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.
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