Uffizi in Florence: works, timetables, ticket cost

The Uffizi in Florence are a huge collection of masterpieces. It would take several days to have a tour of everything, so we suggest a selection of masterpieces that cannot be missed. Obviously it is an arbitrary selection: the masterpieces we suggest you to visit are just a small part of the richness of this famous museum.

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In this room you can find the main works that marked the Tuscan painting from ‘200 and’ 300:

the three altarpieces by Cimabue, Duccio and Giotto, painted with the same subject and  called “Maestà – Majesty” , because all depicting the “Madonna and Child enthroned”. In that of Cimabue, 1280, it is important  the volume and plastic relief of the figure. In Duccio’s altarpiece, known as the “Madonna Rucellai” of 1285, the  figure is more graceful and more influenced by both the Gothic painting and the Eastern tradition; The Majesty of Giotto, also called “Maestà di Ognissanti – All Saints Majesty” of 1310, is located at the centre of the room and is characterized by a strong chiaroscuro and the volumes of the bodies, which formed the starting points for the development of Italian art.

In these two rooms you can find  precious Sienese and Florentine masterpieces

of the fourteenth century, among which the two famous alterpiece from the Duomo of Siena, which are the first examples of subjects  with evangelical episodes, instead of an icon to be worshiped. They are the “Annunciation” by Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, characterized by an elegance  typical of the Sienese Gothic school and the “Presentation in the Temple” by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, which combines elements of Giotto and the Sienese tradition, with a taste for color. The hall dedicated to the Florentine painting of the fourteenth century influenced by Giotto and his workshop, is rich in polyptychs often incomplete or without frames and other smaller paintings. As the “table with Santa Cecilia”, the anonymous collaborator of Giotto, that from this work was named Master of the Santa Cecilia. Or other works characterised by Giotto’s inspiration, like those of Pacino di Buonaguida, Jacopo del Casentino, Bernardo Daddi, Taddeo Gaddi with its “Madonna with Child and saints” and Andrea Orcagna with the “Triptych with St. Matthew and stories of his life” .

It is one of the biggest and most famous halls of the Gallery since it hosts some of the masterpieces of the Renaissance and the best collection in the world of works by Sandro Botticelli, executed in the second half of the fifteenth century. Among his masterpieces are the “Primavera” and “Birth of Venus”, emblematic works of the Neo-Platonic culture that developed in Florence and the first with  large subjects of the Italian Renaissance, painted for Lorenzo de ‘Medici (not Lorenzo the  Magnificent).

Here are preserved the other extraordinary paintings of the master, like those of the youth “Madonna and Child” and “Madonna of the Rose Garden”, or the “Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder,” where there is already a more matureand realistic style. There are also some mythological works, such as the touching “Pallas and the Centaur”, an allegory of human instincts. Of extraordinary intensity are also the paintings of religious subjects as the “Pala di San Barnaba”, or the magnificent tondo of the “Madonna of the Magnificat”, in which you can  see a more severe and sometimes archaicstyle, as in ” Coronation of virgin”with a  gold background. But the influence of Savonarola on Botticelli also continues to be felt and to be expressed in its most pessimistic period, with “The Calumny” of 1495, a work that symbolizes the failure of the optimistic spirit and the finding of human baseness.

This room of the Uffizi Gallery collects early works by Leonardo da Vinci, from before 1475 “The Baptism of Christ”, a work  of his master Verrocchio, butthe young Leonardo painted the angel’s head, the landscape and perhaps modelled the body of Christ. It is said that Verrocchio, feeling surpassed by him, abandoned the painting devoting himself only to sculpture. The other work painted by a barely twenty Leonardo is “The Annunciation”, where already we can see the first nuances and attention to atmospheric vibrations. “The Adoration of the Magi” is an unfinished work, but is clear  the innovative genius of the master. Alongside the paintings of Leonardo, you can find important altarpieces by famous masters: the “Christ in the Garden” and “Pietà” by Pietro Perugino, the “Crucifixion with Mary Magdalene” by Luca Signorelli, “the Incarnation “Piero di Cosimo and” Adoration of the Shepherds “by Lorenzo di Credi.

The room n. 25  is the first of the west aisle of the Museum and it is dedicated to the Florentine sixteenth century.

Among the works there is the famous “TondoDoni” painting commissioned by AgnoloDoni to the young Michelangelo Buonarroti, with a colorful set of colors and impressive figures. But also its innovative “Holy Family” painted on wood and still preserved in its original frame. There are also other paintings, such as “Salome” of the Spanish painter Alonso Berruguete, “The apparition of the Virgin to San Bernardo” by Fra Bartolomeo and the “Visitation” by MariottoAlbertinelli, the latter full of religion and tradition.

Here you can admire the works of Raphael , boththose of the young artist and the more mature period.

At first it belong the “Portraits of the Dukes of UrbinoElisabetta Gonzaga and Guidobaldo da Montefeltro”, the one  of “Francesco Maria Della Rovere” and the famous “Madonna of the Goldfinch” in 1505, inspired by Perugino and Leonardo da Vinci, where subjects are extremely smooth and harmonious. To the following period, however, the so-called Roman,  when Raffaello became the leading painter of the Vatican court, are  the “Portrait of Leo X” with Cardinals Giulio de ‘Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi, the most monumental works and attentive to detail.

In these halls you can admire artists from Emilia and central Italy in the first half of the ‘500.

One of the most famous works is the “Madonna of the Long Neck” by Parmigianino, elegant and sinuous in its forms, but also mysterious, since it is a work left unfinished on the right side. You can admire also  the “Madonna and Child with Saints” and the “Madonna of San Zaccaria”, characterized by a background of Roman monuments. Other significant works are those of the Ferrarese court artist DossoDossi, with his “Apparition of the Virgin to the Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist”, the “Rest of the Holy Family in Egypt” by Giorgione evocation and a strange painting called the “Witchcraft” or “Allegory of Hercules” of uncertain iconography.

In this room the early sixteenth century Venetian painting is manifested inmasterpieces of the great Venetian master Tiziano.

Among the early works stand out the portraits of the “Knight of Malta”, those of “Dukes of Urbino Francesco Maria dellaRovere and Eleonora Gonzaga”, and the “Portrait of Ludovico Beccardelli”, in which is still present the strong influence of Giorgione. But the painting surely most beloved of the Gallery is the famous “Venus of Urbino”, a beautiful painting in which emerges all the sensuality of the goddess and the color and the plasticity of its forms.

In these rooms  are gathered the works of two great exponents of the firstFlorentine Mannerist: Jacopo Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino.

The first was an eclectic painter, inspired mostly by Michelangelo and German art of  Durer, which is represented here in his famous “Supper at Emmaus” of 1525. While the eccentric  Rosso Fiorentino stands out with small alterpieceof “Madonna and saints “called” delloSpedalingo “and the painting ” Moses with Jethro daughters”, typical example of a break with the traditional method  and looking for a voluptuous and dynamic style of the figures. The most admired is still the “Musician Angel”.

This room houses the early works of the genius Caravaggio.

On the back wall you can admire “Bacchus”, very attentive to detail as can be seen from the representation of the fruits and the “Sacrifice of Isaac” realistic and bloody in the representation of the figures.

But the painting which certainly is characterised by more feeling and violence is the famous “Medusa”, in which the head of Medusa, with a terrified expression, is cut by the hero Perseus and presented on a round shield. In the room dedicated to Caravaggio, there are also preserved other artists that reflect the drama of the typical themes of the master, such as Artemisia Gentileschi, with his “Judith Slaying Holofernes” or BattistelloCaracciolo with “Salome with the Head of John the Baptist.” Instead of  classic style are the works of Annibale Carracci, shown here as the “Venus” (or Bacchae) of 1588 and the Neapolitan Salvator Rosa with his “Landscape with Figures.”

This is not a work of art, but still an architectonic masterpiece.

In  1565, on the occasion of the marriage of Francesco De’ Medici  with Giovanna of Austria, Giorgio Vasari built for Cosimo I Dè Medici the “CorridoioVasariano” to connect Palazzo Vecchio with Palazzo Pitti (at that time it was residence of the Medici family). The corridor is one kilometre long, it starts from Palazzo Vecchio, passes through the Galleria degli Uffizi (Uffizi Gallery)  over the workshops of Ponte Vecchio and ends in Palazzo Pitti. Vasari in just six months built what is now known as the Vasari Corridor: a path that starts from Palazzo Vecchio, crosses with a covered bridge in Via dellaNinna, go through part of the Uffizi,  and , after crossing the Ponte Vecchio, it continues in the Oltrarno district nding in the Boboli gardens up in the Palazzo Pitti.