“What do they think they’re doing with that outfit? It always looks like a museum piece!”
“What a clean and impeccable house! It’s not at all welcoming; it seems like no one lives there… it looks like a museum!”
“How boring… this movie is more tedious than a museum visit!”
“Ugh, we have to go to the museum!”
“Come on… first, we’ll visit the museum, and then I’ll buy you ice cream if you behave!”
Who among us has never made or heard these statements?
I wonder why, in our imagination, the word “museum” is always associated with something extremely boring, static, and immobile; piles of precious objects that remain there, still, gathering dust for centuries, and we walk past them, almost as if it were a duty, with reverential respect, trying, of course, to find the shortest escape route once the task of the visit is fulfilled.
Why don’t we think that the museum is something alive, that changes and renews itself? That it has a life of its own marked by opening hours, restorations, and new installations that always follow the taste of the time in which they are made.
The Uffizi Gallery changes and reshapes over time. It grows, changes, renews itself. It may seem strange… but walking through the corridors and rooms, you will notice that in some rooms, modern architecture creates a masterful contrast with the works it houses; that some masterpieces have just returned to the Gallery after long years of restoration, and their colors shine with a new light; that in the Tribuna, the chamber of wonders, the red velvet walls and the blue ceiling are now shining like never before. You will realize that the museum is anything but static and unchanging but changes over time and, by changing, tells a story that is also a bit ours.
To Learn More…
Anyone who has never been to Florence usually wants to visit the Uffizi. And I agree: at least once in a lifetime, the Uffizi must be seen.
Not only for the splendid collection of artworks gathered there but also for the evocative, charming, and exciting setting. The Uffizi were, in fact, the ancient grand-ducal offices: a huge U-shaped building designed by Giorgio Vasari, a trusted man of Cosimo I de’ Medici, in the sixties of the sixteenth century.
Many people ask me, “how many times do you come to the Uffizi in a day, and how many times do you repeat the same things? Don’t you get bored?” The answer is certain and comes from the heart, without a shadow of a doubt: “no, I don’t get bored. NEVER. Every time is like the first.” And it’s just like that. Every time, I am moved in front of Giotto, Botticelli, Michelangelo… Every time, I try to find the right words to convey my emotion to those I accompany. And every time is a challenge. It’s not always easy. I try to understand who I have in front of me, rely on their previous knowledge, and guide them in this new experience.
If I have a craftsman in front of me, I linger on the technique of gold backgrounds and shaped panels by Giotto and gradually try to lead them to understand the novelty and artistic genius of the artist for the time he lived; if I have a mom or a grandmother, I point out the gesture of the Baby Jesus in the Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano, who, when the oldest king, Melchior, takes off his crown, bowing before him and showing his bald head, gives him a good pat, as any child of that age would, and from there, I try to shift the focus to the richness of details and materials. I have also found myself in front of a non-humanist audience, attracted, instead, by more recent architectural works, which, in dialogue with those ancient ones, provide, in addition to greater stability, a unique and particular character to the building.
The visit to the Uffizi takes place in chronological order: from Giotto, you arrive at Caravaggio, and it can be declined in dozens of variations and nuances, foreseeing in-depth studies on one historical period rather than another.
The classic visit to the masterpieces begins with the Hall of Majesty by Duccio, Cimabue, and Giotto, continues to that of Piero della Francesca, to arrive at Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo. At this point, the visitor can decide whether to leave or continue the visit to the first floor of the Gallery where, among many others, Caravaggio’s works are found.
