World Museums

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Uffizi Gallery (Italy) The construction of the Uffizi palace began in 1560, when the Duke Cosimo I dei Medici decided to build a special seat for the offices (hence the name "uffizi") of the thirteen magistracies, that is for the administrative center of the Florentine State. Cosimo I commissioned the project of the building to Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect at the Medici court, who realized one of the most famous architectural masterwork of Florentine Mannerism. Stretching from the Signoria Palace to the river Arno the costruction posed difficult technical problems since the foundations were quite over the river; Vasari had to include into the building the ancient church of San Pier Scheraggio and the ancient Zecca (near the Orcagna Loggias). When in 1574 Vasari and Cosimo I died, the Uffizi were not yet completed: Francesco I, son of Cosimo I, succeeded his father, Bernardo Buontalenti succeeded Vasari in supervision of construction; in 1581 the building was terminated. Some years before at the first floor the offices of the thirteen magistracies had been installed: everyone of these had a beautiful entrance door in the portico at the ground floor. A man of peculiar intelligence, Francesco I (1541-1587) had a profound interest for science, alchemy and art; in 1581 he decided to give a nearly private arrangement to the second floor of the Uffizi. In the west wing he set laboratories where specialized artisans worked jewels and precious stones, perfumes were distilled, new medecines were experimented; in the east wing he placed ancient sculptures of medicean collection: shortly afterwards in this side of the building Buontalenti started to erect the Tribune. Francesco's successors increased more and more the medicean collection with new acquisitions of paintings, sculptures, precious and rare object in general; they were set not only at the Uffizi but also at Pitti Palace or in other medicean palaces. The continuing growth of the granducal collections in 17th century enriched the Uffizi: new rooms of the second floor were arranged to display masterworks as in a museum and in the meanwhile the Gallery could be visited on request by Florentine or foreign persons. For this the Uffizi can be considered the first kind of modern museum of the history. In 1737, with the death of Gian Gastone (born in 1671) the Medici dynasty ended and the family of Lorraine ascended the throne of Tuscany. The last descendant of Medici family, the Palatine Electrix Anna Maria Luisa, sister of Gian Gastone, made an important agreement that secured for ever the city of Florence all the medicean art treasures. It was so eliminated any risk of dispersion of this artistic patrimony unique in the world. The Lorraine family, from Pietro Leopoldo to Leopoldo II, enriched the whole collection, increasing it with important masterpieces: many paintings and several hundred of drawings were bought, many Florentine pictures were transferred to the Uffizi from Tuscan monastries, after suppression of religious orders during the 19th century. In 1860 at the formation of the Kingdom of Italy the Medici-Lorraine collections became public property to all effects and purposes. At the end of the 19th century a new arrangement of the Gallery caused the destruction of the wonderful Medici Theatre, to make way to the first rooms of the east corridor, before the Tribune . In 1989 the State Archive that occupied the first floor of the Uffizi, has been transferred in the new seat of Piazza Beccaria: the first floor will be indeed arranged to double the Gallery's area, as planned in the Nuovi Uffizi project. The first six rooms of this floor have beeen recently restored; all the other rooms soon will be added to them, to make way to the exhibition of many masterworks now conserved in the warehouses and realize new arrangements for all needs of a museum of such importance.

The Museum of The Romanian Peasant The Museum of The Romanian Peasant is part of the large family of European Museums for Folk Arts and Traditions. It is a National Museum, functionning under patronage of the Ministry of Culture. Owner of an impressive collection of objects, even if otherwise poor - as far as the financial means necessary to capitalize this collection are minimum -, placed in a historical monument building, (new Romanian style), whose restauration costs exceed by far the budget allocated by the Ministry of Culture, The Museum of The Romanian Peasant in spite of all these, has managed to put in practice a special type of muzeology. The original poetics developped in relation to the object was certain one of the reason why the Museum was awarded the EMYA - European Museum of the Year Award. One of the other reasons, of equal importance, was the very assuming of the poverty; the personalized style of display in the halls has a certain number of extensions which sometime happen to go beyond the door of the Museum: that is, not only openings, concerts and conferences, but also publications and unconventional ideas, like the Missionary Museum or the Village School, for instance.

The Hunt Museum

The Hunt Collection is an internationally important collection of original works of art and antiquities. It is a personal one, formed by a couple who judged each piece that they collected according to the standard of its design, craftsmanship and artistic merit. These criteria they applied to objects of all ages - from the Neolithic to the twentieth century. One of the strengths of the Hunt Collection is its medieval material. Its range covers objects commissioned and used by both ecclesiastical and lay patrons, and includes statues in stone, bronze and wood, crucifixes, panel paintings, metalwork, jewellery, enamels, ceramics and crystal. The importance of the collection is such that some items are currently on loan to the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, while others have been shown in international exhibitions. The links between the Hunt collection and other museums can be illustrated by the fact that one fragment of the Beaufort, late 14th century armorial tapestry, is on display in the Hunt Museum in Limerick, while other fragments of the same tapestry are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Burrell Collection, Glasgow. Besides the medieval, there is a wealth of other material ranging from Egyptian, Greek and Roman items through to the 19th century metalwork and ceramics. There is also an important collection of Irish archaeological material ranging from Neolithic flints, through Bronze Age gold, the unique 8th century Antrim Cross, hand pins, pennanular brooches, down to penal crucifixes of the 18th and 19th century. Irish decorative arts are represented too in a range of items including Irish delft, Belleek porcelain, 18th century Dublin tapestries as well as ecclesiastical and domestic silver.

The Museum Jean Tinguely Dedicated to the life and work of Swiss artist Jean Tinquely, who died in 1991, the Museum is located in Solitude Park, on the right bank of the Rhine. The Museum was erected as a gift to the city and region of Basel by F. Hoffmann-La Roche LTD to mark the company's 100th anniversary in 1996. It was designed and built by Swiss architect Mario Botta and has been open to the public since 3 Ocober 1996. The Museum's collection consists mainly of works generously donated by the artist's widow, Niki de Saint Phalle, and works from the holdings of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. The Museum exhibits works spanning three and a half decades in the artist's life. Viewed in their broader context, they mirror artistic developments in the second half of this century. On the gallery level the Museum offers a chronological presentation of works from the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. The contrasts between the various rooms-like those in the artist's life-are striking. In the 1950s Tinquely's works, often executed in black-and-white, possessed a stark, spare quality and were characterized by tremendous clarity. In 1959 his méta-matic drawing machines appeared, marking an important renewal. 1960 was the year of Tinquely's huge international success with his self-destructing Homage to New York. But the artist's style was changing rapidly. He now began working with arc-welded scrap iron, and his sculptures became more provocative and comical. Following the completion of Eureka for the Expo 64 in Lausanne, his works became more 'sculpture-like' in the classical sense of the word. Works from this period are often all black and are apt to strike the viewer as abstract objects rather than as 'found' ones. The 1980s were characterized by large-scale projects, among others the large altars. The altar-piece Lola, characteristic of this period, can be seen in the Museum. The next two rooms contain the monumental work Mengele - Dance of Death, a reflection on the inevitability of death. In the large hall, monumental sculptures such as Grosse Méta Maxi-Maxi Utopia, Fatamorgana and Agricultural Platform are displayed.