Sept 20 2007, Florence

September 20, 2007 - Florence
We spent the day in the Uffizzi Museum and overloaded on fine, medieval art. Aside from the 3 large photos below that I favor, I'm putting the photos in order of how we saw them.

Looking down over the Arno River.

What kind of imagination thinks up a horse-sea creature? . . and then tops it with a woman!

A father-child statue..

Very old religious icon.	More religious icon.	Hal looking at the religious icon art.	More icon.
Looking down the hall of the Uffizi. Photos aren't allowed?	Statues and painting.	Painting of Christ.	A room with more art.
Funky statues.	Scary statues.	Hal admiring the scary statues.	Ornate ceiling.
I liked this style but don't remember the artist's name.	Vase with soldiers decorating it.

The Uffizi Gallery is one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world, is housed in the Uffizi Palace. Building of the palace was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de' Medici as the offices for the Florentine magistrates - hence the name "uffizi" ("offices").

Over the years, further parts of the palace evolved into a display place for many of the paintings and sculpture collected by the Medici family or commissioned by them. After the house of Medici was extinguished, the art treasures remained in Florence by terms of the famous Patto di famiglia negotiated by Anna Maria Lodovica, the last Medici heiress; it formed one of the first modern museums. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1765 it was officially opened to the public.