Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Medieval (1200-1400):
Paintings by
Duccio, Cimabue,
and
Giotto
show the baby steps
beingmadefromtheflatByzantinestyletowardrealism.Inhis
MadonnaandChildwithAn-
gels,
Giotto created a “stage” and peopled it with real beings. The triumph here is Mary her-
self—bigandmonumental,likeaRomanstatue.Beneathherrobe,shehaskneesandbreasts
that stick out at us. This three-dimensionality was revolutionary, a taste of the Renaissance a
century before it began.
Early Renaissance (mid-1400s):
PaoloUccello's
BattleofSanRomano
isanearlystudy
inperspectivewithafewobviousflubs.PierodellaFrencesca's
FedericodaMontefeltroand
Battista Sforza
heralds the era of humanism and the new centrality of ordinary people in art,
wartsandall.FraFilippoLippi'sradiantlybeautifulMadonnasarelightyearsawayfromthe
generic Marys of the medieval era.
Renaissance (1450-1500):
The Botticelli room is filled with masterpieces and classical
fleshiness (the famous
Birth of Venus
and the
Allegory of Spring
), plus two minor works by
Leonardo da Vinci. Here is the Renaissance in its first bloom, its “springtime” of innocence.
Madonna is out, Venus is in. This is a return to the pre-Christian pagan world of classical
Greece, where things of the flesh are not sinful.
Classical Sculpture:
If the Renaissance was the foundation of the modern world, the
foundation of the Renaissance was classical sculpture. Sculptors, painters, and poets alike
turnedforinspirationtoancientGreekandRomanworksastheepitomeofbalance,3-Dper-
spective, human anatomy, and beauty.
Intheoctagonalclassicalsculptureroom,thehighlightisthe
Venusde'Medici,
aRoman
copy of the lost original of the great Greek sculptor Praxiteles'
Aphrodite
. Balanced, harmo-
nious, and serene, this statue was considered the epitome of beauty and sexuality in Renais-
sance Florence.
The sculpture hall has the best view in Florence of the Arno River and Ponte Vecchio
through the window, dreamy at sunset.
High Renaissance (1500-1550):
Don't miss Michelangelo's
Holy Family,
the only sur-
viving completed easel painting by the greatest sculptor in history; Raphael's
Madonna of
the Goldfinch,
with Mary and the Baby Jesus brought down from heaven into the real world
of trees, water, and sky; and Titan's voluptuous
Venus of Urbino.
WrapupyourvisitbyenjoyingDuomoviewsfromthecaféterrace.Thelowerfloorcon-
tains temporary exhibitions and works by Caravaggio and foreign painters.
In the Uffizi's Courtyard:
Enjoy the courtyard (free), full of artists and souvenir stalls.
(Swing by after dinner when it's completely empty.) The surrounding statues honor earth-
shaking Florentines: artists (Michelangelo), philosophers (Niccolò Machiavelli), scientists
(Galileo), writers (Dante), cartographers (Amerigo Vespucci), and the great patron of so
much Renaissance thinking, Lorenzo “the Magnificent” de' Medici.
