Uffizi by night on Tuesdays

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

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

Pitti Palace

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

Worn by the Gods. The Art of shoemaking in the ancient world, the epic movie and contemporary fashion

The exhibition illustrates the coffered wooden ceilings known as "Heavens" in the Renaissance.

The Collection of Master Drawers. The Hotbed of Invention

An encounter with great Western art: an everlasting wonder

The Uffizi

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.

Heaven in a Room.  Wooden ceilings in Renaissance Florence and Rome

The ancient subject of bread between mysticism, allegory and daily life in a selection of works from the Galleries

"Il Pane e i Sassi." The Uffizi on view in Matera, 2019 European Capital of Culture

17th century

Still life

"Il Pane e i Sassi." The Uffizi on view in Matera, 2019 European Capital of Culture 

Roughly a hundred paintings, sculptures, examples of the applied arts, tapestries, miniatures and printed books reconstruct the world of Pietro Aretino (1492–1556), a great thinker of the 16th century

Pietro Aretino and the Art of the Renaissance

The first exhibition by the German artist in Italy



Neo Rauch. Paintings from 2008 to 2019

Thanks to a targeted selection of works, the exhibition sets out to offer a complete overview of the art of bronze sculpture in the Tuscan capital particularly in the age of the last Medici Grand Dukes.

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.

Forged in Fire.  Bronze sculpture in Florence under the last Medici

Sculpture

The exhibition explores the history of Italy's Jewish community from a novel and highly colourful angle, the art of textiles

The Colours of Judaism in Italy

The cycle of exhibitions of contemporary sculpture in the Boboli Gardens continues with the artworks by Tony Cragg, one of the greatest names on the international scene today

Tony Cragg in Boboli Gardens

Where Nature, Art, Science and Alchemy meet

Boboli Gardens

The exhibition allows visitors to track the journey of the huge marble blocks that make up the column from the quarries in Luni at an altitude of 800 metres to the Portus Romae – a voyage of some 200 nautical miles – and from there up the Tiber to the heart of the imperial capital.  

Building a Masterpiece: Trajan's Column

To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Cosimo I de' Medici 

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

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

Weaving a Biography. The tapestries in honour of Cosimo I

On the occasion of Pitti Uomo, the Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery presents "A short novel on men's fashion", an exhibit showcasing thirty years of menswear from 1989 to the present as seen through the eyes of Pitti Uomo

A short novel on men's fashion

To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Cosimo I de' Medici we present the restoration of the first statue expressly carved for the Boboli Gardens 

Tribute to Cosimo I - The Peasant and His Barrel

To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Cosimo I de' Medici, the first Grand Duke of Florence, we have planned a "triptych" of events to be held in symbolic areas of the Uffizi Galleries.

Cosimo I de' Medici's army of Lancers  at the Uffizi

The one-woman exhibition that the Uffizi Galleries is devoting to Kiki Smith. 

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.

Kiki Smith. What I saw on the road

"Can an object be the catalyst for new thoughts and behaviours?" (Antony Gormley)

Antony Gormley. Essere

The exhibit on display documents the variety of talents that have made women leading players in history and knowledge in different sectors, stretching from the humblest jobs in the countryside to art, crafts, literature and sciences.

Female Perspectives. Women of Talent and Commitment 1861–1926.

An unexpected encounter between Haute Couture and Nature at Pitti Palace to discover the wonders of the animal world!

Animalia Fashion

An opportunity to admire a very recent and spectacular acquisition for the Uffizi: Johann Paul Schor's major work depicting the feast held in Rome by Prince Borghese in 1664 