The
construction of the Uffizi palace began in 1560,
when the Duke Cosimo I dei Medici decided to build
a special seat for the offices (hence the name
"uffizi") of the thirteen magistracies,
that is for the administrative center of the Florentine
State. Cosimo I commissioned the project of the
building to Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect
at the Medici court, who realized one of the most
famous architectural masterwork of Florentine
Mannerism. Stretching from the Signoria Palace
to the river Arno the costruction posed difficult
technical problems since the foundations were
quite over the river; Vasari had to include into
the building the ancient church of San Pier Scheraggio
and the ancient Zecca (near the Orcagna Loggias).
When in 1574 Vasari and Cosimo I died, the Uffizi
were not yet completed: Francesco I, son of Cosimo
I, succeeded his father, Bernardo Buontalenti
succeeded Vasari in supervision of construction;
in 1581 the building was terminated. Some years
before at the first floor the offices of the thirteen
magistracies had been installed: everyone of these
had a beautiful entrance door in the portico at
the ground floor. A man of peculiar intelligence,
Francesco I (1541-1587) had a profound interest
for science, alchemy and art; in 1581 he decided
to give a nearly private arrangement to the second
floor of the Uffizi. In the west wing he set laboratories
where specialized artisans worked jewels and precious
stones, perfumes were distilled, new medecines
were experimented; in the east wing he placed
ancient sculptures of medicean collection: shortly
afterwards in this side of the building Buontalenti
started to erect the Tribune. Francesco's successors
increased more and more the medicean collection
with new acquisitions of paintings, sculptures,
precious and rare object in general; they were
set not only at the Uffizi but also at Pitti Palace
or in other medicean palaces. The continuing growth
of the granducal collections in 17th century enriched
the Uffizi: new rooms of the second floor were
arranged to display masterworks as in a museum
and in the meanwhile the Gallery could be visited
on request by Florentine or foreign persons. For
this the Uffizi can be considered the first kind
of modern museum of the history. In 1737, with
the death of Gian Gastone (born in 1671) the Medici
dynasty ended and the family of Lorraine ascended
the throne of Tuscany. The last descendant of
Medici family, the Palatine Electrix Anna Maria
Luisa, sister of Gian Gastone, made an important
agreement that secured for ever the city of Florence
all the medicean art treasures. It was so eliminated
any risk of dispersion of this artistic patrimony
unique in the world. The Lorraine family, from
Pietro Leopoldo to Leopoldo II, enriched the whole
collection, increasing it with important masterpieces:
many paintings and several hundred of drawings
were bought, many Florentine pictures were transferred
to the Uffizi from Tuscan monastries, after suppression
of religious orders during the 19th century. In
1860 at the formation of the Kingdom of Italy
the Medici-Lorraine collections became public
property to all effects and purposes. At the end
of the 19th century a new arrangement of the Gallery
caused the destruction of the wonderful Medici
Theatre, to make way to the first rooms of the
east corridor, before the Tribune
. In 1989 the State Archive that occupied the
first floor of the Uffizi, has been transferred
in the new seat of Piazza Beccaria: the first
floor will be indeed arranged to double the Gallery's
area, as planned in the Nuovi Uffizi project.
The first six rooms of this floor have beeen recently
restored; all the other rooms soon will be added
to them, to make way to the exhibition of many
masterworks now conserved in the warehouses and
realize new arrangements for all needs of a museum
of such importance. |
