Virtual Uffizi Gallery

26/06/2018

10/11/2017

The Portrait of Lorenzo the Magnificent is an oil on panel, painted by Giorgio Vasari around 1533.
In this painting Vasari - the creator of the Uffizi Palace and other important artworks for the Medici family - portraied Lorenzo the Magnificent, who died in 1492. He is one of the most famous member of the Medici family and an important figure in the Italian politics during the XV century. He was also an important patron of great artists.
Vasari depicted some allegories on the background, to represent Lorenzo's virtues.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/portrait-of-lorenzo-the-magnificent.html

02/11/2017

New exhibition at the Uffizi Gallery, to celebrate the five hundred years of the Protestant Reformation!
https://www.virtualuffizi.com/exhibition-at-the-uffizi-gallery-for-the-fifteenth-century-of-the-protestant-reformation.html

22/10/2017

Raphael′s Lion X is one of the most important portraits of the Italian Renaissance and one of the most well known and precious works hosted in the Uffizi Gallery.
Exposed in the Red Rooms of the Florentine Museum, the painting is now at the Opificio delle Pietre dure.

Raffaello′s Lion X is one of the most important portraits of the Italian Renaissance and one of the most well known and precious works hosted in the Uffizi Gallery.

06/10/2017

Agony in the garden is an oil on panel painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Pietro Perugino around 1483-93.
Perugino is considered one of the masters of Raffaello. During the Quattrocento he was one of the most influent Italian artists, thanks to his naturalism mixed with the grace of Umbrian art.
In this work, Perugino depicted an episode from the Gospel.
In the centre of the painting there is Christ, kneeling and receveing a chalice by an angel. He is in the Garden of Gethsemane: at the two sides of the scene, two groups of soldiers are closing to arrest him, led by Judas Iscariot.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/agony-in-the-garden.html

26/09/2017

Japanese Renaissance at the Uffizi Gallery: don't miss this new wonderful exhibition in Florence!

From September 26th, 2017 to January 7th, 2018, the Uffizi Gallery will host an exhibition dedicated to Japanese painting, between the Muromachi era and the beginning of the Edo period (XV - XVII century).

15/09/2017

The wrestlers is a Roman marble sculpture after a Greek original of the III century BCE.
The statue was found in Rome in the middle of the 16th century. The work depicts two naked men struggling. One of them overwhelms the other, holds his right arm and is about to hit him. The athlete on the floor tries to lift himself.
The two young men are engaged in the pankration, one of the most popular and hard fighting styles of the ancient Rome.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/lottatori.html

11/09/2017

New exhibition at the Uffizi Gallery, dedicated to Luca Giordano, the famous Baroque painter, and Taddeo Mazzi. Don't miss it!

From September 5th to October 15th 2017, the Uffizi Gallery hosts an exhibition dedicated to Luca Giordano - an important exponent of Neapolitan Baroque - and Taddeo Mazzi - a Swiss artist who worked in Florence.

04/09/2017

The Madonna and Child with Saints (in Italian Pala dello Spedalingo) is a tempera on panel painted by Rosso Fiorentino in 1518.
Rosso Fiorentino was one of the pioneers of Mannerism in painting.
The painting represents a sacra conversazione (sacred conversation). In the center there is the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus; on her right St. John the Baptist and St. Anthony Abate; on her left St. Stephen and St. Jerome.
The work takes its name from the buyer, Leonardo Buonafede: he was the "spedalingo", or rector, of the Florentine hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. In his book Vite, Vasari says that when Buonafede saw the painting when it was unfinished, he said that the saints seemed "devils" and that is why he no longer wanted the work. Finally he was convinced to buy it, even though he paid a lower price.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/madonna-and-child-with-saint.html

25/08/2017

Filippino Lippi is a very important Italian artist. In his works there are the basis for Mannerism.
He was the son of Fra Filippo Lippi, another great Tuscan painter.
At the Uffizi Gallery we can admire some of Filippino's artworks.

The Italian artist Filippino Lippi (1457 - 1504) is remembered with a diminutive to distinguish him from his father, the famous painter Filippo Lippi.

18/08/2017

The Tribute to Caesar is an oil on canvas painted by Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582 - 1622).
Manfredi is one of the Caravaggisti painters, who was inspired by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's work: maybe Bartolomeo was his pupil in Rome.
In this painting a famous episode from the Gospel is represented. It is the one in which Jesus said "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's".
The deep chiaroscuro and the dark background are typical of Caravaggesque style.

11/08/2017

The Kidnapping of the Sabine Women is a marble sculpture by Giambologna, a master of Mannerism.
It is one the most famous works hosted in the Loggia dei Lanzi, but probably it is going to be transferred inside the Uffizi or Palazzo Vecchio.

The Kidnapping of the Sabine Women is a marble statue, perhaps one of the most famous of the works exhibited in the Loggia dei Lanzi. The author is Giambologna, Italian name of Jean de Boulogne (1529 - 1603), Flemish sculptor who worked in Italy, especially in Florence.

03/08/2017

Pallas and the Centaur is a tempera on canvas painted by Sandro Botticelli around 1482.
On Pallas' dress Botticelli depicted Lorenzo the Magnificent's
emblem: probably he made this painting for him, or for somebody very close to the Medici family.
The painting has a mythological subject. Pallas was the goddess of wisdom: she is subjugating a centaur. These figures, half man and half horse, were associated with lust and uncontrolled passions. There are several meanings in this work, probably connected to the Neoplatonic Florence Academy's ideas.

28/07/2017

Giorgione is a very important exponent of the Venetian School of painting. His life and his works are very mysterious and complex.
At the Uffizi Gallery we can admire some of his paintings. They are hosted in the room 75, dedicated to him and to Sebastiano del Piombo.

Giorgio da Castelfranco (1478 ca - 1510), famous as Giorgione, is one of the most important exponents of the Venetian painting school, despite having worked for only ten years.

22/07/2017

The Gaddi Torso is a fragmentary marble sculpture. It is an Hellenistic artwork of the 2nd century BC, housed in the Classical Sculpture Room of the Uffizi Gallery.
The Torso was well-known during the XVI century and many artists - as Lorenzo Ghiberti, Rosso Fiorentino and Michelangelo - were inspired by its characteristics, as the musculature and the pose.
It was never restored by being completed: however, art historians think that the Torso represented a centaur. The sculpture was part of group representing the consequences of love during different human life's ages.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/torso-di-centauro-con-le-mani-legate-dietro-la-schiena.html

Di I, Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27200014

19/07/2017

Antonio and Piero Benci, famous as the Pollaiolo brothers, were two important Renaissance artists.
They studied human body anatomy and tried to depict movement in their works.
At the Uffizi Gallery there is a room dedicated to them.

The brothers Antonio (1431 ca - 1498) and Piero (1441/2 - post 1485) Benci - known as Pollaiolo, because of the profession of their father, poultry (pollo, in Italian) salesman - were two artists of the Italian Renaissance. They were painters, sculptors, engravers and goldsmiths.

13/07/2017

The Allegory of Fecondity and Abundance is a tempera on panel painted around 1500 by Luca Signorelli (1445 ca - 1523).
The painting is monochrome, because it is an imitation of ancient low reliefs.
Characters probably represent an allegory of agricultural fertility.
Luca Signorelli is a very important Renaissance artist. He studied in Arezzo, where Piero della Francesca was his master.
Luca worked in Florence and other Italian cities. In Rome, he painted some frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. He is considered one of the major Renaissance exponents.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/luca-signorelli.html

09/07/2017

Fra Angelico is an important artist of Florentine Renaissance, famous for his religious works. He is also a saint, patron of the artists.
At the Uffizi Gallery we can admire some of his paintings.

Guido di Pietro (1395 ca - 1455) became Dominican Friar as Giovanni da Fiesole but is famous as Fra Angelico or Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelico). He was an Italian painter. Some of his works are hosted at the UffiziGallery.

03/07/2017

Titian is one of the most important and famous Venetian painters. He created a new artistic style, based on an original use of color.
At the Uffizi Gallery we can admire some of his works, as the Venus of Urbino and the Flora.

Tiziano Vecellio (1488/90 - 1576) is one of the greatest and most famous Italian artists. He was a citizen of the Republic of Venice.

27/06/2017

The Portrait of an Unknown Man with a Letter is an oil on panel painted by the German artist Hans Memling (1435/40 - 1494) around 1480.
Memling lived and worked in the Flanders.
The young man, maybe one of the many Italians who lived in Antwerp during the XV century. He seems to stare at the observer.
A landscape is is depicted on the background, following the rules of the aerial perspective.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/portrait-of-a-man.html

22/06/2017

Would you like to watch a great Italian classic movie in the Uffizi square?
Don't miss Apriti Cinema, the outdoor cinema at the Uffizi!

. Viewers will be able to watch the film near the statues of the great Tuscans present in Vasari\'s loggia. The festival is called

14/06/2017

The Medici Vase is one of the most famous ancient masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery.
During 2017 it was restored and some of its secrets have been revealed.

The Medici Vase is a marble krater, sculpted in Athens in the 1st century BC. The vase is over a meter and a half and has a bell shape.

10/06/2017

The Badia Polyptych is a tempera on panel painted around 1300 by Giotto (1266/7 - 1337).
It is composed by five paintings, that are framed and have a triangular cusp. In the central one, Giotto portrayed the Virgin Mary, in the others - from the left - Sts. Nicholas of Bari, John the Evangelist, Pieter and Benedict.
Giotto used the chiaroscuro to create the realistic effect of the volumes, especially in the draperies.
This artwork is called Badia Polyptych because, according to Art Historians, it was housed in the Badia Fiorentina, behind the high altar.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/the-badia-polyptych.html

03/06/2017

Uffizi Live, the summer art festival at the Uffizi Gallery, starts again!

Every Tuesday night, the Gallery′s spaces will host Uffizi Live, a festival of art and performances, which had a great success during last year\'s summer.

28/05/2017

The Portrait of Pope Leo X with two Cardinals is an oil on panel painted by Raphael in 1518.
This portrait was sent in Florence on the occasion of the wedding of Lorenzo - the Duke of Urbino - with Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, parents of Caterina de' Medici.
It is an official portrait: Raphael renewed the tradition of this genre of paintings. At the time, it was very admired because of the representation of several details and, above all, of the use of light.
Leo x was Lorenzo the Magnificent's son. The two cardinals are his cousins Giulio the Medici (who became later pope Clement VII) and Luigi de' Rossi.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/pope-leo-x-with-cardinals-giulio-de%27-medici-and-luigi-de%27-rossi.html

23/05/2017

Michelangelo is one the greatest Italian artists. He grew up and worked in Florence.
At the Uffizi Gallery we can admire his Doni Tondo, one of his masterpieces.

which, at the time, was experiencing a period of economic difficulties. A few months after Michelangelo\'s birth, his family returned to Florence.

16/05/2017

Giuliano da Sangallo was a very important Renaissance artist. He worked for Lorenzo the Magnificent, who really loved his art.
The Department of Drawings and Prints of the Uffizi Gallery is dedicating an exhibition to Giuliano's work: here we can admire his sketches and a wooden scale model of Palazzo Strozzi.

(1445 - 1516) - whose true name was Giuliano Giamberti - was an architect, military engineer and sculptor. He was a very important figure of the

11/05/2017

The Madonna and Child is a tempera on panel painted in 1450 by Jacopo Bellini.
Jacopo (1396 ca - 1470 ca) was a Venetian painter. His art has the characteristics of the International Gothic Style, but, at the same time, it shows some Renaissance elements.
Jacopo was the father of two important artists, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini.
In this painting we can observe some Renaissance elements, as the use of perspective in the Child's foot, and some others taken from the Byzantine tradition, as the use of gold. The Madonna seems to show the Child to the observer, while she is standing at the window.

02/05/2017

Annibale Carracci is a very important painter: he made an important renovation of Italian tradition and influenced Baroque art. He often depicted genre scenes, with respect and dignity.
At the Uffizi Gallery we can admire some of his paintings, but also many of his drawings, kept at the Department of Drawings and Prints.

, bringing it to the recovery of the imitation of the true. Annibale, in his genre painting, often represented scenes of daily and working life. He distinguishes himself from his predecessors because he depicted such scenes with dignity, respect, and realism, even when he painted figures considered…

30/04/2017

The Calumny of Apelles is a tempera on panel by Sandro Botticelli, completed around 1494.
It is one of the first paintings that represent Botticelli's spiritual crisis. His personal changes influenced his artistic style. In this painting we can notice the deep use of chiaroscuro and the expressiveness of the characters.
The episode depicted is taken from the ancient history, but the artwork represents the crisis of Humanism and of some of its philosophical principles.
In the same period in which he painted this work, Botticelli became interested in Savonarola's ideas.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/calumny.html

24/04/2017

Raphael is one the most important Italian artists of all the time. He had a very short life, but he produced many masterpieces: some of them are kept in the Raphael room of the Uffizi Gallery.

was born in Urbino, in the Marche region, in 1483 and died in Rome in 1520, when he was only 37 years old. He was painter and architect,

14/04/2017

The Uffizi Gallery is going to lend its pre-Roman collection to the Bardo Museum, in Tunis.
This is a unique occasion to admire part of the Uffizi collection far away from the museum. With this initiative, the Florentine museum wants to help the Bardo Museum, after the tragic terroristic attack in 2015.

. The exhibition does not have a certain date, but it should take place before the end of 2017. The vice president of the

10/04/2017

The Sleeping Hermaphroditus is a marble sculpture. It is an ancient Roman copy from an Ellenistic sculpture, representing Hermaphroditus life size.
Hermaphroditus is a mythological character, who has both feminine and masculine attributes.
You can admire it in the room 38, now called "the Hermaphroditus room".
This marvelous statue is part of the "Uffizi by touch" itinerary for blind visitors.

https://www.virtualuffizi.com/the-room-of-the-hermaphrodite-has-reopened-with-a-new-guest%21.html

04/04/2017

A new exhibition at the Uffizi Gallery: We Must Make Haste!
Here you can admire some masterpieces from the Southern Marche, one of the Italian regions recently hit by an earthquake.
Important Renaissance paintings, original bells and the manuscript of the Infinite by Giacomo Leopardi.
An important occasion to discover a very significant part of the Italian artistic heritage and contribute to the reconstruction: don't miss it!

. The quake rendered uninhabitable locations where such works were kept for a long time, many of them from their origin. With this event, the