The Uffizi Gallery is a major Italian museum located in Florence making it one of the most popular and important in the world.
The building houses a superb collection of priceless works of art, which, like core, from the collections of the Medici, enriched over the centuries by bequests, exchanges and donations, among which an important group of religious works derived from the suppression of monasteries and convents between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Divided into several rooms set up for schools and styles in chronological order, the exhibition presents works from the twelfth to the eighteenth century, with the best collection of works by the school in Tuscany, and Florence in particular, that allows you to appreciate the development from Gothic to Renaissance to Mannerism, from Cimabue to Michelangelo, through Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Is unparalleled collection of works by Sandro Botticelli. Well represented, with masterpieces, are the other Italian and European schools (Mantegna, Titian, Parmigianino, Dürer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Canaletto, etc..). Of great importance is also the collection of ancient statuary and the drawings.
In 2008 he was visited by 1,553,951 people, making it the most visited art museum in Italian
The history Cosimo I and Vasari Domenico Poggini, Megalia of Cosimo I celebrating the creation of the Uffizi Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio Inside the Uffizi
With the installation of the Duke Cosimo I de 'Medici in the ancient town hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, began the policy of exaltation of the monarchy within the city limits. In 1560 the Duke wanted to bring together the 13 most important Florentine magistrates, and those offices placed earlier in the venues in one building under his direct supervision, in order to combine the old Palazzo della Signoria, a new seat of government, in keeping with the political and military power gained from Florence after the conquest of Siena. The site chosen for the new building was a strip of land between the southern side of the Piazza della Signoria and Lungarno, in a neighborhood where there was the river port of Florence.
The work was entrusted to Giorgio Vasari, who already took care of the yard of the adjacent Palazzo Vecchio. The project included a building shaped like a "U", consists of a long arm to the east, to be incorporated with the ancient Romanesque church of San Pier Scheraggio, a short stretch overlooking the Arno river and a short arm to the west, incorporating the Old Mint.
In the new building had to be placed offices of thirteen major Courts regulating the administration of the Medici state, on the side of the Palazzo Vecchio, the old church of San Pier Scheraggio it succeeded: the Conservatives Nine of the Dominion and the Jurisdiction of Florence, the ' Merchants of art, the Art of Change, the Arte della Seta, the Art of Physicians and Apothecaries, the University of Manufacturers and the Court of Merchandise; Officers on the opposite side of Honesty, the Tithes and Sales, the Officers Grascia, the Magistrate of Pupils, Conservatories Read and Commissioners of the bands [2].
To reduce expenses, Cosimo, and to entrust the work under contract to the maximum discount, granted licenses to suppliers unusual: the renaioli could remove the sand the fold of the Arno river near the present Ponte alle Grazie (bridge Rubaconte), the masons made sure the use of quarry stone of the moat Mulinaccio [3], in the valley of the shelf [4], at St. Martin in shelf, traditionally reserved for public works, the masons use stone quarry extracted from the ditch of the fortress San Miniato, near the port of San Niccolò and scrap of pavement pavement of the streets of Florence. [5] He resorted to the imposition of servitude, commanding the people of some podesterie: the carters of Fields and Prato, the stonemasons of Fiesole, the pickmen Figline of Prato. The wood is bought from the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. The architect Giorgio Vasari was assisted in this difficult construction site by Master Dionysius (or Nigi) of indolent [6].
For the wedding of his son Francesco with Giovanna of Austria, in 1565, the Duke decreed to open a secret and aerial passage between Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti, the new residence of the Medici dynasty and directly connected to the circle bastion of Florence. Vasari built in just six months the so-called Vasari Corridor, which, Palazzo Vecchio, overcome by the Ninna with a covered bridge, along the gallery, beyond the Arno over the Ponte Vecchio, comes in the Oltrarno district, arriving in Boboli Gardens and Pitti Palace from there, this place was later set up a connection to safely reach the Forte Belvedere. In August 1572 all magistrates on the side of St. Peter Scheraggio are already established in the new offices even if the building is not completed. Francis I and Buontalenti
In 1574 the Duke Francesco I de 'Medici the direction of the work was entrusted to Bernardo Buontalenti, who completed the factory, along with the old Alfonso Parigi. In October 1580, the building was completed with the union, on the side of the Mint, "the largest and oldest of Piazza Loggia" 16. Between 1579 and 1581 the vaults of the gallery were painted with motifs "grotesque" by Antonio Tempesta and subsequently by Alessandro Allori, which collaborated with Ludovico Buti, Giovanmaria Butteri, John Bizzelli and Alessandro Pieroni.
In 1581, Francis I, Cosimo's son, decided to close the balcony on the top floor and use as a personal gallery where to gather his magnificent collection of paintings-century, contemporary cameos, medals, precious stones, statues, ancient and modern, jewels, bronzes, armor, miniatures, scientific instruments and natural rarity, but also portraits of the Medici family and famous men. This is the first nucleus of the future Uffizi Gallery
To better prepare the collection, from that same year, Buontalenti built the Forum on the long arm of the Uffizi, inspired by the Tower of the Winds in Athens, described by Vitruvius in the first book of Architecture, the core of the Medici Gallery.
In 1583 Francis I called to transform the terrace, over the Loggia dei Lanzi, a roof garden, now deceased, where the court met to hear musical performances and other entertainment.
During the same period (1586), it is still the genius of Buontalenti the completion of the Medici Theatre built at the first and second floors of the east wing of the museum. It is a large rectangular room surrounded by bleachers on three sides, with the stage in the middle of the principles. In the nineteenth century the theater will be divided into two levels: the first is now located in the Prints and Drawings, according to some in the halls of the Gallery. The theater as a whole is only the vestibule, where the left is placed what was once the main entrance to the theater, now the entrance of Prints and Drawings, in front of the three doors of the Shelter: the central one, with wooden doors carved with the Medici arms, there is a bust of Francis I. The Doctors Tourists in a row under the arcades
In 1587 the Duke Ferdinando I de 'Medici, the collection was enriched with the so-called "Giovio Series," a collection of portraits of famous men taken by the Bishop of Como Paolo Giovio, which is now on display at the top of the beams of the galleries of the statues. By the will was made duke, turning a terrace near the grandstand, the room known as "the map" whose walls were painted by Ludovico Buti with the maps of the "old domain Florentine", "State of Siena" and "Island Elba "and some were placed in the ceiling paintings by Jacopo Zucchi represented mythological fables. At the center of the room was a globe and an armillary sphere (now in the Museum of the History of Science) was also made the "Closet of mathematics" to collect scientific instruments, with a ceiling decorated by a beautiful woman, the personification of Mathematics, flanked the walls with scenes from the inventions of Archimedes.
On the initiative of Ferdinand I, the Uffizi were transferred to the grand-ducal workshops in 1588 and the Precious Stones, a manufacturing state experienced in the processing of precious objects, and were arranged workshops of goldsmiths, jewelers, miniature painters, gardeners, architects of porcelain, sculptors and painters of the west wing of the gallery and to allow access to the staircase was placed Buontalenti said.
Near the factory, seven rooms of the Gallery were designed to accommodate the collection of arms and armor, and also a room was set up with precious stones carved brought as a dowry by Christine of Lorraine. At that time was the Ripintura some frescoed ceilings by Ludovico Buti in 1588.
In 1591 it decreed the opening hours of the gallery on demand.
With the death of Ferdinand I in 1609, the gallery has remained popular for a long time.
Between 1658 and 1679, the time of Ferdinand II de 'Medici, Cosimo interpellarono Ulivelli, Angelo Gori and Jacopo Latches to paint the ceilings, whose work was unfortunately destroyed in 1762 and replaced with new decorations by Giuseppe del Moro, Giuliano Traballesi and Joseph Land. The wife of Ferdinand, Vittoria della Rovere, the last descendant of the Dukes of Urbino, brought to Florence the vast legacy of Urbino: a refined group of works by Titian, Piero della Francesca, Raphael, Federico Barocci and others. Other works of the Venetian school came through the work of Cardinal Leopoldo de 'Medici, brother of the Grand Duke, which began with a passion to collect collection drawings, miniatures and portraits.
Between 1696 and 1699 under the reign of Cosimo III de 'Medici, the genes of Giuseppe Nicola Giuseppe Tonelli Nasini and decorated with great skill the times of the arm facing the Arno, and soon after expanded the western arm of the gallery, adibendo the new premises to house a delightful collection of self-portraits, refined porcelain, medals, drawings and bronzes.
In the foundry, or pharmacy, picking up what is left above the natural curiosity stimulated Renaissance mummies, many stuffed animals, ostrich eggs and rhino horns. With regard to the collection, the Duke Cosimo III acquired numerous Flemish paintings (many Rubens) and some valuable Roman statues, such as the famous Medici Venus, a rare original greek became rightfully among the most famous sculptures in the gallery. The Lorraine The tribune of the Uffizi, in eighteenth-century painting by J. Zoffany
Now extinguished the dynasty of the Medici in 1737 after the death of Gian Gastone, the sister of the latter, Anna Maria Ludovica, the Convention of the same year, he gave the Medici collections at the House of Lorraine, provided that the works remain in Florence and inalienable: it was the act, duly respected by Lorraine, which allowed the preservation intact of the vast and sublime collections to this day, without getting lost or take the path out of Italy, as unfortunately happened to the equally exceptional Mantua and Urbino .
Between 1748 and 1765 was made an extensive survey chart, coordinated by Vincenzo De Benedetto Greyss. In 1762 a fire destroyed a part of the eastern corridor, quickly rebuilt and redecorated.
Peter Leopold of Lorraine, opening the gallery to the public in 1769 and providing for the construction of a new entrance, designed by Zanobi del Rosso, promoted a radical transformation of the gallery, confiding it to Giuseppe Pelli Bencivenni and reorganization, which was completed in the year 1780 -82, Luigi Lanzi, who followed the criteria rationalistic Enlightenment and its teaching, with "its own kind of thing or more than two" in every room. In the gallery was removed the armory, sold the collection of majolica and moved to the Observatory scientific instruments, and this fact can be solved in a vision of rationalist Enlightenment that distinguish science from art and wanted to concentrate in the Uffizi painting, separated by ancient sculpture and the minor arts, as opposed to the eclecticism of the Renaissance. Since 1793 some trade with the Imperial Gallery of Vienna, facilitated by kinship ties between their royal families, saw the arrival of masterpieces by Titian, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Dürer and others, in exchange for Florentine works of the sixteenth and seventeenth including Fra Bartolomeo: In hindsight it was above Florence to earn.
In 1779 was created by Gaspare Maria Paoletti the Hall of Niobe, where they were set up a complex of ancient sculptures representing Niobe and her children, from the Villa Medici in Rome. Nineteenth and twentieth centuries Piazzale degli Uffizi
Between 1842 and 1856, were included 28 marble statues in the niches of the pillars outside the gallery, with the illustrious Tuscans from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Among the most valuable of the show are the statue of Giotto di Giovanni Dupre, left on the third pillar, the Machiavelli of Lorenzo Bartolini, the eleventh, the statue of St. Anthony of Dupré, right in the fourth pillar, and Michelangelo [7] Emilio Santarelli.
In the age of the Risorgimento, when Florence was selected as the capital of Italy (1865-1871), the Italian Senate met in Teatro Manzoni with the Medici.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Uffizi they started to become mostly a collection of paintings, some Renaissance statues were removed and transferred to the Museum of the Bargello and some Etruscan statues that were transferred to the Archaeological Museum.
The short arm to the west since 1866 had registered the Royal Mail (adapted from Mariano Falcini), and today, after a restoration in 1988, are held several exhibitions of material coming mainly from deposits.
In 1889 the Medici theater was divided into two floors and dismantled.
In 1900 it was purchased paintings Arcispedale of Santa Maria Nuova, including the Portinari Triptych from the church of Sant'Egidio, and from the beginning of the twentieth century were strengthening, with purchases and transfers from various churches and religious istitutio, areas such as the fourteenth and the early fifteenth century, outside the historic core of the museum.
By separating the Medici theater into two floors and gaining six rooms, were the first renovated in 1956 and designed by Giovanni Michelucci, Carlo Scarpa, Ignazio Gardella.
In 1969 it was bought Collection Contini Bonacossi.
On 27 May 1993, following an attack on the mafia that killed five people and damaged areas of the Gallery and the Vasari Corridor, many pieces in the collection were placed in storage and gradually, with the restoration and the safety of 'western wing, are back in setting the museum.
In 1998, the international competition for the new release of the Uffizi was won by Arata Isozaki, but the project, much criticized, was finally shelved in 2005. Another long-term project has been the construction of the Great Uffizi, doubling the exhibition space by moving from the first floor of the State, drawing on works from the stores (which are located on the top floor) and thus widening sections a bit ' penalized by spaces, such as that relating to the seventeenth century: today the first floor preserves the works of the seventeenth century (such as room and Caravaggio Caravaggio) and is home to the most prestigious exhibitions. Architecture The Uffizi gallery at night Arcade
Construction began in 1560 and is made by adopting the Doric order, according to Vasari, "more secure and firmer degl 'others [...] always loved the Lord Duke Cosimo" in 1565 had already completed the so-called Long Uffizi and the part overlooking the Arno.
The Uffizi Palace is composed of two longitudinal main buildings, connected to the south on one side shorter than the very similar, thus giving rise to a complex "U", which covers a square and smashes prospectively to Piazza della Signoria, with a perfect shot of Palazzo Vecchio and its tower.
The three buildings have the same form: on the ground floor a porch architrave covered with a barrel vault, consisting of bays separated by pilasters with niches and divided into three intercolumni two columns placed between the pillars, and in this form are three openings in the above fake mezzanine that serve to illumunare the porch and three windows on the first floor that presented alternating between triangular gable and curved gables and range between pilasters, and finally the top floor a porch resumed tripartite form and was later hosted the original "Gallery" in the Uffizi.
On the ground floor a porch runs the entire length of the west and south, and the east side to via Lambertesca, raised on a podium in a few steps, the porch is formed by Doric columns and pilasters with niches for statues that support an architrave, but is covered by long barrel vaults, decorated with rectangular frames in relief, which are connected by bands disegnanti a geometric pattern broken.
The portico architrave is a great novelty in the history of architecture, as the medieval arches, and then the Renaissance, consisted of a series of arches and lintels ever, both in Florence (such as the portico of the Hospital of the Innocents) or elsewhere, apart from the Senatorial Palace of Michelangelo which is in fact one of the models of the project Vasari.
On the upper floors repeats a module of three boxes, three windows with balconies and gables ripsettivamente triangular, circular and triangular new (first floor) and three openings on the upper loggia (now the gallery on the second floor), divided by two columns. The floors are divided by majestic cornices. The architectural elements are highlighted by the use of stone (in particular the one extracted from the valley of the shelf), which stands on white plaster, according to the style that is typical Florentine begun by Brunelleschi.
The short side is characterized by a large arch that frames a serliana component spectacularly overlooking the Arno, surmounted by a loggia, open to both the forecourt that Arno, as a real theatrical backdrop, inspired by the contemporary achievements spectacular. On the first floor the large windows have a scoronamento arc and before the central one, the largest, corresponding internally to Verone, there are three statues standing of Cosimo I by Giambologna (1585), flanked by the personifications lying Equity and the Strictly speaking, both of Vincenzo Danti (1566). In the niches of the pillars of the porch was designed to include a number of statues of famous Florentines, construction began only since 1835.
Very original is the portal ("the door of Pleas") built by Bernardo Buontalenti via Lambertesca: is crowned with broken pediment, but more originality Buontalenti reversed the two halves, resulting in a sort of gable "wing", which recalls the ideas animalistic and organic architecture. Exhibition Entrance vestibule and hallway east
The environment consists of three vestibules was made at the end of the eighteenth century with the completion of the monumental staircase, the new access to the gallery, by order of Grand Duke Peter Leopold. In the first hall are busts in marble and porphyry from Francesco I de 'Medici Gian Gastone; connected with this is the rectangular vestibule, decorated in time by Giovanni da San Giovanni Capricci mythological, decorated with altars, busts, ancient and modern in the Vestibule elliptical : Roman statues, sarcophagi and ancient reliefs. The door to the gallery, flanked by two dogs are mastiffs, Roman copies of the first century AD, is surmounted by a bust of Peter Leopold.
The three corridors that correspond to the three parts of the building, running along the inner side of them and open rooms. They are decorated with frescoes on the ceilings and large windows reveal their primitive appearance of the open loggia covered.
Today, the halls are home to a collection of ancient statuary, begun by Lorenzo the Magnificent, who kept the works in the Garden of San Marco near the Palazzo Medici. The collection was enlarged by Cosimo I after his first trip to Rome in 1560 when he chose to dedicate statues to adorn the Pitti Palace and the portraits and busts for the Palazzo Vecchio. Finally, he was still increased at the time of Peter Leopold of Lorraine, when they brought in Florence works of Villa Medici, gathered largely from the future Grand Duke Ferdinando I, cardinal at the time. It is interesting to note that these works, which is often casually shunned by visitors, until the early nineteenth century were a source of interest in the visit to the gallery. According to some sources he was an essay by John Ruskin to reawaken interest in the Renaissance painting to the museum, which had mistreated.
The sculptures are of great value and especially dating back to Roman times, with numerous copies of Greek originals. Sometimes incomplete or broken statues were restored and complemented by the great sculptors of the Renaissance. The arrangement of the sculptures now follows as much as possible to the end of the eighteenth century, when they allowed the comparison of old and modern masters, then a theme very dear, and therefore the function of the statues is still essential and highly distinctive origin and historical role the gallery.
The first, long hallway is to the east, richly decorated ceiling in grotesque dating back to 1581, while running at the limit of the ceiling, a long series of portraits, the Jupiter series, interspersed with paintings of larger size of the leading exponents of the Medici family, Courtly the series begun by Francesco I de 'Medici, with portraits by Giovanni di Bicci Gian Gastone.
To pictorial portraits make to counter the series of Roman busts, arranged chronologically at the end of the eighteenth century in a manner to cover the entire imperial history.
Among the works of statuary most important celebrations Hercules and a Centaur, from an original tardoellenistico integrated into the figure of the hero by Giovan Battista Caccini in 1589, a Barbarian King, made in 1712 from only antique bust, Pan and Daphni, an original by Heliodorus of Rhodes beginning of the first century BC, the Dancing Satyr or Bacchus, a Hellenistic original, restored in the sixteenth century. Later they meet a statue of Persephone, a greek original of the fourth century BC, ila old copy of the Pothos Skopas (fourth century BC). On the sides of the Tribune there is a Hercules, an original by Lysippus, and a bust of Hadrian belonged to Lorenzo the Magnificent. In the last part of the hallway you will find two Venuses from the original of the fourth century BC and a Hellenistic Apollo, who was at the entrance of the Villa Medici and invited, with his right arm restoration, to enter the house, as if the Kingdom of God itself. Room 1 Archaeological
The hall was created in 1921, this set up works are mostly coming from Rome. Among the findings are reported to a Biga (V-IV century BC) and the frieze dell'Atena Nike (restored in the eighteenth century by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi). Belong to the genre "plebeian" of Roman art the two reliefs with scenes of the shop, the first century AD The reliefs of the Ara Pacis casts are: the Medici had the original plate of Saturnia Tellus, who in 1937 returned to Rome to reconstruct the monument. Augustan era also are the fragments of pilaster spirals, while the sides are two reliefs of cupids, one with the attributes of Jupiter (the lightning) and one with those of Mars (the armor) were part of a series of very popular in the Middle Ages, which Donatello was inspired by the choir of Santa Maria del Fiore.
They come from a frieze Hadrian in the second century the Temple of Vesta and the scene of sacrifice. The sarcophagus with the Labours of Hercules is characterized by a more pronounced contrast bright, through processing to drill, the different ages of Hercules depicted allude to periods of life. Sale of the Middle Ages
Rooms from 2 to 6 are devoted to medieval art. With the first of the thirteenth century and Giotto, you enter the nucleus of salt "primitives", set up by 1956 by Giovanni Michelucci, Carlo Scarpa and Ignazio Gardella, who covered the room with a beamed ceiling, imitating the medieval churches. The lounge has a strong impact on the presence of three monumental majesty of Cimabue, Duccio and Giotto painted a few years away. In the Majesty of the Holy Trinity 1285-1300 Cimabue tried to emancipate themselves from the Byzantine styles, seeking a greater volume and plastic relief, with an unusual sweetness of sfumato, in front of the altarpiece of Duccio, the Madonna Rucellai (1285 or so), built with a rhythmic structure and graceful figures, which are more influenced by contemporary French Gothic painting experience, and finally, in the middle of the room, the Majesty of All Saints of Giotto (about 1310) with its monumental and built much more plastically emphasizing the chiaroscuro and volume bodies. Giotto is also the Badia Polyptych of about 1300.
The first room also has a choicest representing ducentesca painting, including a triumphant Christ del'XII end of the century and a Christus patiens, rare for the high quality and very good state of preservation.
The following room (3) is dedicated to the great masters of the fourteenth century Sienese, which face the greatest masters of this school: the Annunciation by Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi (1333) and the Presentation in the Temple by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1342) , both from the Cathedral of Siena, and the Altarpiece of the Blessed Humility (1340) by Pietro Lorenzetti.
Follows the hall of the fourteenth century Florentine (4), which shows the developments in art after Giotto with the contributions of its students and the most original and Giottino as Giovanni da Milano.
The hall of the International Gothic (5-6) is dominated by the monumental Coronation of the Virgin (1414) by Lorenzo Monaco and the blaze of magnificence and elegance of the'' Adoration of the Magi (1423) by Gentile da Fabriano, performed for the Florentine merchant Ball Strozzi. Sale of the early Renaissance
Peerless is the core of the early Renaissance painting, from the twenties to the mid-fifteenth century. The development of the new language is demonstrated by Anne Metterza (1424) by Masolino and Masaccio in room 7: Masaccio are the sculptures of the Virgin and Child, painted with a solemn and austere build so realistic it can no longer be called "Gothic ". In the same room there are the Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello, which documents his "obsession" perspective, and the works of Fra Angelico and Domenico Veneziano indicate that the search for new formats for altarpieces and the birth of " painting with light ".
The great hall 8 is dedicated to Filippo Lippi, developer of the proposed Masaccio and ferryman of Florentine art to the "primacy of purpose" which was his most striking feature. There is also the extraordinary double portrait of the Dukes of Urbino by Piero della Francesca, one of the most famous icono Renaissance aesthetics. The exhibition is accompanied by the works of Alesso Baldovinetti and the son of Lippi, Filippino, who was an artist breaking at the end of the fifteenth century.
The room 9 is dedicated to the Pollaiuolo brothers, among the first to practice a contour line agile, which was a model for many later artists. In the series of Virtues made to the Court of Merchandise, one stands out for its elegant design is the Fortress, one of the first works of the young Botticelli (1470). Hall of Botticelli Botticelli, Madonna of the Magnificat
The hall of Botticelli, large rooms for the unification of 10-14, is the best collection in the world collection of works by the master Sandro Botticelli, including his masterpiece, Spring and the famous Birth of Venus, two emblematic works of the sophisticated culture Neoplatonic developed in Florence in the second half of the fifteenth century. These works were carried out in the eighties of the fifteenth century and is the first large-scale works to profane the Italian Renaissance. They were painted for Lorenzo de 'Medici, but Lorenzo the Magnificent, but a cousin who lived in the Villa of Careggi, in which among other things is not good blood flowed.
In this room you can trace the intiera pictorial evolution of the master, with the lovely Madonna in glory of seraphim and the Madonna of the Rose Garden, more youthful works still linked to the style of Filippo Lippi and Verrocchio, the Portrait of a Man with medal Cosimo the Elder (1475), where we are already witnessing a maturing style probably related to the study of the realism of Flemish art, the mythological works, such as moving Pallas and the Centaur, an allegory of human instincts divided between reason and impulsivity, but led by divine wisdom.
With the approach of the sixteenth century the reactionary wave ultra-religious Girolamo Savonarola began to become more and more pressing in the Florentine society and this occurs more or less gradually in all artists. Even Botticelli, after magnificent work as the Madonna of the Magnificat began to adopt a more free, loose the clarity of geometric perspective of the first century (Our Lady of the pomegranate, Pala di San Barnaba), with some experiments arcaicista as the Coronation of Virgin where the teacher returns to the gold background in a scene apparently inspired by the reading of Dante. The darkest period of the preaching of Savonarola brings a final wave of mysticism pessimistic in his painting: Calumny (1495) symbolizes the failure of optimistic spirit humanist, with the finding of human baseness and the confinement of the truth.
But this room also contains numerous other masterpieces particularly apt is the location of the Portinari Triptych, Flemish work of Hugo van der Goes, 1475 brought about a banker of the company Medici in Bruges in 1483, who with his estrangement from formal works surrounding well makes the effect of bright meteor that this work was in art circles in Florence in the second half of the fifteenth century. A closer examination, however, you begin to grasp the similarities with the later works, most attention to detail, the best performance luministic due to oil painting that the Florentine painters tried to imitate, and can even copy some elements of the work Flemish, as the freebies clear by Domenico Ghirlandaio in his similar Adoration of the Shepherds in the basilica of Santa Trinita.
Another Flemish work is the Deposition in the tomb of Rogier van der Weyden (1450), with the composition taken from a panel of Fra Angelico, who testifies to mutual trade between Florentine and Flemish masters. Leonardo room and adjacent rooms
The room 15 documents the artistic beginnings of Leonardo da Vinci, from the first documented work, the Baptism of Christ in 1475, the work of his master Verrocchio in which the young Leonardo painted the angel's head to the left, the landscape and perhaps the modeling of the body of Christ. Another early work is the Annunciation, painted by the master twenties, which is already visible quality of sfumato of Leonardo and his attention to atmospheric vibrations (think angel just landed), but with some perspective error, as the book on which the Virgin laying an arm, or on the ground rests on a far more advanced than the legs of the Madonna. The Adoration of the Magi instead is an unfinished work in which it is clear the sense of the innovative genius of Vinci, with a composition centered on the original Madonna and Child in a glittering scene of numerous figures in the movement, including not appear, however, the Traditional St. Joseph or the hut.
in the room are also represented artists active in Florence in those years: Perugino (three large blades), Luca Signorelli and Piero di Cosimo.
The room 16 (of maps) was originally a lodge, which was closed for want of Ferdinando I de 'Medici and fresco made with maps of domains Medici. The room 17 is called Stanzino of Mathematics, always created for Ferdinand to accommodate its scientific instruments. The ceiling was in fact decorated with an allegory of Mathematics and events that celebrate the ancient culture of science. Today exposes the collection of bronzes and some modern sculptural old. The Tribune Main article: For more, see the entry for the Tribune of the Uffizi.
The Tribune is an octagonal room which is the oldest part of the gallery. Was commissioned by Francesco I de 'Medici in 1584 to settle the archaeological collections and then there were all placed the most precious pieces and loved the Medici collections. Become very popular in the days of the Grand Tour, was reportedly an inspiration for many European nobles Wunderkammer. The environment is covered by a dome encrusted with shells and mother of pearl and covered by ribs and golden lantern on which was a compass connected to the outside by a weather vane. The Tribune has in the walls of scarlet, as the velvet upholstery, on which are hung with paintings and shelves for objects and statues plinth, now lost, was painted by Jacopo Ligozzi with birds, fish and other natural wonders, the center was a temple-shrine, or a piece of furniture octagonal kept smaller pieces and quality of the collection and the floor was made of inlaid marble.
The Tribune, its decorations and objects contained alluded to the four elements (Air, Earth, Water, Fire): for example, the compass rose in the lantern evoked the air, while the shells embedded in the dome of the water, the fire was symbolized by the red of the walls and the land of precious marbles on the floor. All this symbolism was then embellished with statues and paintings that developed the theme of the Elements and their combinations. The meaning given to the whole was also the glory of the Medici, thanks to the divine will, had reached the earthly power, symbolized by the magnificent rare and valuable possessions.
Today, as transformed over the centuries, it is the only room in which you can understand the original spirit of the Uffizi, that is a place of wonder where you could directly compare the works of the ancients, represented by sculpture, and modern ones, with the paintings. Around the table inlaid with precious stones (of 1633-1649) are placed in a circle some of the most famous ancient sculptures of the Medici, as the Dancing Faun (Roman replica of an original of the third century BC), the Wrestlers (copy of the imperial era ), the grinder (which sharpened the knife in the group of Marsyas), the Scythian, (copy of a statue of the school of Pergamum which was part of a group with Marsyas), the Apollino and especially the famous Medici Venus, an original greek in the first century BC one of the most celebrated representations of the goddess.
The cabinet monumental stones contained in the collection of priceless gemstones, semi-precious stones and antique cameos work, one of the most popular collections of the Medici, who were often affect your initials on the most valuable pieces: today are exposed in different locations, the Silver Museum, the National Archaeological Museum of Florence and the Museum of Mineralogy and Lithology. Sale of the Renaissance outside Florence
The rest of the eastern arm (rooms 19-23) is devoted to various schools Renaissance Italian and foreign: in these rooms are fully captures the spirit teaching Uffizi, which developed in the eighteenth century through exchanges and specific augmentation, to represent the development of painting in all its strands most important.
The Room 19, Armory already has an original vault was destroyed and was repainted in 1665 with the Allegories of Florence and Tuscany, triumphs, battles and badges Medici by Agnolo Gori. The room clarifies the Umbrian and Tuscan painting with masterpieces by artists already met in the hall of Leonardo: Luca Signorelli, Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi and Piero di Cosimo. This artist, famous for its magical and imaginative tone of his works with a mythological subject, is represented here by his masterpiece Perseus freeing Andromeda. Rounding out the room painted Emilian school, Forlì and the Marches.
The room 20 (Dürer) itself is unique in Italy, hosting five works of the undisputed master of the German Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer, including the Adoration of the Magi, 1504, showing the amounts due to the use of Italian painting perspective and color. Even Lukas Cranach is represented by several works, including large panels of Adam and Eve (1528). Albrecht Altdorfer and Hans Holbein the Younger are present in the room 22. The ceiling 20 has a fresco decoration with grotesques original sixteenth century, while the views of Florence were added later in the eighteenth century; curious is the view of the Basilica of Santa Croce without the century facade.
The 21 room, frescoed the vault by Ludovico Buti battles and grotesque (interesting figures of "Indians" and animals of the New World), is dedicated to the Venetian painting. If the works of Giorgione and Carpaccio are not widely considered by critics autograph of John Bellini's masterpiece Allegory is sacred, from the cryptic meaning not yet fully understood. This is also the only representative of the Ferrarese painting of the fifteenth century in the gallery, Cosme Tura and his San Domenico (1475).
Even the room 22 (the Flemish and German Renaissance) is itself a unicuum in view museuale national, with examples that testify to the prolific series of exchanges between Florence and Flanders in the fifteenth century, as the portraits of Benedict and Folco Portinari Hans Memling (c. 1490) or Portraits of Pierantonio Baroncelli and his wife Maria Bonciani, an anonymous Flemish master (1490). It is no coincidence here include works by the Italian artist more "Flemish", Antonello da Messina (San Giovanni Evangelista and Madonna and Child with Angels reggicorona, about 1470-1475). The ceiling is decorated by Ludovico Buti (1588), with vivid battle scenes.
The room 23 is finally dedicated to the masters of northern Italy Mantegna and Correggio. The first three works, including the triptych from the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua (1460), which reads his extraordinary ability to evoke the splendor of the ancient world. Correggio are documented various stages of the Madonna and Child between two angels playing musical instruments (by youth), the Adoration of the Child (1530) and the Rest of the Flight into Egypt with Saint Francis (1517), works of great originality amazingly forerunner of the seventeenth century painting. Rounding out the room a series of paintings of the Lombard school, especially related to Leonardo.
