The Laboratories of Art and Alchemy at the Uffizi Gallery in Renaissance Florence: Some Material Aspects

Abstract

The story of the Uffizi Gallery, emblematic monument to the Florentine Renaissance, is still oddly unknown. One of the forefathers of modern European museums, they were built by Giorgio Vasari to cater for Cosimo I’s public offices, and were later partly transformed into a gallery by Francesco I de’ Medici (1541–1587). Laboratories of art and alchemy were placed side by side by the Grand Dukes Francesco I and Ferdinando I de’ Medici (1587–1609) to facilitate collaboration between artists and scientists. Goldsmiths, jewellers, cabinetmakers, sculptors, painters, and cutters of semi-precious stones exchanged not only equipment, but also theoretical and technical knowledge with the alchemists who worked in the Uffizi. The pieces that survive demonstrate that the style of the objects created there was a direct result of this collaboration. Thanks to the combined study of archival documents and unpublished maps, the artists’ workshops and the alchemists’ fonderia (foundry) can now be located inside the building. Moreover, thanks to an unpublished inventory, we can easily visualise the organisation of the fonderia laboratories, their furniture and the tools that were used. After a short historical introduction, this paper focuses on the material aspects of this collaboration: the working processes, the exchange of instruments between the laboratories, their location in the building and the purpose and destination of the art objects produced.