Culture
Much of these artifacts are found in the main cities, such as Florence and Siena, but also in smaller villages scattered around the region, such as San Gimignano.
Art Michelangelo's David
Tuscany has a unique artistic legacy, and Florence is one of the world's most important artistic centres, even so that it is often nicknamed the "art capital of Italy" (the city is also believed to have the largest concentration of Renaissance art and architecture in the world)[13]. Painters such as Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting, lived in Florence and Tuscany as well as Arnolfo and Andrea Pisano, renewers of architecture and sculpture; Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, forefathers of the Renaissance, Ghiberti and the Della Robbias, Filippo Lippi and Angelico; Botticelli, Paolo Uccello and the universal genius of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
The region contains numerous museums and art galleries, most of which store some of the world's most precious and valuable works of art. Such museums include the Uffizi, which keeps Botticelli's Birth of Venus, the Pitti Palace, and the Bargello, to name but a few. But most of the frescos, sculptures and paintings in Tuscany are also held in the region's abundant churches and cathedrals, such as Florence Cathedral, Siena Cathedral, Pisa Cathedral and the Collegiata di San Gimignano.
Art Schools
A painting from the Sienese school.
Main articles: Florentine school, Sienese school, and Lucchese School
In medieval period and in the Renaissance, there were four main Tuscan art schools which competed against each other: the Florentine School, the Sienese School, the Pisan School and the Lucchese School.
* The Florentine School originated from refers to artists in, from or influenced by the naturalistic style developed in the 14th century, largely through the efforts of Giotto di Bondone, and in the 15th century the leading school of the world. Some of the best known artists of the Florentine School are Brunelleschi, Donatello, Michelangelo, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Lippi, Masolino, and Masaccio.
* The Sienese School of painting flourished in Siena between the 13th and 15th centuries and for a time rivaled Florence, though it was more conservative, being inclined towards the decorative beauty and elegant grace of late Gothic art. Its most important representatives include Duccio, whose work shows Byzantine influence; his pupil Simone Martini; Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti; Domenico and Taddeo di Bartolo; Sassetta and Matteo di Giovanni. Unlike the naturalistic Florentine art, there is a mystical streak in Sienese art[who?], characterized by a common focus on miraculous events, with less attention to proportions, distortions of time and place, and often dreamlike coloration. In the 16th century the Mannerists Beccafumi and Il Sodoma worked there. While Baldassare Peruzzi was born and trained in Siena, his major works and style reflect his long career in Rome. The economic and political decline of Siena by the 1500s, and its eventual subjugation by Florence, largely checked the development of Sienese painting, although it also meant that a good proportion of Sienese works in churches and public buildings were not discarded or destroyed by new paintings or rebuilding. Siena remains a remarkably well-preserved Italian late-Medieval town.
* The Lucchese School, also known as the School of Lucca and as the Pisan-Lucchese School, was a school of painting and sculpture that flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries in western and southern part of the region, with an important center in Volterra. The art is mostly anonymous. Although not as elegant or delicate as the Florentine School, Lucchese works are remarkable for their monumentality.
Main artistic centres
Arezzo ,Florence ,Pisa ,Siena ,Grosseto ,Lucca
San Gimignano
In the province of Arezzo:
* Arezzo
* Castiglion Fiorentino
* Cortona
* Lucignano
* Monte San Savino
* Foiano della Chiana
In the province of Florence:
* Florence
* Fiesole
* Certaldo
In the Province of Grosseto:
* Grosseto
* Massa Marittima
* Orbetello
* Pitigliano
* Roselle
* Sorano
* Sovana
In the province of Lucca:
* Barga
* Castelnuovo di Garfagnana
* Castiglione di Garfagnana
* Lucca
* Pietrasanta
* Viareggio
* Villa Basilica
In the province of Pisa:
* Pisa
* San Miniato
* Volterra
* Vicopisano
In the province of Siena:
* Colle di Val d'Elsa
* Pienza
* Montepulciano
* Montalcino
* San Gimignano
* Siena
