Uffizi Gallery description and photos - Italy: Florence
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Uffizi Gallery description and photos - Italy: Florence. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. Title in English - Uffizi Gallery. Photo and descriptionThe Uffizi is one of the most famous art galleries in the world. Here is a vast panorama of different schools of painting. This is the Florentine school, the Venetian, and other Italian schools, as well as a rich selection of Flemish paintings with a famous series of self-portraits. In addition to painting, the gallery has rooms dedicated to antique sculpture and rooms with a rich collection of tapestries. Museum buildingThe building of the Uffizi Gallery was built by the architect Giorgio Vasari by order of the Medici family and was originally intended for administrative purposes. Construction began in 1560, and ended 20 years later. The building consists of two buildings with balconies on the ground floor. In the depths, both buildings are connected by a third building with a huge arcade, overlooking the embankment of the Arno River. Below, on both sides of the central courtyard, niches are formed in powerful pylons, in which statues of the 19th century are placed, depicting famous figures of Tuscany. The second floor is cut with huge windows, and the third is a vast loggia. In addition to the Picture Gallery, which occupies the third floor, the building houses the State Archives, where rare documents on the history of the city are kept, as well as the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints, where a unique collection is presented, which began in the 17th century on the initiative of Cardinal Leopold Medici. Since 1737, the museum has become the property of the people, after Anna Maria Ludovica - the last representative of the Medici family - donated it to the city. The collection of the museum is located on the top floor of the building. Greek and Roman sculptures are displayed in spacious hallways. The paintings hang in chronological order, which allows us to trace the history of the development of Florentine art from Byzantium to the High Renaissance and beyond. The Uffizi Gallery CollectionThe Uffizi Gallery is known for the most complete collection of paintings from all periods of Italian Renaissance, from the famous painting for the altar, Madonna Onisanti by the reformer of church painting Giotto di Bondone, presented in room 2. One of the few woodwork is The Coronation of Mary by Fra Beato Angelico (Giovanni Fiesole), a Florentine master monk fresco painting, continues the exposition of the early Renaissance period. In the 8th room of maestro Filippo Lippi you will see the work "Madonna and Child with an Angel" painted with the artist's beloved, "Keeping Mary" with a self-portrait of the master as a monk. These canvases differ significantly from the works of their predecessors in the liveliness of images and palette. Rooms 10-14 are dedicated to the works of Sandro Botticelli. The well-known paintings The Birth of Venus and Spring, written for Lorenzo Medici, are full of symbolism and innovations of the time. For example, the shell, meaning fertility, was transferred by Botticelli himself into church symbolism as a sign of purity, and the veils of Venus were a characteristic shade of ritual veils. The golden fruits in the spring garden are the heraldic symbols of the Medici family. The artist used new technologies for creating paints and protective coatings for paintings, thanks to which the canvases have survived to this day in good condition. The 15th hall is dedicated to the great Leonardo da Vinci. The early work of Leonardo - "Annunciation" was created in the years 1472-1475 in the workshop and under the guidance of the teacher Verrocchio. It is believed that da Vinci's brush belongs to the Angel blessing Mary. Also, the work of Leonardo da Vinci - a blond angel from Andrea Verrocchio's painting "The Baptism of Christ" refers to the period of discipleship. The unfinished work "Adoration of the Magi", ordered for the monastery of Santo Donato in Sopeto, was left by the master a year later, in connection with the move from Florence to Milan. Against the background of the ruins of a pagan temple, the Virgin Mary with a baby is depicted, surrounded by respectfully bowed Magi. The central part of the oil painting on wood was left free, which creates the effect of participation in the action for the viewer. The Holy Family is the only work of Michelangelo Buonarotti, completely finished and preserved to this day, is presented in the 25th hall of the gallery. Made by young Michelangelo by order of the newlyweds Agnolo and Maddalena Doni in the form of a round painting in the Kanjiante technique, conveying the sculptural graphics of bodies. The rich palette of the canvas traces the trends of future color solutions for the painting of the Sistine Chapel. In numerous rooms of the Uffizi Gallery you can see unique works by Ambrogio and Piero Lorenzetti, Simone Martini, Adoration of the Magi by Lorenzo Monaco, Genitile da Fabiano and Sandro Botticelli, the creations of Pietro and Antonio del Polaiolo, "Venus of Urbino" by Titian, masterpieces by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Cimabue and many others. Be sure to visit the sculptural corridor dedicated to the Medici family, view ancient Greek and Roman sculptures of rulers and mythical creatures. Separate rooms are devoted to foreign art: German painting (among others - the works of Albrecht Durer), Spanish (El Greco, Goya, Velazquez), French painting (Lorrain, Charles Le Bre), Flemish painting (Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt). On the ground floor, you can see the remains of an ancient church destroyed during the construction of the gallery. Between halls 25 and 34 there is a wooden door leading to the continuation of the museum - about 700 paintings are placed in this corridor. Separately, you may be interested in a collection of self-portraits of Russian and European artists - Kustodiev, Aivazovsky, Ivanov, Kiprensky, specially collected for the Uffizi Gallery. Notes
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