Ritratti di alcuni personaggi della Serie Gioviana
Ritratto di Paolo Giovio
Esempi di personaggi femminili dalla Serie Gioviana
L'allestimento dei ritratti della Serie Gioviana nei corridoi
Dettaglio del ritratto di Lebna Denghel, re di Etiopia, dalla Serie Gioviana
Papa Celestino V dalla Serie Gioviana
Ritratto di Dante dalla Serie Gioviana
Ritratto di Enrico VIII dalla Serie Gioviana
Ritratto di Leonardo da Vinci dalla Serie Gioviana
Ritratto di Michelangelo dalla Serie Gioviana
Ritratto di Galileo Galilei dalla Serie Gioviana
Giovanni di Averardo de' Medici detto di Bicci (Serie Aulica)
Cosimo il Vecchio de' Medici (serie Aulica)
Lorenzo il Magnifico (Serie Aulica)
Cosimo I (Serie Aulica)
The Jovian and the Aulica Series
Simone Rovida
The Jovian Series of the Uffizi is a collection of more than five hundred portraits displayed high along the corridors on the second floor of the Gallery. Its original nucleus consists of copies of portraits from the collection of Paolo Giovio, a humanist bishop, physician, and historian from Como, who between 1521 and 1552 assembled a remarkable collection of portraits of Illustrious Men. Known, admired, and described by numerous writers and artists, the collection became a source of inspiration for all later portrait collections, among which the Florentine one was the first and most complete. The copies were commissioned by Cosimo I de' Medici who, following Giovio’s own suggestion, sent Cristofano dell'Altissimo (already a pupil of Agnolo Bronzino) to Como. He continued working on the collection even after returning to Florence. Displayed in the corridors of the Uffizi at the end of the 16th century, the series continued to grow until the beginning of the 19th century.
Paolo Giovio’s collection was heterogeneous in both subjects and supports, since some paintings were collected while others were specially commissioned by him. The Medici collection, on the other hand, was initially entrusted to a single artist and is characterized by a uniformity of formats and frames, giving each figure the same visibility and dignity.
Interspersed among the portraits of the Jovian Series is the Aulica Series, initiated by Francesco I de' Medici as a sequence of portraits dedicated to the most important members of the Medici family. These paintings, hierarchically larger than those of the Jovian Series, preserve for today’s viewers the likenesses of the leading members of the Medici family and other illustrious personalities, offering both an important historical testimony and a clear expression of the dynasty’s propagandistic and celebratory intentions.
Displayed throughout the three corridors of the Gallery, the paintings of the Jovian and Aulica Series together form one of the largest, most complete portrait collections in the world.
