The Vasari Corridor – The Museum that Houses the Largest Collection of Self-portraits in the World

The Vasari Corridor Florence is a covered walkway over a kilometer in length, which was built in 1565 – in just 5 months! – The architect Giorgio Vasari, author of the Uffizi Gallery, commissioned by the Grand Duke Cosimo I de 'Medici to move safely from the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of government of the Medici, Pitti Palace, their residence. The work was done on the occasion of the marriage of the son of the Grand Duke Francesco de 'Medici with Joanna of Austria and was used for centuries to come even after the extinction of the most important family in the history of Florence. On the walls are about 450 self-portraits, part of a collection that has a huge number nearly three times greater. The most extensive collection of portraits and self-portraits in the world!

The result of the purchases of the Medici, but also donations of the artists, who sent his own portrait to the Florentine family so you can get into that prestigious series. In the first section are paintings of the school of Rome, Bologna and northern and works of 700 did not live to be exhibited in the Uffizi but also very interesting. Francesca tells us that a self-portrait reveals much more than his other works the artist's personality. An emblematic case is that of Carlo Ricci, who shows in his self-irony that all that is not present in his other work on display in the Hall, austere and institutional. The collection goes on between the eighteenth-century paintings, from 600 onwards imposes the Baroque style in Florence redundant never liked very much.

Vasari is exposed on the walls of a painting by Giovanni Domenico Ferretti, the greatest exponent of the '700 Florentine, “The Rape of Europa” (the rapture of the god Zeus). But there are also many portraits of famous painters. The same Giorgio Vasari has created a work that represents the dispute was referred to the center when the King of France commissioned a throne of gold, the envious Florentine goldsmiths put out the word that they were taken by Vasari himself a part and then, to silence the lies, he decided to make two thrones identical. The painting is located in the corner of Old Bridge. Among the portraits of famous painters, there are also that of Titian and Veronese, Delacroix, Rubens, Rembrandt and Velasquez a mustache. And even painters Chagall and 900 of the caliber of Ligabue, Guttridge, De Chirico and Carra.

Everyone wanted to be part of the collection that was officially created Cardinal Leopoldo shortly after 1680, and so sent off to the Medici their self-portrait. Still works continue to arrive from all over the world, so much so that the director Natali is planning to set up a section dedicated to contemporary painters. The other portraits are less famous, but they all have a story to tell. Like the painting of the painter Rosalba Carriera depicting the three daughters of a duke. What's so special? Nothing, except that the picture was nothing more than an advertisement … the three girls were looking for a husband, and it was common practice among the nobles of the 700, their picture made the rounds of Europe waiting someone to answer to not-so-veiled request.

In essence, the portrait was kind of a “photo book”, at a time when marriages were celebrated by proxy and sanctioned notarial contracts. Another self-portrait that intrigued me is the daughter of Tintoretto, unimaginatively called the Tintoretto. An eclectic woman who portrays a score in hand in homage to his two passions, painting and music. The Vasari Corridor continues until the Boboli Gardens, passing to the left of the Cave Buontalenti. The original actually goes on coming up to the Pitti Palace, but it is currently not open to visitors.

First, however, we find portraits of American painters who in 800 moved to Florence'', a work factors and the self-portrait of the Italian Futurist painter Giacomo Balla, ironically baptized by him “autocaffe,” in which she portrays while holding holding a cup. The last work came to the Vasari Corridor: the self-portrait by Pietro Annigoni, the contemporary Italian painter most famous in the world thanks to the official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II of England.