The Uffizi Gallery: A Timeless Treasure Trove of Art and History

July 2024 | La Gazzetta Italiana

Nestled in the heart of Florence, Italy, the Uffizi Gallery stands as one of the most prestigious and storied art museums in the world. With its unparalleled collection of Renaissance masterpieces, the Uffizi not only offers a visual feast but also serves as a time machine, transporting visitors back to the golden age of art, culture, and human achievement.

The Uffizi Gallery's origins date back to 1560 when Cosimo I de' Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, commissioned Giorgio Vasari to design a grand office building ("uffizi" means "offices" in Italian) for Florentine magistrates. However, the vision for the Uffizi evolved under the patronage of the Medici family, transforming from a bureaucratic center into a sanctuary of art and knowledge. By the late 16th century, it began housing the vast art collections of the Medici, laying the foundation for the gallery we know today.

Stepping into the Uffizi is like entering a vast, beautifully curated anthology of Western art. The gallery's extensive collection spans from ancient Greek and Roman sculptures to the luminous canvases of the Renaissance, and into the vibrant experiments of the Baroque period. Each room tells a story, each painting a chapter in the grand narrative of art history.

The Uffizi’s Renaissance collection is its crown jewel. It boasts iconic works by legendary artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Leonardo’s “Annunciation” and “Adoration of the Magi” offer a glimpse into the genius’s early mastery of form and perspective. Michelangelo’s “Doni Tondo” stands out with its bold use of color and dynamic composition, while Raphael’s portraits exude grace and elegance.

Here we share a list curated by Stephanie Cash of ARTnews, www.artnews.com, of some of the Uffizi’s “must-see” artworks and where to locate them within the walls of the museum.

1. Giotto, “Ognissanti [Enthroned] Madonna” (1300–05). Second Floor, A4.

This early-Renaissance work marked a milestone in the advancement of art and inspired Florentine painters for more than a century. “Enthroned Madonnas” were popular at the time, and this one, with its naturalistic and volumetric figures, was the first to demonstrate a shift away from the stiffness of Byzantine art. (Compare this with the similar work by Giotto’s teacher Cimabue, located in the same gallery.)

The composition adheres to a neat symmetry, with the angels and saints on either side of the Virgin depicted as near-mirror images of each other. Mary holds the baby Jesus, who resembles a miniature older man more than an infant, an impression underscored by him making the gesture of blessing with one hand as the other hand clutches a scroll, symbolizing knowledge. This work was completed around the same time as the unveiling of Giotto’s well-known mural cycle for the Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel in Padua, near Venice, which would profoundly influence Michelangelo two centuries later.

2. Simone Martini, “Annunciation” (1333). Second Floor, A5.

With its ornate carved top, gold leaf, and tempera paint, this large-scale panel painting is considered one of the masterpieces of pre-Renaissance art. Commissioned for a side altar in the Siena cathedral, it features textbook “Annunciation” iconography: The Archangel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary to tell her of the forthcoming birth of Jesus; he holds an olive branch, representing peace; a dove at the top represents the Holy Spirit; white lilies symbolize Mary’s purity. The raised inscription passing from Gabriel’s mouth to Mary’s ear—Ave gratia plena dominus tecum—roughly translates as “Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with you.” Gabriel’s fluttering cloak and spread wings suggest that he has just landed, startling Mary, who shies away, clutching her garment and half-closed book. The prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isiah, and Daniel are depicted in the tondos set across the top of the altarpiece, and two patron saints flank the Annunciation scene.

3. Paolo Uccello, “Battle of San Romano: Niccolò Mauruzi da Tolentino unseats Bernardino della Carda” (c. 1435–40). Second Floor, A9.

One of three panels depicting the 1432 Battle of San Romano (Pisa), the others are at the Louvre and London’s National Gallery, this scene portrays the unhorsing of Bernardino Ubaldini della Carda, a soldier of fortune who fought for the Sienese against the victorious Florentines. With an earthy palette, the painting is most notable for its innovative use of perspective, in which the battle scene in the foreground is filled with foreshortened figures, a confusion of legs and limbs, and angular thrusts of lances, one of which is toppling Ubaldini from his horse. The background dramatically retreats to an inexact vanishing point and unseen horizon.

4. Piero della Francesca, “The Duke and Duchess of Urbino” (1473–75). Second Floor, A9.

Among the most famous portraits of the Italian Renaissance, “The Duke and Duchess of Urbino” depicts Federico da Montefeltro, a mercenary Duke, and his wife, Battista Sforza, who died following childbirth at age 26. (Actually, she never held the title of Duchess since Montefeltro became Duke two years after her death.) It is likely that the artist worked from Sforza’s death mask, and her pallor is thought to allude to her death more than to her status.

At the time, it was considered beautiful to have a high forehead, so women used to pluck their hairlines. The profile position is a reference to the design of ancient coins, which were popular collectors’ items among the wealthy. Atypically, however, the duke faces left, a design decision that symbolically binds him to his wife but more practically hides wounds from a jousting tournament in which he lost an eye and part of his nose (according to one account, he cut out a chunk of his nose so that he could better see with his remaining eye).

Now in a freestanding frame, the diptych panels were originally joined by hinges so that the whole could close like a book. On the back of the panels, the duke and duchess are portrayed being carried triumphantly on ancient wagons, accompanied by Christian virtues and Latin inscriptions that speak to their moral values.

5. Piero del Pollaiolo and Sandro Botticelli, “The Seven Virtues” (1469–72). Second Floor, A10.

Like a virtual Supreme Court, this imposing cycle of paintings depicts the seven Virtues, each bearing symbols of her attribute: a sword, a calyx of the Eucharist, a breastfeeding infant, and so on. All are resplendent in their richly detailed garments and jewels atop their thrones. Six panels were painted by Pollaiolo and one by Botticelli (much to Pollaiolo’s chagrin). Pollaiolo was commissioned by the Tribunale di Mercanzia in Piazza della Signoria, a court that heard disputes between Florentine merchants and administered justice among the guilds. Ironically, Botticelli got in on the commission because of his ties to the Medicis, creating both a business dispute and a guild injustice.

6. Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (1485). Second Floor, A12.

You’ve seen her on tote bags, T-shirts, umbrellas, and sundry gift shop items. She has sold Reebok sneakers and inspired artists and designers such as Andy Warhol and Jean Paul Gaultier. In early 2023, her head was slapped on the bodies of various female sightseers in a much-derided ad campaign promoting Italian tourism.

Why exactly is Botticelli’s depiction of the goddess of love and beauty so alluring, so symbolic of the Renaissance? The work has an ethereal quality created by the soft, pastel palette; Venus’s luminous skin and long, flowing hair; and the effortlessness with which Venus, blown by the winds of Zephyr and Aura, floats toward the shores of Cyprus. At the same time, the painting’s mythological subject matter reflects the growing interest in humanism during period it was made, and with it an interest in ancient nudes, a marked departure from the prevailing Christian art.

The creation of “The Birth of Venus’s” sister work, “La Primavera”, overlapped with Botticelli’s commission to paint three scenes on the walls of the Sistine Chapel, with “The Birth of Venus” coming shortly after. Botticelli borrowed Venus’s demure pose from ancient sculptures of a “modest Venus” attempting to hide her nudity (see the Uffizi’s own Medici Venus). Later in his career, as Botticelli became more religious, his works declined in popularity. As a follower of Savonarola, he participated in the 1497 Bonfire of the Vanities, in which Christians burned “vanities”- such as art, jewelry, mirrors, and other baubles - that distracted them from religious devotion.

7. Boar (2nd–1st century BCE). Second Floor, West Corridor, A24.

A popular and widely copied statue, this lifelike marble sculpture by an unknown Roman artist was probably inspired by an earlier Hellenistic bronze. In the entangled tradition of classical statuary, it has subsequently spawned many iterations. Tucked in a corner behind “Laocoön” in an area roped off to visitors, it was found in Rome in 1556 on a slope of the Esquiline Hill and brought to Florence in 1568, where Cosimo I de’ Medici had it placed at the Pitti Palace.

Likely part of a group of statues with a hunting theme, the animal depicted is captured in a pose as if awakening to the sound of approaching hunters. Its famous and more accessible descendant is the 17th century bronze fountain (the “Porcellino”) at the loggia of the Mercato Nuovo near the Ponte Vecchio, replete with a shiny snout from visitors feeding it coins for good luck.

8. Baccio Bandinelli, Laocoön (1520–25). Second Floor, West Corridor, A24.

As told by Virgil in the “Aeneid,” “Laocoön” was a Trojan priest who tried to warn his fellow citizens that the Trojan Horse was a trick sent by the Greek army. To prevent the exposure, Poseidon or Athena, sources vary, dispatched sea serpents to stop him and to kill his sons as punishment. The original Greek work depicting this scene was found on the Esquiline Hill in Rome in 1506 and has been an inspiration to artists ever since. (It lives at the Vatican Palaces in Rome.) In 1520, Pope Leo X (né Medici) commissioned Baccio Bandinelli to make a copy, and the artist took it upon himself to “fix” the original, replacing the lost upper limbs of each figure and parts of a serpent. But the work’s real power lies in the dynamic movement of the figures, the straining muscles, the entangling serpents, and Laocoön’s agonized expression.

9. Piero di Cosimo, Perseus Frees Andromeda (1510–15). Second Floor, A28.

A man flying in the sky with wings on his feet, a giant sea monster with a curlicue tail, this painting stands out for its unusual subject matter and its use of continuous narrative, in which several scenes are depicted in the same work. According to Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” the legend of Perseus goes like this: Andromeda is being sacrificed to appease a monster sent by Poseidon, who was angry at Andromeda’s mother, Cassiopeia, for her arrogance.

After it swoops in, we see Perseus atop the beast, sword poised to strike, and we see him again in the lower right celebrating his success with his future bride, Andromeda. In the lower left, Andromeda’s family flinches away from the imminent attack, and on the right they are celebrating Andromeda’s rescue.

In “The Lives of Artists,” Vasari described Cosimo as an eccentric who was a bit of a slob, afraid of thunderstorms, and who subsisted on hard-boiled eggs prepared in large batches because of his fear of fire. Like Botticelli, he returned to religious art after coming under the sway of Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, who advocated the destruction of secular art. Historical records reveal that Cosimo died of the plague in 1522.

10. Leonardo da Vinci, Adoration of the Magi (1482). Second Floor, A35.

This rare unfinished painting by Leonardo allows viewers to get a sense of his working process. It was commissioned in 1481 by Augustinian monks for the church of San Donato, just outside Florence. The painting, which Leonardo was to complete within 30 months, is a complex composition featuring architecture, battle scenes, and numerous figures crowded around the central ones: the Virgin and Child and the three magi.

Leonardo wound up leaving Florence prematurely for the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. When he failed to return and finish the job, the Augustinian friars commissioned the same scene from Filippino Lippi, who completed his similarly crowded panel painting in 1496.

The Uffizi Gallery is not just a repository of art; it is a living institution dedicated to the preservation, study, and celebration of human creativity. Its halls have witnessed centuries of artistic evolution, and its influence continues to resonate. The gallery’s ongoing efforts to conserve and exhibit its treasures ensure that future generations can experience the awe and inspiration that come from standing before some of the greatest artworks ever created.

A visit to the Uffizi is a pilgrimage for art lovers. As you stroll through its hallowed halls, you are not merely observing paintings; you are communing with the past. Each brushstroke, each sculpted form, speaks of the artists’ quest for beauty and meaning. Whether you are an art aficionado or a casual visitor, the Uffizi Gallery offers an unforgettable journey through the annals of art history.

For a complete list from Stephanie Cash, visit www.artnews.com.