The Uffizi is one of the most famous art galleries in the world. Here is a vast panorama of the various schools of painting. These include the Florentine school, the Venetian and other Italian schools, as well as a rich selection of Flemish canvases with a famous series of self-portraits. In addition to paintings, the gallery has rooms dedicated to antique sculpture and rooms with the richest collection of tapestries.
Museum building
The Uffizi Gallery building was built by architect Giorgio Vasari at the request of the Medici family and was originally intended for administrative purposes. It was begun in 1560 and finished 20 years later.
The building consists of two buildings with loggias on the ground floor. At the back, the two buildings are connected by a third building with a huge arcade overlooking the embankment of the Arno River. At the bottom, on both sides of the central courtyard in powerful pylons formed niches in which are placed statues of the XIX century, representing famous figures of Tuscany. The first floor is cut through by huge windows and the third floor is a vast loggia. In addition to the Picture Gallery, which occupies the third floor, the building houses the State Archives, where rare documents on the history of the city are kept, as well as the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints, which displays a unique collection that began in the 17th century on the initiative of Cardinal Leopold Medici.
Since 1737, the museum has been in the public domain, after Anna Maria Ludovica, the last member of the Medici family, donated it to the city.
The museum's collection is housed on the top floor of the building. Greek and Roman sculptures are displayed in spacious corridors. The paintings are hung in chronological order, tracing the history of Florentine art from Byzantine times to the High Renaissance and beyond.
Uffizi Gallery Collection
The Uffizi Gallery is known for the most complete collection of paintings from all periods of the Italian Renaissance, from the famous altarpiece, the Madonna Onisanti by the church painting reformer Giotto di Bondone, displayed in Room 2. One of the few works on wood, The Coronation of Mary by Fra Beato Angelico (Giovanni Fiesole), a Florentine monk master of fresco painting, continues the exposition of the early Renaissance period.
In Room 8, Maestro Filippo Lippi's Madonna with Child and Angel, painted with the artist's lover, and The Coronation of Mary, with a self-portrait of the master as a monk. These canvases differ significantly from the works of their predecessors in the vividness of their images and palette.
Halls 10-14 are dedicated to the works of Sandro Botticelli. The well-known paintings The Birth of Venus and Spring, painted for Lorenzo de' Medici, are full of symbolism and innovations of the time. For example, the shell, signifying fertility, was transferred by Botticelli himself into church symbolism as a sign of purity, and Venus's veils are the characteristic shade of ceremonial coverings. The golden fruits in the spring garden are heraldic symbols of the Medici family. The artist used new technologies for creating colours and protective coating of paintings, thanks to which the canvases have survived to our days in good condition.
The 15th room is dedicated to the great Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo's earliest work, The Annunciation, was created between 1472 and 1475 in the workshop and under the guidance of his teacher Verrocchio. Da Vinci's brushwork is believed to be that of the Angel blessing Mary. Also Leonardo da Vinci's work - the blond angel from Andrea Verrocchio's painting "The Baptism of Christ" belongs to the period of his apprenticeship. The unfinished work "Adoration of the Magi", commissioned for the monastery of Santo Donato in Scopeto, was left by the master a year later, in connection with the move from Florence to Milan. Against the background of the ruins of a pagan temple, it depicts the Virgin Mary and her infant, surrounded by respectfully bowing Magi. The central part of the painting, executed in oil on wood, is left free, which creates for the viewer the effect of participation in the action.
"The Holy Family" - the only work by Michelangelo Buonarotti, fully completed and preserved to this day, is presented in the 25th hall of the gallery. It was executed by the young Michelangelo at the request of the newlyweds Agnolo and Maddalena Doni in the form of a circular painting in the technique of cangiante, conveying sculptural graphics of bodies. The saturated palette of the canvas shows trends in the future colour schemes of the Sistine Chapel paintings.
In the numerous rooms of the Uffizi Gallery you can see unique works by Ambrogio and Piero Lorenzetti, Simone Martini, "Adoration of the Magi" by Lorenzo Monaco, Genitile da Fabiano and Sandro Botticelli, creations by Pietro and Antonio del Polaiolo, "Venus of Urbino" by Titian, masterpieces by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Cimabue and many others.
Be sure to visit the sculpture corridor dedicated to the Medici family, examine ancient Greek and Roman sculptures of rulers and mythical creatures.
Separate halls are dedicated to foreign art: German painting (among others - works by Albrecht Dürer), Spanish (El Greco, Goya, Velasquez), French painting (Lorrain, Charles Le Bre), Flemish painting (Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt). On the ground floor you can see the remains of an ancient church destroyed during the construction of the gallery.
Between rooms 25 and 34 there is a wooden door leading to the continuation of the museum - this corridor houses about 700 paintings.
Separately, you may be interested in the collection of self-portraits by Russian and European artists - Kustodiev, Aivazovsky, Ivanov, Kiprensky, specially collected for the Uffizi Gallery.
On a side note
- Location: Piazzale degli Uffizi, 6, Firenze
- Official website: http://www.uffizi.beniculturali.it/
- Opening hours: daily except Monday, 8.30 to 22.00 in summer and 8.30 to 19.00 in winter. On Sunday the museum closes at 14:00.
- Tickets: the ticket price is 7 euros.
