Florentine ruler Cosimo I de'Medici commissions Vasari…
1560 CE
Florentine ruler Cosimo I de'Medici commissions Vasari to design the Palazzo degli Uffizi, or Uffizi Palace, in 1560 as a civic structure, two long, connected parallel buildings by the Arno River near the Palazzo Vecchio.
It is intended to be the offices for the Florentine magistrates—hence the name "uffizi" ("offices")—bringing together under one roof the administrative offices, the Tribunal and the state archive (Archivio di Stato).
Construction will be continued to Vasari's design by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti and end in 1581.
The cortile (internal courtyard) is so long and narrow, and open to the Arno River at its far end through a Doric screen that articulates the space without blocking it, that architectural historians treat it as the first regularized streetscape of Europe.
Vasari, a painter as well as architect, emphasizes the perspective length by the matching façades' continuous roof cornices, and unbroken cornices between stories and the three continuous steps on which the palace-fronts stand.
Giambologna had visited Florence on his return from Rome in 1556 and gained the sponsorship of the Medici family.
He submits a design for his first important work, the “Fountain of Neptune,” to a competition in Florence in 1560 but the work is commissioned, after modifications, by the city of Bologna, which may account for the sculptor's Italianate name.