THE ARCHITECTURE OF GIORGIO VASARI'S UFFIZI, FLORENCE (PALACE, MANNERISM; ITALY)

Cosimo I de' Medici was elected duke of Florence in 1537. By 1560, he had restructured the Florentine courts into a Tuscan system; that same year, he ordered the construction of a palace to house the magistrates' courts of the state. The project, Gl'Uffizi dei Magistrati, was to consist of two parallel palaces, joined by an open loggia at the river. The complex was to front a square created from a street opened in 1545 between the Piazza della Signoria and the Arno. The commission was awarded to the dean of the court artists, the biographer of Italian artists and architects, Giorgio Vasari, "painter of Arezzo.".;The Uffizi was built during the mid-part of the development of Mannerism. The twin palaces stand as a major contribution to the classizicing phase of Mannerist architecture. The subtle design of the civic palaces expresses a derivation from, and a partial dependency upon, the Roman works of Bramante, the Roman and Florentine works of Michelangelo, and the designs and buildings of other Italian architects. These civic palaces have been but lightly studied as architecture; this research project is an attempt to correct, in some small way, that oversight by explaining the history of the commission, describing the sources drawn upon in preparing the final design, analyzing the style of the architecture, dissecting the structure into individual components and then re-assembling them as a total and original design, and finally, evaluating the architecture of Giorgio Vasari's Uffizi.;Giorgio Vasari, with limited architectural training, but a vast knowledge of ancient and contemporary architecture, submitted a design which was approved by the duke. Work began at once. Older structures were removed or incorporated into the new construction. Despite his limited practical experience, Vasari drew upon his extensive knowledge of Italian architecture acquired in his research for the first edition of The Lives. He chose elements from known antique, Quattrocento and Cinquecento architecture and urbanism, which were used to create an original design reflecting the current Roman 'manner' and the Florentine tradition. The design reflected aristocratic sources and avoided any references to works that were unmistakably 'republican' in association. The square had to conform to the criteria set for the architecture. Reference was made to real or imagined Roman fora, to noble town-planning schemes and to prior Medicean schemes for the re-planning of Florence.