Self-portrait Masterpieces

Raphael's face, those of Bernini, Velàzquez, Rembrandt, Rubens, Chagall, Le Brun and many other undisputed geniuses of art history. They will be the protagonists of the major international exhibition Self-Portraits. Masterpieces from the Uffizi, from Jan. 8 at the Bund One Art Museum in Shanghai, China.

Fifty great artists, including also Chagall, Le Brun, Morandi, Balla: the Galleries possess the largest collection of Self-Portraits in the world, made up of more than two thousand paintings and started in the seventeenth century by Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici without ever being interrupted over the centuries.

The exhibition, curated by Alessandra Griffo and Vanessa Gavioli, is part of the events planned for 2022, the Italy-China Year of Culture and Tourism.

It is the first chapter in the collaboration with the Bund One Art Museum, which includes an ambitious program: a series of ten exhibitions, spanning various segments of the Galleries' collections, scheduled over the next five years; for its part, the Shanghai museum will support the Uffizi with economic support of more than six million euros.

Fifty, in total, are the paintings at the center of the exhibition. Pages of poignant beauty - Chagall's blue face enchants no less than Morandi's work, which paints itself as dry as one of his still lifes - sometimes ironic as the portrait of Nicola van Houbraken that rips through the canvas and seems to come out of the painting, Balla's Autocaffè, Guttuso's self-portrait - possess a unique charm; all gain strength in the whole. The exhibition offers the viewer the privilege of physically reviewing their eyes, so eager to tell their stories and to narrate through their gaze their eras.