Florence & Tuscany - Italy - page 957

fice), this world-class gallery safeguards the Medici family's private art collection, which
was bequeathed to the city in 1743 on the condition that it never leaves Florence.
An ongoing and vastly overdue €65 million refurbishment and redevelopment project
will see the addition of a new exit loggia designed by Japanese architect Arato Isozaki and
the doubling of exhibition space. In true Italian fashion no one, including architect Anto-
nio Godoli, will commit to a final completion date (originally 2013), and until the so-
called Nuovi Uffizi ( www.nuoviuffizi.it ) project is finished you can expect some rooms to
be temporarily closed and the contents of others changed.
The collection spans the gamut of art history from ancient Greek sculptures to 18th-
century Venetian paintings, arranged in chronological order by school. At its core is the
masterpiece-rich Renaissance collection.
Visits are best kept to three or four hours max. When it all gets too much, head to the
rooftop cafe (aka the terraced hanging garden where the Medici clan listened to music
performances on the square below) for fresh air and fabulous views.
To the left of the staircase, room 2 highlights 13th-century art and is designed like a
medieval chapel to reflect its fabulous contents: three large altarpieces by Tuscan masters
Duccio di Buoninsegna, Cimabue and Giotto. These clearly reflect the transition from the
Gothic to the nascent Renaissance style.
Room 3 moves into the 14th century, with a strong showing of Sienese works. The
highlight is Simone Martini's shimmering Annunciation (1333), painted with Lippo
Memmi and setting the Madonna in a sea of gold. Also of note is the Madonna with Child
and Saints triptych (1340), by Pietro Lorenzetti.
Masters in 14th-century Florence paid as much attention to detail as their Sienese coun-
terparts, as works in room 4 demonstrate: savour the realism of San Reminio Pietà
(1360-65), by gifted Giotto pupil Giottino.
A concern for perspective was a hallmark of the early-15th-century Florentine school
(room 7) that pioneered the Renaissance. A panel from Paolo Uccello's striking Battle of
San Romano triptych (the other two are in the Louvre and London's National Gallery)
shows the artist's efforts to create perspective with amusing effect as he directs the lances,
horses and soldiers to a central disappearing point. The painting celebrates a Florentine
victory over Siena in 1432.
In room 8, highlights include Piero della Francesca's famous profile portraits of the
crooked-nosed, red-robed Duke and Duchess of Urbino (1472-75). Also in this room are
works by Carmelite monk Fra' Filippo Lippi; search out his self-portrait as a podgy friar