Gli Uffizi 2.0

Our last visit to the Uffizi consisted of going to the rooms of high Renaissance masterpieces. On the menu: Leonardo Da Vinci (most of his works are outside of Italy but a couple of his paintings are still in Florence), a few Michelangelos,  Botticellis, and Raffaelo. 

Leonardo Da Vinci Painted the Angel on the Left

Jillian Explains Raffaelo (before setting off the alarm)

It is said that when Leonardo's teacher saw the face of the angel L. da V. had painted, that he never picked up a paint brush again, so amazed was he by the delicacy and subtlety of the features rendered.

Da Vinci, who was illegitimate  (a situation that left him to live on the periphery of his father's house) loved to study nature--he spent a lot of time outdoors--and was more interested in science and warfare than in art. Yet, the most famous of all paintings is his (and resides in Le Louvre, thanks to Napoleon's interference). Here's an excellent documentary on his life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A55WTQjai2E. If you decide to watch it, you will need to see it in separate segments but at least they are put together in one area.

Michelangelo, in Original Frame

Gennie Explains; Luca Looks on

Michelangelo: In this painting, we recognize faces and body posture that will be seen again in the Sistine Chapel. The painting's frame is one of the only original, made in Florence by metal artists who first carved the wood, then applied goldleaf to the elements. Michelangelo's story of inner turmoil as "God's Own Artist," was also based on how he perceived himself: A sculptor more than a painter, and someone completly misunderstood. Another good documentary  on this artist can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x4BxO-CKA

We moved on to Botticelli, whose paintings have an air of lightness and delicacy. I think the facial expressions are easily recognizable as his work. Of these artists, he's the one I know the least about. Mostly, documentaries give information about the paintings (and the fact that Ian Flemming had the Birth of Venus in mind when he wrote the scene of Ursual Andress's emerging from the sea in one of the first James Bond movies).

Botticelli

Birth of Venus

Details of the Primavera

Nymphs

Full View of the Primavera

Lastly, we visited the room of Raffaelo, where his paintings recall the frescoes he did in four rooms in the Vatican. Raffaelo, whose tomb is in the Pantheon in Rome, died at an early age, more than likely of a sexually transmitted disease. Great BBC documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdBUjFEuTvk.  Of the pieces we saw, I particularly liked the Portrait of a Young Man and the portraits of the popes.

Lauren Explains who the Sitter Was

Julius II

Leo X (A Medici who Ate 65-course Meals)

 Other interesting paintings (and there were many), include the following:

Cosimo

Eleonora of Toledo

Maria Medici

Giovanni

All of these paintings were done by Agnolo Bronzino, the Medici court painter. Cosimo, Eleonora and Giovanni you are already familiar with, having seen their mortuary clothing in a previous post. Learn more about these paintings at this address; http://wtfarthistory.com/post/8516602490/west-side-medici

Finally, I really liked these last paintings to be shared on this post. A Verrachio shield and a painting of a bunch of women, whose details I forget.

It was an afternoon well spent but spent too quickly. The Uffizi is quite the museum, and it would take an enormous amount of time to see all there it to see. Thanks to the Medici, however, a lot of the art of the period has been conserved, and twice that amount remains in the basement of the building, awaiting to see the light of day and the appreciative eye of the connaisseur (who don't include me in their numbers).

Classical Greek Piece