From Verrocchio's workshop to the great families' commissions
Room A35 is almost entirely devoted to Leonardo da Vinci, from his beginnings as an apprentice to a commission he would abandon without ever finishing it. Room A38, a little further on, brings together Raphael and Michelangelo around a single commission from one Florentine family — solid proof that these two artists, rarely associated with one another, did in fact work for the same clients, at the same time.
1. Room A35 — the angel said to have made his master give up
The Baptism of Christ, painted around 1475 in Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop, carries the workshop's collective signature — but the angel in profile, on the left, is unanimously attributed to the young Leonardo, then an apprentice. Half a century later, Vasari would claim that Verrocchio, seeing this angel surpass his own painting, gave up painting altogether to devote himself solely to sculpture. It makes for a good story; art historians today consider it exaggerated — records show Verrocchio had already largely moved away from painting before this panel, for career reasons rather than wounded pride. What remains verifiable, however, is the difference in handling visible to the naked eye: the softness of the modelling and the depth of the landscape behind Leonardo's angel stand apart from the rest of the panel.
2. Room A35 — a commission interrupted by the Duke of Milan
The Adoration of the Magi, commissioned in 1481 by the Augustinian monks of San Donato a Scopeto for their church's high altar, was left unfinished: Leonardo departed for Milan to serve Duke Ludovico Sforza before completing the colour, leaving the brown underdrawing visible against a pale ground. It lays bare his method of building through value before colour — an approach entirely different from his contemporaries, who laid down colour first. Look closely at the rearing horses and ruins in the background: these are near-independent studies, finished to a degree that rivals a completed painting, while the faces of the Magi in the foreground remain no more than a sketch.
3. Room A38 — a Florentine wedding, two commissions, two geniuses
In 1504, the wealthy cloth merchant Agnolo Doni married Maddalena Strozzi, from one of Florence's great families. To mark the union, Doni commissioned a Holy Family from Michelangelo — then known chiefly as a sculptor — painted on a round panel, the Doni Tondo: it is the only fully finished panel painting to survive by his hand. The twisting of the bodies, borrowed directly from the vocabulary of sculpture, already anticipates the figures he would soon paint on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
The same Agnolo Doni commissioned, at the same time, portraits of himself and his wife from Raphael — then a young painter on the rise, recently arrived from Umbria. The two commissions, hung today in the same room, allow a direct comparison rarely possible elsewhere: one client, one year, two radically different ways of understanding the human figure — Michelangelo's sculptural twist against Raphael's minute observation of face and jewellery.
How much time
Allow a good half hour for the two rooms, pausing on the contrast in handling between Leonardo's angel and the rest of the Baptism, then between the Doni Tondo and the two portraits facing it.
- Room A35 — the Baptism of Christ — 8 minutes.
- Room A35 — the Adoration of the Magi — 8 minutes.
- Room A38 — the Doni Tondo and Raphael's portraits — 10 minutes.
Sources and verification
Checked against the official notices of the Uffizi Gallery (uffizi.it) and cross-checked with Wikipedia EN/FR.
- Uffizi — The Baptism of Christ, Verrocchio and Leonardo
- Wikipedia EN — The Baptism of Christ (Verrocchio and Leonardo)
- Uffizi — Adoration of the Magi, Leonardo da Vinci
- Uffizi — Holy Family, known as the Doni Tondo, Michelangelo
- Uffizi — Portraits of Agnolo and Maddalena Doni, Raphael
- Magenta Florence — A New Room for Michelangelo & Raphael in the Uffizi
Displays and room openings can change. Check the Uffizi Gallery website on the day of your visit before following a route.
Listen to the commentary in the gallery
This route gives you a thread to follow. In front of an artwork, CulturAll adds the audio commentary: photograph the work or its label, listen, then ask your questions.
