Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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In stark contrast to the clean lines (and dirty mind) of Titian, seek out an El
Greco masterpiece from 1600, the nearly hidden
St. John and St. Francis
(on the
wall behind you when you walk into
Room 33
from 32). It shows the two saints
stretched and blurred, with a gathering storm behind them. The minidragon pok-
ing its head out of St. John's goblet alludes to his miracle of turning a poison into
this creature. El Greco's characteristic elongated forms and surreal landscape
provided inspiration to many 20th-century artists, including Salvador Dalí and
Modigliani.
By the time most visitors reach the rooms numbered in the
40s,
they run out of
gas. But do check out the Rubens and Rembrandts in this section for a feeling of
Flemish versus Italian styles of painting. The detail of the hair, skin, and cloth of the
Rembrandt portraits from the 1630s, in
Room 44,
are amazing--just look at the
contrast between the faces of the young and old men.
On your way down from the second floor, you'll be strolling through the
recently added first-floor gallery rooms—created after a bombing in
1993--which include plenty of Carvaggio, and the 17th- to 18th-century artists
who copied his “bright light among dark shadows” style of painting. Here a rare
female artist in the Uffizi, Artemisia Gentileschi, has one of the more brutal paint-
ings in the gallery,
Judith and Holophernes.
A short stroll behind the Uffizi is the
Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge)
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,
one of the most potent symbols of Florence. Here you'll find a rich collection of
jewelry shops housed in crammed-together, multicolored buildings from the
1600s; many of the shops are owned by descendants of the original 41 artisans
whom Cosimi di Medici invited here at that time. The open spot in the middle
of the bridge is where butchers used to slaughter and section their animals, dump-
ing the offal off the edge. Cosimo wanted less smelly tenants, so he replaced the
butchers with the jewelers (and increased the rent!). The large metal ring at the
wall was for tying up horses. Now small padlocks cover the ring--symbols left by
lovers to celebrate their mutual connection.
The bridge itself has survived since 1345, despite floods, wars, and the German
bombing near the end of World War II. In 1944, the local commander, sympathetic
to the Ponte Vecchio's historical importance, blew up all the buildings around the
bridge in order to preserve it while still hampering advancing Allied troops.
Balancing on top of the bridge like a big white log is “Vasari's Corridor,” a
Medici-commissioned addition from the 1560s. The Medicis didn't like mixing
with the commoners much, so they had the corridor built to connect their Palazzo
Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti, enabling them to move from home to home without set-
ting their feet on the ground. During World War II, Mussolini walked the visit-
ing Hitler through the bridge. Hitler complained it was too dark, so the
ever-accommodating Benito opened up the walls to add the three large windows.
If you're following a geographical itinerary, you're going to want to walk north
next, through the Piazza della Signoria and past it to our next sight, which is one
of the most important museums anywhere for Renaissance sculpture. In a far cry
from its original use as the city's prison, torture chamber, and execution site, the
Museo Nazionale del Bargello
(Via del Proconsolo, 4;
%
055-2388606;
www.sbas.firenze.it;
€
4; 8:30am-1:50pm)
now stands as a peaceful sculpture
garden and three-story art museum containing some of the best works of
Michelangelo, Donatello, and Ghiberti.
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