Vasari Corridor Exhibits Series Of Modern Self-Portraits

Florence’s Corridoio Vasariano (Vasarian, or Vasari, Corridor) has installed 127 self-portraits by both Italian and foreign 20th- and 21st-century artists. The self-portraits consist of a series of stone sculptures, bronzes, paintings and photographs from the storage collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi (Uffizi Gallery). Among the artists whose works feature in the permanent exhibition are Marc Chagall, Giorgio de Chirico, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Robert Rauschenberg, Pietro Annigoni, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Renato Guttuso and Carlo Carrà. The artworks are on display near the Giardino di Boboli (Boboli Gardens) exit of the covered passageway. The Vasari Corridor is more than half a mile long and was already used to exhibit 17th- and 18th-century paintings. The latest additions take the number of artworks on show up to 527 in what is the world’s oldest collection of self-portraits. Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, ordered the Vasari Corridor to be built in 1564. Designed by architect, artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari, the corridor links the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti.