Built as the Palazzo degli Uffizi, the now Galleria Uffizi in Florence, houses the world's finest collection of Italian Renaissance painting and masterpieces of Dutch, Flemish, German and French painting. It is on a long narrow site extending from the Piazza della Signoria to the River Arno. It was commissioned by Cosimi I de' Medici in 1559 and designed by Vasari to accomodate government offices. Construction commenced in 1560 and after Vasari's death in 1564 it was completed by Alfonso Parigi the Elder and Bernado Buontalenti who was required to make the first provision for an art gallery as part of the complex. The U-shaped building with its short façade fronting the river has two long side wings, each comprising a long arcade supporting three unequal upper storeys, accomodating closely spaced windows. The building is Mannerist in style, Vasari rejecting the static repose of the Renaissance for an architecture of movement with clear reference to the work of Michelangelo amongst others. The Uffizi Palace remains one of the most significant examples of Italian Mannerist architecture. In Praeterita, Ruskin recalls his initial impressions of the collection in 1845 as of 'an unbecoming medley' and claims when he last visited in 1882 to be of the same opinion. He justifies this by saying that in 1845 he could not have been expected to like the work of Angelico or Botticelli ( Works, 35.269). In his writings he variously comments on works in the collection by Angelico, Giovanni Bellini, Botticelli, Bronzino, Claude, Gaddi, Ghirlandaio, Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Filippino Lippi, Filippo Lippi, Masaccio, Memmi, Perugino, Pollajuolo and Raphael (Raffaelle).