Fortitude is portrayed as a young woman wearing armour over her graceful dress and holding a ruler’s sceptre. In spite of the military attributes, the Virtue alludes to strength and perseverance in the pursuit of good. She is one of the four cardinal Virtues, i.e., the main human virtues.

  The Medusa is an oil painting on canvas, mounted on a wooden shield. It is a ceremonial shield, typical of the sixteenth century. Caravaggio painted the Medusa\’s head severed from the body, by Perseus. The realism is observable in the spray of blood and in the representation of serpents, […]

  This panel is part of a cycle of three paintings that celebrate the victory of the Florentine forces over the Sienese troops and the alliance guided by the Duke of Milan at the battle of San Romano (Pisa) in 1432. Niccolò da Tolentino, at the head of the Florentine […]

The work is composed of a single panel, divided into three sectors by the arches. At the sides of the central arch are two tondos, depicting the Angel of Annunciation and the Virgin. The main scene features a crowd of biblical figures, angels and saints, portrayed in informal positions; most of […]

  The painting was brought to the Uffizi in 1867 from the church of San Bartolomeo a Monteoliveto, outside Porta San Frediano in Florence.

The sculpted figure of Bacchus with a stunned expression due to inebriation reproduces models of the classical art, in particular the portraits of Antinous, and is instilled with a languid sensuality. In the painting, eminent art critic Mina Gregori detected a certain vision of antiquity celebrating the freedom of senses, […]

  This painting, usually known as the Primavera [or ‘Spring’] shows nine figures from classic mythology advancing over a flowery lawn in a grove of orange and laurel trees. In the foreground, to the right, Zephyrus embraces a nymph named Chloris before taking her; she is then portrayed after her transformation into […]

  The diptych of the Dukes of Urbino is one of the most famous works of art of the Italian Renaissance. Painted by Piero della Francesca, it depicts the duke Federigo da Montefeltro and his wife Battista Sforza.

Raphael accepts the approach of the pyramidal composition, the gentle effects of the soft light and the emotional dialog between the characters, revealing the elements peculiar to the painting of Leonardo. Despite that is also plain what will be Raphael’s own personal style: the extreme sweetness of the faces, particularly the […]

  Michelangelo painted this Holy Family for a Florentine merchant, Agnolo Doni, whose prestigious marriage to Maddalena Strozzi in 1504 took place in a period that was crucial for early 16th-century Florentine art.