The greatest Roman art of the Uffizi Galleries

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] when you come to the offici you have an extraordinary immersive experience of the renaissance the paintings the artwork the architecture and of course underlining it all is that vast collection largely on display in the corridors of the antiquities collected by the medici family most of which was acquired in rome the architect giorgio vasari began the affitsi in 1560 for cosmo the first de medici it was to accommodate originally administrative center for offices hence the name uffizi and of course over time the artwork collected by the medici family was put on display here at the end of the line of the medici family this collection became the property of the new habsburg lorraine state on the condition that it would never be exported outside of tuscany here is a magnificent roman era copy of polyclitus derifourus the spear bearer with his famous contrapposto stance and the setting to admire it is extraordinary this magnificent hall is the hall of naiube and it tells the story through the statuary of the hubris the pride of one mother that led to the death of her 14 children she insulted the tona the mother of apollo and artemis by saying that she was more important because she had more children than that goddess and you have here in this collection found in 1583 at puerto san giovanni in rome that very story narrated in stone and here is naya bay herself trying to protect her youngest daughter in vain leonardo da vinci is one of the greatest figures of the renaissance this room is dedicated to his work we have here his baptism of christ the adoration of the magi and one of his earliest works the annunciation he goes on spends time in rome milan bologna and finally france where he dies but it's here in florence that he truly left his mark not just on the city but on the whole movement of the renaissance i've just entered the bobale gardens right by the bontalente grotto it's connected by the corridor of vasari all the way back across the arno to the uffizi and the garden space is something extraordinary it is an open-air museum today over 100 acres in size let's take a look at things that came from ancient rome [Music] now the plinths here belong to an arch the arcus novus that was located originally along the via del corso de villa villalata in rome in 1491 that arch was dismantled and the architectural features eventually become the property of the medici family placed in their villa on the pincho hill eventually to be transported here to the medici bubbly gardens and what you have are two plinths that depict duplicate scenes on each one you have a victory figure a goddess holding a palm with a slave kneeling in chains and on another side on each you have a roman soldier leading a defeated barbarian foe when we turn instead to the dacians the stone with which they are being portrayed is porphyry and that's a stone usually reserved just for the emperors so it's very particular very rare to have barbarians depicted with this particular stone initially these dacian prisoners were unearthed and became the property of the de le fale capranica family subsequently purchased by the medici family and as late as the time of napoleon were transferred here into the boboli [Music] gardens [Music] palazzo pt behind me is constructed as early as 1458 for the illustrious successful banker luca pitti by 1549 it's acquired by the medici family and becomes the principal residence in the city of florence [Music] in the amphitheater space you have an egyptian obelisk of asman granite that was once part of the decoration of the easium in the campus marshes and behind it an enormous monumental granite basin that was originally located in some imperial bath complex it is the quintessential renaissance garden of florence many of the things that you can explore come from ancient rome [Music] you