Uffizi Gallery

Uffizi Gallery

Art museum in Florence, housing the world's finest collection of Italian Renaissance painting. The core collection derives from the Medici family of Tuscany. In 1559 Cosimo I hired Giorgio Vasari to design the Uffizi Palace (1560–80), originally for use as government offices (uffizi). In 1565 Vasari built the corridor over the Ponte Vecchio connecting the Uffizi with the Pitti Palace. In 1737 Maria Ludovica, last of the Medici, bequeathed the family collections to Tuscany; the collection was given museum status and opened to the public in 1769. The building was restored and enlarged after bomb damage in World War II and flooding in 1966. In addition to Florentine paintings, the Uffizi houses outstanding works of other Italian and non-Italian schools, antique sculpture, a gallery of self-portraits, and 100,000 prints and drawings.

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Uffizi Gallery 

a government-supported art gallery in Florence. The Uffizi Gallery occupies a building erected to house government offices (1560–85, architects G. Vasari and B. Buontalenti). Originally consisting of collections of the Medici family, the gallery was founded circa 1575. At first displays of natural science and other items were also included in the collections; however, they were transferred to other museums in the late 18th century.

The Uffizi possesses the world’s richest collection of Italian paintings of the 13th through 18th centuries; especially well represented are works of the Venetian and Florentine schools. Especially important are works of Giotto, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgioni, and Titian. The museum also houses magnificent French, German, Netherlandish, Dutch, and Flemish masterpieces, as well as a unique collection of self-portraits of European artists.

REFERENCES

Galereia Uffitsi: Florentsiia. (Album). Compiled and with a text by A. Guber. Moscow, 1968.