Uffizi in Florence

June 1, 2010 our class went back to the Uffizi. I actually enjoyed the museum and the pieces in the museum the second time through. It really helped me to have a purpose for being there and an assignment to accomplish. The museum has so much and it has been so long since I've taken art history that i remember a few of the pieces but no one painting stands out in my mind. Today i focused mostly on the three Madonna's. It is just a popular painting and it had been done so many ways. It also helped that they were the first three pieces I looked at so i was awake and fresh early in the day. The first Madonna i looked at was Cimabue's. His paint choice was tempra on a panel. It took him from 1280 to 1290 to complete the painting and it is currently in the museum in a 19th century frame. Cimabue uses a lot of archs in his design and more red tones than the other pieces in the room. He makes the folds in the cloth stand out by shading them with gold. Cimabue choose to include 7 angels and four prophets in his painting. The angles are three on one side of Madonna and the child and four on the other side. The four prophets are painted across the bottom of the panel. The second artist I choose to exam was Giotto De Bondone. His Madonna is also a tempra painting done between 1306 and 1310. To me he uses a lot more angular shapes. Madonnas chair is square at the bottom as in Cimabue the chair had arches and made windows at the bottom of the panel. The angels and saints are stacked upon each other adding depth to the painting. They are also on the left and the right side of the madonna and child. The third Madonna was done by Duccio in 1285. He also used tempra on a panel. His was the most detailed to me because of the frame he choose to use. The frame was thick enough that he had room to also paint on it. Along the frame are heads of angels- i can only assume they are angels. It also struck me that he used two different points of perspective on the details of the chair. On the left side of the painting the chair is actually going back in space. Duccio's Madonna is larger than the other two paintings and the child has clothes on. There are 6 angels within the painting and they are full bodied angels with very detailed wings. Three angles on either side of Madonna. Duccio also uses more of the arch shape like Cimabue.

Another sketch i wanted to share was of Simone Martini's enunciation. I choose to focus on the details of the frame rather than just the painting. The painting was wonderful and the look on Mary's face has never been painted in a way that she looks angry. The frame is just as wonderful and detailed. I talked to Chris at the museum and she said normally a lot of the painting do not have their original frames. I do not know if the frame was original but it divided the painting into these three different section. The middle section where the angel is talking to mary. Then a section on each side. The frame had these tall staff like columns that made it feel like mary and the angel were in a great room at a giant Palace.