Vasari Corridor portraits to return

(ANSA) - Florence, April 13 - Several rooms on the 'piano nobile' of the Uffizi will house the central core of the self-portraits now in the Vasari Corridor by the end of 2017, Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt told ANSA Wednesday. At least 50 of the most important works (Rembrandt, Raphael, Pistoletto) will be moved, and will be followed on a rota basis by the other 730 in the Corridor, he said. Detached frescoes and Roman sculptures are set to replace them in the Corridor. The transfer plan is one of the operations linked to the opening up to the public of the Corridor linking the Uffizi with Palazzo Pitti via the Ponte Vecchio, which Schmidt announced recently. It will take around a year to move the self-portraits.
    The Vasari Corridor (Italian: Corridoio Vasariano) is an elevated enclosed passageway which connects Palazzo Vecchio with Palazzo Pitti. Beginning on the south side of Palazzo Vecchio, it then joins the Uffizi Gallery and leaves on its south side, crossing the Lungarno dei Archibusieri and then following the north bank of the River Arno until it crosses Ponte Vecchio. At the time of construction the Torre dei Mannelli had to be built around using brackets because the owners of the tower refused to alter it. The corridor covers up part of the façade of the church of Santa Felicita. The corridor then snakes its way over rows of houses in the Oltrarno district, becoming narrower, to finally join the Palazzo Pitti. Most of it is currently closed to visitors.