The historic entrance to the Uffizi is 'reborn'

After necessary structural work beginning in 2018, the Scala Lorenese (Lorraine Staircase) has returned to view, restoring the historic entrance to the Gallery’s exhibition itinerary. The arrangement celebrates the opening to the general public in 1769 of one of the world’s first modern museums.

One of the symbolic places of the Uffizi Galleries is now “reborn” after a nearly 7-year closure and one year of works. The historic entrance to the Gallery’s exhibition itinerary has been scrupulously arranged just as it was at that historic moment when the reforming Grand Duke Peter Leopold first opened it to the general public (24 June 1769, the Feast day of Saint John, the patron saint of Florence) and made it one of the world’s first museums created with a modern concept.

“Peter Leopold, son of Emperor Francis, of the House of Austria and Grand Duke of Tuscany, reorganized the Medici Museum, expanding its spaces and increasing the number of works, and gave it an even more splendid appearance for the prestige of its city and for the development of the fine arts”: this inscription (in Latin) welcomes visitors at the Gallery’s entrance. The ancient-style bust of Peter Leopold by 18th-century sculptor Francesco Carradori is prominently placed above the new Grand Duke’s “dedication” written in Latin by Abbot Luigi Lanzi, then the museum’s director. At the top of the staircase, “strangers” (as museumgoers were referred to in the 18th century) are welcomed by the newly rearranged busts of the Grand Duchy’s previous rulers, the Medici, who founded and expanded the Gallery (from Cosimo I to the last Grand Duke, Giangastone). For each of them, too, Luigi Lanzi had composed Latin inscriptions in future memory, paying particular tribute to their merits and collecting exploits essential to the formation of the Uffizi’s boundless artistic heritage. Now, in sumptuous wigs, the busts are placed on massive wooden pedestals – a marble parade towered over by the large wooden polychrome coat of arms by Baccio d’Agnolo at the top of the wall.

The majestic entrance had not been visible (and was entirely enveloped by a construction site for the New Uffizi) since 2018. That year, the need arose to consolidate and restore the wooden structure supporting the vaults of the staircase (called “Lorenese,” since it was designed by the famed architect Zanobi Del Rosso in the time of the Lorraine ruler Peter Leopold): the delicate architectural reinforcement operation was carried out over the last year and completed in recent weeks.

The entire staircase had already been restored between 2005 and 2007 in its plaster, stucco, and decorative elements. The walls’ “Lorraine green” painting was done on the basis of assays that brought back to light the colour chosen by the Lorraine Grand Dukes and also used in other locations subject to intervention by the Grand Ducal dynasty: Poggio Imperiale, Specola, Kaffeehaus, and the Limonaia di Boboli. The unique hue, described in historical documents as “greenish with green earth, verdigris, and others,” aligns with what was practiced in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, following the dictates of an elaborate Rococo.

 According to Simone Verde, Director of the Uffizi Galleries: “Following the reopening of the Vasari Corridor and the dismantling of the crane that had been marring Piazzale degli Uffizi for two decades, the Galleries are finally concluding another historic project that has been ongoing for eight years: the Scalone Lorenese. We are reopening it to the public, redisplaying all the antiquities it has contained since the 18th century. This staircase, designed by Zanobi del Rosso, court architect of the House of Lorraine, is a masterpiece of neoclassical architecture and has always represented the monumental entrance to the world’s most beautiful galleries.”