Uffizi Gallery...

**Uffizi Gallery**
So often buildings photographed at night become even more magical,
and the Uffizi is no exception.
Home to some of the world's most beautiful and impressive art works,
the building itself is also quite breathtaking in appearance.
It was commissioned by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1560 to house his magistrates' offices,
with the architect Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in charge of the design.
The plan of the building is horseshoe-shaped in layout,
with one long wing to the east, a short bottom portion that borders
the river Arno and a wing to the west.

Over the years, further parts of the palace evolved into a display place for many of the paintings and sculpture collected by the House of Medici or commissioned by them. According to Vasari, who was the architect of the Uffizi, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo gathered at the Uffizi "for beauty,
for work and for recreation".
The Uffizi was the world's first public art museum in 1591.

Many art museums start with a small, sometimes outstanding, collection of privately collected works. Here, as with everything they did, the Medici - rulers of Florence off and on for generations - packed them in by the cartload.

Works are presented in chronological order, giving viewers the opportunity to see the whole unfolding of Renaissance art in the manner it developed. That display constitutes not just an education but an experience of a lifetime.

Among the works here are the famed Venus by Botticelli.
The Ognissanti Madonna by the late Gothic master, Giotto, is on display. It is kept company by The Madonna and Child with Two Angles, by Lippi, along with hundreds more equally great works.
Outstanding as that portion of the collection undoubtedly is, there is much more to the Uffizi than Italian Renaissance works of the masters.

Rembrandt's Self-Portrait as an Old Man is one example. The Adoration of the Magi by the great German master, Albrecht Dürer is yet another. El Greco, Goya and Velasquez are all well represented.
The Uffizi remains one of Florence's most popular attractions.
In a city full of outstanding art, both indoor and out, that is quite an achievement.

On the 21st of August, 1911 Leonardo Da Vinci's painting, Mona Lisa, vanished from off the wall of the Louvre in France. On the 29th of November 1913, a Leonard Vincenzo (aka Vincenzo Peruggia) contacted wealthy arts dealer Alfredo Geri to see if he was interested in purchasing the painting. Armed with the director of Forence's Ufflizi Gallery, Geri agreed to meet this crackpot, only to discover he actually did have the painting. Whilst the investigation, arrest and paperwork was being sorted, the Mona Lisa was temporary hung at the Uffizi Gallery. Vincenzo claimed he stole the Mono Lisa because he wanted it returned to its rightful place in Florence.

In 1966 flood waters from the Arno River began rising at an alarming rate. Within hours, the city of Florence was virtually underwater and contents of The Ufizzi Gallery was under threat of being destroyed. When word spread of this potential disaster, locals, tourists and even foreigners rushed to the city in a bid to rescue the invaluable pieces of artwork. Known as the "mud Angels", these volunteers were responsible for saving Florence's art.

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