Uffizi

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Uffizi

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Uffizi , palace in Florence, Italy, built in the 16th cent. by Giorgio Vasari for Cosimo I de' Medici as public offices. It houses the state archives of Tuscany and the Uffizi Gallery, one of the world's richest art collections. Besides the Florentine, all the Italian as well as the Dutch and Flemish schools are well represented, with works by Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Titian, and Rubens, to name only a few. It also houses the world-famous statue of the Venus of the Medici (Greek, 3d cent. BC), with other Greek, Roman, and Renaissance sculpture. The Uffizi contains a fine collection of artists' self-portraits. In 1993 a car bomb (alleged to have been set by the Sicilian Mafia) damaged or destroyed portions of the palace, destroying three paintings and damaging more than 30 other works of art. In 1998 a renovated Uffizi reopened with damaged artworks and galleries restored. It now includes a new wing, bookshop, cafe, multimedia information center, and other features.

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"Uffizi." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 3 Jul. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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Uffizi

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | 2006 | | © The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 2006, originally published by Oxford University Press 2006. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Uffizi an art gallery and museum in Florence, housing one of Europe's finest art collections. Italian Renaissance painting is particularly well represented, although the collection also contains sculptures, drawings, and Flemish, French, and Dutch paintings. The building, the Uffizi palace, was designed by Giorgio Vasari c.1560 as offices for the Medici family.

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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Uffizi." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 3 Jul. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Uffizi." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (July 3, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Uffizi.html

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Uffizi." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Oxford University Press. 2006. Retrieved July 03, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Uffizi.html

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Uffizi

The Oxford Dictionary of Art | 2004 | | © The Oxford Dictionary of Art 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Uffizi (Galleria degli Uffizi), Florence. The chief public gallery of Florence. The nucleus of the collection derives from the art treasures 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.

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IAN CHILVERS. "Uffizi." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 3 Jul. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

IAN CHILVERS. "Uffizi." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (July 3, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O2-Uffizi.html

IAN CHILVERS. "Uffizi." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Retrieved July 03, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O2-Uffizi.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article The Uffizi Gallery Museum.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Internet Bookwatch; 12/1/2006
Free Article A grander Uffizi.(Artworld)(Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy)(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: Art in America; 4/1/2004
Free Article As Seen at the Uffizi.(Poem)
Magazine article from: Poetry; 8/1/2003

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Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

The Uffizi Gallery Museum.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Internet Bookwatch; 12/1/2006; 193 words ; The Uffizi Gallery Museum Alexandra Bonfante-Warren...06880 0883635151, $76.00 www.hlla.com The Uffizi Gallery Museum by Alexandra Bonfante-Warren...illustrated history of the Galleria degli Uffizi, the world's oldest surviving museum. The... Read more
A grander Uffizi.(Artworld)(Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy)(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: Art in America; 4/1/2004; 225 words ; The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, home to a treasure trove of medieval and Renaissance...increase in the number of works on view from 1,200 to 2,000. Overall the Uffizi will occupy about 290,000 square feet. Museum officials expect the number... Read more
As Seen at the Uffizi.(Poem)
Magazine article from: Poetry; 8/1/2003; ; 79 words ; AS SEEN AT THE UFFIZI An audience of shepherds Looks on adoringly As Mary gently bounces The babe upon her knee. To Mary's side stands Joseph. He isn... Read more
On a Bronzino at the Uffizi.(Poem)
Magazine article from: Quadrant; 6/1/2006; 177 words ; ON A BRONZINO AT THE UFFIZI Her ruffles are strawberry ice, her satin a Sunday School picnic dessert, her dress an essay on thingness, and close to flat-chested... Read more
The Uffizi, a year after.
Magazine article from: Contemporary Review; 9/1/1994; ; 700+ words ; ...and the whole of the west wing of the Uffizi Gallery. While the staunch Florentines...there was concern for the fate of the Uffizi, where incredulity gave way to dismay...Maria Petrioli Tofani, curator of the Uffizi Gallery, still grieves for the tragedy... Read more
How Florence inspired the Pre-Raphaelites: Simon Poe visits a pioneering exhibition at the Uffizi that charts the influence of Florence on British and American artists in the later nineteenth century.(Exhibitions)
Magazine article from: Apollo; 8/1/2004; ; 700+ words ; ...northern Europe, will surely be mounted somewhere. In the meantime, this exhibition displayed in rooms that used to house the Uffizi archives, makes a very good start. Its catalogue, the English-language version printed in only two thousand copies and destined... Read more
Hugh Lauter Levin Associates.(books)(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: California Bookwatch; 2/1/2007; 224 words ; ...HLLA.com www.pgw.com 1-800-788-3123 THE UFFIZI GALLERY MUSEUM (0883635151, $75.00) by...world's oldest museum, the Galleria Delgi Uffizi, which holds many painting masterpieces...mid-1500s by the Medici family and THE UFFIZI GALLERY MUSEUM captures their collection... Read more
Cimabue and Pisa: Simona Di Nepi reviews an enthralling exhibition in Pisa that makes a convincing case for the influence the city's painters had on the development of Tuscan art in the thirteenth century.(Cimabue a Pisa, La pittura pisana del Duecento da Giunta a Giotto')
Magazine article from: Apollo; 6/1/2005; ; 700+ words ; In 1937 the exhibition on the age of Giotto at the Uffizi showed in its first room a small group of works by thirteenth-century Pisan artists. Although it received a mixed response, this... Read more
Starting point.(IN THE BEGINNING; charity to the poor)
Magazine article from: National Catholic Reporter; 4/21/2006; ; 326 words ; ...Florence when we came upon him sitting in a little alcove near the Uffizi Museum. His outstretched hand held a small plastic cup with...a busy morning. We pressed through the tourists outside the Uffizi. From high niches in the museum's parallel colonnades, statues... Read more
FLORENCE.(Brief Article)(Poem)
Magazine article from: Poetry; 7/1/1999; ; 141 words ; Sometimes I wake up, and the morning lies as flat as fresco, like Cimabue's panels, or stained glass in the Uffizi. She takes my face between her hands and tries to model me in the way that her eyes look at the world. What is it she can see that... Read more
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Uffizi. Other (Public Domain)

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