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Published: March 9th 2012
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Yesterday, as promised in my first post, I visited some museums in Florence to join a real interesting international initiative and celebrate the Women’s Day with some art for free!
I started my Art-Day with the “Uffizi Gallery” to move later to the BargelloMuseum. After a very Tuscan meal I went to the PittiPalace visiting finally the Brancacci Chapel.
When the Grand Duke Cosimo the 1st conquered the SieneseRepublic and created a state of which Florence was made capital, he decided that the most important offices and magistracies of the city should have their headquarters close to those of the government, which were in Palazzo Vecchio. The area with stretches from the Palazzo Vecchio to the River Arno was full of very small, rundown houses and was quite ill-famed. They decided this would be the perfect place to built the new administrative offices, or 'Uffizi'. As they succeeded each other, the Grand Dukes tried to enrich and modify the Uffizi collections up till the very end of the Medici line, represented by Giangastone de' Medici, who died in 1737.
Admiring the 1500 works of art in the forty-five rooms inside the Uffizi can take a very long time.
In order to leave the gallery feeling satisfied, I decide the best thing to do is to single out a few masterpieces. My visit begins on the ground floor, with the ruins of the ancient church of San Pier Scheraggio and frescoes of illustrious men by Andrea Del Castagno.
If you climb the flight of stairs designed by Vasari, you will reach the rooms make from the former Medici theatre, built by Buontalenti for Francesco the 1st. The lower floor contains the Library and the Gallery of Prints and Drawings, containing work by Renaissance artists.
On the second floor, among many others, you can admire the following:
- The Annunciation by Simone Martini, (1333) that is composed by a series of panels linked together in which you can admire the Archangel Gabriel and the blonde light-skinned Madonna. Between them is a vase of lilies and above them a group of Cherubs that seems to have just got there, judging by his billowing mantel and his luminosity alludes to his divine essence.
- Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano, (1423). The variety of characters portrayed and the meticulousness with which they are shown is exquisite
as is the pain-staking detail, such as the clothing made of precious cloth, the horses, the hats of the horsemen and the falconers, adorned with multicoloured embroidery.
- Battle of San Romano, Paolo Uccello, (1456). The painting is one of the three large panels (the other two are in London's National Gallery and the Louvre) which, when arranged in order, made up the Battle of San Romano. Cosimo the Elder commissioned this work of art from Paolo Uccello for a room in Palazzo Medici, in memory of the battle which took place in 1432, when the Florentine troops triumphed over the Sienese.
- Altarpiece of St Lucy de' Magnoli by Domenico Veneziano (1445): this altarpiece is a celebration of the use of perspective not just for the architecture, but also for the floor the characters seem to be standing on like pawns on a chessboard.
- Primavera or Allegory of Spring, by Botticelli (1478): it is set in a leafy glade full of plants and flowers, sheltered by orange trees. On the right, Zephyr, the personification of spring's west wind, chases Flora, one of the three nymphs who were the daughters of Zeus who opened and closed
the celestial doors through which the seasons entered and left. Spring is then born from their union. In the centre of the scene, Venus dances towards us while Cupid, hovering above, shoots a flaming arrow at the Three Graces. On their left, Mercury raises his caduceo at the clouds.
- The Birth of Venus by Botticelli, (1485). This work explains the meaning of beauty, represented by Venus, in line with Neoplatonic philosophy which was widespread in Florence at the time. It is through beauty that man becomes more similar to God and the entire universe is ruled by love. In the painting, Venus has just been born from the sea-foam yet she is already a woman. Naked, on a shell, she is transported to land by the wind, where Flora receives her, holding out an embroidered cloth to cover her. I really love it!
- The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci (1472-1475). The scene is divided in to two parts with the use of a stone prie-dieu showing where the garden ends. On this side of the garden, a miraculous event is taking place, on the other, lies a vast landscape. Only two characters are depicted and they are, predictably, the Archangel Gabriel and the Madonna, who are both shown in a well-thought out and theatrical pose, with beautiful drapery. I think that a distinctive sign of Leonardo's hand is the precision with which the flowers and plants in the garden have been painted and the unreal landscape in the background.
- The Holy Family, Michelangelo, (1504). This painting was done on occasion of the marriage of a rich Florentine merchant, Agnolo Doni with Maddalena Strozzi. This scene of the Holy Family possibly represents the Christian world versus the Pagan one, represented by the nudes and St. John is the passage between the two, as he has been chosen to lay the way for the preaching of Christ.
- Madonna of the Harpies by Andrea Del Sarto, (1517) and Giovanni de' Medici as a child, Bronzino, (1545). Giovanni ,future cardinal and archbishop of Pisa and third born of Cosimo the 1st and Eleonora di Toledo is playing with a goldfinch, in line with a widespread custom among children of wealthy families at the time. The naturalness of the painting is startling and the effect is highly realistic look at the precious red velvet suit he's wearing and the small gold chain with coral for good luck and the shape of the eyes which Bronzino painted in other contemporary portraits - very similar to those of his mother, Eleonora.
Tomorrow a new post and I’ll guide you to the BargelloMuseum. Stay Tuned!!!
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