Uffizi, Florence. The chief public gallery of Florence. The nucleus of the collection derives from the collections of the
Medici family, and the Uffizi Palace was begun by
Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. It originally housed government offices (Italian
uffizi), hence the building's name. In 1565 Vasari built a corridor over the Ponte Vecchio connecting the Uffizi with the
Pitti Palace. The Uffizi was completed in about 1580 and soon afterwards Francesco I de'Medici (Cosimo's son) had part of it remodelled as gallery space in which to display the family collections. Subsequently the building has been much altered, enlarged, and restored (it was damaged in the Second World War, by flooding in 1966, and by a terrorist bomb in 1993), but it remains the best testimony to Vasari's skill as an architect. The last of the Medici line, Anna Maria Luisa, presented the collections to the city of Florence in 1737, and the transformation of the Uffizi into a public gallery was largely the work of Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo (later the emperor Leopold II; see
Habsburg), who reigned 1765–90. He reorganized the collections to make them more coherent, appointed scholarly staff (including
Lanzi) to care for them, and allowed public visiting free of charge. In the 19th century the Uffizi was again radically reorganized. Much archaeological material was placed in the Museo Archeologico, while the medieval and
Renaissance sculpture and the rich collection of
applied art were transferred to the
Bargello. The Uffizi picture collection on the other hand was enriched by early Italian works gained from suppressions of churches and monasteries and confiscations of religious property. Although it is primarily famous for its incomparable representation of Florentine Renaissance painting, the Uffizi also has outstanding works from other Italian and non-Italian schools (for example,
Hugo van der Goes's Portinari Altarpiece) and important examples of
antique sculpture. The collection of prints and drawings in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe is one of the finest in the world, and the gallery of artists' self-portraits, begun by Cardinal Leopoldo de'Medici in the 17th century, is unrivalled.
