Le Grottesche Degli Uffizi

Few people lift their heads to look at the ceiling in the Uffizi, but the vaults of the corridors of the Florentine gallery feature some very unusual painted decoration. The first corridor, on the east side, was initially frescoed between 1579 and 1581 by Antonio Tempesta, and then by Alessandro Allori and his workshop. The decorations are “grotesque”, in keeping with a fashion that was the latest at the time but actually derived from Roman antiquity. The subjects are apparently elusive, full of complex symbols but also of curious incidents and funny, grotesque, bizarre figures: masks, monsters, animals, fauns, strange buildings and mysterious landscapes. All created with remarkable compositional balance. The decoration of the next two corridors (South and West), completed in the seventeenth century with an eighteenth-century addition, tells the story of the glories of Grand Ducal Tuscany. This particularly elegant volume, full of details and large, previously unpublished images, recounts the history of the decoration of the architectural complex and reveals the secret meanings of each painted section, leading us into an imaginary world suspended between reality and mythology.

Authors: Francesca de Luca and Valentina Conticelli