Uffizi celebrates women with Medici ladies, great painters and a short film

To celebrate Women’s Day, the Uffizi Galleries is relying on social media: a clip on the museum’s official Facebook page will tell the story of three great ladies of the Medici family, namely Queen Catherine of France, Ferdinand II’s wife Vittoria della Rovere, and Electress Palatine Anna Maria Luisa.

Their stories will be told by museum assistant Carolina Forasassi through their portraits: three great women whose decidedly strong personalities for the time entered history.

Caterina de’ Medici, born in Florence in 1519, would become the first Italian queen of France, to whom she brought refinement, culture and the Florentine taste for beauty. Vittoria della Rovere, born in Pesaro in 1622, was a fabulous heiress of the 17th century. The last descendant of the Duchy of Urbino, she would bring to the Medici family and to Florence a prodigious dowry: seventy wagons overflowing with extraordinary art objects and paintings from the Ducal Palace of Urbino and the residences of her duchy, now housed in the Uffizi Galleries: among them, masterpieces by Raphael Sanzio, Piero della Francesca, and Titian. Anna Maria Luisa dei Medici, born in Florence in 1667 and the last descendant of the family, was as wise as her grandmother Vittoria della Rovere: the collected collections of her dynasty would be scattered around the world if she had not decided to tie the Medici artistic heritage to her Tuscany. She stipulated a “Family Pact” on October 31, 1737 that bound all Medici property, making it immovable from the territory, understanding ahead of its time that this would bring trade and wealth to the entire region.

The clip will also be accompanied by many other initiatives: on March 7, the short film Voci di donne. Female Portraits from the Uffizi Galleries, made by Studio Riprese Firenze in collaboration with the Digital Strategies department. The protagonist of the short film is a little girl visiting the Uffizi who pauses to observe the portraits of great women of the past (including Bronzino’s very famous Eleonora da Toledo) and discovers that they speak to her, telling her their stories.

In live streaming, also on Facebook, the Galleries present on March 9 at 1:30 p.m. The Veiled Revealed led by the curator of 16th-century painting, Anna Bisceglia: she will illustrate Raphael’s masterpiece, exhibited in the Palatine Gallery of Palazzo Pitti, to the virtual public.

Finally, starting today, March 6, and running through Tuesday, there will be posts dedicated towomen’s art and the stories and works of female painters exhibited in the Galleries, such as Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun or Angelika Kauffmann.

"Every year we celebrate March 8 with an exhibition dedicated to women artists or women’s themes, such as the one currently on display in the Uffizi’s Sala Detti, Imperatrici, matrone, liberte. Faces and Secrets of Roman Women, which will be on view as soon as the museums reopen," commented Uffizi Galleries Director Eike Schmidt. “In the meantime, we have decided to commemorate this symbolic date with a series of online events aimed at the global social audience, also bringing attention to the immense heritage that we all benefit from thanks to the gifts of two magnificent ladies like Vittoria della Rovere and Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, and the spread of Florentine culture in Europe with Catherine dei Medici, Queen of France.”

Pictured is a portrait of Vittoria della Rovere, detail.

Uffizi celebrates women with Medici ladies, great painters and a short film

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