The Duomo of Florence

Walking through Florence, in Tuscany, is like stepping into the heart of the Renaissance, around every corner, at the facade of every palace. Visual shock guaranteed...
From the Duomo to the Uffizi, from Piazza della Signoria to Ponte Vecchio, the entire rise of European art unfolds before the astonished eyes of man, no longer Vitruvian, but Googlerian, of the 21st century.

As the Middle Ages come to an end, the Western world can then be summarized as the sphere of power of the Catholic Church of Rome.
Thus, it is in this world where the universality of Christendom has united a continent amidst state and religious conflicts (the Hundred Years' War, the Spanish Reconquista) that the most exceptional generation of Italian painters will be born.
While Gutenberg prints his Bible and Christopher Columbus lands in the Bahamas, the painters' workshops, in Florence, in Siena, and then in Venice, are overwhelmed with portrait commissions from a merchant bourgeoisie that is achieving prosperity in rapidly growing cities.

Leonardo da Vinci - Piazzale degli Uffizi

Byzantine-influenced painting - Santa Croce (Florence)

And in this non-unified Italy, small kingdoms develop and prosper, allowing the emergence of geniuses through patronage. Because these enclaves have one thing in common: a family (the Medici, the Borgia, the Estes...) combining a passion for power and a taste for art, writing history while developing architecture and the art of the city.
Painting, in the Middle Ages, influenced by Greek and Byzantine legacies, was almost entirely financed by the Church (excluding portraits), hence the prevalence of Annunciation, Crucifixion, Visitation... These works, initially intended to adorn churches, continued their classical execution until the early Renaissance.

It is here that a few artists will begin a "personalization" of the expression of faith and bliss. From the rigid Saints in conventional poses to Botticelli's Venus, this is the first step in the artist's expression that suddenly materializes; not just to show but to go beyond, to make one feel!

Sandro Botticelli - The Spring

Michelangelo - David

In seeking the perfect expression of beauty, these painters, who gradually broke away from pre-existing pictorial conventions, tread new paths. Of course, religion and mythology remain at the heart of their canvases, but the nudity suggested beneath the transparent veils of Botticelli's Three Graces is not at all Christian. It aligns with the anatomical perfection of Michelangelo's David in an attempt to represent the greatest beauty: that of the human body laid bare.

Between a return to the classicism of Antiquity (before the reign of Christianity) and the challenge of taboo, these painters revolutionize representation and, beyond that, pictorial art itself. Three major figures stand out as you explore the Uffizi Gallery.
Botticelli, whose two main works (The Birth of Venus and Primavera) adorn the walls of the same room; Michelangelo, whose "The Holy Family with the Infant St. John" (also known as the "Tondo Doni") is the only completed painting exhibited outside the Vatican; and Leonardo da Vinci, whose "The Adoration of the Magi," as well as "The Annunciation" (a work from his youth), demonstrate the full force of this painter's/genius inventor's pictorial construction.

Michelangelo - Tondo Doni

Dante Alighieri's Cenotaph - Santa Croce

"I had reached that point of emotion where the celestial sensations given by the Fine Arts meet passionate feelings. As I emerged from Santa Croce, I had palpitations; life was drained from me, I walked with the fear of falling."
If it was in the Basilica of Santa Croce that Stendhal experienced the emotional wonder of artistic understanding, it is not excluded to feel a similar sentiment in any of Florence's fifty museums. Between a painting by Giotto and the façade of the Santa Maria del Fiore, every lover of beauty can grasp the power and creativity of the Italian Renaissance, preserved and transmitted to us.

The Uffizi Gallery, located on the banks of the Arno River in Florence, houses the world's finest collection of Italian artworks across 8000 square meters. Becoming a museum in the 17th century, the place was once the heart of the Medici's power in Florence, hence its name "Uffizi" (Offices in Italian). It is traversed by the famous Vasari Corridor, linking the Palazzo Vecchio (next to the Uffizi on the Piazza della Signoria) to the Palazzo Pitti (the Medici residence) on the other side of the Arno, passing over the Ponte Vecchio. The Uffizi offers a comprehensive view of Italian painting across two levels, from the pre-Renaissance era with strong Byzantine influences, to the contributions of the Flemish (including works by Rubens and Rembrandt), and the emergence of post-Mannerist styles, from Caravaggio to the triumph of Goya, the "flamboyant modernist" who, with his "naked woman," also revolutionized painting. The Uffizi provides one of the most beautiful walks through the heart of the Renaissance imaginable...

Leonardo da Vinci - The Adoration of the Magi