Today, the Uffizi Galleries. I had never heard of it. Incredible art. Cori especially loves the Caravaggios.
Click on pictures to see full photo, title, and description. For the 100s of photos we took, see my smugmug: https://moonfamily.smugmug.com/Travel/Italy-2026
Walked along the River Arno again to get there.
Beautiful door in the entry hall. The shield with the circles/dots is the crest of the Medici family, which you see everywhere!
The House of Medici was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of Tuscany, and prospered gradually in trade until it was able to fund the Medici Bank. This bank was the largest in Europe in the 15th century and facilitated the Medicis' rise to political power in Florence, although they officially remained citizens rather than monarchs until the 16th century.
The Medici family financed the construction of Saint Peter's Basilica and Florence Cathedral, and were patrons of Donatello, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Machiavelli, Galileo, and Francesco Redi, among many others in the arts and sciences. They funded the invention of the piano, and arguably that of opera. They were also protagonists of the Counter-Reformation, from the beginning of the Reformation through the Council of Trent and the French Wars of Religion. ~Wikipedia
Our guide the first day here said, “We owe a lot to the Medici family.”
There really is too much to take in — the floors, the paintings, the sculptures, the ceilings, the architecture, the views…
Our audible guide called these “historiated” crosses, one triumphal and one sorrowful. “Historiated” is a new word for me! I like it. It’d be cool to create a “historiated” arrangement on a wall of photos telling the story of my life arranged around a central shape. Maybe a cross shape would make the most sense.
I am attracted to Madonnas. This one is an example of Jesus looking like a “man baby,” as Cori calls it. Not only does he look like a man, he is already blessing us and holding a scroll, the symbol of knowledge (credit to our audio guide).
Ognissanti Madonna, by Giotto around 1310.
Look how Jesus is touching Mary’s face in this one. So tender.
A tender Madonna and child.
The Annunciation (when the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her she will give birth to the Messiah) also fascinates me. Really, ALL the stories of Mary fascinate me. In this version of the Annunciation, Mary is holding a book, which is often the way she’s depicted in Annunciation paintings. I love that! She’s sitting there reading and suddenly an angel shows up.
Mary is shown kind of turning away in fear. The angel is extending an olive branch, symbolizing his words of peace, "Do not be afraid.” It’s hard to see, but there are words imprinted between the angel and Mary: Ave Maria Gratia Piena. Hail Mary, full of grace in English.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. ~Luke 1:26-38
Such a beautiful story, isn’t it? It always strikes me what it means that the angel tells Mary she is highly favored. It is an amazing honor to be chosen by God to carry and give birth to his son, the Messiah of the whole world. Yet, being chosen and highly favored also means Mary will stand at the cross watching her son being tortured and killed. How wonderful that he comes back to life 3 days later.
Such vibrant colors.
More beautiful Madonnas. One is called “The Tickling Madonna.” And one shows Mary breastfeeding Jesus. What a reminder of his full humanity.
This one is called the Battle of San Romano. It’s interesting because it uses perspective. The audio guide said an art historian said this artist, Paolo Ucello, was obsessed by perspective. The guide pointed out how everything is foreshortened. It said the painting was hung high up and that made it look better. I thought the horses’ legs kicking and pointing toward the front were kind of funny.
The Birth of Venus is a famous painting. The guide says Venus at the center “has long been considered the ideal depiction of feminine beauty in Renaissance art.” The round painting is called “Madonna del Magnificat.” Jesus’ hand is guiding Mary’s who is writing the Magnificat, the poem/song Mary sings when she visits Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. It begins, “Magnificat anima mea,” which is “My soul magnifies the Lord” in English. I think it’s interesting the artist has Jesus guiding her hand.
This is an enormous triptych. The three paintings show the adoration of Jesus in the center and the two side panels show various patron saints. The two monochromes are on the back of the two sides, and show the Annunciation.
These are a bunch of the beautiful views from the windows in the “map room” and the corridor.
Our selfie.
The first one below is the baptism of Jesus and it’s by Leonardo Da Vinci. I like the middle one because the Holy Family is reading books. :) The next one looks weird, right? It’s a lamentation of Jesus’ death. Kind of a strange Pietà. And I think the last one is another tender Madonna, this time with Jesus and John the Baptist.
Just a few of Cori and Randy walking and sitting around.
Several more paintings. Cori loves the Medusa. She’s been getting a tattoo on each trip she takes and this time she got a Medusa tattoo.
We went to dinner at a restaurant called Il Pizzauoli, which our landlord recommended. We shared a white pizza and a regular one. Delicious!!
