5 Masterpieces at the Uffizi Gallery

The Uffizi Gallery entirely occupies the first and second floors of the large building constructed between 1560-1580 and designed by Giorgio Vasari.

It is famous worldwide for its outstanding collections of ancient sculptures and paintings (from the Middle Ages to the Modern period).

The collections of paintings from the 14th-century and Renaissance period include some absolute masterpieces: Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Beato Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo, Raffaello, Michelangelo and Caravaggio, in addition to many precious works by European painters (mainly German, Dutch and Flemish).

Moreover, the Gallery boasts an invaluable collection of ancient statues and busts from the Medici family, which adorns the corridors and consists of ancient Roman copies of lost Greek sculptures.

Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) | Tribuna of the Uffizi, 1772-1777 | Royal Collection (UK)

Jacopo Zucchi | L'allegoria della Notte, 1588

"L'allegoria della Notte" di Jacopo Zucchi (1542-1596), è una delle nove tele dello splendido soffitto del Terrazzo delle Carte Geografiche, nel primo corridoio degli Uffizi a Firenze.

Fra le ombre della notte, al chiarore della luna, tutto può accadere.

Una dama alata, dalla carnagione eburnea, culla i suoi figli sopra una nube in un cielo stellato.

Uno di loro gioca con la falce del tempo.

Jacopo Zucchi | Allegoria della Notte, 1588 | Soffitto del Terrazzo delle Carte Geografiche, Gallerie degli Uffizi

Lucio Massari | Madonna of the Laundry, 1620

"Mary washed, Joseph laid... "

The subject of this painting really seems to illustrate the famous lullaby your grandparents or parents used to sing to you when you were a child.

You know, no one can escape household affairs, not even Joseph, Mary and Jesus!

The scene depicted by the Bolognese painter Lucio Massari (1568-1633) is in fact very unusual: every member of the Sacraiglia works with commitment and organization to clean and iron the laundry.

Lucio Massari Holy Family (Madonna of the Laundry), 1620 | Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze

Thérèse Schwartze | Self-portrait, 1888 | Uffizi Gallery

The artist presents herself by citing a well-known precedent: Sir Joshua Reynolds, who in his youthful self-portrait of 1749 portrays himself while making a screen with one hand over his eyes and holding the tools of his trade in the other.

After an initial apprenticeship with his father, Thérèse studied at the Rijksakademie, in Munich and in Paris.

Returning to Amsterdam she opened a very active studio, receiving important commissions and awards.

Titian | The Venus of Urbino, 1538 | Uffizi Gallery

Toward the beginning of his career Titian had brought to completion Giorgione's unfinished canvas of Venus asleep in a landscape; some twenty-five years later he adapted the central motif of the recumbent figure to a new setting and transformed its meaning by domesticating that pastoral deity. Giorgione's Venus - withdrawn in a private dream of love that we can share, to a degree, only by an effort of the imagination - has been brought indoors; fully awake now and aware of her audience, she displays her charms in a deliberately public proclamation of love.

Gerard van Honthorst | Adoration of the Christ Child, 1619-1620

The Dutch painter Gerard van Honthorst (1590-1656) was called Gherardo delle Notti (literally Gerard of the nights) because of his peculiar compositions in nocturnal lighting influenced by Caravaggio that he met in Rome in the first decades of the 17th century.

During his stay in Italy, Honthorst met Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici, who bought some of his works in 1620, among which probably this Adoration of the Child.

The divine light spread from the newborn’s body softens each feature, in particular the facial ones of the Virgin.

Gerard van Honthorst | Adoration of the Christ Child, 1619-1620 | Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Rosso Fiorentino | Musician Angel, 1522

Playing putto / Musical Angel is a fragment of a lost altarpiece which probably depicted the Madonna and Child with Saints.

This little work belonging to the period of maturity of the artist.

In 1605 the picture was collocated in the Tribune beside the more precious masterworks Medici family had collected.

Recent studies revealed the panel to be a fragment of a larger painting including - such as other altarpieces by Rosso - the angel in the lower part of the scene.

Tribuna of the Uffizi | The first museum of the Modern Age

In the Eighties of the 16th century, the Grand Duke Francesco I and his friend and collaborator, the architect Bernardo Buontalenti, started the project of the Tribuna.

It is the most important room at the first floor of the Uffizi palace, which ground floor was - at that time - occupied by the Florentine magistrates.

The Tribuna was the first nucleus of the Uffizi Gallery: it is a space conceived and realized to display to the public artworks considered the most precious of the Medici collection.

Marble Roman copy after a Greek original