The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (488 page)

(1487–1561/4).
Italian painter, decorative artist, and architect, born at Udine near Venice. He was one of
Raphael's
leading assistants in Rome and is chiefly important for reviving antique techniques of
stucco
and the ancient taste for
grotesques
, inspired by archaeological discoveries in Rome. His light and graceful style, seen best in the Vatican Loggie (1517–19), was imitated all over Europe, particularly by
Neoclassical
designers. From the 1530s he was based in Udine, but also worked in Florence, Venice, and Rome again.

 
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Uffizi
, Florence.

The chief public gallery of Florence. The nucleus of the collection derives from the collections of the
Medici
family, and the Uffizi Palace was begun by
Vasari
in 1560 for Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The ground floor housed government offices (Italian
uffizi
), hence the building's name. In 1565 Vasari built the corridor over the Ponte Vecchio connecting the Uffizi with the
Pitti Palace
. Subsequently the building has been much altered, enlarged, and restored (it was damaged in the Second World War and by flooding in 1966). The last of the Medici line, Maria Ludovica , Grand Duchess of Tuscany, bequeathed the family collections to the State of Tuscany in 1737, and in 1789 they were reorganized to allow regular public visiting. In the 19th cent. the Uffizi was subjected to radical reorganization. Much archaeological material was placed in the Archaeological Museum in the Palazzo della Crocetta, while the medieval and
Renaissance
sculpture and the rich collection of
applied art
were transferred to the
Bargello
. The Uffizi collection on the other hand was enriched by early Italian paintings resulting from suppressions of churches and monasteries and confiscations of religious property. Although it is primarily famous for its incomparable representation of Florentine Renaissance painting, the Uffizi also has outstanding works from other Italian and non-Italian schools (for example, Hugo van der
Goes's
Portinari Altarpiece) and important examples of
antique
sculpture. The collection of prints and drawings in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe is one of the finest in the world, and the gallery of artists' self-portraits, begun by Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici in the 17th cent., is unrivalled.

 
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(d. 1532).
Italian painter and wood engraver, a pioneer of the
chiaroscuro
woodcut. In 1516 he requested from the Venetian senate a patent for his method ‘of making from woodcuts prints that seem as though painted’, and although there are German examples earlier than any known by Ugo, he may have discovered the technique independently. Certainly his prints achieve their pictorial effect better than those of the Germans. They are often based on designs by
Raphael
and
Parmigianino
.

 
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(active 1317–27).
Sienese painter, a close follower of
Duccio
. His only certain work is the high altarpiece for Sta Croce, Florence, which formerly bore the signature ‘Ugolino da Siena’ and is now widely dispersed. Several panels are in the National Gallery, London.
Vasari
says he painted ‘many pictures and chapels in all parts of Italy’ and several paintings are attributed to him on stylistic grounds. His style was charming, but must have been something of an anachronism in the Florence of
Giotto's
day.

 
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(1874–1947).
German collector and writer on art. After studying at Munich and Florence, he settled in Paris in 1904. In 1905 he was buying pictures by
Picasso
and
Braque
at a time when these artists were practically unknown and in 1906 he was one of the first to discover the Douanier
Rousseau
. He published the first monograph on Rousseau in 1910 and in 1912 organized the first retrospective exhibition of his works. Subsequently he was best known for discovering and encouraging other
naïve
artists, such as
Bombois
and
Séraphine
.

 
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