An Art Lover's Guide to Florence

13. The Museo degli Uffizi: The Building and Some Highlights of the Collection

Chapter 13 The muSEO dEGLI uFFIzI The Building and some Highlights of the Collection hISTOrY OF ThE BuILdING A side from its status as a museum, one of the oldest and most renowned in europe, the Uffizi is also among the architectural masterworks of renaissance Florence. The name Uffizi comes from the Italian word uffici, which means “offices” and refers to the building’s original purpose. Commissioned in 1560 by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici to gather under one roof all the numerous tribunals, archives, and magistrates’ offices of the ducal administration, and thus to concentrate power near the Palazzo della signoria, it was built from a design of Giorgio Vasari. But the origins of the Uffizi go back to 1546, when Cosimo initiated an ambitious plan to transform the neighborhood. He had a long straight street cut through the crowded district between the Palazzo della signoria, a portion of which he had recently adapted for his living quarters, and the Arno river. The original plan approved by Cosimo called for a building that would have eliminated, among other structures, one of the most important buildings associated with the medieval Florentine government: the Loggia dei Lanzi, or Loggia della signoria, as it was known at that time. Just before construction was to begin, Cosimo changed his mind and rejected the plan, having decided to spare as much of the surrounding neighborhood as possible, preserving not only the Loggia della signoria but also the Mint and the ancient church of s. Pier scheraggio. He called on Vasari to come up with a new design. Although better known in his own time as a painter, and 168 aN arT LOVEr’S GuIdE TO FLOrENCE in ours as the first biographer of Italian artists, Vasari produced a handsome, original plan, creating a narrow U-shaped four-story structure with two long wings that extend from the Piazza della signoria all the way to the Arno river, linked at the far end by a short façade that faces the river, with a corridor above and a triple archway on ground level. The courtyard is not a yard at all but preserves Cosimo’s street between the two wings. The wings remain open on the short side that connects the building with the Piazza della signoria. Vasari’s plan didn’t require as much demolition and expropriation of property as the previous plan, and it better integrated the Uffizi into its urban context. Cosimo was perfectly capable of being autocratic, but he was also a shrewd enough politician to know when it was important to show respect for the city’s traditions. By preserving buildings closely associated with the Florentine republic of past centuries, he could demonstrate that he honored the city’s communal heritage. The new building would embody the general welfare of the state and not merely Cosimo’s own convenience in having his uffici next door to his residence. From the start, Duke Cosimo planned to use the piano nobile, one floor above ground level, for the display of important works from the Medici art collections, a project carried out by his son and successor, Duke Francesco. Over the years, other parts of the building also became display spaces for works commissioned or collected by the Medici. When the dynasty died out in the eighteenth century, the last Medici heiress willed the family’s treasures in the Uffizi to Florence, in perpetuity, thereby founding one of the first modern museums. It opened to the public in 1765. Today, the uffici of the vanished ducal regime are long gone, and the entire, vast building is devoted to the display, storage, and conservation of art. The Uffizi owns thousands of works of art, most—although not all—of them collected by generations of the Medici family. Its holdings include not only panel paintings, in particular those created during the Italian renaissance, but also a variety of sculptures and many frescoed ceilings. Beginning in the 1300s, Florence was part of an international mercantile and banking network that led to all kinds of cultural exchanges, which eventually enriched the collections of the Uffizi. A Medici bank representative in Bruges sent home to Florence one of the greatest works of fifteenth-century Flemish painting, the Portinari Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes, which several centuries later found its way to the Uffizi. Gifts from diplomats and prelates courting Medici favor, the dowries of Medici brides, and inheritances [18.220.160.216] Project MUSE (2024-04-25...