Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
116
THE UFFIZI GALLERY
The south side of the square exits into the Piazzale degli Uffizi. There you'll
find one of the world's greatest museums, the
Gallerie degli Uffizi (Uffizi
Gallery)
(Piazza degli Uffizi, 6;
%
055-2388651; www.uffizi.firenze.it;
€
6.50, free for children under 18,
€
3 booking fee; Tues-Sun 8:15am-6:50pm;
ticket office closes 6:05pm).
Long lines, erratic open hours, occasionally surly
staff, and galleries closed for never-revealed reasons make the Uffizi a sometimes
frustrating place to visit. But the Uffizi's 45 rooms and marble corridors are
absolutely jam-packed with famous paintings--among them Botticelli's
Birth of
Venus,
Leonardo da Vinci's
Annunciation,
Michelangelo's
Holy Family,
and many
more. So for all its potential inconveniences, the Uffizi is a must-see.
Be sure to plan your visit to the Uffizi wisely or you'll waste a valuable day in
Florence standing in a 2-hour line, miss the top paintings, or find the museum to
be closed altogether. The first thing to do:
Make reservations.
Call
%
055-
294883 Monday through Friday 8:30am to 6:30pm or Saturday 8:30am to
12:30pm up to a couple of weeks in advance. You can also order tickets over the
Internet at www.selectitaly.com. By paying the
€
3 booking fee, you'll bypass the
long lines and cross the velvet rope like a Hollywood celebrity gaining entrance to
a hip club. If you do come to town without a reservation, lines will be shorter
toward the end of the day (which means you have to do the museum at a slow
jog, but that's better than skipping it).
Giorgio Vasari designed the building for Cosimo Medici in 1560 as a combi-
nation office and art gallery. The last of the Medicis, Anna Maria Lodovica,
donated the family's art collection to the city of Florence in the 1730s, and the
pieces have been in the Uffizi since. The building itself is a work of art. Once you
enter and climb the dramatic staircase to the second floor galleries, look down at
the multicolored marble floors and up to the ceiling. The elaborate ceiling fres-
coes start with scenes from antiquity in the east corridor, transition into the
“grotesque” style in the south corridor toward the river, and glorify the Medicis in
the west corridor.
The Uffizi's rooms are grouped by schools and presented in chronological
order. Below are a few noteworthy items. Keep in mind that the museum ran-
domly closes rooms, or changes the order of certain paintings for restoration or
remodeling.
Start with
Room 2
for an early look at the Renaissance. First, compare teacher
and student as you examine Cimabue's 1285
Maesta
and Giotto's version, done in
1310. The similar subject and setting for the two paintings allows the viewer to
see how Giotto transformed Cimabue's iconic Byzantine style into something
more human. Giotto's Madonna actually looks like she's sitting on a throne, her
clothes emphasizing the curves of her body, whereas Cimabue's Madonna and
angels look like portraits on coins, or maybe an Egyptian pyramid painting, with
flattened positioning and stiff angles.
Room 7
contains your next don't-miss sight, the world's most famous mug
shots: the unflattering profiles of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, done by Piero
della Francesca in 1472. The subjects are portrayed in an unflinchingly realistic
way. The Duke, in particular, exposes his warts and his crooked nose, broken in
a martial tournament. This focus on the earthly, rather than on the Christian, ele-
ments harkens back to the teachings of classical Greek and Roman times, and is
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