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Free publication on www.friendsoftheuffizigallery.org Polistampa - Firenze JOURNAL OF THE FRIENDS OF THE UFFIZI GALLERY No. 67 - December 2016 Seasons Greetings he year 2016 was filled with many innovations due to the arrival Tof the new Director Eike Schmidt; the numerous initiatives undertaken made for a very busy year. In September, the convoca- Botticellian tion and organization of the first General Assembly of the Friends of the Museums and Galleries of Florence opened the way to the exchange and sharing of challenges and opportunities among all Gran Concert organizations and institutions involved in the valorization of the artistic patrimony. In the four new rooms been a museographic and ar- In the world of restoration, we were as always right on the front dedicated to the famous chitectural enterprise equal to line, alongside our generous Friends of the Uffizi Gallery who were artist and painters from his the reputation of the artist that the protagonists of critical financial support this year. gives the rooms their name and For the series of the “Festivities of the Valois”, the restoration circle, even the architecture of the fetish masterpieces they of the tapestry depicting the “Royal Departure from the Castle of draws on the early hold: often (unfortunately) the Anet” was completed by the firm Restauro Tessile of Beyer and Per- Renaissance Florentine only reason tourists visit the rone Da Zara and the cleaning of two other tapestries from the cy- tradition. Enhanced are museum. On the one hand, the cle were concluded by the Open Care Laboratory. The restoration immediate appreciation, dilemma of facing the impact of of the Triptych by Nicolas Froment was also completed along with comparisons and discoveries the crowds, of allowing groups that of the “Seated Apollo”, discussed more in detail in this issue of to pause in front of the master- the ‘Giornale’. I cannot go without mentioning the encounter of through the method of pieces without obstructing the the composer Ezio Bosso with the students of the Balducci Institute “visual induction” passing flow of the other visitors of Pontassieve, organized at the Uffizi: a constructive dialogue on was exquisitely logistic; on the important issues such as culture and beauty, guided by the conta- other, the task was to guide the gious energy of the Maestro and embraced with a great sense of he remodeling of the rooms visitors along a path of immediate maturity by the students. Finally, another important initiative is the Tdedicated to Botticelli and and intuitive appreciation fa- English translation of this periodical, which as announced will be the painters from his circle has voring spontaneous visual inter- available online, beginning with this issue. Together with the entire Board of Directors, I would like to take this opportunity to ex- tend our warmest best wishes for the New Year to the Director and his staff and above all to all of our friends encouraging their continued and renewed enthu- siasm and support. Maria Vittoria Rimbotti change from one painting to the next, suggesting comparisons and discoveries and highlight- ing other works of art that are equally magnificent but less well known to the general public. As part of the project of the New Uffizi, the space (which once occupied in part the Medi- Eike D. Schmidt (continued on page 2) Sandro Botticelli, The Adoration of the Magi, Uffizi Galleries. IL GIORNALE degli UFFIZI 1 (continued from page 1) the first chord of the Botticelli- just beside. The references mul- for drama of his contempora- an gran concert playing in the tiply; the cult masterpieces guide ries from beyond the Alps nor ci Theater) was divided into surrounds. The lights become the eye towards lesser-known but how to sublimate their natural- four large, modern rooms a natural barrier that invites equally important works of art. istic explorations in the mesh of designed to draw attention to the viewer to stay at a distance The visitor is drawn into a fasci- impeccable artistic distinction, the works on exhibit. Through and from that distance the eye nating game of formal and cul- where every personage occu- colors and materials – red brick embraces the monumental tural associations that stimulate pies its given place as in a celes- floors, white plaster walls, the Annunciation from San Marti- more in-depth observation and tial dance, on marble pave- accents of grey pietra serena (the no alla Scala on the left, and greater involvement. ments covered with precious local grey limestone) that lead after having admired the other In the last room, before Turkish carpets. To the stirring from one room to another – works nearby, turns to the lumi- reentering the eastern corridor, studies of the pre-Lombrosian the architecture draws know- nous alcove on the central wall the marvelous, monumental Port- physiognomies of the shep- ledgeably on the Florentine of the next room which houses inari Triptych by Hugo van der herds in the Portinari Triptych, early renaissance tradition and the Birth of Venus. Goes is found. In this hall – which Ghirlandaio opposes the per- thus remains in tune with the Doing so, and observing includes the famous Pietà by Ro- fect health and serenity inclu- contents it houses. the painting, it comes naturally gier van der Weyden – the sive of human passions that And now our attention to note that the figure of Ze- Flemish school enters in dia- populated the skys of Florence turns to the works themselves phyr reflects that of the Arch- logue with the Florentine: if the at the time of Lorenzo il Mag- and above all to the method of angel in the Annunciation op- material is almost identical, the nifico. And while in theNativity “visual induction” that was inte- posite it, the nude Venus, float- diverse language immediately of van der Goes, the trees gral to the design of the layout. ing on the waves, is the sister of makes evident the relationships, stretch with their barren From the Pollaiolo room where Truth in the Allegory of Calumny the reciprocal influences and the branches to the grey December the Portraits of the Dukes of Urbi- alongside, who in turn points diversity among the artists. Take sky, in the Sacred Conversation no by Piero della Francesca oc- to the heavens as does Mercury the splendid Sacra Conversazione they are filled with oranges, a cupy a prominent place by the in the Allegory of Spring (Prima- from San Giusto alle Mura by Do- symbolic fruit: it is the mala me- window, the visitor passes into vera) where the nymphs wear menico Ghirlandaio, shimmer- dica Mercury indicates in the the much larger hall to face the the same flowing draperies as ing with colors and light effects: Primavera by Botticelli. Primavera hanging on the far Judith on her way to Betulia no one better than Ghirlandaio wall. It is the first painting seen, depicted in the small painting knew how to respond to the taste Eike D. Schmidt From Masaccio to Botticelli discovery of the antique to the on exhibit aims at bettering The new arrangement of the rooms naturalism of Flemish deriva- the viewer’s appreciation while dedicated to the early Renaissance allows tion, from a theocentric vision maintaining the arrangement’s to the perception of man as the chronological sequence. In the visitor to trace the progressive fulcrum of the Universe. room 8, one of the largest in The new layout, planned in the whole gallery, the works of development of Italian painting through an part with Antonio Natali, does the early Renaissance masters not include works from the de- are gathered, allowing visitors extraordinary concentration of masterpieces posits, unlike other areas of the to observe relations, similari- gallery reordered in the past ties and differences among the he new arrangement of from the gold background within the project of the New inventions of Masaccio, Beato Tthe group of rooms num- ‘primitives’ to the invention of Uffizi. Here a diverse distribu- Angelico, Filippo Lippi. The bered 8 to 15 has redesigned linear perspective, from the re- tion of the paintings already magnificent Battle of San Roma- one of the most important sec- no by Paolo Uccello, for which tions of the Uffizi Gallery’s ex- only a view from a distance al- position space, a veritable con- lows full appreciation of the centration of Florentine Re- perspectival virtuosity, has also naissance masterpieces includ- been moved to this room along ing the works that more than with the altarpiece by Domeni- any others in the eyes of the co Veneziano, masterpiece of world connote the identity of the ‘painting of light’. the gallery, Sandro Botticelli’s Room 9 dedicated to An- Birth of Venus and Primavera or tonio and Piero del Pollaio- Allegory of Spring. Visiting these lo, adequately rearranged in rooms is like paging through a 2007 with the restoration of survey text in art history, in just the wainscoting panels de- a few steps the progressive de- picting the Virtues painted for velopment of Italian painting the Tribunal of the Mercan- is displayed before the visitor, zia, remains unchanged. With 2 IL GIORNALE degli UFFIZI the Fortitude from that series fresco of the Annunciation once The most striking change, to include within the Floren- painted in 1469 by the young in the Hospital of San Martino with respect to the New Uffizi tine context, alongside the Sa- Sandro Botticelli, it introdu- alla Scala, previously on exhibit project as planned in the past, cred Conversation of Domenico ces the double space created in the apse of the ex-church of regards room 15, no longer Ghirlandaio, the grand trip- in rooms 10-14 to house the San Pier Scheraggio and visible dedicated to the School of Ver- tych depicting the Adoration of works by Sandro of which the to the public only sporadically.