Uffizi Gallery

So, I finally did it. After six or seven months of living in Florence I finally visited one of its top attractions. Not only is the Uffizi one of the world's oldest and most important art galleries, but it also sat there about a block away from our apartment for the entire time I've been here. Probably even longer. So I went. Sarah Dotson and I went one Sunday while Sarah was grading school assignments. We entered together but then went our separate ways. Me to explore for the first time and Sarah to practice a lecture she was to give there.


As I've mentioned many times in previous postings, the Vasari Corridor runs from the Palazzo Vecchio in town to the Palazzo Pitti just across the river. It was a raised and covered walkway that the Medici would use to go from one palace to the other and to their offices (the present Uffizi gallery) without having to mingle with the common folk. Here you can see where the corridor leaves the Palazzo Vecchio on the right and enters the Uffizi.


Here is the Uffizi from the south. It is U-shaped, and this picture was taken from the bottom of the U. The Palazzo Vecchio is in the distance with its tower. I guess the Vasari Corridor runs through the right (east) side of the Uffizi, though I didn't see it when I was inside. The galleries are above. Below you can see the statues of many famous Florentine artists, architects, scientists, writers, and thinkers.


Here's the Uffizi from the north, from around the southeast corner of the Piazza Signoria. The Uffizi Gallery is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, which was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Grand Duke Cosimo d'Medici (aka Cosimo Primo). The building provided offices for the Florentine magistrates.


Here is the Vasari Corridor leaving the south side of the Uffizi, going west along the Arno, then crossing the river along the Ponte Vecchio. This shot was taken from inside the gallery. They let you take pictures out the windows, but not of the art inside.


Here is a shot of the river to the east from the same spot in the museum. If you open the picture up to its full size you can see the Porta San Niccolo on the left and San Miniato al Monte on top of the hill to the right.


Well, here's the corridor as far as it can be seen from the Uffizi. It goes on to the south and west, through Santa Felicita (a church south of the bridge that we went to with Andy, one of Sarah's teachers from Syracuse, NY), and up to the Palazzo Pitti.


Here is a picture of one of the two hallways. The halls run along the inside of the U and have portraits of hundreds of military and religious leaders, nobility, artists, etc. along the ceiling and then the galleries are through the doors to the outside of the U. The Medici also stored their vast collection of art here. The gallery was opened to the public in 1765 but had been open to visitors by request since the 16th century. The collection was so huge that some of it was sent to other museums around Florence.


The two biggest groups of people when I was there were surrounding Sandro Botticelli's Primavera and his Birth of Venus.


Here are two of Sarah's favorites: Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch (which Sarah saw in person while it was being restored by one of her instructors. This picture is pre-restoration) and Michelangelo's Doni Tondo.
The museum has Roman copies of Greek original sculpture, then moves on chronologically through the ages. There are works by Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Filippo Lippi, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Durer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Parmigianino, Caravaggio, Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, Rembrandt, and many many more.


At the end of the museum is a cafe that faces the Piazza Signoria. Here is the Palazzo Vecchio from the cafe.


More scenes from the cafe. Duomo on the left, Palazzo on the right. Towers of the Bargello and the Badia Fiorentino in the middle.


And the Duomo again, this time with its campanile. The road that you see is the road I take every morning from home to the bus stop.


Finally, here is a view from the Piazza Signoria. The Palazzo Vecchio is on the left, you can see a bit of the Uffizi in the middle, and the Loggia di Lanzi on the right. The loggia (porch) houses some incredibly famous statues like Cellini's Perseus and Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Women. The cafe of the Uffizi is above the Loggia di Lanzi but you can't really see it from below. You could usually see (the copy of) Michelangelo's David and (stupid, according to Sarah) Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus, but they are being restored in their little white and yellow huts.