Masterpieces of Painting in the Uffizi Gallery [antikvár]

THE UFFIZI GALLERY Mention is first made of the Uffizi in a letter from the Grand Duke Cosimo I to the painter and architect Giorgio Vasari dated October 22, 1559: « We shall be satisfied if you will butid the palace in conformity with the model you made of same for the Order of Magistrates ». In fact, as a modern innovat-ion, the new building was intended to house the centralized judicial and administrative offices of the government, thus expressing the unity and greatness of the Medici state, which had recently become a Grand Duchy. Thirteen Directors were apvointed to manage the var-ious departments of the vublic administration, which included, among others, courts of just-ice, guilds and tax-offlces, with the result that the new edifice was first known as the «Palace of the XIII Magistrates», which, however, was later altered to the Uffizi or uffici, namely, « offices ». According to documents of the time, 234 owners were dispossessed of their housss standing between the River Arno and the Piaz-za della Signoria, in order to make way for the new offices. During the work of demolition, a greater part of the Romanesque church of San Piero Scheraggio, which formerly stood in Via della Ninna between the Uffizi and the Palazzo Vecchio, was alsó destroyed, though two columns with the remains of their frescoes may be seen today in the second room on the ground floor (where the lift is installed), and alsó on the outer wall of the Uffizi along Via della Ninna. A lengthy exchange of letters between Cosimo I and Vasari enables one to follow closely the various stages of construction, the edifice being complet.ed with extreme rapidity — a fact all the more surprising if one con-siders the times and the size of the building. In 1565 the outer walls were already flnished, whereas a year earlier, in 1564, when Cosimo I's son, Francesco, married Jane of Austria, both the closed gallery between the Uffizi and the Palazzo Vecchio and the corridor joining the Uffizi to the Palazzo Pitti over the Arno had alsó been built. The latter corridor, alsó the work of Vasari, was terminated in five months, while a similar undertaking in ordin-ary circumstances would have required five years. After the death of Cosimo I in 1574, foll-owed shortly by that of Vasari, Francesco I assumed the reins of the Grand Duchy, and thus had occasion to centre his multiple inter-ests in the new building. In fact, he pAaced the numerous vaintings and statues of the Medici Collection in the corridors running along the loggia, by now fitted with large windows, while in the series of small rooms next to the Tribüné — built by Buontalenti to his order — were housed sundry curios, arms, instruments and items in gold, with the result that they were almost transformed into craftsmen's workrooms and chemistry, or rather alchemy, laboratori.es. Meanwhile, frescoes in the grotesque manner had been paint-ed on the ceiling of the loggia by Allori and pupils. The first collection of paintings, which included among other famous works, Paolo Uc-cello's Battle of San Romano and the Allego-ries of Botticelli, had graduálly béén enriched during the rule of the Medici dynasty, due to the continual interest shown in it by all members of the illustrious family, and alsó after it had become a Grand Duchy uv to the time of its extinction in 1737. This same love of art was fortunately continued after the advent of the House of Lorraine, which suceeded the Medici. Credit is due to Pietro Leopoldo for having added the fine Niobe Room to the Gallery, and, above all, for having opened it to the generál public, first having entrusted the rearrangement. of the works to a panel of experts. During the 19th century, in keeping with more modern concepts as regards layout, those works which, both in number and kind, re-