Blog
Uffizi Gallery Tops London Times List
On May 4, 2013, The Times of London published an article titled, “The World’s 50 Greatest Galleries.” The Uffizi Gallery was placed first on the list. A team of 50 culture experts contributed to the The Times decision and differentiated a gallery from a museum stating that, “a gallery is considered to be a place [...]
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An Afternoon Visit to the Frost Museum
On April 20, 2013 Lisa Marie Browne, executive director of Friends of the Uffizi Gallery brought members and special guests to The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami for a private tour of the exhibit, José Manuel Ballester: Concealed Spaces with the show’s curator, Francine Birbragher, PhD. Ballester is an internationally recognized Spanish [...]
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An Evening with The Fine Arts Conservancy
On April 10, 2013, Friends of the Uffizi Gallery were given a private tour of The Fine Arts Conservancy in West Palm Beach with its founder and director, Gordon A. Lewis Jr., who also serves on the Friends’ advisory board. The facility is one of the world’s finest for the restoration and conservation of fine [...]
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Amici Restore Three of the Oldest Works at Uffizi Gallery
In March 2013 the Amici degli Uffizi presented to the press and public the restorations of three of the oldest works at the Uffizi Gallery, which were fully funded by their organization. All three are wood panel paintings. Two are crucifixes and the third is a diptych. They were temporarily displayed during the month in [...]
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“Offering of the Angels” Returns Home
“A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of inferiority, for not having seen what it is expected a man should see.” ~Samuel Johnson On Saturday, March 30, 2013, the exhibit “Offering of the Angels” will return to the Uffizi Gallery. The show toured four U.S. museums, beginning at the Museum of [...]
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Mary Jo Zingale, Director of Operations, on the Friends of the Uffizi Gallery
Tell us about yourself and any relevant information you’d like us to know about your involvement with the Friends, art or Italy. Mary Jo Zingale: In 1983, my husband and I bought a large farm property just 18 miles northeast of Florence, in a suburb called Londa. The main villa dates from the 1600′s and [...]
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Memories of the 2010 Florentine Weekend
The first Florentine Weekend was presented by Contessa Maria Vittoria Rimbotti, President of Friends of the Uffizy Gallery, in 2008. In 2010, we had the privilege to repeat this unforgettable experience.
The participating members included: Diann Scaravilli, Friends of the Uffizi Advisory Board Chairman, Mary Jo Zingale,[.....]
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The Grieving Madonna by Allesandro Allori
All art in civilization expresses the religious belief of societies—from the Egyptian statues to the Greek temples. The collapse of Rome and Byzantium paved the way for the rise of the Holy Roman Empire and the resurrection of Italy as the artistic powerhouse of western society, spearheaded by Medici patronage and the flourishing Italian economy. The visual arts finally began to accumulate prestige for the artist with the ascendancy of perspective [.....]
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Diann Scaravilli on the Apollo Restoration
The statue of Apollo, which dates to the second century A.D., was found by Leone Strozzi, a prominent solder, in 1553 on his property on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. He donated the work to Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici who placed it in the Monte Parnasa section of the gardens at his estate, Villa Medici, also in Rome. At that time, [.....]
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Offering of the Angels Tours United States
In 2011, the Friends of the Uffizi Gallery played an integral role in bringing to the United States an exhibit of 45 significant artworks from the Uffizi Gallery. The exhibit, called “Offering of the Angels,” premiered in November 2011 at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale where it remained on view until April, 2012. From there, the exhibit has traveled to the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania where[.....]
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