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Galleria degli Uffizi Review

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Galleria degli Uffizi

Fodor's Review:

The venerable Uffizi Gallery occupies the top floor of the U-shaped Palazzo degli Uffizi fronting on the Arno, designed by Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) in 1560 to hold the uffizi (administrative offices) of the Medici grand duke Cosimo I (1519-74). Later, the Medici installed their art collections here, creating what was Europe's first modern museum, open to the public (at first only by request) since 1591. Hard-core museum aficionados can pick up a complete guide to the collections at bookshops and newsstands.

Among the highlights are Paolo Uccello's Battle of San Romano, its brutal chaos of lances one of the finest visual metaphors for warfare ever captured in paint; the Madonna and Child with Two Angels, by Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-69), in which the impudent eye contact established by the angel would have been unthinkable prior to the Renaissance; the Birth of Venus and Primavera by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), the goddess of the former seeming to float on air and the fairy-tale charm of the latter exhibiting the painter's idiosyncratic genius at its zenith; the portraits of the Renaissance duke Federico da Montefeltro and his wife, Battista Sforza, by Piero della Francesca (circa 1420-92); the Madonna of the Goldfinch by Raphael (1483-1520), which, though darkened by time, captures an aching tenderness between mother and child; Michelangelo's Doni Tondo; a Self-Portrait as an Old Man by Rembrandt (1606-69); the Venus of Urbino by Titian (circa 1488/90-1576); and the splendid Bacchus by Caravaggio (circa 1571/72-1610). In the last two works, the approaches to myth and sexuality are diametrically opposed, to put it mildly. Six additional exhibition rooms opened in 2004, convoluting the way you exit the museum. Many of the more than 400 works now displayed would have been better left in storage, though a couple of Caravaggios at the very end of your hike out are well worth a look.

Late in the afternoon is the least crowded time to visit. For a EUR 3 fee, advance tickets can be reserved by phone or, once in Florence, at the Uffizi reservation booth at least one day in advance of your visit. At this writing, an on-line reservation option has also been launched at www.polomuseale.firenze.it; the booking process at this point is awkward, but it's likely to improve. If you book by phone, remember to keep the confirmation number and take it with you to the door at the museum marked "Reservations." Usually you're ushered in almost immediately. Come with cash, because credit cards are not accepted (though you can use a credit card when booking on-line). When there's a special exhibit on, which is often, the base ticket price goes up to EUR 10.

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