The eighteenth century is back in the spotlight at the Uffizi with a major exhibition
Until November 28, about 150 works to rediscover a key century in taste, European culture and the birth of the modern museum
Masterpieces by Goya, Tiepolo, Canaletto, Le Brun, Mengs and many more. Breathtaking views of Grand Tour Italy. A live restoration in front of the public. And an entire section devoted to Enlightenment-era eroticism. At the Uffizi, the 18th century takes center stage with Firenze e l’Europa. Arti del Settecento agli Uffizi – Florence and Europe. 18th-Century Arts at the Uffizi – an exhibition that explores a pivotal century for taste, culture, and the birth of the modern museum.
Curated by Uffizi Director Simone Verde and Alessandra Griffo, Head of 18th-Century Painting, the show is open until November 28, 2025, in the grand frescoed halls on the museum’s ground floor. Around 150 works are on display – paintings, sculptures, porcelains, prints, furnishings and tapestries. Many have never been shown before; others have resurfaced after more than a decade in storage.
The 18th century marked a turning point for the Uffizi, transforming it from a dynastic collection into Europe’s first public museum. It was the era of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, who in 1737 bound the family’s immense artistic heritage to the city of Florence “for the ornament of the State.” It was also the time of Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, who opened the museum to citizens on the feast day of Florence’s patron saint, anticipating the modern concept of public cultural access.
Mostra Settecento UffiziThis period of radical transformation is narrated through a rich and refined selection of works, chosen to evoke the atmosphere of a century as complex as it was influential – one that continues to shape our modern aesthetic sensibility.
The exhibition opens with art from the final decades of the Medici era, where baroque religiosity and dynastic self-representation dominate. It then turns to the Lorraine rulers, whose more enlightened, rational approach is reflected in the modern portraits by Goya, Vigée Le Brun, Nattier and Mengs. A section dedicated to regional Italian painting features works by Ferretti, Crespi, Canaletto and Guardi, as well as a room of preparatory sketches, including Anton Domenico Gabbiani’s striking Glory of Saint Mary Magdalene, painted in 1701 for the dome of the Florentine church of San Frediano in Cestello.
The show also explores the rediscovery of medieval “Primitives,” whose gold-ground religious icons were reassessed in anti-Enlightenment circles anticipating Romanticism. Another section is dedicated to the 18th-century fascination with the exotic, with paintings and objects that speak to Europe’s orientalist and colonial imagination. Among the exhibition highlights is a live restoration workshop: Pierre Subleyras’ Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine de’ Ricci, a major recent acquisition by the Uffizi, is being restored before visitors’ eyes, revealing its original colors and the finesse of the French master’s hand. An entire room focuses on erotic sculpture, inspired by the legendary Cabinet of Erotic Antiquities described by the Marquis de Sade in his novel Juliette. Nude figures, classical marble and Enlightenment-era symbolism explore themes of desire, taboo and sensuality.
The latter half of the century is represented through the aesthetic category of the Sublime, with dramatic imagery of ruins, snow-covered peaks, and waterfalls. The exhibition concludes with a group of Grand Tour works, including spectacular Venetian views by Canaletto and a vivid Eruption of Vesuvius by Thomas Patch.
Where: Uffizi Galleries, Florence
When: Until November 28, 2025
Tickets: uffizi.it
Curated by: Simone Verde and Alessandra Griffo
