FLORENCE, ITALY – Several rooms at the first floor of the Uffizi Gallery will house the central core of the self-portraits now in the Vasari Corridor by the end of 2017.
Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt took this decision in order to the opening up to the public of the Corridor linking the Uffizi with Palazzo Pitti via the Ponte Vecchio. For safety reasons, it was impossible to open the Corridor with portraits on the walls. It will take around a year to move the self-portraits.
At least 50 of the most important works (including Rembrandt, Raphael, Pistoletto) will be moved, and will be followed on a rota basis by the other 730 in the Corridor, he said. Detached frescoes and Roman sculptures are set to replace them in the Corridor.
The Vasari Corridor is an elevated enclosed passageway which connects the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti. Beginning on the south side of the Palazzo Vecchio, it then joins the Uffizi Gallery and leaves on its south side, crossing the Lungarno dei Archibusieri and then following the north bank of the River Arno until it crosses the Ponte Vecchio.
At the time of construction the Torre dei Mannelli had to be built around using brackets because the owners of the tower refused to alter it. The corridor covers up part of the façade of the chiesa di Santa Felicita. The corridor then snakes its way over rows of houses in the Oltrarno district, becoming narrower, to finally join the Palazzo Pitti. Most of it is closed to visitors. The shift of the paintings was developed to encourage greater visibility of this famous elevated passageway.
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