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Renaissance 101
Florence's Uffizi Galleries are a smorgasbord of paintings by Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Fra' Angelico, and Botticelli—including his Birth of Venus
The Uffizi are a visual primer of the development of the Renaissance from the 13th to the 18th centuries. Although only a fraction of the size of galleries like the Louvre or Vatican, the Uffizi ranks in the world's top echelon of museums. What it lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality, with room after room of unequivocal masterpieces. It can be downright exhausting. You can easily spend all day here, but the super-fast visit will take about three hours.
You get off to a roaring start with the trio of giant Maestà paintings in the first room. Together, these show how painting quickly moved from the rigid, Byzantine style of Cimabue's version, through some Gothic elements courtesy of the Sienese great Duccio, to the point where painting is completely transformed by the artist who broke all the rules and in the process catalyzed Renaissance painting, Giotto.
Move on through rooms featuring the work of early Sienese greats like Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini, then on to Florentine and other Tuscan masters like Fra Angelico, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello, and Filippo Lippi.
Now you come to a vast room dedicated to Botticelli, focused on his two most famous works, The Birth of Venus (that blonde-on-a-half-shell rising from the sea) and The Allegory of Spring. The tour-bus crowds tend to plant themselves in front of these for 20 minutes at a time, so you may have to wait for a good look, but meanwhile you can entertain yourself with the rooms' lesser-known works by Boticelli and his contemporary Ghirlandaio (who first taught a young Michelangelo how to fresco). Beyond this, you've got Signorelli, Perugino, and a young Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation.
What follow are rooms filled with northern European art from the pre- and early-Renaissance eras (Dürer, Cranach, Hans Holbein the Younger) and Venetian masters like Correggio, Bellini, and Giorgione.
Move on around to the second corridor to marvel at Michelangelo's bright and colorful Holy Family, signaling our dive into the High Renaissance.
Tips
The Uffizi's open late, and most of Florence's other sights are best seen in the morning, so it's wise to save the Uffizi for an afternoon. In summer, the line can last for two hours—no joke. You'll have less of a wait early in the morning and again around 1:30pm when most people are out having lunch. If you're the type to plan ahead, I highly, highly recommend ponying up the extra €3 to reserve your tickets.
The startling colors and attention to the musculature of twisting bodies that Michelangelo used in groundbreaking works like this one influenced a whole generation of artists called mannerists, including the next few rooms' Rosso Fiorentino, Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, and Parmigianino. These are interspersed with paintings by some big guns like Raphael, Titian, and Caravaggio.
Piazzale degli Uffizi 6 (off Piazza della Signoria)
tel. +39-055-238-8651, www.polomuseale.firenze.it/uffizi
Book tickets: tel. +39-055-294-883, www.firenzemusei.it
Closed Mondays
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This material was last updated January 2007. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998-2008 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
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