Enfilade

Now on view at the Uffizi:

Florence and Europe: Arts of the Eighteenth Century at the Uffizi

Firenze e l’Europa: Arti del Settecento agli Uffizi

Curated by Simone Verde and Alessandra Griffo

The Uffizi Galleries, Florence, 28 May — 28 November 2025

Masterpieces by Goya, Tiepolo, Canaletto, Le Brun, Liotard, Mengs, and other masters; spectacular views of iconic places of the Grand Tour in Italy; the monumental Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine by French painter Pierre Subleyras, restored live on display before the public’s eyes; the sensual curiosities of the Cabinet of Erotic Antiquities reconstructed according to the fashion of the Age of Enlightenment. The Uffizi Galleries bring the 18th century back to life with the exhibition Florence and Europe: Arts of the Eighteenth Century at the Uffizi, curated by the director Simone Verde and the head of 18th-century painting Alessandra Griffo. Installed in the airy, frescoed rooms on the ground floor of the museum, the exhibition includes a selection of around 150 works, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, porcelain, prints, and a large tapestry, many exhibited for the first time in the Gallery and others seen for the first time in ten years due to the museum’s extension works.

The exhibition recounts, through art, an era of crucial changes for Western thought, aesthetics, and taste, and also for the Uffizi itself, which, in the 18th century, was completely transformed from a dynastic treasure chest of royal collections into a modern museum, the first in the world. It was precisely at this time, in fact, that the pact established by the last Medici descendant, Anna Maria Luisa, certifying the end of the dynasty in 1737, bound the boundless store of works to Florence “for the ornament of the State,” and it was Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who in 1769 allowed citizens, on the feast day of Florence’s patron saint, St. John (24 June), to visit the museum freely. Structural changes intertwined with the great wave of political, cultural, and aesthetic transformations throughout Europe, which the Grand Dukes in Florence managed to intercept with the Uffizi Galleries, transforming the city and the museum into a microcosm where the new climate of the Continent could be felt.

Simone Verde states: “Florence and Europe aims to trace an extremely multifaceted century through its aesthetic culture, interweaving the general narrative of the context with the management of the Uffizi Galleries as Europe’s first modern museum. It’s a complex story rich in subtexts and nuances that we have constructed with patience and dedication, making works from the collection that have not been seen for many years, or have never been exhibited, available to the public.”

Alessandra Griffo states: “The works on display, besides being of great quality, have the merit of offering insights into a century that was crucial for the formation of the modern mentality, sensibility and even taste. Today, millions of people come to Florence every year, attracted by the myth of the early Renaissance: the rediscovery of this period occurred precisely during the 18th century.”

More information is available here»