Uffizi Gallery
Art Museum, Florence: Origins, History,
Permanent Collection.
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Uffizi Gallery |
Detail of The Birth of Venus (c.1484) |
The Uffizi GalleryThe Uffizi Gallery (or Galleria degli Uffizi), is one of the oldest and most celebrated art museums in Europe. It is located in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, in Florence, Italy - the home of the European Renaissance. As one might expect from the foremost museum of Renaissance art in Florence, its collection of masterpieces from the Early and High Renaissance eras, begun by the powerful Medici family, later enlarged by the Lorraine Grand Dukes and completed by the Italian State authorities, is second to none. It also includes other important collections, notably the Contini Bonacossi Collection and the Collection of Prints and Drawings (Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi). The Uffizi has been open to visitors since the late 16th century, and was officially opened to the public in 1765. For another great Florentine art museum, see: Pitti Palace (Palazzo Pitti). |
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Uffizi Gallery, Florence. HOW TO JUDGE A PAINTING |
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ITALY |
Origins Founded in 1581 by Grand-Duke Francesco I de' Medici, son of Cosimo I, the Uffizi Gallery was is housed on the top floor of a large building designed and built by Giorgio Vasari between 1560 and 1580, and finished by architects Parigi and Buontalenti. As the name 'Uffizi' (offices) indicates, the building's original purpose was to house various bureaucratic functions, or magistracies - hence its original title: the Palazzo dei Magistrati. Its construction incorporated a raised passageway or corridor connecting the Uffizi with the Pitti Palace, both centres of Medici power. |
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RUSSIA |
History and Development of the Art Collection The Uffizi collection evolved over several centuries, starting from the 16th century, and was enriched by painting and sculpture acquired over the years by the Medici in their villas and palaces. Members of the dynasty who were active patrons of fine art included: Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (1360-1429), Cosimo I (1389-1464), Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-92), Pope Leo X (1475-1521), Pope Clement VII (1478-34), followed by Grand Duke Cosimo I (1519-74), Grand Duke Francesco I (1541-87), Grand Duke and Cardinal Ferdinando I (1549-1609), Grand Duke Cosimo II (1590-1621), Grand Duke Ferdinando II (1610-70), and Grand Duke Cosimo III (1642-73), to name but some of this extraordinary Italian family. |
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FRANCE/BELGIUM WORLD'S BEST ART PUBLIC ART IN USA WORLDS TOP ARTISTS |
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Erudite cataloguing of the collections began at the end of the 17th century, not long before the Medici hold on the Grand Duchy of Tuscany passed to the Austrian Dukes of Lorraine, and shortly before the last surviving Medici - Anna Maria Ludovica (1667-1743) bequeathed the entire collection to the city of Florence in 1737. Later, in 1782, the collection was further organized, but a more comprehensive re-classification and re-ordering in 1919 provides the basis for the modern display. Highlights of the Collection The world-class collection of fine art painting in the Uffizi includes works by the finest Florentine Primitives and Trecentists (eg. Cimabue and Giotto), Sienese Trecentists, Venetian, Roman and Florentine Quattrocentists (including 20 by Sandro Botticelli), Cinquecentists (eg. the 3 Renaissance leaders Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphel), the top religious painters, portraitists and printmakers of the Flemish and German movements of the Northern Renaissance (eg. Van der Weyden, Cranach, Durer), early and late Mannerists (eg.Caravaggio, El Greco), artists from 16th and 17th Venice (eg. Titian, Giorgione, Tiziano, Tintoretto, Veronese, Tiepolo, Canaletto), works by the great history and portrait artists of the Flemish and Dutch Baroque schools (eg. Rubens, van Dyck, Rembrandt, Velazquez), as well as the great Spanish painters (eg. Zurbaran, Velazquez, Goya), and masters of still life (eg. Rachel Ruysch, Jean Chardin), to name but a few. |
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Periods Proto-Renaissance (1250-1400) Duccio (1255-1319) (Rucellai Madonna) Early Renaissance (1400-90) Paolo
Uccello (1397-1475) (The Battle
of San Romano) High Renaissance (1490-1530) Leonardo
da Vinci (1452-1519) (The Annunciation, The Adoration of the Magi) Northern Renaissance (1430-1580) Van
der Weyden (1399-1464) (Entombment) |
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Mannerism (1530-1600) Vasari, Giorgio (1511-74) (Portrait of
Lotenzo the Magnificent) Venice (16th Century) Titian
(1488-1576) (Flora, Venus of Urbino) Baroque (1600-1700) Rubens
(1577-1640) (Dudith and Holophernes; Henry IV at the Battle of Ivry) Italian 17th Century Tiepolo
(1696-1770) (Erecting a Statue in Honour of an Emperor) 17th/18th Century Ruysch, Rachel (1664-1750) (Fruits and
Insects) |
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART |
