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Today we visited the Uffizi Gallery. It is 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. Christine decided to purchase a small group tour, for which now I am very grateful, although initially I thought the ticket price was very high. We had an excellent guide, Ricardo, who in 2 hours led us through the gallery, gave us quite a history lesson on the Medicis, and educated us on the development of painting styles from the 12th century through the late Renaissance.
We weren’t quite sure of the drill for meeting our guide, but once at the Uffizi building and at Gate 1, which was where we were to meet our guide, everything fell into place. There are thousands of people entering the Uffizi and it is quite chaotic. Ricardo, however, helped us through security and got us into the gallery with ease. I chose to walk up the 124 steps to the second floor where our tour began. Christine chose to use the elevator; she was the smarter of us.
The Uffizi building was one of the Medici palaces. It is U-Shaped with long arms and a shorter end. It was built to house administrative offices on the ground level (uffizi is “office” in Italian) and the living quarters of the family were on the second floor. One interesting fact about the palace is that to get to the Pitti Palace across the river, the Medicis built a covered walkway to keep themselves private out of the view of the public. Part of the walkway is an arched portico, then the Ponte Vecchio across the river, then other covered walks to the Pitti Palace.
Most of the gallery’s important work is on the second floor, with lesser known art work on the first floor. Along the hallways on the second floor are all kinds of statues; they have no protection around them and just stand along the walls. Ricardo didn’t talk about any of the statues because he said the gallery is more about the paintings.
The second floor was the living space for the Medici family. The hallways are very ornate with unbelievably wonderful painted ceilings. Ricardo pointed out all the small portraits along the top of the walls. The Medicis had portraits done of all the famous people in Europe and hung them down the hallway. Ricardo related this as the Facebook of the day. When visitors came to the Uffizi Palace, a Medici would walk them down the hall to the place where their portrait was hung. This was symbolic to all, indicating that the Medicis had powerful influence over all since they had everyone’s portrait. Their power trumped everyone elses.
We started with 12-14thth century works and learned that paintings were basically flat, had no perspective, not much color and all the figures were similar in that there were no feminine features on the women, especially the Madonnas (we must have seen 100 Madonna and child paintings). Very quickly, however, within a matter of 25 years there was a big change in painting. These 2 Madonnas show the difference.
Santa Trinita Madonna, was painted by Cimabue which shows the main traits of the Byzantine style, a profusion of gold and an almost total absence of volume and perspective. Madonna di Ognissanti by Giotto is revolutionary with its use of volume through which he succeeded in painting a religious subject no more cast in a distant and perfect dimension, but moving slowly and respectfully towards a certain kind of realism.
We then saw the portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Piero della Francesca, one of the most significant painters of the 15th century. There is something new here – a private subject, a noble, refined couple with a painting that is full of tiny little details composing the landscape and also his extraordinary skill in the use of perspective. This is the first photographic-type painting.
Then we came to the Botticelli room, probably the most visited room in the gallery. The Botticellis are fantastic, very realistic, very colorful and full of a sense of animation. The Primavera – Spring was painted by Botticelli round 1482. It is full of allegory, although no one really knows the meaning of the painting. Also in this room of the gallery is Botticelli’s Birth of Venus in which Botticelli wanted to paint the sense of perfect beauty represented by one of the most delicate and charming icons of female beauty. Ricardo told a story that Botticelli fell in love with this beautiful woman with long blonde curly hair, although two Medici brothers also wanted to date this woman. Botticelli used this woman’s face in many of his other paintings.
Next, the octagonal room called Tribuna (Tribune) was commissioned by Francesco I, son of Cosimo I de’ Medici and completed round 1584. Francesco wanted this special room inside the Uffizi in order to display his most precious belongings, paintings, jewels, coins etc. In a sense, the Tribuna was already a “museum” many years before the Uffizi building was officially transformed into a gallery.
Apart from the paintings, furniture and statues still visible inside the Tribuna, the room itself can be considered a work of art with its incredible dome encrusted with thousands of precious shells, its walls in red velvet and its marble floor.
Next, we visited the Leonardo di Vinci room where were saw an unfinished painting, Adoration of the Magi, painted in 1481. It is full of the anatomical detail that Leonardo was so good at drawing. Another Leonardo painting that Ricardo talked about is The Annunciation, painted 1475-1480. A really interesting thing about this painting is that if you look at it straight on, there appears to be some distortion in the anatomy of the figures. Ricardo said that Leonardo intentionally used a technique involving perspective because the painting was to hang on the side wall of a church so viewers would see it at an angle, thus he painted it in a manner to be correctly proportioned when viewing from the side. The other interesting thing about this painting is the wings on the Archangel Gabriel. Leonardo studied birds and flight and so his angels have wings like falcons, which he thought were more correct for flight.
There is only one Michelangelo painting in Florence. The Holy Family dates back to the time when Michelangelo returned to Florence after his first stay in Rome, the same period when the great artist sculpted the famous David. The painting is considered one of the masterpieces of 16th century Italian art.
We then learned about Madonna of the Goldfinch painted in 1505 by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael). This is a lovely painting of the Madonna and Child with a baby John the Baptist. In John’s hands is a goldfinch having a red spot, which signifies the blood of Christ.
Our final stop on the tour was in the Caravaggio room. We knew a little about Caravaggio from his very famous painting, The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, in Valletta, Malta at St. John’s Co-Cathedral, so it was interesting to see some other paintings. Ricardo told us about Caravaggio and why many of his paintings depict beheadings. Apparently, as a teenager, Caravaggio killed someone and incurred a death sentence. He fled, but for the remainder of his life lived with the fear that he would be captured and beheaded, which was how his death sentence would be carried out. In many of his paintings, he essentially acted out his own beheading death through his subjects. Ricardo discussed 3 of Caravaggio’s paintings.
That ended our tour. It was well worth the price. We learned a lot. After the tour, we returned to the gallery and spent another hour wandering around. At one point, Christine and I got separated in the throngs of people and it seemed like forever before we found each other. We were both relieved.
I hope I haven’t bored you to tears with all the art stuff. Maybe you had to be there to find it interesting. I certainly did, and would love to take other tours through the gallery with a knowledgeable guide to learn more about art.
During our tour we did have a couple of good views from the second floor of the Uffizi.
After the gallery, we wandered around the Piazza della Signoria, which historically was, and still is, the main square near the seat of power in Florence. There is a commanding town hall, the Palazzo Vecchio. There is a lot of statuary around the square and a fountain. It is ringed with cafes.
After that, we decided to walk over to the Piazza del Duomo and find a café in the shade and have lunch. We had a nice lunch and had a great view of the Duomo and Campanile, a perfect spot.
Our visit to the Uffizi was great, but it tuckered us out. I think we’ve both said to one another more than once during this trip that we’re getting old. We don’t have the stamina to go, go, go as we once did. But I like how we are taking it easy and not jamming too much in. I think that allows us to enjoy things more. Besides, as I said, we really are enjoying sitting in front of our window watching the day end and having a relaxing light dinner.