Museo Archeologico Nazionale

Florence’s excellent archaeology museum (MAF) occupies the 17th-century Palazzo della Crocetta, built for Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena of Austria. Just like nearly every other museum in Florence, this impressive collection was begun by the Medici, beginning with Cosimo il Vecchio and accelerating with the insatiable Cosimo I and his heirs. The Medici were especially fond of Etruscan things, while the impressive Egyptian collection was begun by Leopold II in the 1830s.

Etruscan Collection

The Etruscan collection is on the first floor, including the famous bronze Chimera, a remarkable beast with the three heads of a lion, goat and snake. This 5th-century BC work, dug up near Arezzo in 1555 and immediately snatched by Cosimo I, had a great influence on Mannerist artists. There is no Mannerist fancy about its origins, though; like all such composite monsters, it is a religious icon, a calendar beast symbolizing the three seasons of the ancient Mediterranean agricultural year.