Architect of the Ufizzi Giorgio Vasari built a secret corridor, the King’s Walkway now known as the Vasarian Corridor, after the original construction of the offices. Commissioned by Cosimo I of the Medici family, the secret passageway connects from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti across the Arno river. The Vasarian Corridor runs atop the Ufizzi and over the shops of the Ponte Vecchio, passing through the church of Santa Felicita (so the Medici could pause for mass in secret), before ending at the Boboli Gardens of the Palazzo Pitti. The purpose for this corridor was to allow the Medici family and other important figures to pass safely throughout the city. The Medici understood that they went unloved by many Florentine citizens at certain periods throughout their reign, and wanted to protect themselves from assassination attempts from rival families. The corridor stretches a huge length of Florence’s antic district, and is today a vastly private passageway, holding some of the Ufizzi’s most prized paintings.
Cox: Understanding Art in the Birthplace of the Renaissance
Sunday 2 December 2012
Uffizi Galleria - Madeline
Facade facing the Arno River |
Built in 1581 under request of Grand
Duke Franciso de’ Medici, son of Cosimo I, the Uffizi Galleria was originally
designed by Giorgio Vasari. In 1560, work was began to create the
horseshoe-shaped building that reaches from the Ponte Vecchio in Piazza della
Signoria, to and along the Arno River. The building was originally intended for offices and to host
bureaucratic meetings for various magistrates, but evolved into a sort of
museum, housing the Medici’s many art pieces (2). Once Vasari had died, building and extension work continued, with each
successive member of the Medici clan adding to the increasingly rich treasure
trove of the family's art collection.
Plan of the Uffizi |
The façades of the Uffizi bordering the courtyard are decorated with niches containing statues of important historical figures and has been described as the focal point of both the architecture and sculpture of the Uffizi. Some argue that Vasari’s use of the triumphal arch motif for the façade may reflect a modification for dramatic effect of Bartolommeo Ammannati’s apparently unsolicited suggestion, embodied in a drawing in the Biblioteca Riccardiana, to repeat the arch as a structural and decorative motif along the ground level of the lateral wings. It is suggested that the building was actually meant to be two separate facing buildings as indicated in Domenico Poggini’s foundation medal of 1561 (1). Conceived by Cosimo I Medici, the project to arrange the Gallery on the 3rd floor of this large building, was realized by his son Francesco I. Later Cosimo III had the Gallery made larger in order to house the works inherited from his uncle Cardinal Leopold. With the extinction of the Medici dynasty, the last of the family, Anna Maria Ludovica, who died in 1737, arranged that all the art treasures gathered by the powerful dynasty forever remain at the disposal of the Florentines and of the visitors of the entire world.
Crum, Roger J. ""Cosmos, the World of Cosimo": The Iconography of the Uffizi Façad." Art Bulletin June 1989, Vol. 71, No. 2 ed.: 237-53. Print. Thorough information about Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici and the involvement of the Medici in the Uffizi Galleria.
"The History of Uffizi Gallery." Uffizi, Uffizi Gallery, Florence. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://www.uffizi.com/history-uffizi-gallery.asp>. Great overview of the straight facts. Aided us in knowing what to search for and research further.
"Uffizi." , Florence. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://www.aviewoncities.com/florence/uffizi.htm>. Facts from the Medici's involvement to Vasari's plans.
"THE UFFIZI, FLORENCE, ITALY - INFORMATION AND BOOKING." The Uffizi, Florence, Italy. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://www.tickitaly.com/galleries/uffizi.php>. Fast facts about the Uffizi from the facade to the Vasari corridor.
"Uffizi Gallery â What It Is, What's in It (and How Do You Pronounce It)?" Artviva Italy Blog. N.p., 09 Jan. 2011. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://blog.artviva.com/2011/01/09/uffizi-gallery-what-it-is-what’s-in-it-and-how-do-you-pronounce-it/>.
Sunday 25 November 2012
Uffizi Gallery
- Built in 1581 under request of Grand Duke Franciso de’ Medici, son of Cosimo I Original design was by Giorgio Vasari.
- In 1560, work was began to create the horseshoe-shaped building that reaches from the Ponte Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria, to and along the Arno river.
- Built rapidly despite minor difficulties and major social events taking place in he area.
- Originally intended for offices and to host bureaucratic meetings for various magistrates.
- Once construction of the Uffizi was complete, Cosimo I had Vasari, his favorite architect, create a passageway connecting the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti, running atop the Ponte Vecchio which is just down river from the Uffizi Gallery.
- In 1584, the Octagonal Platform was built by Vasari’s successor Buontalenti. It consists of a weathercock connecting to an inside pointer alluding to the air element. The sky vault and red upholstery allude to the water and fire elements.
- On the other side of the building were the labs of smaller limbs, the foundry (or pharmacy) and over the loggia of the lanzi there was a hanging garden.
- The project to arrange the Gallery on the 3rd floor of this large building, conceived by Cosimo I Medici, was realized by his son Francesco I
- Later Cosimo III had the Gallery made larger in order to house the works inherited from his uncle Cardinal Leopold.
- With the extinction of the Medici dynasty, the last of the family, Anna Maria Ludovica, who died in 1737, with the so called "family-pact" held in Vienna in 1737, arranged that all the art treasures gathered by the powerful dynasty forever remain at the disposal of the Florentines and of the visitors of the entire world.
- The Lorraines, successors of the Medici, enriched the Gallery and built the beautiful room of Niobe to house the marble group called Niobe and her children struck by Apollo and Diana. After the expulsion of the Lorraine (1859), the Gallery passed under the State and was completely reorganized according to modern criteria.
Thursday 22 November 2012
Sculptures
David
Michelangelo
1501–1504
Perhaps
one the most famous statues in the world, Michelangelo’s David is a universal icon of the Renaissance and the genius of the
artist himself. Commissioned for the Piazza della Signoria, the David was rendered like no other
interpretation before. The pose in particular sets it
apart from previous David’s by Donatello and Verrocchio who had both
represented the hero standing victorious over the head of Goliath, and Andrea del Castagno who had shown the boy in mid-swing, even as Goliath's head rested between his
feet. Carved out of a single piece of
Carrara marble, the David is a statue created using the subtractive method.
This freestanding sculpture is truly a marvelous work of the time balance-wise
as Michelangelo so cleverly shifted the weight of the figure onto a stump
attached to the back of the bottom right leg.
Judith and
Holofernes
Donatello
1460
Copy
in the Piazza della Signoria, Original in Palazzo Vecchio
As with virtually all of his other works, Donatello focused on
naturalism in Judith and Holofernes. The base of the sculpture, for example, is
cushion-like and reminiscent of a similar device used in Donatello's St. Mark.
Judith's clothes are realistically mussed; her clothes fall naturally in folds
along her raised arm. The bronze for the statue was cast in eleven parts to
make the gilding easier. The sculpture was crafted in the round and has four
distinct faces, providing the viewer with 360 degrees of intensely inspiring
sculpture.
Pope Liberius Baptizing the Neophytes
Alessandro Algardi, European
Southern European
Italian, 1602 – 1654
This terracotta
relief is the only known preliminary study for a sculpture adorning the
fountain of Saint Damasus in the Belvedere courtyard of the Vatican. The relief
shows Pope Liberius baptizing with water from this newly created source. In contrast to the reductive process of
carving, modeling is essentially a building-up process in which the sculpture
grows organically from the inside. The artist, Algardi, made
this study in clay, an easily worked medium that allowed him to experiment and
refine his ideas before carving the fountain relief in marble. By sculpting the
foreground figures almost fully in the round and those farther away in
increasingly shallow relief, Algardi achieved the illusion of spatial depth and
three-dimensional volume on a two-dimensional surface.
Monday 12 November 2012
Wednesday 17 October 2012
Printmaking
Woodcut
“Nightvision” by Penck 1982
Woodcut was the perfect choice for A.R. Penck’s Nightvision as the effect of the roughly cut away wood hightened Pencks tribal-like figures. These primitive stick figures of the piece are derived from a personal system of symbols and signs that embody a message of commonality. The thick, angular lines created by the figures in addition to the patterns that surround them would have been very hard to create with other techniques such as etching and lithography. In fact, the unrefined aesthetic of the piece is commonly associated with woodcuts.
Woodcut was the perfect choice for A.R. Penck’s Nightvision as the effect of the roughly cut away wood hightened Pencks tribal-like figures. These primitive stick figures of the piece are derived from a personal system of symbols and signs that embody a message of commonality. The thick, angular lines created by the figures in addition to the patterns that surround them would have been very hard to create with other techniques such as etching and lithography. In fact, the unrefined aesthetic of the piece is commonly associated with woodcuts.
Etching
“The Skull” by Otto Dix 1924
Skulls have always been used in the past as messages of wartime. Dix’s Skull is a gruesome image
of decay and worms investing a human skull, which is meant to symbolize the
indescribable horrors of the first World War. The details of the piece are qualities that are often attributed with
etchings. These details and precision are achieved by the fine tools that are
used to incise the designs on metal plates and would have been extrememly hard
to do with woodcarving, where the grain of the wood might not permit it, or
lithography, which would have left much room for error.
Lithography
“Profile of Light” by
Redon 1886
Lithographs are known for their similarities to drawings
themselves and are one of the most direct methods of printmaking. This is due
to the process behind this technique. Instead of using a specific tool in a
subtractive manner, lithographs are drawings in either crayons or tusche on polished slabs of
limestone or metal. Many artists find this method preferable for a variety of
reasons like Rodin who appreciated lithography’s proximity to drawing and the
deep, mysterious blacks it can produce as seen in Profile of Light. This drawing-like quality is seen in the
headpiece of the woman and in the lines of her face.
Serigraph
“Brushstroke” Roy
Lichtenstein 1965
This hard-edged image was one of a series of paintings depicting enlarged brushstrokes
that Lichtenstein created in 1965-1966. This series was created to make a
direct comment on the elevated content and loaded brushwork of Abstract
Expressionism. This piece is very clearly a screen print as evident in not only
the clean, and sharp lines of the ‘brushstroke’ but in the bold areas of solid
color. These qualities would have not been as easily produced through other
techniques such as lithography and etching.
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