of the Quattrocento.
The full understanding and appreciation of the artworks in today’s museum may prove difficult at times due to the fact they are removed from their historical and physical context.
This is not the case with the frescoes by Fra Angelico in San Marco. They have remained in their original location in the Dominican convent, built by Michelozzo and financed by Cosimo de’ Medici, the Elder. Most of the convent has remained unaltered; thus the frescoes can still be viewed in relation to the architectural structure and convent life of the period.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as a result of structural renovations, a Crucifixion by Angelico was demolished along with the Refectory wall, and a few frescoes in the cells in the north dormitory on the upper floor were lost, consequence of opening a window onto the Cloister.
During the 1600s other modifications saw the frescoed lunettes by Angelico in the Cloister made part of a narrative cycle dedicated to Saint Antonino. Nonetheless, the meaning and the significance in the art by the friar-artist of san marco has remained intact and perfectly appreciable.
How to choose the correct ticket
Half price ticket: for 18-24 year olds from the European Union.
Free ticket (reservation only)
All visitors under 18 years old from any country (children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
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