Uffizi

The Museo degli Uffizi or the Uffizi Gallery, located in the Piazzale degli Uffizi, is one of the most celebrated museums of paintings and sculpture in the world.
Its construction was entrusted in 1560 by Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, to the illustrious architect and painter Giorgio Vasari (Arezzo, 1511 – Florence, 1574) to host the offices for the Judgeship of Florence. Vasari concluded the work in 1581. He also built the long passageway which connected the Uffizi Gallery with the Pitti Gallery.

The project to set up a museum on the third floor of the superb building was been already considered by Cosimo I de Medici, but it was accomplished by his son Francesco I.
He commissioned the well-known architect, engineer and painter Bernardo Buontalenti (byname of Bernardo Delle Ghiandole, 1536? - 1608) the building of the internal area of the “Tribune” to host some collected art works by the Medici family, as well as their rich set of antique awards. Buontalenti also constructed a large court stage where in 1586 - 7 several amazing feasts and theatre plays were given conducted by him. He designed as well the actors’ costumes.      

Over more than a century, Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 to 1723, enlarged the Gallery to host the art collection of his ancestry and the art works inherited from his uncle the Cardinal Leopold.
In 1737, the last member of the Medici family, Anna Maria Ludovica, provided that all the art works collected by the Medici dynasty ought to be housed in the Uffizi Gallery at the disposal of the art lovers throughout the world during their stay in Florence.

In 1782, the Medici’s collection was classified for the first time into the Ancient Picture Room. In 1919, it was reordered to give to the visitors a more organic layout.

Within the vast art collection hosted in the Uffizi Gallery we may point up:

- “La Maestà” by Cimabue; “La Maestà” by Duccio di Boninsegna ; “Madonna di Ognissanti” by Giotto; “L’Annunciazione” by Simone Martini; “La Battaglia di San Romano” by Paolo Uccello; the diptych “Ritratto di Battista Sforza e Federico da Montefeltro” by Piero della Francesca; “Madonna col Bambino e angeli” by Fra Filippo Lippi; “Battesimo di Cristo” by Andrea del Verrocchio; the triptich “Portinari” by Hugo van der Goes; “La Primavera”, “La Nascita di Venere” and “L’Adorazione dei Magi” by Sandro Botticelli;  “L’Annunciazione“ and “L’Adorazione dei Magi” by Leonardo da Vinci; “Perseo libera Andromeda” by Piero di Cosimo; “L’Adorazione dei Magi” by Albrecht Dürer; “La Sacra Famiglia” (“Tondo Doni”) by Michelangelo Buonarotti; “La Madonna del Cardellino” and “Ritratto del Papa Leone X con i Cardinali Giulio de’Medici e Luigi de’Rossi” by Raffaello; “Flora” and “La Venere di Urbino” by Tiziano; “La Madonna dal Collo Lungo” by Parmigianino ; “Bacco”, “Il Sacrificio di Isacco” and “Medusa” by Caravaggio.

The art collection of the Uffizi Gallery is classified within the following rooms:

Rooms from 1 to 9

Rooms from 10 to 19

Rooms from 20 to 29

Rooms from 31 to 35

Rooms from 41 to 45

East Corridor

Second Corridor

West Corridor

Rooms of Caravaggio and other famouse Masters

Est Side of Florence

The Cathedrals : Duomo - Sant Croce - Baptistery

Main Monuments : Palazzo Vecchio – Piazza della Signoria

Main Museums : Casa di Dante – Museo Uffizi – Museo Dell´Opera

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