Uffizi Gallery Part One

We knew the Uffizi Gallery would be one of the highlights of our time in Florence. We have been there twice before -- in 1971 with a two-year-old, and in 2015 when we were here for week. The amount of beautiful art is amazing. Have you heard of Stendahl Syndrome? (a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artworks, or phenomena of great beauty and antiquity. -- Wikipedia) No, I didn't have it, but I began to understand how one could succumb!

The Uffizi (offices of the Medici) is a huge building with three floors. It is actually two buildings with a street between, but the upper floors are connected by a hallway. The main artworks are on the top floor (second, or third in American-speak), and the tour starts there. The hallways were long and lavishly decorated, as you can see here. Each panel of the ceiling was painted differently. Along the top of the walls were portraits -- there must have been hundreds all together. The halls were lined with Roman statues and some Greek.

This picture is of the ceiling at the end of the hallway.

This is the only picture I took of the hallway statuary. It is Hercules and the Centaur.

These four pictures are by Lorenzetti in the early 14th century. They are stories from the life of St. Nicholas.

Uccello's Battle of San Romano is full of energy.

Botticelli is one of my all-time favorite artists. This portrait, Fortitude, is his first recorded work. The young woman is wearing armor under her clothes.

This Annunciation by Botticelli is a wall painting from a hospital loggia. It indicates what the interior of an aristocratic residence would have looked like.

Tomorrow: More from the Uffizi