Description

Its collection of Primitive and Renaissance paintings comprises several universally acclaimed masterpieces of all time, including works by Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Caravaggio. German, Dutch and Flemish masters are also well represented with important works by Dürer, Rembrandt and Rubens.
Among the collection's highlights are Paolo Uccello's Battle of San Romano, its brutal chaos of lances one of the finest visual metaphors for warfare ever captured in paint; the Madonna and Child with Two Angels, by Fra Filippo Lippi; the Birth of Venus and Primavera by Sandro Botticelli; the portraits of the Renaissance duke Federico da Montefeltro and his wife, Battista Sforza, by Piero della Francesca; the Madonna of the Goldfinch, by Raphael; Michelangelo's Doni Tondo; and the splendid Bacchus by Caravaggio (circa 1571-1610).
The Vasari Corridor, the raised passageway connecting the Uffizi with the Pitti Palace, was built by Vasari in 1565. It is hung with an important collection of 17th-century paintings and the famous collection of artists' Self-portraits.