Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
100
Mio Concept
C4
101
Obsequium
D7
B2
103
Patrizia Pepe
E4
104
Pineider
G5
Uffizi Gallery
MAP
ART MUSEUM
GOOGLE MAP
(
www.polomuseale.firenze.it
; Piazzale degli Uffizi 6; adult/reduced €6.50/3.25; 8.15am-6.50pm Tue-
Sun)
The jewel in Florence's crown, the Uffizi fills the vast U-shaped
Palazzo degli Uffizi
. Its
collection spans the gamut of art history, but its core is the masterpiece-rich Renaissance
collection - Botticelli works fill an entire room. Visits are best kept to three or four hours.
When it gets too much, head to the rooftop cafe for fresh air and fabulous views.
Cosimo I commissioned Vasari to design and build the gargantuan U-shaped palace in
1560 - a government office building
(uffizi
means offices) for the city's administrators, ju-
diciary and guilds. Following Vasari's death in 1564, architects Alfonso Parigi and
Bernando Buontalenti took over. Buontalenti modified the upper floor of the palace to
house the works of art keenly collected by Francesco I, a passion inherited from his father.
In 1580 the building was complete. By the time the last of the Medici family died in 1743,
the family's private art collection was enormous. Fortunately, it was bequeathed to the
City of Florence on the strict proviso that it never leave the city.
»
Tuscan Masters: 13th Century to 14th Century
Works in the Uffizi are displayed on the 2nd floor in a series of numbered rooms off two
dramatically long corridors. Arriving in the
Primo Corridoio
(First Corridor), the first room
to the left of the staircase (Room 2) highlights 13th-century Sienese art and is designed
like a medieval chapel (look up to admire those great wooden ceiling trusses) to reflect its
fabulous contents: three large altarpieces from Florentine churches by Tuscan masters
Duccio di Buoninsegna, Cimabue and Giotto. These clearly reflect the transition from the
Gothic to the nascent Renaissance style. Note the overtly naturalistic realism overtones in
Giotto's portrayal of the
Madonna and Child
among angels and saints, painted some 25
years after that of Duccio and Cimabue (c 1306-10).
