May 25, 2024 - Classic Italy
Florence: Uffizi Museum
A stern Roman says hello.
Actually, the head is of the Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD) in Greek marble, and the body dates 100 or so years later and is of Luni marble.
Trajan is remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier-emperor who presided over one of the greatest military expansions in Roman history, during which, by the time of his death, the Roman Empire reached its maximum territorial extent. He was given the title of Optimus ('the best') by the Roman Senate.
Just past the Loggia is the main entrance to the Uffizi. It did not seem as crowded as the Academic Gallery, but there were certainly lots of people.
The Uffizi is of the most important and most visited Italian museums. It is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance. Uffizi is ranked as the 5th most visited art museum in the world, with around five million visitors annually.
After the ruling House of Medici died out, their art collections were given to the city of Florence under the famous Patto di famiglia negotiated by Anna Maria Luisa, the last Medici heiress. The Uffizi is one of the first modern museums. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1769 it was officially opened to the public, formally becoming a museum in 1865.
Bust of Tiberius, Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor.
Tiberius was one of the most successful Roman generals: his conquests of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and (temporarily) parts of Germania laid the foundations for the empire's northern frontier.
Tiberius spent much of his final years on the island of Capri, leaving control of the empire in the hands of the prefect Lucius Aelius Sejanus. He came to be remembered as a dark, reclusive and sombre ruler who never really wanted to be emperor; Pliny the Elder called him "the gloomiest of men".
When Tiberius died, he was succeeded by his grand-nephew and adopted grandson, Germanicus's son Caligula, whose lavish building projects and varyingly successful military endeavours drained much of the wealth that Tiberius had accumulated in the public and Imperial coffers through good management. Caligula only lasted four years as emperor before being assassinated.
Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and the moon. She wears a flowing dress and is accompanied by a hunting animal, in this case, a panther. Statues like this one were common in ancient Roman and Greek art. This type of sculpture can often be found in major art museums like the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which houses many classical works. The pose and style reflect classical ideals of beauty and movement.
Then we arrived in the Botticelli room (1450 - 1500) which featured two of Botticelli's most famous paintings.
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi (1445–1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli or simply Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance.
One of them is the Primavera, meaning Spring, shown below. It has been described as "one of the most written about, and most controversial paintings in the world", and also "one of the most popular paintings in Western art". The painting depicts a group of figures from classical mythology in a garden, but no story has been found that brings this particular group together. Most critics agree that the painting is an allegory based on the lush growth of Spring, but accounts of any precise meaning vary, though many involve the Renaissance Neoplatonism which then fascinated intellectual circles in Florence. The subject was first described as Primavera by the art historian Giorgio Vasari who saw it at Villa Castello, just outside Florence, by 1550.
The painting is unquestionably a celebration of love, peace, and prosperity. There are 138 different species of plant that have been identified in this painting, each one of which Botticelli has meticulously reproduced.
The painting is inevitably discussed with Botticelli's other very large mythological painting, the Birth of Venus, also in this room. They are among the most famous paintings in the world, and icons of Italian Renaissance painting; of the two, the Birth is better known than the Primavera.
Botticelli's The Birth of Venus depicts depictions of subjects from classical mythology on a very large scale which was virtually unprecedented in Western art since classical antiquity, as was the size and prominence of a nude female figure in the Birth. It used to be thought that they were both commissioned by the same member of the Medici family, but this is now uncertain.
They have been endlessly analysed by art historians, with the main themes being: the emulation of ancient painters and the context of wedding celebrations (generally agreed), the influence of Renaissance Neo-Platonism (somewhat controversial), and the identity of the commissioners (not agreed). Most art historians agree, however, that the Birth does not require complex analysis to decode its meaning, in the way that the Primavera probably does. While there are subtleties in the painting, its main meaning is a straightforward, if individual, treatment of a traditional scene from Greek mythology, and its appeal is sensory and very accessible, hence its enormous popularity.
Looking into the Tribuna of the Uffizi, an octagonal shaped room designed by Bernardo Buontalenti for Francesco I de' Medici in 1584. The most important antiquities and High Renaissance and Bolognese paintings from the Medici collection were and still are displayed here.
At far left, with just the head and arm visible, is the Venus de' Medici, a Roman copy of the lost original of the great Greek sculptor Praxiteles' Aphrodite. Balanced, narmonious, and serene, this statue was considered the epitome of beauty and sexuality in Renaissance Florence.
By the 1770s, the Uffizi, and in particular the Tribuna, was the hub for Grand Tourists visiting Florence.
The Baptism of Christ is an oil-on-panel painting finished around 1475 in the studio of the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea del Verrocchio and generally ascribed to him and his pupil Leonardo da Vinci.
The picture depicts the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist as recorded in the Biblical Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The angel to the left is recorded as having been painted by the youthful Leonardo, a fact which has excited so much special comment and mythology, that the importance and value of the picture as a whole and within the œuvre of Verrocchio is often overlooked. Modern critics also attribute much of the landscape in the background to Leonardo as well.
There are two kneeling angels, one holding Jesus's garment, and the other with its hands folded, both in front of the symbolization of salvation and life, the palm tree. While barefoot in the river, John the Baptist is clothed in robes with a halo over his head. He is holding a staff with a gold cross at the top as he pours the river water on Jesus's head. Jesus has a halo over his head as he is depicted praying barefoot in the river. He has a small garment covering his genitals with visible pubic hair peeking through. The scroll by John's left hand contains the two Latin words "ECCE AGNIUS", a reference to a phrase in the description of Jesus' baptism in the Vulgate translation of John 1:29, Ecce agnus Dei, qui tollit peccata mundi ("Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world"). There is also a bright-eyed raptor that swoops down over the head of John and into the trees in the background. God's hands can be seen at the top of the painting coming from heaven as it opens up. The Holy Spirit, represented by a dove, appears above with rays of light shining down on Jesus, revealing Jesus's divine nature.
Andrea del Verrocchio was a sculptor, goldsmith, painter and talented worker who ran a large and successful workshop in Florence in the second half of the 15th century. Verrocchio trained his apprentices by having them study surface anatomy, drawing, mechanics, sculpting, drapery studies, and the use of light and shade. He also introduced his students to subjects such as geography, Italian literature, and poetry. Verrocchio was known to set aside zones in his works for his apprentices to sketch on and eventually paint after he began them. Among his apprentices and close associates were the painters Botticelli, Francesco Botticini, Piero Perugino, Francesco di Simone, Lorenzo di Credi and Leonardo da Vinci.
Verrocchio was not himself a prolific painter and very few pictures are attributed to his hand, his fame lying chiefly in his sculptured works. Verrocchio's paintings, as are typical of Florentine works of that date, are in tempera on wooden panels. The technique of painting artworks in oil paint, previously used in Italy only for durable items like parade shields, was introduced to Florence by Dutch and Flemish painters and their imported works around the date that this painting was created.
In 1810, the painting entered the collection of the Accademia and passed to the Uffizi in 1959.
Another Leonardo Da Vinci painting, although it is unfinished, The Adoration of the Magi.
Leonardo was given the commission by the Augustinian monks of San Donato in Scopeto in Florence in 1481, but he departed for Milan the following year, leaving the painting unfinished. It has been in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence since 1670.
The Virgin Mary and Child are depicted in the foreground and form a triangular shape with the Magi kneeling in adoration. Behind them is a semicircle of accompanying figures, including what may be a self-portrait of the young Leonardo (on the far right). In the background on the left is the ruin of a pagan building, on which workmen can be seen, apparently repairing it. On the right are men on horseback fighting and a sketch of a rocky landscape.
The ruins are a possible reference to the Basilica of Maxentius, which, according to medieval legend, the Romans claimed would stand until a virgin gave birth. It is supposed to have collapsed on the night of Christ's birth. (In fact it was not even built until a later date.)
The ruins dominate a preparatory perspective drawing by Leonardo, which also includes the fighting horsemen. The palm tree in the center has associations with the Virgin Mary, partly due to the phrase "You are stately as a palm tree" from the Song of Solomon, which is believed to prefigure her. Another aspect of the palm tree can be the usage of the palm tree as a symbol of victory for ancient Rome, whereas in Christianity it is a representation of martyrdom—triumph over death—so in conclusion we can say that the palm, in general, represents triumph. The other tree in the painting is from the carob family; the seeds from this tree are used as a unit of measurement for valuable stones and jewels. It is therefore associated with crowns, suggesting Christ as the king of kings or the Virgin as the future queen of heaven, as well as that this is nature's gift to the newborn Christ. As with Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, the background is probably supposed to represent the Pagan world supplanted by the Christian world, inaugurated by the events in the foreground. The artist uses bright colors to illuminate the figures in the foreground of the painting. The Virgin and Child are, in fact, painted yellow, the color of light. The trees are painted blue, an unusual color for trees of any kind. On the right side, the most credible self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci as a 30-year-old can be seen, according to several critics.
Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo.
The Doni Tondo or Doni Madonna is the only finished panel painting by the mature Michelangelo to survive. (Two other panel paintings, generally agreed to be by Michelangelo but unfinished, The Entombment and the so-called Manchester Madonna, are both in the National Gallery in London.) Still in its original frame, the Doni Tondo was probably commissioned by Agnolo Doni to commemorate his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi, the daughter of a powerful Tuscan family. The painting is in the form of a tondo, meaning in Italian 'round', a shape which is frequently associated during the Renaissance with domestic ideas.
The work was probably created during the period after Doni's marriage in 1503 or 1504, and before the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes were begun in 1508. The Doni Tondo portrays the Holy Family (the child Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) in the foreground, along with John the Baptist in the middle-ground, and contains five nude male figures in the background. The inclusion of these nude figures has been interpreted in a variety of ways.
Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch.
Raphael is considered to be a “master” of the High Renaissance, a title he shares with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. He was born in 1483 and died in 1520, living a mere thirty-seven years. Despite his relatively short lifespan, his influence was significant. He produced a vast quantity of work in a variety of media. He was active in architecture, printmaking, painting, and drawing. During the first half of his career, he spent years in Northern Italy where he was influenced by the Florentine styles he saw there, hence this part of his life is known as his Florentine Period. In 1508, he moved to Rome where he continued to work. Many of his commissions came from the Vatican, including the Apostolic Palace, and one of his most famous works, School of Athens. Because of his relationship with the church, he and Michelangelo were fierce rivals throughout both their careers, often competing for the same commissions.
In this painting, as in most of the Madonnas of his Florentine period, Raphael arranged the three figures - Mary, Christ and the young John the Baptist - to fit into a geometrical design. Though the positions of the three bodies are natural, together they form an almost regular triangle. The Madonna is shown young and beautiful, as with Raphael's various other Madonnas. She is also clothed in red and blue, also typical, for red signifies the Passion of Christ and blue was used to signify the church. Christ and John are still very young, only babies. John holds a goldfinch in his hand, and Christ is reaching out to touch it. The background is one typical of Raphael. The natural setting is diverse and yet all calmly frames the central subject taking place.
The goldfinch represents Christ's crucifixion. The reason for its association comes from the legend that its red spot was born at the time of the crucifixion. It flew down over the head of Christ and was taking a thorn from His crown, when it was splashed with the drop of His blood. The book in Mary's hand reads Sedes Sapientiae or The Throne of Wisdom. This term usually is applied to images in which Mary is seated upon a throne, with Jesus on her lap, but in this case, the inscription implies the rock on which Mary sits is her natural throne.
