GALLERIE DEGLI UFFIZI, ENJOY THE BEST RENAISSANCE

Ready to visit Le Gallerie degli Uffizi, Firenze

Today, The Grandma and her friends have visited Le Gallerie degli Uffizi in Firenze. All of them love art and this visit has been an incredible opportunity to contemplate some of the most important art works of the history.

Visiting this gallery is a must, if you are in Firenze and it is also an homage to all those people who believed in art and worked very hard to promoted it, conserved it and showed to the public.

Before discovering more things about the History of Firenze, The Grandma has studied a new chapter of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 48).

More information: Capital Letters and Punctuation

The Uffizi Gallery, in Italian Galleria degli Uffizi, is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.

Today, the Uffizi is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Florence and one of the most visited art museums in the world.

After the ruling house of Medici died out, their art collections were gifted to the city of Florence under the famous Patto di famiglia negotiated by Anna Maria Luisa, the last Medici heiress.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits Le Gallerie degli Uffizi

The Uffizi is one of the first modern museums. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1765 it was officially opened to the public, formally becoming a museum in 1865.

The building of Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de' Medici so as to accommodate the offices of the Florentine magistrates, hence the name uffizi, offices. The construction was later continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti; it was completed in 1581. The top floor was made into a gallery for the family and their guests and included their collection of Roman sculptures.

More information: Le Gallerie degli Uffizi

The cortile, internal courtyard, is so long, narrow and open to the Arno at its far end through a Doric screen that articulates the space without blocking it, that architectural historians treat it as the first regularized streetscape of Europe.  

Vasari, a painter and architect as well, emphasised its perspective length by adorning it with the matching facades' continuous roof cornices, and unbroken cornices between storeys, as well as the three continuous steps on which the palace-fronts stand. The niches in the piers that alternate with columns of the Loggiato filled with sculptures of famous artists in the 19th century.

Jordi Santanyí visits Micheangelo's Hall

The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive. 

The project was intended to display prime art works of the Medici collections on the piano nobile; the plan was carried out by his son, Grand Duke Francesco I. He commissioned the architect Buontalenti to design the Tribuna degli Uffizi that would display a series of masterpieces in one room, including jewels; it became a highly influential attraction of a Grand Tour. The octagonal room was completed in 1584.

Over the years, more sections of the palace were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculpture collected or commissioned by the Medici. According to Vasari, who was not only the architect of the Uffizi but also the author of Lives of the Artists, published in 1550 and 1568, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo gathered at the Uffizi for beauty, for work and for recreation.

More information: Visit Uffizi

For many years, 45 to 50 rooms were used to display paintings from the 13th to 18th century. Because of its huge collection, some of the Uffizi's works have in the past been transferred to other museums in Florence -for example, some famous statues to the Bargello.

A project was finished in 2006 to expand the museum's exhibition space some 6,000 metres square to almost 13,000 metres square, allowing public viewing of many artworks that had usually been in storage.

The Grandma & Claire contemplate Galileo's portrait

The Nuovi Uffizi renovation project which started in 1989 was progressing well in 2015 to 2017. It was intended to modernize all of the halls and more than double the display space.

As well, a new exit was planned and the lighting, air conditioning and security systems were updated. During construction, the museum remained open, although rooms were closed as necessary with the artwork temporarily moved to another location. The major modernization project, New Uffizi, had increased viewing capacity to 101 rooms by late 2016 by expanding into areas previously used by the Florence State Archive.

The museum is being renovated to more than double the number of rooms used to display artwork.

On 27 May 1993, the Sicilian Mafia carried out a car bomb explosion in Via dei Georgofili and damaged parts of the palace. The blast destroyed five pieces of art and damaged another 30. Some of the paintings were fully protected by bulletproof glass. The most severe damage was to the Niobe room and classical sculptures and neoclassical interior, which have since been restored, although its frescoes were damaged beyond repair.

In early August 2007, Florence experienced a heavy rainstorm. The Gallery was partially flooded, with water leaking through the ceiling, and the visitors had to be evacuated. There was a much more significant flood in 1966 which damaged most of the art collections in Florence severely, including some of the works in the Uffizi.

More information: Visit Florence

Florence is perhaps best known for being
the seat of Renaissance art, and rightly so:
A greatest-hits collection of artists passed through
its streets -Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli,
and Brunelleschi among them.
 

Hanya Yanagihara