Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
statues and paintings on its upholstered silk walls and 6000 crimson-varnished mother-
of-pearl shells encrusting the domed ceiling.
Tondo Doni
Michelangelo's dazzling
Tondo Doni,
a depiction of the Holy Family, hangs in room 35.
The composition is unusual and the colours as vibrant as when they were first applied in
1504-06. It was painted for wealthy Florentine merchant Agnolo Doni (who hung it
above his bed) and bought by the Medici for Palazzo Pitti in 1594.
Niobe Room
The huge Niobe Room (room 42) was built to house a group of 17 curvaceous, cream
statues representing Niobe and her children. Discovered in a Roman vineyard in 1583
and brought to Florence in 1775, the works are 4th-century BC Roman copies of Greek
originals.
Venetian Masters
Venetian masters grace Room 43, home to eight Titians. Masterpieces include the sensual
nude
Venus of Urbino
(1538), and the striking portrait of
Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of
Urbino
(1536-37). The next room, No 44, features works by Paolo Veronese and Tintor-
etto, the latter's famously ink-black
Portrait of a Man
(c 1555-60) is a moody highlight.
Understand
Palazzo degli Uffizi
Cosimo I de' Medici commissioned Vasari to design and build the huge U-shaped Palazzo degli Uffizi in 1560
as a government office building
(uffizi
means 'offices') for the city's administrators, judiciary and guilds. Fol-
lowing Vasari's death in 1564, architects Alfonso Parigi and Bernando Buontalenti took over, Buontalenti
modifying the upper floor to house the artworks keenly collected by Cosimo I's son, Francesco I, who inherited
his father's passion for collecting. In 1580 the building was complete. By the time the last of the Medicis 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 leaves the city.
