Uffizi opens 12 new rooms dedicated to self-portraits

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 10 - The Uffizi Galleries in Florence on Monday opened 12 new rooms exclusively dedicated to portraits and self-portraits, with paintings, sculptures, installations and graphic works spanning over six centuries from the 1400s to the present day.
    The 255 works on show are part of the gallery's self-portrait collection started by Cardinal Leopold de' Medici in the 17th century and which now boasts over 2,000 items.
    The display on the first floor is arranged in chronological order, starting from the 15th-century portrait of the painters Gaddo, Agnolo and Taddeo Gaddi and ending with a cast-iron sculpture by Antony Gormley, a self-portrait on a mirror by Michelangelo Pistoletto and a self-portrait made of plastic bricks by Ai Weiwei.
    Other artists featured include Andrea del Sarto, Luca Giordano, Rubens, Rembrandt.
    Many of the works on display have undergone restoration and the museum said in a statement on Monday that some would be rotated in order to show as far as possible the scope of the vast collection.
    "The exhibition was made possible thanks to the donation of one and a half million euro by the Pritzker family," said Uffizi director Eike Schmidt.
    "In the rooms where artists and craftsmen worked since the 16th century, the many protagonists of that same art that can be admired in the Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti now live again," he added. (ANSA).