The Laboratories of Art and Alchemy at the Uffizi Gallery in Renaissance. . .
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Fig. 2 Armoury workshops, fresco, Ludovico Buti. 1588 (Courtesy of the Uffizi, Florence)
displayed under the Giovian series of portraits. In parallel, a restoration workshop for sculptures and a painters’ workshop completed the series of know how. Finally, a garden planted with botanic samples on the roof of the Loggia dei Lanzi echoed back to the fonderia, situated on the same floor.1 According to the archival sources, Francesco I had the original idea of putting together collections and workshops (Ferdinando I’s brother and predecessor). He had the necessary philosophical education and cultural knowledge to imagine and execute this complex yet coherent project.2 From the beginning it was the prince alchemist’s brainchild to establish a program gathering naturalia, artificialia and know how of all kinds under one roof, that would work together like an ‘encyclopaedic machine’, a kind of monumental clock. The analogy between mechanics and the organisation of the Uffizi is not forced: not only were clocks actually built there, but all crafts worked together synchronically. Artistic objects unique in Europe resulted from this association of technique and aesthetics, and met with great success in other courts. In fact, the uniqueness of the Uffizi lies in its administrative and economic organisation: as soon as Ferdinando I became grand duke, he established a new governmental organ, the Galleria dei lavori, ruled by a complex hierarchy of ministers, secretaries and intendants.3 This new institution was completely devoted to the service of the court and the State, it directly served the grand duke’s political, diplomatic and economic purposes. Indeed, the Uffizi workshops mass-produced specific products for Ferdinando I’s
1
For more on the Uffizi collections in the sixteenth century, see among many others Heikamp, “Geschichte der Uffizien-Tribuna”; Acidini, Magnificenza alla Corte; Paolozzi Strozzi & Zikos, Giambologna; and Zorzi & Sperenzi, Teatro e spettacolo. For a complete bibliography, see Kieffer, Ferdinando I de Me´dicis, 549–82. 2 See Berti, Principe dello Studiolo; and Conticelli, ‘Guardaroba di cose’. 3 The original document of the Motu Proprio from 1588 has disappeared but there is a transcription in Pelli Bencivenni, Saggio istorico, vol. II, 119–23.