photo © Helen Farrell / The Florentine
The New Uffizi project is expected to continue making progress in 2016:
– A large room to be used for temporary exhibitions will be created on the ground floor, beneath the Salone Magliabechiano.
– Rooms 8 to 15 will reopen with a revamped layout to better showcase works by Pollaiolo, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo and Botticelli.
– One of Leonardo’s masterpieces, the Adoration of the Magi, will return to the Uffizi, after a restoration by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure that promises a new interpretation of the artist’s early years. ‘This is perhaps the most quintessential work-in-progress in the history of art,’ commented Cecilia Frosinini, deputy director of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure.
– Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabine Women will be moved into the Uffizi (a copy will stand in its place in the Loggia dei Lanzi).
In addition, the Uffizi will host two major exhibitions this year. The first, scheduled to open in March, will focus on painted sculpture in the Renaissance. The second, planned to begin in the autumn, explores the Parisian years of Florentine artist Ardegno Soffici, when he worked as an illustrator and met Picasso and other modernists.
Although 57 new rooms have been opened as part of the New Uffizi initiative, the museum needs another 45 million euro to complete the long-term project, 18 euro of which are expected to come from the state.
