Editor Pick
Florence's Most Famous Museum
- October 19, 2009
- Rated 4 of 5 by
airynfaerie from St. Augustine, Florida
Definitely Florence's most famous museum, the Galleria degli Uffizi is also one of the world's most famous museums. These amazing, and extensive galleries of fine art collection are located in an setting just as amazing. The building was originally built as a palace for the city's head magistrates and government officials. Still today this structure impresses visitors of all ages, not to mention the impressiveness of the priceless art that lies within.
Commissed by Cosimo I of Florence's famous Medici family, construction began in 1560 by architect Vasari who also built a corridor walkway above the city streets that passes from this museum over the Ponte Vecchio and all the way to the Pitti Palace. Later, the palace's space was converted into a gallery to house art by Cosimo's son Francis. Now over the centrueis the art collection has continued to grow and currently offers thousands of pieces from paintings, sculptures, and tapestries.
By 1765, the Uffizi was opened as a public museum, and the collection had grown so much that some of the pieces were transferred to other museums in the city. For the past few years, the Uffizi has been working on adding and additional section for expansion. Construction scaffolding has become an almost permanent fixture in the courtyard area for locals during the recent years, although the completion is slated to be soon approaching. The collection includes artwork from the city's history and is famed for the self-portrait collection, as well as fresco pieces, and the star which is the recognizable Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus".
As one of Florence's top tourist attractions, lines can be extremely long (sometimes up to 3 hours). You can make reservations ahead of time by calling the reservation number, and you'll be issued a specific entrance time. Try to make this reservation (as well as your reservation for the Accademia museum) before solidifying the rest of your Florence plans, as you'll be at the mercy of the ticketing agent. If you aren't able to get a reservation ahead of time, just wake up early and be in line when it opens so you can get in quickly and out to enjoy the rest of the day.
• http://www.firenzemusei.it/00_english/uffizi/index.html
• Piazzale degli Uffizi, 6
• Open 8:15am - 6:50pm (tues - Sun)
• Admission 6.50euros (Reservation no. +39 055 294883)
From journal A Visit to the Museums of Florence
Best Museum Experience
- January 6, 2009
- Rated 5 of 5 by
anitaellen83 from Dallas, Texas
There are so many galleries you could spend an entire day in the Galleria degli Uffizi. My favorite painting of all time, The Birth of Venus was there, but so many more as well. It was really amazing how many paintings I recognized in there given I know relatively little about paintings. The crazy wet tshirt Madonna with alien elongated "mannerist" child was there. The Birth of Venus by Boccacio was there. The Duke and Duchess of Urbino were there looking dead and scary. The beheading of some dude by this lady that was a self portrait of the female artist was in there. It was a wonderful experience. Julie was disappointed though because the Venus of Urbino by Titian was on expo at the Prato in Spain this month.
From journal Five Weeks Studying and Touring in Italy
Wear Comfortable Shoes! Because It's a Must See
- December 16, 2008
- Rated 5 of 5 by
manlalakbay from davao, Philippines
It's crazy to wear new shoes when going to a museum! Something I learned when I entered the Uffizi museum. The main attraction of the place was the Botticeli paintings of "The Birth of Venus" and "Spring."
But once again the museum boasts of the many talented Italian artists of the Renaissance and Medieval periods. The corridors to the galleries were also lined with different marble sculptures depicting Roman gods, mythical figures and religious characters.
The experience of going through the entire museum was actually quite overwhelming. With three floors of artworks, the ten euros entrance fee we paid for was definitely worth it. Especially when we finally got to the renowned Boticelli paintings.
It was about two and half wingspan in width. Venus stood there right in front of me, in full glory and beauty. The three muses danced as spring came. It was just absolutely stunning and unbelievable to see these masterpieces right in front of me. I had to stare at the paintings for a while, trying to absorb every detail possible. Unfortunately, taking photographs are not allowed so I had to store it all in my brain.
There were many other great paintings as well, but it was only Caravaggio that I remembered. The sheer number of artwork with recurring themes and different artists, when trying to be remembered meld into each other already. But I can remember the sheer awe I felt looking at those I found most interesting. There was so much passion and artistry etched on canvas!
It was funny because we kept looking for the Caravaggio angels since there were postcards and novelty items posted in the museum shop, but apparently it was not in this museum. However, it was still interesting to see the softness of Caravaggio's painting as depicted in "Bacchus." Unlike the masculine and rough depictions in other paintings, Caravaggio's Bachus tended to be more androgenous, bordering on feminine.
All in all, it is definitely worth your money and time if you like art. Make sure you come early so you can relish the paintings that catch your attention. Because there are just absolutely plenty!
From journal A Day and a Half in Florence
Editor Pick
Do not Miss the World's Foremost Repository of Renaissance Art!
The Uffizi is one of the world’s greatest repositaries of art, no question. The jackdaw collection of the Medicis whose offices (‘uffizi’) these were, it is particularly rich on medieval works and is THE place to see the explosion that happened here in Florence, known as the Renaissance. Perspective and realism were signs of renaissance art, vigorous signs of movement, the incorporation of Greek and Roman mythology, breaking away from the static, formal, posed figures so characteristic of Byzantine (and Sienese) iconography.
While it ranks up there in the pantheon of the world’s greatest art galleries along with St Petersburg’s Hermitage, London’s National Gallery, and the Louvre of Paris, the Uffizi does not make it easy to visit. The National Gallery is free to enter; automatic ticket machines make visiting the Louvre easy. The Uffizi is characterised by an interminable queue snaking down the colonnades. I was shocked by their backwards approach to the internet. Whereas in, say, Padova you can pay for your tickets on line to be collected once there, and book specific timed slots – with, it has to be said, discounts for being so helpfully organised – the Uffizi offers no such service. There are booking agencies who can do this for you, but they add a surcharge to the price you pay. The best way to avoid the massive queues of people turning up on spec, is to pay a visit to the gallery the day before you attend to visit. There is a separate box office for advance reservations, and while there is still a queue, it is much shorter. Here you reserve a timed slot for entrance – I went for 9:45 the next day, reasoning that the crowds might be thinner earlier in the morning. This costs €13.00, and allows you to bypass the general unticketted queue. I wanted to dump my bag in the cloakroom, but they would not let me. I also wanted to hire an audioguide – however, they require either a passport or a driver’s licence as security. Not having either on me I bought the official guidebook for €10. This has details on a good number of the works of art you will see, though nowhere near all of them. To do that you would have to lug around a tome the size of the Encyclopaedia Britannica! It also accompanies them with pictures, which means that it makes for a handy souvenir too.
Entering, you climb up to the second floor. There are toilets here just before the ticket check. I’d advise you to use them – once your ticket has been checked you cannot retrace your steps through to them, and instead have to follow the corridor all the way around to the far side of the courtyard. Essentially the museum is this one long checkerboard-floored corridor overlooking the courtyard of the Uffizi on three sides. This corridor is lined with statues and portraits but the great works are in the rooms off it. The shorter southern corridor gives great views north up the courtyard to the Palazzo Vecchio and south over the Arno and Oltarno district. The church of San Miniato al Monte can be seen perched in isolation above the greenery. You can also see the zig-zagging tiled roof of the Corridor Vasariano as it tacks down and across the Ponte Vecchio.
There are too many works for me to go into any great detail about what you will see here. I will just alight on what were for me some of the highlights. You start off in the late 13th century, and those who have read more of my writing will know that Giotto is always a favourite of mine. His ‘Ognissanti Madonna’ gazes back shrewdly; her asymmetric throne suggests this work was meant to be viewed from an angle. The amount of religious gilt on display lessons as you get into the 15th century. Uccello’s ‘Battle of San Romano’ is the first famous work – though the image I am familiar with comes from a different panel held in London’s National Gallery. Uccello depicts a battle scene crammed with stormtrooper-like knights fully encased in black armour and the rounded arses of horses.
I had to stop at Fra Filippo Lippi’s ‘Madonna with Child and Two Angels’. A grinning jackanapes of an angel tries to steal attention. However, there is something about the Madonna that held my gaze. This demure blonde-tressed Mary is exquisitely beautiful. The scene is given additional piquancy by the story behind it. The model was a nun, one Lucrezia Buti; she later bore the son of the friar Fra Lippi, a true intermingling of sacred and profane love. (I later bought a painted reproduction of this piece, which even now hangs in my flat). Lippi himself appears in his ‘Coronation of the Virgin’. He looks out at the viewer, looking somewhat bored of the whole thing.
By contrast, Botticelli’s self-portrait crops up in his ‘Adoration of the Magi’.He seems a handsome swine. The same painting features prominent members of the Medici family and their circle as the wise kings and their retinue. Boticelli is responsible for the two most famous works in the entire collection. You know when you are in the right room; the crowds in here are thicker than anywhere else in the gallery. First is his ‘Primavera’. From left to right you see Mercury, the dancing Three Graces, a blindfolded Cupid, Venus, a Gwynneth-Paltrow-esque Flora, and the nymph Chloris being captured by the smurf-blue Zephyrus. Lighter in hue is ‘The Birth Of Venus’. The contemplative and demure Goddess of Beauty sails to the land on a clam shell; an attendant waits to cover her nakednes with a robe. Both are everything you would hope. Further complicated allegory by the same artist occurs in ‘Calumny’.
You then pass a couple of Leonardo da Vinci’s works – note the sfumato blurring of the background scenery. You can still see this effect from any high point in Tuscany. Then you reach the Tribune. This is an original octagonal room in scarlet. The lanterned cupola is patterened with mother-of-pearl discs. The room is most famous for being the home of the classical ‘Medici Venus’ statue, the pride of the collection even back in the days of Cosimo III. Otherwise the walls are thick with family portraits – Bronzino’s ‘Eleonora di Toledo’ in a striking white, black and gold dress is absolutely the best of the bunch.
While there are several works from Germany and the Low Countries, one of the few works to originate in England appears in room 22 – Hans Holbein’s ‘Portrait of Sir Richard Southwell’. Holbein was Henry VIII’s court painter, and this depiction of a chinless worthy in three-quarter profile is astonishingly photographic. Its presence here is due to the Medicis ‘requesting’ it from the Duke of Arundel. Rosso Fiorentino’s ‘Madonna with Child and Saints’ is the ghastly antithesis to the Fra Lippi work I so admired. It even had to be repainted once because his saints resembled devils. Even re-done these saints look like clowns with their big black eyes, or goths with running mascara.
After doubling back into the third corridor I found there was less to engage my attention. Maybe this is because I find the darker 17th and 18th works less appealing, or maybe it was just fatigue setting in – there is an awful lot to see. Even the acid-bright colours of Michelangelo’s ‘Doni Tondo’ did not partiularly grab my attention. Titian’s famous ‘Venus of Urbino’ was on tour in Tokyo during my visit. Tintoretto’s Leda being nuzzled suggestively by the swan is worth an examination (a duck in a cage? Whatever next?). Vasari provides an ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ that helps to bely his hack reputation. I did enjoy the Canalettos (there are more of his Venetian canal scenes on display here than in the city of his birth). But then, I always do.
Finally by the exit is a cafeteria with an external terrace. This terrace is actually the roof of the Loggia dei Lanzi in the Piazza di Signoria. From here you get a great close-up view of the Palazzo Vecchio.
Touring the Uffizi can be a slog. There are some seats in the main galleries, but they are frequently already occupied – there is not really any such thing as a quiet time to visit. The cushioned benches also seem to be placed just too far away from the paintings for you to get a good view. The paucity of toilet facilities is also an issue. But you do see some of the most ground-breaking and famous works from five centuries. My advice would be to buy your tickets from the box office a day or two in advance, wear comfortable shoes, make sure you are adequately fed and watered before embarking, and bring passport or driver’s licence should you wish to hire an audio guide.
From journal Florence, Birth-Place of the Renaissance
Editor Pick
Galleria degli Uffizi
- October 13, 2007
- Rated 4 of 5 by
paolo1899 from Naples, Italy
The Uffizi palace was designed and begun in 1560 by the architect Giorgio Vasari in the period when Cosimo de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, was bureaucratically consolidating his recent takeover of power. Built in the shape of a horseshow extending from Piazza della Signoria to the Arno River and linked by a bridge over the street with Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi were intended to house the administrative offices (Uffizi) of the Grand Duchy. From the beginning, however, the Medici set aside a few rooms on the third floor to house the finest works of their collections. The Gallery was subsequently enriched by various members of the Medici family. Two centuries later, in 1737, the palace and their collection were left to the city by Anna Maria Luisa, the last Medici heir, and today houses one of the world's great art galleries. In its 45 rooms, the Uffizi houses not only the best of Florentine paintings from the 14th and 15th centuries, but masterpieces from other parts of Italy as well as four centuries' worth of works from leading artists in Germany, Spain and Holland. Apart from paintings, the Uffizi exhibits ancient Roman and 16th century sculpture in its frescoed corridors.
Serious art lovers should visit the Uffizi at least twice. The museum is organized in chronological order from the 13th to the 18th centuries. Your first visit should cover Rooms 1-24, dedicated to the Florentine Renaissance (home to the most famous paintings). A second visit could deal with Rooms 25-45, devoted to the High Renaissance and Mannerism in Florence, with works that end in the 18th century.
Visitors to the Uffizi may also visit the famous Vasari Corridor linking Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace across Ponte Vecchio. Over 1 km long, the passage way was commissioned in 1565 by Cosimo I to celebrate the marriage of his son Francesco to Joanna of Austria and was completed in only six months. The private corridor enabled the Medici to move freely between the seat of government and their private residence without having an escort and without walking among the commoners on the street. Apart from the delightful views of the city through the corridor's circular windows, its entire length contains a selection of 17th and 18th century paintings, including a unique self-portrait collection. A visit to the corridor has to be booked in advance as only small groups are allowed, accompanied by a guide.
From journal Galleria degli Uffizi