Uffizi by night on Tuesdays

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From 13th to 20th centuries: a collection of amazing masterpieces of Western painting

An encounter with great Western art: an everlasting wonder

The Uffizi

Painting

An architecture capable of modulating spaces and constantly renovating  itself though maintaining an enduring majestic sign

Architecture

The rich sculpture collection at the Uffizi: from ancient times to the present day

Sculpture

The Collection of Master Drawers. The Hotbed of Invention

Department of Prints and Drawings

Located on the first floor of the Gallery of the Statues and Paintings of the Uffizi, the Department of Prints and Drawings occupies one of the stately spaces which housed the Theater built in the second half of sixteenth century by Bernardo Buontalenti under the Medici family&rsquo;s rule. Between 1952 and 1960 a series of important maintenance works to systematically restore the interior was entrusted to Florentine architect Edoardo Detti (1913-1984), a leading advocate of the Italian Rationalism movement who worked according to the most avant-garde museographic criteria. More recently a new Study Room with over 30 equipped workstations has been installed, designed to offer the many Italian and foreign students who visit the Galleries an atmosphere which is more conducive to research. The Institute houses one of the most important collections of images in the world. Composed of over 177,000 drawings and prints, the collection was started around the mid-seventeenth century by Cardinal Leopoldo de&rsquo; Medici and continues to grow thanks to direct acquisitions and donations. Its huge paper archive dates from the end of the fourteenth century to present day, with a predominance of works from the Italian Renaissance and Tuscan seventeenth century Tuscany. As well as offering academics and researchers access to a photograph gallery and a specialist library, the Department also curates periodic exhibitions and restores its own assets in a highly specialized laboratory.
Browse here <a href="https://euploos.uffizi.it/">Euploos </a>digital catalogue project.

Books and Archives

Established in the second half of the 18th&nbsp;century by Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine, the Library had been originally housed in the Foyer of the Medicean Theatre designed by Giorgio Vasari.&nbsp;On December 16, 1998 it was moved into the restored premises of the former Magliabechiana Library.&nbsp;It preserves many manuscripts belonging to the collections of the Florentine museums and is specialized in the historical-artistic publications for scholars and researchers.&nbsp;The total number of items is 78,600, including: 470 manuscripts, 5 incunabula, 192 sixteenth-century editions, 1,445 books printed between 1601 and 1800 and 1,136 periodicals (approximately 140 are still printed).The transfer of the Medici and Lorena Archives was concluded in 1892, leaving two sections in the Galleries considered at the time as the &ldquo;current&rdquo; archive: the first houses the archive containing the documents referring to museums from the Lorena and pre-unification era and is still an &lsquo;open&rsquo; archive, while the second, housed in the Pitti Palace, comprised the Galleries&rsquo; inventories drafted during the Unification of Italy.

From documentation to art photography. A rich and valuable collection of images from the invention of photography to the present day

Veduta del loggiato della Galleria degli Uffizi 1917c.

The Uffizi Photographic Department was founded in 1903. Since then it has held one of the most conspicuous public photographic collections in Italy and has been intensively documenting the cultural heritage. Throughout the 20th century, our museum photographers have portrayed the works of art in the Florentine Galleries, but also the monuments of the Tuscan and national territory.
The panorama of images preserved in the Department's archives is vast and multifaceted. It is composed mainly of photographs taken for institutional purposes, but also includes, through purchases or bequests, historical funds of great importance such as Brampton Philpot's calotypes, Braun's folio albums of photographs in carbon, the negatives of Vincenzo Giani, Lodovico Pachò, Ugo Ojetti, Giuseppe and Vittorio Jacquier, and the plates of the Cipriani Fund of the Italian Photo Library. Other historically significant sectors are those dealing with the damage of the Second World War, with photographs taken by the Allied Command of the Fifth US Army, the disasters caused by the 1966 flood, the dramatic images of the 1993 mafia attack in Via dei Georgofili, as well as those of the various exhibitions that have taken place over time in the Uffizi and the Florentine Galleries.
The Department currently holds around 630,000 negatives of different formats and media, which can be consulted thanks to printed reproductions and <a href="https://www.uffizi.it/en/pages/digital-archives">online databases</a>. A particularly valuable sector is represented by the <a href="https://fotoinventari.uffizi.it/it/ricerca-archivio-regio">Royal Photographic Archive</a>, one of the most important and oldest photo archives of Italian museums, now completely digitised.
This immense heritage, in addition to being progressively filed and made available on our site, is continuously enriched by new digital shots taken day by day in the Florentine state museums, also thanks to the use of advanced technologies that allow the creation of complex images.

Photographic Departement

The Medici’s collections of paintings on display with a vast array of sumptuous frames, furnishings, stuccoes, silks and Baroque frescoes

Between public and private court life: a Palace for three dynasties

Pitti Palace

Palatine Gallery

The Palatine Gallery and Royal and Imperial Apartments occupy the entire first floor of Pitti Palace, which was the residence of the Medici dynasty, then of Habsburg-Lorraine one and lastly of the House of Savoy, hosting the King of Italy from 1865&nbsp;to 1919. The lavish Gallery was founded between the end of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th century by the Habsburg-Lorraine family, who hung about 500 masterpieces in the ceremonial rooms chosen from the main Medici&rsquo;s collections. It is an impressive selection, which includes the largest concentration of paintings by Raphael in the world of, as well as invaluable works by Titian, Tintoretto, Caravaggio and Rubens. The paintings in their lavish frames entirely cover the walls of the rooms which are enriched by sculptures, vases and tables with semi-precious stone inlays, typical of 17th-century galleries.&nbsp;The sensational series of frescoes by Pietro da Cortona for Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II de&rsquo; Medici, realized between 1640 and 1647 in the &ldquo;Planet Rooms&rdquo;, adds to the unique charm of the Gallery, where every work of art is enhanced by the setting and the furnishings

A rich collection of decorative arts in the Medici’s sumptuous Summer Apartments

Treasury of the Grand Dukes

Formerly known as the Silver Museum, the Treasury of the Grand Dukes&nbsp;is located on the ground and mezzanine floors of Pitti Palace, and comprises the rooms that were once the summer apartments of the Medici family. Its walls, entirely frescoed on the occasion of the wedding&nbsp;between&nbsp;Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II de&rsquo;Medici and Vittoria della Rovere (1637), are one of the first examples of quadrature and trompe-l&rsquo;oeil perspective in Florence. It houses the precious &ldquo;Medici&rsquo;s Treasure&rdquo;: semi-precious stone vases, rock crystals, ambers and ivories. The silverware comes from the &ldquo;Treasure of Salzburg&rdquo; - the collections of the Bishops of Salzburg - and was brought to Florence by Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand&nbsp;III of Habsburg-Lorraine. The Museum also houses an important collection of jewellery realized&nbsp;between the 17th and 20th centuries and has a large section dedicated to contemporary jewellery.

The history of fashion, haute couture, the evolution of taste and costume through the centuries

The Museum of Costume and Fashion (formerly known as the Costume Gallery) is located in the Palazzina della Meridiana next to the southern wing of Pitti Palace. Started under Grand Duke of Tuscany Peter Leopold by architect Gaspero Maria Paoletti in 1776 and completed in 1830 by Pasquale Poccianti under Grand Duke Leopold II, the building takes its name from the astronomical instrument made by Vincenzo Viviani in 1699. The instrument is in the vestibule &ndash; with the gnomon pinhole &ndash; of Grand Prince Ferdinando de&rsquo; Medici&rsquo;s apartment. Anton Domenico Gabbiani depicted the Allegory of Time and the Arts (1693) in the vault of the vestibule. All the successive dynasties, from the Habsburg-Lorraine family to the House of Savoy, including the regency of Maria Luisa of Parma and the brief reign of Elisa Baciocchi, left their mark on furnishings and decorative wall paintings. Founded in 1983, it was the first State museum in Italy dedicated to the history of fashion and its social significance. Displayed in rotation for conservation reasons, its collections include clothes, jewellery and accessories from the 18th century to today, along with a captivating group of stage costumes worn by movie, theatre and opera stars in works helmed by reknowned 20th-century directors. Among ancient garments, the 16th-century funeral clothes of Cosimo I de&rsquo; Medici, Eleanor of Toledo and their son Garzia de&rsquo; Medici have been completely restored and are part of the permanent collection on display.

Museum of Costume and Fashion

Three centuries of court splendour in the private rooms of the King and Queen

The Royal Apartments occupy the South wing of Pitti Palace on the first floor. At the beginning of the 18th century the private apartments were occupied by Grand Prince of Tuscany Ferdinando de’ Medici; then, between the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, they were renovated and altered by the Grand Dukes of Habsburg-Lorraine. From 1865 the sovereigns of the Royal House of Savoy (hence the name) lived there during the short period in which Florence was the capital of Italy, leaving the distinctive stamp of their taste on the general appearance of the Royal Apartments, which is still visible today. Sumptuously furnished with pieces from the collections of the Medici, Habsburg-Lorraine and House of Savoy, the 14 rooms bear traces of the changing dynasties. The tables with semi-precious stone inlays, consoles and mirrors, furnishings and silk tapestries on the walls are in a striking mixture of styles, reflecting the daily life and taste of the different periods and inhabitants.

Royal Apartments

Paintings and sculptures from Neoclassicism to the 1930s: the greatest exponents of Italian art in the sumptuous residence of the Grand Dukes of Habsburg-Lorraine

Gallery of Modern Art

The Gallery of Modern Art is located in the rooms once inhabited by the Habsburg-Lorraine family on the second floor of Pitti Palace, from which there is a magnificent view over Florence and the Boboli Gardens. Its collections of paintings and sculptures, ranging from the end of the 18th century until the first decades of the 20th century, are still being added to through donations and purchases. Once inhabited by the Grand Dukes of Habsburg-Lorraine, these sumptuous rooms host Neoclassical and Romantic artworks and numerous important paintings by the Macchiaioli school, mainly from Diego Martelli&rsquo;s collection. There is indeed a considerable number of historical paintings in the Gallery, including the well-known landscapes of the Maremma area by Giovanni Fattori, leading artist of the Macchiaioli movement. The 19th-century itinerary concludes with works of Symbolist&nbsp;and Divionist movements. Among the various painters on display: F. Hayez, S. Lega, T. Signorini, G. Fattori, C. Pissarro, M. Rosso, G. Boldini, P. Nomellini.

The court chapel of the Hapsburg-Lorraine family

Palatine Chapel

On the ground floor of Palazzo Pitti was arranged the summer apartment for the future Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III, and his bride Marguerite Louise d&rsquo;Orleans, when they married in 1661.&nbsp;The centrepiece of the apartment was the large central hall, which Grand Duke of Tuscany Pietro Leopoldo of Habsburg-Lorraine decided to turn into the Palatine Chapel in 1766. Its current appearance is the result of the design commissioned by the next Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand III to architect Bernardo Fallani and painter Luigi Ademollo, who decorated the walls of the chapel and the vestibule with paintings featuring biblical and evangelical subjects. The altar in Florentine Commesso, which includes elements from the altar of the Chapel of the Princes in the San Lorenzo church in Florence, is of great merit.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The oldest collection of Russian icons in Western Europe

Museum of Russian Icons

The collection of Russian icons is the most ancient selection of this genre outside ancient Ruthenia (which loosely corresponds to Ukraine, Belarus and Western Russia today). With the exception of a few specimens that had belonged to the Medici that date back to the 16th-17th centuries, the icons entered the collection of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany under the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty before 1761. The collection is exhibited on the ground floor of Palazzo Pitti in the rooms that were part of the summer apartment decorated for the future Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III, and his bride Marguerite Louise d&rsquo;Orleans, when they married in 1661. The centrepiece of the apartment was the large central hall, which Grand Duke of Tuscany Pietro Leopoldo of Habsburg-Lorraine decided to turn into the Palatine Chapel in 1766.

Ammannati Courtyard

Where Nature, Art, Science and Alchemy meet

Boboli Gardens

Architecture and Landscape

Botany

Sculptures and Fountains

From masterpieces of painting and sculpture to the Gardens’ old botanical species: the gorgeous collections of the Uffizi, Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens

Artworks