David’s birthday and Uffizi tour

(This is part of our series of posts from our six-week Road Scholar Independent Living and Learning in Florence trip to Italy in Spring 2025. We have an index to all the posts from that trip here.)

Today, May 15, was David’s birthday. ABC School teacher Serena led Cheryl’s Survival Italian class in singing “Happy Birthday” to David in Italian.

David’s conversation class also sang to him, but he was too embarrassed to record it on video.

After class, we went out for a celebratory lunch with our fellow Road Scholars Jim, Linda, and Georgia at Lungarno 23.

After almost three weeks of (admittedly delicious) pasta and pizza, David was ready for a burger and fries!

Blowing out the candle on David’s birthday dessert, Millefoglie al “Buontalenti Badiani” (the soft gelato inside being a recreation of the first gelato created by Medici architect Bernardo Buontalenti for Catherine de’ Medici in the 1500s. (Look for his name to come up again later in today’s photos.)

Our tour guide Chiara introduced our group to the Ufizzi Gallery. Chiara has a degree in art history and has been guiding in the Uffizi for 16 years. We arranged this tour on our own based on a recommendation from our Road Scholar program director, and eight other students from the school joined us. Chiara explained that the exhibits in the Uffizi are arranged chronologically, with the entire top floor devoted exclusively to Florentine artists. Our photos here are in the same order–and represent merely a small selection of the dozens of works we saw this day.

Giotto, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels and Saints (c. 1306-10). Even though the painting has the generally flat aspect characteristic of Middle Ages art, the naturalism of the figures and the rendering of the space they inhabit mark a new approach to the theme. The painting is covered with 24k gold leaf and blue lapis from Afghanistan, meaning it was very expensive to create.

Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi, Christ in Judgment, the Annunciation and Prophets, in its original frame from 1423. You can see how far painting techniques had developed in the 100 years since Giotto’s work.

Madonna and Child with Two Angels (c. 1460) is Fra Filippo Lippi’s most famous piece. The Virgin, seated on a throne, is intently gazing at the young Jesus, turning towards him with hands clasped in prayer. Her expression is almost melancholy, as if she can foresee the painful destiny that awaits her son. He looks back at Mary, holding both arms out to her, supported by two angels. The angel in the foreground is smiling and looking outwards, as if to bring the onlooker into the scene. Lippi translates the holy image with a deep sense of humanity, both through the expression of affections and in the choice of clothes and hairstyles, while the halos are barely hinted at, especially compared to those in Giotto’s paintings. This is considered to be the first depiction of Mary as an attractive young woman. Some art historians believe that the faces are actually those of Lucrezia Buti, Lippi’s wife, and their two young children.

Sandro Botticelli’s La Primavera (Spring) (c. 1480) shows nine figures from classic mythology in a grove of orange and laurel trees. In the foreground, to the right, Zephyrus embraces a nymph named Chloris, who transforms into Flora, the spring goddess. The center of the painting is dominated by the goddess of love and beauty, Venus, chastely dressed and set slightly back from the others, and by a blindfolded Cupid, firing his arrow of love.

On the left, the three Graces, minor goddesses with virtues like those of Venus, are shown dancing in a circle. The composition is closed by Mercury, messenger of the Gods, recognisable from his helmet and winged sandals, as he touches a cloud with his staff.

The painting is a celebration of love, peace, and prosperity. The dark color of the vegetation is partly due to the aging of the original pigments, but is lightened by the abundance of fruits and flowers. At least 138 species of different plants have been identified, all accurately portrayed by Botticelli. The attention to detail confirms the artist’s commitment to this piece, which is also evident in the sheer skill with which the paint has been applied.

Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (c. 1485)–probably the single most-recognizable work in the Uffizi–depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown. At the left the wind gods Zephyrus and Aura blow her towards the shore. At right, the Hora of Spring holds out a cloak or dress to cover Venus when she reaches the shore.

Botticelli, Cestello Annunciation (1489). Note the angel Gabriel’s transparent veil below his wings. Botticelli used a new technique for this piece, painting from back to front instead of painting the foreground figures first and then adding the background around them. This allowed him to better show depth and have richer colors.

Ludovico Buti, The Old Dominion of the Florentine State (1589) – This map depicts late 16th-century Tuscany, all of which was part of the Medici kingdom. The map is scientific and descriptive as well as a celebration of Medici power.

Cristofano Gaffurri, View of the Port of Livorno (1604) – This panel comprised entirely of inlaid semiprecious stones, originally a tabletop, was made to celebrate the upgrading of the Port of Livorno by the grand duke Ferdinando I. The fulcrum of the composition is the Meloria lighthouse built in 1598. In the lapis lazuli sea, a galley flying the banners of the Order of Saint Stephen is escorting seven captured red Turkish feluccas. The hills and coast are made of different types of jasper, while the shipyards are green Corsican marble.

This close-up of the top-right corner of the panel shows the incredible detail of the work. The artist brilliantly used the stones’ natural veins to create vivid textures that emulate a painting.

The Tribune, designed by architect Bernardo Buontalenti (yes, the same one who invented gelato) for Francesco I, did not just display works of art, such as sculptures and paintings, but also extraordinary natural items, including precious stones. It was a cabinet of curios, containing a condensate of knowledge. The structure is octagonal because according to Christian tradition eight is the number which draws near Heaven. The dome symbolizes the Vault of Heaven. The Tribune’s decorations and furniture represent the four elements: Earth, represented in the floor as a wide flower inlaid with polychrome marbles (alabaster from Northern Africa, green porphyry from Turkey, red porphyry from Egypt); Water, represented on the dome by 5,780 mother of pearls set on a background painted with a scarlet varnish over layers of gold leaf; Fire, represented by the precious red velvets on the walls; and Air, symbolized by the towering lantern open to winds. The Tribune was the core of the Medici’s collections at the Uffizi.

The Vasari Corridor from inside the Uffizi. The Medici had Giorgio Vasari design and build this corridor so that they could get from the Uffizi (their offices) to the Palazzo Pitti without being seen or threatened by the population of Florence. We’ll be touring it in a couple of weeks.

Now we’ve descended to the first floor (above ground level) of the Uffizi, where works by non-Florentine artists are displayed. These panels by Piero della Francesca, Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, Duke and Duchess of Urbino (c. 1472-1475), are two of the first non-religious portraits ever painted.

Andrea del Verrocchio & Leonardo da Vince, The Baptism of Christ (c. 1475). On the banks of the River Jordan, St. John baptizes Jesus by pouring water on his head. The scroll announces the savior’s coming, while two kneeling angels witness the event, one of them holding Jesus’s tunic. The picture testifies to Leonardo’s early career: apprenticed to Verrocchio, he is likely to have painted the angel shown in profile, the nuanced landscape in the distance, and Jesus’s naturalistic body, using oil paints. Legend has it that when Verrocchio saw Leonardo’s technical genius–how his student depicted the rippled water around Jesus’s feet and used faded colors in the background to give a sense of distance, for example–he threw down his brushes and quit painting forever.

Leonardo da Vinci, Adoration of the Magi c. 1481-2. Leonardo never finished this large altarpiece, leaving for Milan shortly after making a start on it. Some figures are barely sketched, as though he were seeking to capture an idea, while others are more complete; those around the Virgin appearing to be in the grip of intense emotion. The background of the painting represents paganism falling apart after the birth of Jesus. This was Leonardo’s last painting on wood.

Leonardo da Vinci, Annunciation (c. 1475) – The Archangel Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary is set in the garden of an elegant Renaissance palazzo. Da Vinci used his advanced understanding of depth and perspective to paint the angel as a tangible creature, casting his shadow on the lawn. His robust, realistic wings owe a debt to Leonardo’s study of bird flight. Certain anomalies, such as Mary’s excessively long right arm, disappear if you look at the painting from below and from the right, which suggests that the picture once graced a side altar in the church of San Bartolomeo a Monteoliveto in Florence, its original home.

Raphael, Portraits of Agnolo Doni and Maddalena Strozzi (c. 1506) – in these two panels, Raphael, who had only recently come to Florence, shows that he has assimilated and even surpassed Leonardo’s innovative approach to depicting figures in space, the sitters (in an oblique, three-quarters pose) feeling more vibrant and natural than, for example, Piero della Francesca’s portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino just 30 years earlier.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Holy Family with the Young St. John the Baptist ‘Doni Tondo’ (c. 1507) – Michelangelo was primarily a sculptor, but this was his first painting. The way the figures’ gestures and gazes interact is inspired by Hellenistic statuary. The young nudes in the background represent pagans waiting to be baptized. Michelangelo also designed and sculpted the frame.

Giorgio Vasari, Portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici (known as Lorenzo the Magnificent) (1534) – in this portrait, Vasari highlights his patron as a lover of arts.

Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1538) is one of his most celebrated works. It shows Venus as a young bride in a Classical pose, waiting to be dressed by her maids, who are busy in the background choosing her clothes. The lap dog at the girl’s foot is a symbol of marital loyalty.

Il Veronese, Esther and Ahasuerus (c. 1569) – this painting is not as famous as some of the others, but our Jewish friends will know the story that it depicts: an episode from the biblical story of Esther. Driven by her desire to save the people of Israel from the extermination planned by the Vizier Haman, Esther puts her own life in jeopardy by appearing before her husband Ahasuerus, King of che Persians, without having been summoned. Struck by her courage and beauty, the king saves her and touches her with his sceptre. The picture is remarkable for its complex architectural setting and for the glimpse of the Marciana Library in the background on the right.

In Caravaggio’s Sacrifice of Isaac (c. 1604), the angel’s vigorous gesture terminates in the figure of Isaac, diagonally cutting the scene in two. The intense expression of fear on the face of the boy who, in looking imploringly at us, sucks us into his physical and psychological anguish, is something of a novelty in the traditional depiction of the subject. Depicting terror, on the other hand, was nothing new for Caravaggio, who had already portrayed it in his Medusa.

Rubens, Judith and Holofernes (1626-34).

Our classmate Maggie was leaving our program tomorrow, so Road Scholar got her this apron–especially appropriate for the Uffizi–as a going-away gift.