Sunday, November 25, 2012

FAST FACTS: Ufizzi History


  • 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 river Arno
  • 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.


http://www.uffizi.com/history-uffizi-gallery.asp
http://www.virtualuffizi.com/uffizi/thegallery.htm

Thursday, November 22, 2012

The Processes of Sculpting




Michelangelo's David, photo courtesy
of Wikipedia CC
           There are three processes for creating sculptural pieces, all utilized during the Renaissance in Florence.  Each process is significantly different from the other; but all can create sculptures in the round.
            Michelangelo’s 17 foot tall David, sculpted between 1501-1504, was created using the subtractive process of carving marble.  Michelangelo characteristically used only one block of marble – in this case Carrara marble – to carve his sculptures.  David, meant to be viewed in the round, was commissioned by the Medici family and unveiled in 1504; and was placed in the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.  Currently residing in the Musei Accadaemia, the sculpture was a monument to the wealth and power of Florence during the Medici rein. 
Donatello's David, photo courtesy of
Wikipedia CC
            Eighty years prior, Donatello used the casting process to create his own David for the Medici family.  Circa 1430-1440, the Donatello David was made through a hollowed molding process of wax or clay, in which molten bronze was placed and hardened.  This statue, originally placed in the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici in Florence (currently in the Musei Bargello), was the first free-standing bronze statue of the Renaissance and is also viewed in the round.
The Virgin of the Lillies, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC
            Modeled sculpture in Florence is more difficult to find – sculptors of the Renaissance built large statues out of bronze or marble.  However, small models or decorative pieces can be found, made out of such popular materials as terracotta.  Circa 1500-1550, the Workshop of Della Robbia family in Florence created a decorative “tondo”, or medallion out of glazed terracotta.  Entitled The Virgin of the Lillies, this piece is meant to hang on a wall.  An additive process, modeling basically takes a pliable material and builds it into

a three dimensional form.  This process allows the artist to rework the material in case of error, but can also leave little evidence of the artist’s fingerprints.