THE STRANGE STORY OF THE 28 STATUES
IN THE NICHES OF THE UFFIZI COLONNADE
 
 
 

The niches beneath the porticos of the Uffizi Gallery were originally designed by Vasari purely as architectural features but by the first half of the 19th Century they were occupied by 28 statues of famous people from the worlds of politics, art, literature, science, the judiciary and also religious figures.
It was not the Grand Duke, nor even some worthy authority in the field of politics or art who made this decision, but a humble printer from Florence who, seeing all the empty niches, thought they should be filled with statues of famous men.
This was an era in which every town and city loved to boast of its home-grown geniuses and heroes and in every piazza such monuments to national and civic pride were erected, multiplying like traffic cones.
Vincenzo Batelli, for that was the name of this clever Florentine printer, found it impossible to conceive of a niche as a purely architectural feature. Like so many others of his time, a niche, for him, was nothing other than an architectural backdrop to set off the fame and glory of some illustrious person, and thus a sort of vacant lot, just waiting for its guest of honour.
The city of Florence and indeed the entire region of Tuscany was unrivalled for its lavish supply of geniuses, heroes, artists, poets and men of science. It would therefore be quite simple to fill each one of Vasari’s niches and still have plenty of the great and the good left over. Why not seize this golden opportunity to wed all these lonely widowed niches with their perfect spouse?
Batelli’s only mistake was simply his belief that, being devoid of statues, Vasari’s niches were in fact widowed, instead of being capable of seeing that Vasari had created vestal virgins as a hymn to architectural purity. Since almost everyone at the time shared Batelli’s point of view, the main problem was not the location of the statues but the expense of all that marble and the sculptors’ fees.
In 1834, our enterprising printer came up with the bright idea, a cunning new subscription scheme. All it would take was for four thousand Tuscans to commit themselves to paying one florin a month for thirty consecutive months. To that end, a committee was set up consisting of Prince Andrea Corsini, the Marquises Gino Capponi and Pietro Torrigiani, the lawyer Cesare Capoquadri and Count Luigi de CambrayDigny, but unfortunately they only managed to find seven hundred subscribers.
Batelli was undaunted. He appointed a new committee headed by Giovanni Benericelli Talenti, this time made up of artists, whose more creative talents came up with, among other things, the idea of four bumper lotteries a year, designed by the mathematician Giovanni Antonelli to avoid the jackpots being split. It would be winner takes all and this really fired up the Florentines’ greed.
The florins poured in and statues started appearing in the niches, starting with the one of Nicola Pisano, donated by Grand Duke Leopold II, of Giotto, donated by the Grand Duchess Maria Antonietta, and of Galileo Galilei, donated by Crown Prince Ferdinand.

P.S. if you spot the odd difference between the spelling of the names engraved on the statues and how we spell them now, it was the sculptors who got it wrong.

 
 
 
 
 
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI
by Emilio Santarelli
LEONARDO DA VINCI
by Luigi Pampaloni
BENVENUTO CELLINI
by Ulisse Cambi
GALILEO GALILEI
by Aristodemo Costoli
GIOTTO
by Giovanni Dupré
DONATELLO
by Girolamo Torrini
COSIMO THE ELDER
-PATER PATRIAE-

by Luigi Magi
NICOLÓ MACHIAVELLI
by Lorenzo Bartolini
ANDREA DI CIONE Called ORCAGNA
by Niccolò Bazzanti
FRANCESCO GUICCIARDINI
by Luigi Cartei
PIER CAPPONI
by Torello Bacci
GUIDO ARETINO
by Lorenzo Nencini
ANDREA CESALPINO
by Pio Fedi
PAOLO MASCAGNI
by Lodovico Caselli
FRANCESCO REDI
by Pietro Costa
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO
by Odoardo Fantacchiotti
NICOLA PISANO
by Pio Fedi
DANTE ALIGHIERI
by Emilio Demi
GIOVANNI DALLE BANDE NERE
by Temistocle Guerrazzi
LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI
by Giovanni Lusini
AMERIGO VESPUCCI
by Gaetano Grazzini
LORENZO IL MAGNIFICO
by Gaetano Grazzini
PIER ANTONIO MICHELI
by Vincenzo Consani
ACCORSO
by Odoardo Fantacchiotti
FRANCESCO FERRUCCI
by Pasquale Romanelli
FARINATA DEGLI UBERTI
by Francesco Pozzi
SANT ANTONINO
by Giovanni Dupré
FRANCESCO PETRARCA
by Andrea Leoni
 
         
 
 
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