a half-yearly magazine on the arts
n.6 autumn-winter 2012-2013
10,00 €
florence Excerpt from the comic ‘Jumbo’ enclosed with VisitArt and illustrated by Giuseppe Palumbo for the exhibition The Thirties. The Arts in Italy Beyond Fascism at Palazzo Strozzi, courtesy of the illustrator
Poste Italiane s.p.a. - Spedizione in Abbonamento Postale - D.L. 353/2003 (conv. in L. 27/02/2004 n° 46) art. 1, comma 2, DCB Firenze In caso di mancato recapito inviare a Firenze CMP per la restituzione al mittente previo pagamento resi
exhibitions museums academies foundations villas enclosed gardens journalino libraries with map of the city and calendar churches of exhibitions and the palaces special issue of the comic ‘Jumbo’ restoration events publications conferences childrenʼs activities
contents 6• autumn-winter 2012-2013 With this issue of VisitArt we conclude our survey of stone, with in-depth pieces on the ‘stone heart’ of Florence
new! from October 2012 the on-line calendar, updated weekly, is available to all see our website
www.visitartfirenze.com
The stones of Florence, colour and polychromy The Uffizi
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The Uffizi Department of Prints and Drawings 9 Palazzo Pitti 10 The Bargello 13 San Marco Museum The Accademia Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore Opificio delle Pietre Dure and the Restoration Laboratories Orsanmichele Cenacoli Santa Croce Complex Fresco cycles Libraries Medici Chapels Palazzo Medici Riccardi Museo degli Innocenti Archaeological Museums Public Fountains Civic Museums
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Palazzo Strozzi In the now Fondazione Florens ECRF Exhibition Area Bardini Villa and Garden Horne Museum Stibbert Museum Casa Vasari Casa Buonarroti Galileo Museum Museum of Mathematics Natural History and Anthropology Museums Alinari National Museum of Photography Fashion Museums and Archives House Museums Case della Memoria Fiesole Museums Medici Villas Friends of the Hermitage Museum (Italy) Foreigners in Florence Children Music in the city Books about town In Tuscany Architecture Walks
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notice to readers VisitArt is a half-yearly magazine, the calendar of events is current to the date of going to press. For updated information please refer to the websites of the various museums and to our own site www.visitartfirenze.com
15 16 17 18 18 19 19 20 22 23 23 24 26 30 34 37 38 39 40 40 41 41 42 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 52 54 58 59 60 62
Festival delle Vie Romee 8 September 18 November 2012 first year of the festival devoted to the pilgrimage routes through Tuscany to Rome offers thematic itineraries led by specialist guides, for adults and children www.vieromee.it
European Heritage Days 29-30 September 2012 a national event designed to value the Italian cultural heritage and to share our common continental roots with other European countries www.beniculturali.it
International Biennale on Cultural Heritage and Landscape
Leggere per non dimenticare at the Oblate from October 2012
nine days devoted to culture, landscape and the economy www.fondazioneflorens.it
the literary event organised by Anna Benedetti in its 18th year is dedicated to the theme of courage www.leggerepernondimenticare.org
Florens 2012
3-11 November 2012
Olandiamo in Toscana until February 2013 the project planned by the Dutch Embassy in Italy involves various Tuscan cities with lectures, exhibitions and events to develop relations between Tuscany and Holland. Among the events are two exhibitions at the Centro Pecci and the Museo del Tessuto in Prato (see pp. 36 and 45) in various places in Tuscany
www.olandiamo.it
Luoghi insoliti 30 September, 28 October, 25 November 2012 an initiative of the Regione Toscana in collaboration with the Florentine branch of FAI, the special free opening from 10 to 12, with a guided tour, of Palazzo Guadagni Strozzi Sacrati, of the Museo Casa Siviero and of the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova booking required luoghiinsoliti@regione.toscana.it 055 4385616
Fountains by Pietro Tacca, detail. Florence, piazza della Santissima Annunziata photo Francesca Anichini
events autumn-winter 2012-2013
Giornata del contemporaneo 6 October 2012 the event in its 8th year is organised by AMACI Associazione dei musei d’arte contemporanea italiani. This year the initiative includes free admission to the Marino Marini Museum; the meeting ‘Incontro con gli Ufo’ and the visit to the exhibition Ufo Story (at 18) at the Centro Pecci in Prato; at the Uffizi ‘La battaglia di San Romano e la Tribuna. Gli Uffizi nel contemporaneo’, with guided visits to the two works by Giulio Paolini and Arman in the Aula di San Pier Scheraggio and in the Gallery, the Tribune and the Battaglia di San Romano recently restored (at 9-18) www.amaci.org
2012 Anno Vespucciano
exhibitions, conferences, concerts and meetings designed to celebrate the explorer Amerigo Vespucci 500 years after his death. The initiative includes the exhibition La Nuova Frontiera at the Costume Gallery, Palazzo Pitti (see p. 11), the first edition of the Festival dell’inedito at the Stazione Leopolda (26-28 October 2012), a series of conferences on travel and cultural exchange with the new continent (22-24 November 2012) and the ballet The Wizard of Oz at the Nuovo Teatro dell’Opera di Firenze (19-23 December 2012) Salone dell’Arte
e del Restauro Fortezza da Basso 8-10 November 2012
in various venues
www.vespucci2012.com
the Salone’s third year includes more Tipi than 300 institutions, businesses, da biblioteca schools training in restoration and firms 1-31 October 2012 involved in restoration and the care Pitti and enhancement of cultural heritage Immagine a month entirely devoted to Tuscan Fortezza da Basso libraries and archives with a rich programme www.salonerestaurofirenze.org November 2012-March 2013 of lectures, exhibitions, presentations, workshops and guided visits. Among the Modaprima exhibitions: Arredi sacri della cattedrale di Santa 23-25 November 2012 Maria del Fiore (Biblioteca del Capitolo Pitti Immagine Donna Metropolitano Fiorentino, 19 October) and L’abito Pitti Immagine Uomo del libro. Le legature di pregio della Biblioteca di 8-11 January 2013 Scienze (15-31 October at 9-13.30, Biblioteca di Pitti Immagine Bimbo 50 days of Scienze dell’Università di Firenze, via La Pira 4). 17-19 January 2013 International Special opening of the Library of the Horne Pitti Immagine Filati Cinema Museum (6 October at 16 and 17, upon 23-25 January 2013 25 October reservation) and at the Accademia della 14 December 2012 Taste Crusca (1, 15 and 29 October at 17). For 9-11 March 2013 an initiative offering the city festivals, the children’s workshops see pp. 54-55 www.pittimmagine.com retrospectives, premières, meetings, www.tipidabiblioteca.it films in their original language, documentaries and art videos with continuous projections, from morning to night Cinema Odeon Florence Queer Festival
Museo in musica Palazzo Pitti, Sala di Bona until 11 October 2012
via de’ Sassetti, 1, Firenze
www.odeon.intoscana.it/ 50giorni.php
organised in collaboration with the Amici di Pitti a series of ten concerts given by students of the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole with music from the 18th century to the present. Every Thursday at 17 with free admission for the museum’s visitors 27 September 2012 music by Debussy Dario Bonucelli piano 4 October 2012 music by Verdi and Ravel Mitja Quartet 11 October 2012 music by Mozart, Scarlatti and Schumann Giuliano Graniti piano
25-31 October 2012
France Odeon 1-4 November 2012
Festival dei Popoli 10-17 November 2012
Immagini e suoni dal mondo. Festival del Film Etnomusicale 18-19 November 2012
Africa Day 20 November 2012
Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival 21-25 November 2012
Balkan Florence Express 26-29 November 2012
Festival Internazionale di Cinema & Donne 30 November-5 December 2012
River to River Florence Indian Film Festival 7-13 December 2012
Premio Nice Città di Firenze 14 December 2012
The stones of Florence, colour and polychromy Victor M. Schmidt Seen from above, Florence is almost exclusively brick-coloured, because of the roof tiles. Seen from street level, the two types of stone characteristic of Florentine architecture stand out: pietraforte and pietra serena, which are locally quarried. However, this does not mean that the predominant colours in the city have always been yellow and grey (and the white plasterwork usually combined with pietra serena). The colour range must have been more varied in the past than it is today, as can be seen, for example, in the cityscapes painted by Masaccio and Masolino in the famous Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine (ca. 1424-1427). Today, the predominant colours of plasterwork in the city centre seem to be off-white, yellow and ochre, while brick red has almost disappeared. This very fact suggests that much plasterwork on historic buildings need not be original. For example, Palazzo Almeni, an early 16thcentury palazzo in via de’ Servi, has an exterior covered with dirty yellowish plasterwork, but originally it had an extensive iconographic façade designed by Giorgio Vasari and executed in chiaroscuro. In fact, painted façades (not only in chiaroscuro but also in full colour or a graffito) were quite common for palaces during the later Renaissance and Baroque periods. Unfortunately, over the centuries much of this painted decoration has whithered away, and today only a few examples remain, like Palazzo dell’Antella on piazza Santa Croce, Palazzo Mellini Fossi, around the corner in via de’ Benci, and Palazzo Benci, facing the Cappella dei Principi. In Florence, the most conspicuous exteriors have always been those of churches. The extant polychrome façades are well known and have been discussed and reproduced in the previous issue of VisitArt. However, we should remind ourselves that Florence had quite a tradition of unfinished church façades. Until the middle of the 19th century, Santa Croce had the same kind of undistinguished front as San Lorenzo still has today. Arnolfo di Cambio’s design for the Cathedral encompassed from the start a complex polychrome façade with niches and statues. In 1587 it was decided to dismantle everything realised thus far. However, a competely new front was constructed only during the years 1876-1887. The current ensemble, with its white Carrara marble, Prato green and other coloured stones, niches and statues, may look quite ‘Florentine’, evoking as it does the Baptistery, San Miniato al Monte and Santa Maria Novella. However, to get an idea of Arnolfo’s original scheme, we need to visit the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. Here, the original sculptures and architectural fragments are set in a wooden framework evoking the old façade. We notice not only the white and coloured marbles, but also the gold mosaic tesserae with which they are decorated, thus creating a Florentine version of Roman Cosmati work. Church interiors, too, presented a colourful spectacle. Nowadays, we are too impatient to let our eyes adjust to the environment and immediately demand large spotlights, which always give a false impression. Originally these interiors must have been permeated by a glowing light, thanks to the many candles and oil lamps, making every particle that could reflect light shine and sparkle. San Miniato al Monte is a beautiful example. It is the only medieval church in Florence to have preserved its apse mosaic. Additional colourful effects are created by the revetment of the apse and the stone inlay work of the choir’s pavement screen and pulpit. To a certain extent, these effects are continued in the Renaissance Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal, with its glazed terracotta decoration by Luca della Robbia in the ceiling; the marbles of the altar, throne, pavement, and tomb; the depiction of marbles in the paintings by Alesso Baldovinetti and Piero del Pollaiuolo; the gilding of architectural details as well as parts of the Cardinal’s tomb. In one aspect, however, the interior of San Miniato in its present
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state gives a totally false impression: the walls are carefully chipped off, with the exception of the remains of the original mural paintings from the 13th-15th centuries, which now hover as isolated patches against the bare masonry. This is the result of a drastic restoration during the middle of the 19th century, at a period when it was not sufficiently realised that bare masonry was utterly un-medieval – every church interior had a polychrome finish, which not only served as embellishment, but also emphasised the building’s structure. Such drastic restorations were undertaken everywhere in Europe, with the result that medieval church interiors with more or less original polychromy are exceedlingly hard to find. To get an idea of what might have been present in San Miniato, we can visit the small Romanesque church of Santi Apostoli in the old centre, near the Arno. Here, too, the interior underwent a drastic restoration, this time in the 1930s, to recreate a pseudo-medieval outlook with bare walls in the clerestory, covered by an open truss. However, if we look carefully, we will discover traces of the original polychromy around the small clerestory windows. It is important to realise that the large fresco cycles from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance that we admire so much in Florence’s churches, constitute first and foremost the polychromy of the architecture. The well-preserved fresco decoration by Spinello Aretino in the sacristy of San Miniato is a good example. It is a careful articulation of the structure of the walls and vault, with their shafts, capitals, and ribs. The polychromy of the built architecture continues into the painted architectural framework surrounding the scenes from the life of Saint Benedict, thus creating a carefully orchestrated polychromy of the entire space. There is one element we must not forget: the painted screen below, with its variegated slabs of colourful stones. Thanks to Giotto, this type of image-free but colourful decor received an enormous boost during the Trecento and beyond. Perhaps the best preserved examples today are found in Santa Croce – not only in the famous chapels painted by Giotto himself (Peruzzi and Bardi Chapels) and Taddeo Gaddi (Baroncelli Chapel), but also the Velluti-Zati and Pulci-Berardi Chapels in the transept. Probably executed by the workshop of the Master of Saint Cecilia, the latter show an extensive architectural and image-free decoration, inspired by the screen in San Miniato al Monte. Perhaps even more spectacular is the oldest decoration of the huge sacristy. With the exception of the North wall, with the later frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi, Spinello Aretino and Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, the interior is completely covered by a highly colourful faux marbre decoration, interspersed with a few painted niches with saints’ figures, probably executed by Jacopo del Casentino. Such orchestrations of architectural polychromy would seem to be completely out of place in the Renaissance architecture of Brunelleschian stamp with its stern effect of grey pietra serena in combination with white lime-plastered masonry. However, colour did continue to play an important role, as is borne out by the Renaissance additions to Santa Croce: the Pazzi Chapel designed by Brunelleschi and the Novices’ Chapel by Michelozzo. The glazed terracottas by the Della Robbias and the stained-glass windows by Baldovinetti create strong and effective patches of colour. The true model of grey and white architecture, as in an old Alinari photograph, was rather the Renaissance architecture of the 16th century, particularly Michelangelo’s New Sacristy at San Lorenzo (left unfinished by the artist and systematised only in 1554-1555 at the behest of duke Cosimo I de’ Medici). It is illuminating to realise that Cosimo’s successors created just a few steps away its absolute opposite in the Chapel of the Princes, with its shimmering coloured marbles and pietre dure.
Victor M. Schmidt teaches the history of Medieval art at the University of Utrecht and publishes regularly on the Italian art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. He is a consultant to VisitArt.
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the uffizi
focus
The restoration of the Tribune
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www.polomuseale.firenze.it/uffizi
piazzale degli Uffizi open: Tuesday to Sunday 8,15-18,50 closed: Monday, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December We advise visitors to make a reservation
The Tribune and its restoration It is a well-known fact that the Uffizi was not conceived as a museum in the mind of Cosimo de’ Medici and his architect Giorgio Vasari (1559). The building was originally destined to be the headquarters of the Florentine Guilds, which had their offices (“uffizi”) in the large halls of the ground floor, with access from the arcades. It was under Cosimo’s son, Francesco, and with his Tribune, that the museum/art gallery of the Uffizi made its appearance on the top floor of the modern new building situated in the medieval quarter of Baldracca. However, the rooms used for exhibition were only along the first corridor in the attic of the east wing (hence the name “gallery of statues”), and various other rooms with grotesques frescoed on the ceilings. The most important place, however, for its works of art and rare objects, and for the magic of the space and its decoration, was the Tribune. Even from the outside, its octagonal tower rising above the rooftops, noticeable from various angles, is poignantly indicative of the museum’s very presence inside the building. The architectural restoration was part of the programme, planned some time ago by the Gallery directors, for the recovery of emblematic places in the history of the Uffizi. Work has been carried out on four distinct sections of this small and precious structure. In the lantern the ceiling has been restored, as has the representation on stone of the wind rose; and the mechanical device connecting the external weathervane to the gold arrow, which inside indicates the wind direction, has been repaired. In the cupola the almost six thousand shells embellishing the eight vault cells have been restored to their former brilliance, and the plaster of the vaults, with the original cochineal red laid over a gold ground, has regained its brightness and vibrancy; the effect of a gradual thinning of the vermilion colour towards the top creates the impression of a loss of structural substance in the cupola itself. In the drum accumulated dust and particles have been removed in the areas painted with azurite and gold and with motherof-pearl encrustations; the caryatids and telamons highlighted in gold on a dark background in the surrounds and the splays of the eight windows have regained their former splendour, and natural light passes again through the windows of the drum, filtered (or “purged” as was said in 1590) by the opalescent round panes of Venetian glass, made specially, as originally, in Venice. The walls have again been covered, as described in the documents, by crimson velvet fabric, woven specially on the looms of the Antico Setificio Fiorentino. From now on, in order to guarantee its conservation and admire its overall splendour, visitors will be allowed to observe the Tribune only from the opening of its old main door on the corridor and from the two side doors built in the 18th century. Antonio Godoli Director of the Department of Architecture
After 32 months of restoration work the Tribune can again be admired in all its breathtaking splendour. The recently finished work, which involved a pool of internationally well-known restorers, researchers and art historians, means that we can now appreciate to the full the refined painterly techniques, the precious materials and pigments, and the new ‘museological’ aspect given to the Tribune, inspired by 18th-century displays. This is a perfect balance between philological restoration, the will to offer a homogenous and balanced reading of the site, and respect for the heterogeneity of its materials
calendar of exhibitions october 2012-march 2013 Bagliori dorati.
“I mai visti”
“La città degli Uffizi 9”
Fonderia Medicea.
Alessandro Pieroni dall’Impruneta e i pittori della Loggia degli Uffizi
Il gotico internazionale a Firenze 1375-1440
Da laboratorio alchemico a stanza delle meraviglie della Galleria degli Uffizi
curated by Antonio Natali, Enrica Neri Lusanna and Angelo Tartuferi the Uffizi until 4 November 2012
curated by Valentina Conticelli Sala delle Reali Poste 15 December 2012-3 February 2013
curated by Annamaria Bernacchioni Impruneta, Basilica di Santa Maria 2 September-4 November 2012
A selection of paintings, sculptures, engravings, printed texts and manuscripts illustrates the history of the foundry and a passion of the Medici family, from Cosimo the Elder to Cosimo I and Francesco I. In addition to the foundries of Palazzo Vecchio and the Casino di San Marco, sites of medicinal secrets and recipes for porcelain, glass, majolica, porphyry and the fusion of rock crystal, in 1586 Francesco I ordered another laboratory for the Uffizi, with instruments for distillation and a collection of natural rarities. The well-known laboratory functioned until the late 17th century.
An exhibition devoted to the painter and architect Alessandro Pieroni (1550-1607), son of a carpenter from Impruneta, and to those artists who worked with him decorating the Loggia of the Uffizi: Allori, Bizzelli, Butteri, Buti and Cigoli. Among the 24 works on show are portraits of the Loggia artists, frescoes detached from the Vasari corridor, tapestries, drawings, prints and architectural models. In the cloisters the exhibition documents the carpenters and furnace workers of Impruneta in the 16th century.
A selection of paintings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts and works of sacred and profane art illustrates the broad range of Florentine art between 1375 and 1440: from Lorenzo Monaco’s extreme Gothic to Gentile da Fabriano’s highly valued naturalism and to the artistic production of Lippo d’Andrea, Mariotto di Cristofano, Giovanni Toscani, Ventura di Moro, Francesco d’Antonio, Arcangelo di Cola, moving on to Masaccio, Beato Angelico, Ghiberti, and up to Paolo Uccello.
the uffizi
Uffizi pages edited by Valentina Conticelli with Monica Alderotti
Classical art in the Tribune From the time of its original creation, at the end of the 1580s, the Tribune was always considered the fulcrum of the entire Gallery, a special place in which the rarities and most precious objects belonging to the grand duke were jealously preserved. Today it is difficult to imagine the incredible abundance and variety of the objects which in the 17th and 18th centuries were set up in the octagonal room designed by Buontalenti: paintings, arms, precious minerals, scientific instruments, fossils, small Renaissance and classical bronzes. As shown in the celebrated painting by Johann Zoffany, executed in the 1670s just before the transformation of the room’s original arrangement, the Tribune was entirely occupied by a phantasmagorical collection of objects of all kinds and from all periods for which there esisted no other criterion other than that of their rarity and beauty. Only belatedly, at the end of the 17th century, did the Tribune house under its mother-of-pearl cupola those masterpieces of classical sculpture that even today are the reason for its fame and prestige. These works, the Medici Venus, the Arrotino (‘knife-grinder’), the Wrestlers and the Dancing Faun, which came from Villa Medici on the Pincio in 1677, were undoubtedly worthy of the most prestigious room of the Gallery. For over a century this select group of works, to which eight sculptures representing eroti and putti were added, occupied the most exclusive room in the Uffizi, representing a sort of synthesis of the excellence of classical art. The rearrangement introduced by Luigi Lanzi in 1780 led to a change in the number of sculptures, with the addition of the Apollino (Young Apollo), the removal of both two other figures of Venus and the series of putti. The recently completed restoration provided the opportunity to revive, as far as possible, the original 18th-century appearance of the Tribune, and it has been reconstructed in accordance with criteria adopted in the redecoration of the corridors, where the arrangement followed the Gallery plan, coordinated by Abbot De Greyss in the middle of the 18th century. The original Baroque bases were therefore repositioned under the Medici Venus and the Dancing Faun, substituting those dating from 1816, and the series of putti, set up on pedestals faithfully copied from the designs of De Greyss, have also returned to the Tribune. The marbles have been cleaned using lasers, revealing the delicate original patina giving the works previously unseen ivory colour tones. The removal of crumbling stucco has restored a homogeneous finish to the bodies of the divinities and athletes and, in the case of one of the small winged putti at the side of the Venus, work was carried out on the reconstruction of a leg, lost in the 1960s but testified to by photographs dating from the middle of the last century. Restoration work on the sculptures proceeded hand in hand with various analyses to ascertain the provenance of the marbles and the survival of traces of ancient polychromes. The research produced quite unprecedented results, confirming not only the excellent quality of the materials used (Parian marble of the lychnite variety for the Medici Venus, the Wrestlers and the Dancing Faun and Docimian white marble from the quarries of Afyon for the Arrotino), but also revealing traces of that goldleaf decoration on the hair of the Medici Venus which, up to the end of the 18th century, aroused the admiration of visitors to the Uffizi. Fabrizio Paolucci Director of the Department of Classical Antiquities
calendar of exhibitions october 2012-march 2013 abroad: the
Laboratorio Novecento#2 project by Federica Chezzi, Claudia Tognaccini and Chiara Toti Sala delle Reali Poste February 2013 Organised in association with the Department of 19th-century and Contemporary Art, the event, now in its second year, is dedicated to the theme of the representation of the body in contemporary art, examined through selfportraits extracted from the Gallery stores. The tours are open to schools and include a guided tour of the works on display and a creative workshop inspired by the artistic expressions that have been observed.
United States
Paesi, pastori e viandanti.
Il Pane degli Angeli
curated by Antonio Natali with Marta Onali Santo Stefano di Sessanio (L’Aquila) until 30 September 2012
curated by Antonio Natali Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin 24 August-25 November 2012 Telfair Museum, Savannah, Georgia 7 December 2012-31 March 2013
Marmi antichi e visioni dipinte dagli Uffizi a Santo Stefano di Sessanio
The exhibition, which renews the bond of friendship between Florence and the Abruzzo village following the success of the Condivisione di affetti exhibition, is dedicated to landscape and sheep-farming and offers a selection of 29 little-known works from the collections of the Uffizi. The paintings illustrating important aspects of rural life – Florence, the landscape and activities typical of mountain and peasant life – are flanked by precious Roman marbles showing the approach of the ancients to the same themes.
A selection of paintings, taken from the stores of the Uffizi, illustrates various aspects of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Shown for the first time at the Uffizi in 2007, the exhibition met with the considerable acclaim of the public, such that it was requested by other foreign cities: it was put on in Madrid and Barcelona, and now – thanks again to the ‘Amici degli Uffizi’ – it is being shown in four museums in the United States, where through a series of poetical representations, visitors can retrace the itinerary of the Redemption.
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the uffizi
a new specialised display
openings
donations
Tactile display for the blind and visually impaired In February 2012 the Gallery opened a free independently-run tactile display for the blind and visually impaired, with free admission. Sixteen classical sculptures from the Medici collections, together with a three-dimensional scale reproduction of the Birth of Venus, can be touched, enabling the blind and visually impaired to appreciate the salient characteristics of the sculpted stone surfaces and explore their contour and detail. Understanding of the works is further facilitated by captions in braille (in English and in Italian), trained personnel and window transfers in a black and white sequence functioning as a signal system for the visually impaired. Between the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 the display will be enlarged to offer guests a richer and more structured visit. Other sculptures selected from recently restored marbles will be added to those that can now be “read” with the hands.
Nine rooms dedicated to early 16thcentury Florentine art and Raphael On 19 June 2012 the Galleria degli Uffizi opened up on the first floor of the Ala di Ponente the first Cinquecento rooms, devoted to 16th-century Florentine painting and Raphael. The new series of rooms is restored by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici as part of the Nuovi Uffizi project and laid out by the Polo Museale Fiorentino. The first room, adjacent to the Loggia dei Lanzi (housing 13 Hellenistic marbles), represents the ideological preamble (according to Vasari’s critical view formulated in the Proemio to the third part of the Lives) to the ‘modern manner’ presented in the following group of rooms where works by Andrea del Sarto, Rosso Fiorentino, Pontormo, Bronzino and Raphael are displayed, amounting to a total of 50 paintings and three drawings. After the intense azure of the Sala degli Stranieri in the new rooms dedicated to the Florentine 16th century and Raphael, it is the crimson red (beloved by the Medici) that will visually characterise the museum route. Two further rooms are to be added, decorated with the mural paintings of Luigi Ademollo, which will be ready soon.
From the Chapters of Jan Fabre two self-portraits at the Uffizi The Belgian visual artist Jan Fabre (Antwerp 1958), choreographer, theatre director and stage designer, grandson of the celebrated entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre, has used his own image in the generous gift to the Uffizi of a double representation of himself in zoomorphic form. The two heads in bronze – on exhibit in the Sala del Camino on the first floor until 30 September 2012 – form part of a series of 18 sculptures in which the artist’s metamorphosis is revealed in the mutation, halfway between reality and fiction, of man/animal. Also on display, on loan from the artist’s collection, are the two preparatory waxes used for the casting and notes relating to a journey to Florence in 1979, extracted from Jan Fabre’s ‘Night journal’.
Vasari Corridor Collezione Contini Bonacossi For information on opening times and bookings see www.polomuseale.firenze.it
Jan Fabre, Chapter XI, 2010, bronze, Uffizi Gallery, Collection of Self-Portraits. Photo Pat Verbruggen, courtesy of Angelos
new publications • Bollettino degli Uffizi 2011, edited by F. Chezzi, M. Onali, Centro Di, Firenze 2012
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• Il giardino dell’anima. Ascesi e propaganda nelle Tebaidi fiorentine del Quattrocento, by Alessandra Malquori , Centro Di, Firenze 2012
the entire collection of the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe (the Uffizi Department of Prints and Drawings), over 150,000 works including drawings, engravings, miniatures and photographs dating from the Trecento to the present day, through the creation of a complete computerised catalogue that will facilitate communication between the international community of scholars and all those interested in the world of graphic art. The Euploos Project is also an innovative and constantly evolving programme of interdisciplinary research, involving the close interaction of art historians, computer experts, specialists in the scanning and acquisition of images, as well as professionals specialised in the construction of new instruments for research development. The project arises from the pooling of the capacities and energies of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz Max-Planck-Institut, of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, and of the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze, with particular reference to the GDSU. The project has at least four main objectives. The first is the computerised cataloguing of the works on paper and the creation of a related archive of digitised images, while the second proposes the training of authorised personnel in computerised cataloguing and in digitisation, with specific reference to graphic art, through seminars, workshops, refresher courses and orientation apprenticeships for young scholars attending both Italian and foreign universities and research institutes. The third objective concerns the constant development of research models and the organisation of meetings, publications and wideranging programmes of research focusing on the theme of graphic art. The fourth objective, looking to the distant future, involves the creation of a centre of documentation on the processes of acquisition and transmission of technical know-how and on the processes of development of theoretical models. Marzia Faietti Director of the Uffizi Department of Prints and Drawings
exhibition abroad:
the United States and Great Britain
Federico Barocci Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis 25 October 2012-20 January 2013 National Gallery, London 27 February-19 March 2013 Organised in association with the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, the Saint Louis Art Museum and the National Gallery London on the 4th centenary of Barocci’s death (Urbino, 15351612), this monographic exhibition focuses on the compositional methods adopted by the artist in his many preparatory studies. From the rich deposits of the Uffizi, assembled as early as the second half of the 17th century through the collectionism of Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici, a nucleus of 35 sheets is exhibited in Saint Louis, while a group of 20 drawings is on display at the London exhibition.
he prestigious collection of drawings and prints of the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi (GDSU) began with the Medici family collections and in particular with the works assembled by Leopoldo de’ Medici, who became cardinal in 1667. Leopoldo made use of numerous agents to purchase folios by the greatest Renaissance and Mannerist artists. In 1737 following the extinction of the Medici dynasty, the Lorraine enriched the collection, which was added to in the period following the constitution of the Kingdom of Italy thanks to a great many donations. Today, the collection contains over 150,000 works by Tuscan artists, artists of other Italian schools, and Flemish and Dutch, French, Spanish, and German artists.
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Euploos Project The aim of the project is to make accessible online
Euploos Project www.polomuseale.firenze.it/ gdsu/euploos
the uffizi department of prints and drawings (gabinetto disegni e stampe)
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via della Ninna, 5 Opening hours follow those of the Uffizi. Access to the Sala di Studio is reserved to scholars, upon letter of presentation. open: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 8.30-13.30, Tuesday and Thursday 8.30-17
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/disegni
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palazzo pitti
leonora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I, bought and greatly extended Palazzo Pitti to create a light and airy residence for the ducal family and surrounded it with superb gardens. The palace was linked by the Vasari Corridor to the Uffizi and Palazzo Vecchio, which remained the official seat of government. In the course of its history the building has been home not only to the grand dukes, but also to Italy’s royal family. Today it houses several impressive collections of paintings, sculptures and artefacts, in perfectly preserved surroundings. This prestigious structure now houses seven museums.
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The Palatine Gallery and Royal Apartments
The Palatine Gallery was created in the late 18th and early 19th century by the Lorraine family to exhibit masterpieces mainly from the Medici collections, and houses works by Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Rubens, Pietro da Cortona and other Italian and European masters of the Renaissance and the 17th century. The Royal Apartments, formerly the private residence of the sovereigns, are decorated with furnishings, fittings and works of art dating from the 16th to the 19th century.
piazza Pitti www.uffizi.firenze.it
open: Tuesday to Sunday 8.15-18.50 closed: 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
Gallery of Modern Art The Gallery shows paintings and sculptures mainly by Italian artists, dating from the late 18th century to the First World War. The works range from the neo-classical period to Romanticism and include a fine collection of the Macchiaioli artists. open: Tuesday to Sunday 8.15-18.50 closed: 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
Carriage Museum The museum houses fine examples of carriages used by the Lorraine and Savoy courts as well as antique harnesses for horses. The oldest carriage is an 18th-century rocaille coupé. open: only upon request
Costume Gallery The Gallery was founded in 1983 in the Palazzina della Meridiana. Dedicated to the history of fashion from the 18th century to the present day, it houses clothes, accessories and jewels as well as stage costumes. There is also an important collection of papers, including archive documents, sketches and drawings.
Porcelain Museum Located in the 18th-century Palazzina del Cavaliere, the museum houses the finest European porcelain collected by Pietro Leopoldo and Ferdinando III of Lorraine, alongside porcelain removed from the historic residences in Parma, Piacenza and Sala Baganza.
Silver Museum The museum takes its name from the silver that belonged to the collections of the bishops of Salzburg, brought to Florence in 1815 by Ferdinando III of Lorraine. Nevertheless the most important collection in the museum is the famous Medici Treasury, collected by the Medici from the 15th century onwards and once housed in the Tribune of the Uffizi. The museum also includes elegant Chinese and Japanese porcelain. open: every day 8.15-16.30 from November to February, 8.15-17.30 March and October after official summer time sets in, 8.15-18.30 April, May, September and October, 8.15-18.50 from June to August closed: 1st and last Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
Photo Giovanni Marchi
calendar of exhibitions october 2012-march 2013 Firenze negli occhi dell’artista, da Signorini a Rosai curated by Simonella Condemi Gallery of Modern Art, Sala del Fiorino until 28 October 2012
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The exhibition, intended as a tribute to the return of works historically linked to the ‘Gallerie fiorentine’ coming from the Museo “Firenze com’era”, makes it possible to admire the city not only through a visit to its monuments, but also in the museum itself, through its portrayal, between the 18th and 20th centuries, by artists like Giuseppe Maria Terreni, Antonio Cioci, Baccio Maria Bacci, Ottone Rosai and above all the Macchiaioli, particularly perturbed by the new structure the city was acquiring at the expense of their beloved countryside. The 16 paintings from the ‘museum of the city’ and 33 works from the deposits of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna make up an exhibition divided into 5 sections: ‘Views of Florence’, ‘Florence that once was’, ‘The centre around Palazzo Vecchio’, ‘The Arno and its bridges’ and ‘Festivities and meeting places’.
La Nuova Frontiera.
Storia e cultura dei nativi d’America dalle collezioni del Gilcrease Museum curated by Hermann J. Viola and Robert B. Pickering in collaboration with the Gilcrease Museum of Tulsa Costume Gallery and Andito degli Angiolini until 9 December 2012 A selection of significant pieces from the Gilcrease Museum brings Native American civilisation to the attention of the public, who perhaps know it only through film reconstructions. One section presents oil portraits which, together with the photographs of the anthropologist Edward Sheriff Curtis, immortalise imposing tribal chiefs and Indian villagers. The second section shows plumed headdresses, pottery, weapons, jewels, and clothing of the various tribes, together with paintings, sculptures and photographs, executed by artists such as Joseph Henry Sharp who entered into close contact with the Native Americans.
palazzo pitti
Boboli Gardens
Behind the Pitti Palace lie the magnificent Boboli Gardens, a veritable open-air museum, filled with antique and Renaissance statues, and enhanced with grottoes and grand fountains. The grounds were first laid out at the time of the Medici, creating the formal Italian garden that would become a model for many of the European courts.
open: every day 8.15-16.30 from November to February, 8.15-17.30 March and October after official summer time sets in, 8.15-18.30 April, May, September and October, 8.15-18.50 from June to August closed: 1st and last Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
A green walk Palazzo Pitti and Villa Bardini are connected via the Boboli Gardens. There is free access for residents. See p. 39
calendar of exhibitions october 2012-march 2013 Il Mito, il Sacro, il Ritratto.
Vasari e l’Allegoria della Pazienza
curated by Anna Bisceglia and Alessandro Cecchi Palatine Gallery, Sala delle Nicchie until 22 December 2012
curated by Anna Bisceglia Palatine Gallery December 2012
19 paintings from an inexhaustible artistic heritage, the result of Medici collecting, tell the stories of the places they come from, the palazzi and the grand-ducal villas they were intended for, in four sections that illustrate the subjects that were the most popular in the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th. Myth as exemplum virtutis is the theme of the first section, dominated by Guido Reni’s Hercules and the Hydra of Lerna. The following sections include one devoted to sacred stories displaying biblical subjects by Italian and Flemish artists, and one showing paintings from the Villa della Petraia, favourite residence of Don Lorenzo de’ Medici. The exhibition ends with five Medici portraits, executed by Frans Pourbus the Younger and Justus Suttermans, reflecting the role assumed by the grand-ducal family in European politics.
Following its restoration, the Allegory of Patience, conserved in the Sala di Prometeo, is the main feature of this exhibition. Belonging to Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici in the 17th century, the painting was originally thought to be a work by Parmigianino, though it was in fact Giorgio Vasari who received from Bernardetto Minerbetti, bishop of Arezzo and ambassador of Cosimo I, the commission for the creation of an Allegory of Patience destined for his study and focusing on the moral virtues of its owner. For this work, painted in 15521553, Vasari created a model that broke away from traditional representations of virtue with a yoke, to focus instead on a portrayal inspired by classical statuary and revolving around the theme of time and eternity. Vasari’s model, with its literary implications, was enormously successful, as can be seen particularly in Ferrarese circles.
Dipinti dai depositi della Galleria Palatina
Restauri e studi per la Galleria Palatina
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palazzo pitti 12
focus The old pietraforte quarries at Boboli In his Le Pietre delle città d’Italia, Francesco Rodolico wrote that “Florence stands in a plain but is enclosed by a circle of hills, rich in stone, especially to the south and to the north. Pietra forte is particularly abundant in the hills to the south”. South of the Arno are the quarries which supplied the stone used to construct many Florentine buildings from the Middle Ages right up to the 20th century: Monte Ripaldi, Le Campora and Boboli. And it was from the quarry of Boboli – or more precisely the quarries of Boboli, since there were three (and later probably four) areas of extraction – that the material came for the realisation of the façades of what Giorgio Vasari descibed as two “splendid buildings made of rough-hewn stone blocks”: Palazzo Pitti and Palazzo Strozzi. The “pietraforte quarry of the Santa Felicita nuns” can probably be identified as the Boboli quarries that supplied the stone for the façade of the original 15th-century nucleus of Palazzo Pitti – built, according to Rodolico, right on top of a quarry floor – and later for the courtyard and extensions of the same palace in the 1560s and 1620s respectively. The information supplied by Rodolico, together with what can be gleaned from documents, particularly from historical plans and from Giusto Utens’ view Belveder con Pitti, enables us to identify the areas of extraction generically definable as the Boboli quarries: one situated near present-day Palazzo Pitti and the amphitheatre behind it, closed at the time the first arboreal amphitheatre designed by Tribolo was made in around 1550; a second quarry in the area of Forte Belvedere, still in existence in the years immediately prior to 1594 – the year of the publication of the second edition of Stefano Bonsignori’s Nova pulcherrimae civitatis Florentiae topographia accuratissime delineata (known as the ‘Prima versione della Veduta di Firenze’), in which the quarry is clearly indicated –, yet no longer evident at the time Utens painted his view of the city (1602). In Bonsignori’s view, both in the first edition (1584) and in the second, the third of the Boboli quarries is also visible, the one that was active for longest, situated in the area of the present-day grassy slope directly in front of the Palazzina della Meridiana: this third quarry appears in Utens’s view, as it does also in various plans of the garden. It may be surmised that there existed a fourth area of extraction immediately to the north-east of the palace, where today we see the entrance to the corridor leading to the flight of steps of Pasquale Poccianti: in the early 17th century the area was occupied by a regular Italian-style garden, the so-called Orti Buontalentiani, perfectly represented by Utens. In the early 18th century, however, the earth moving for the creation of the carriageable avenue that still joins the Piazzale di Bacco with the amphitheatre cancelled this portion of the garden. In the northern courtyard we see a massive outcrop of pietraforte cut to make the base of the wall in the part nearest to Palazzo Pitti; it may be that this fourth point of extraction provided the pietraforte used to create the imposing screen between the aforementioned northern courtyard and the Boboli garden, its rustication an echo of the palace’s façade. In the early 18th century the first portion of the Palazzina della Meridiana, that nearest to the central nucleus of the palace, had not yet been built; in its place there was in all probability a service area. Almost certainly the early nucleus of the Palazzina, designed by Gaspare Maria Paoletti and built in 1776, was the last part of the palace where the pietraforte of Boboli was used. It is highly likely that the stone parts of the façade, particularly the present central portion and the small Ionic loggia on the right, were built using stone coming from the quarry opposite. In a plan
the bargello
inserted into a register, drawn between 1776 and 1778, we note the presence of the northern Ionic loggia and, presumably, the central portion faced in pietraforte, but all trace of the quarry has disappeared, being replaced by a slope with symmetrically arranged ramps, following a pattern similar to the present layout of the area. Pietraforte coming from the last of the Boboli quarries still active was also used for the facing of the first of the two rondos marking the two ends of Piazza dei Pitti, the southern one built by Giuseppe Ruggeri in 1765 known as the Rondo di Annalena. The Rondo di Bacco, designed instead by Gaspare Paoletti, was built between 1785 and 1799, by which time all the Boboli quarries had been closed. Work on the completion of the Palazzina della Meridiana was undertaken only in the period of the Restoration, particularly in the 1820s. Poccianti built a new façade towards the south-west and regularised the elevation towards the Piazzale della Meridiana, constructing a second Ionic loggia and making sure that the portion entirely faced in stone was situated at the centre of the new larger façade. If the second Ionic loggia entirely took up the model of the loggia of Paoletti, in the south-west façade, overlooking the portion of the garden known from the late 19th century as the garden of the Count of Turin from the name of the Savoy family member who resided in that part of the palace, Poccianti could work free of any restrictions, building a complete loggia – this time in the Tuscan Doric order – entirely in pietraforte, complete with steps, podium, wall order and stone recesses. Nonetheless it is highly unlikely that the pietraforte used for the completion of the palazzina, as for that matter that of the front of the rondo – these too designed by Poccianti with bold references to French architecture of the Revolution period – came from the Boboli quarries. Despite the fact that today almost nothing remains of them – the most obvious signs are the shape of the amphitheatre (though not the size) for the area of extraction behind the palace, the area of the grassy slope for that of the Meridiana, and the outcrops of pietraforte for the other two – the pietraforte quarries of Boboli were fundamental in defining the appearance of the historic centre of Florence, in terms of both the supply of building materials and the structure of the Boboli garden incorporating them. Costantino Ceccanti Università degli Studi di Firenze
he Bargello National Museum is found in the former Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo, built in 1255 and in 1287 embellished with a verone, the loggia that opens onto the courtyard where the Podestà assembled the representatives of the guilds. In 1502, the palace became the seat of the Consiglio di Giustizia, headed by the Bargello or chief of police, and was then used as a prison. In 1865 the palazzo was transformed into a museum of sculpture and examples of the “minor arts”. Some of the greatest sculptures of the Renaissance have found their home here: masterpieces by Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo, Cellini and Giambologna. Prestigious collections of small bronzes, majolica-ware, wax pieces, enamel work, medals, ivories, seals, and fabrics, from both the Medici collections and private donations, have enriched the museum’s holdings.
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via del Proconsolo, 4 open: Monday to Sunday 8.15-13.50 closed: 1st, 3rd, 5th Sunday, 2nd and 4th Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/bargello
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san marco museum
he museum building, designed in 1436 by Michelozzo, occupies a vast area of the Dominican Convent of San Marco, which played an important role in the cultural and religious life of Florence, especially at the time of Savonarola, prior of San Marco. The museum owes its renown especially to the paintings of Fra Angelico, one of the great artists of the Renaissance, who made frescoes in many of the notice convent’s spaces. Other works by Fra Angelico were assembled here in the from the museum 20th century. There is also an important collection of 16th-century The Library is closed for paintings including works by Fra Bartolomeo. The museum has a works in autumn 2012 section devoted to artefacts from buildings of the city centre that were demolished in the 19th century.
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piazza San Marco, 3 open: Monday to Friday 8.15-13.50, Saturday, Sunday and holidays 8.15-16.50 closed: 1st, 2nd and 5th Sunday, 2nd and 4th Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/sanmarco
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focus Florence of old in the San Marco Museum Leaving the San Marco Museum, enraptured and uplifted by the colours and intense atmospheres of the paintings of Beato Angelico, the visitor is catapulted into a highly unusual space, for the walls of the long Corridoio della Foresteria, whose name evokes the place’s former use, are entirely studded, in a sort of horror vacui, with every kind of stone, pictorial and wooden fragment. This collection of “heaps of bones”, as the art critic Adolfo Venturi (1911) once expressively described them, is the material expression of a centuries-long history regarding not only the museum but also Florence itself, for assembled here, almost in tatters, are the surviving vestiges of the old city centre that was demolished at the end of the 19th century. When, in 1881, work began on the demolition and clearing of an area of the historic centre that was in a state of chronic degradation – the Mercato Vecchio, today corresponding to Piazza della Repubblica – a few enlightened men like Guido Carocci and Corinto Corinti documented with drawings and reliefs what was progressively being destroyed (Carocci), and gathered with untiring determination everything that could be rescued in order to save it as memory (Corinti). Carocci then deposited this material at the Museum of San Marco which, by very reason of its Florentineness, near to the secular relics of Savonarolian memory, and in 1898 inaugurated the section called “Museo della Vecchia Firenze”. This nucleus was given a definitive arrangement in 1904 and the pieces were set up not only in the Foresteria, but also in the adjacent rooms, in the adjoining Chiostro di San Domenico and in the Vestibule. In the 1920s the collection was variously dismembered and, after the flood of 1966, the material conserved in the cloister was transferred to underground rooms. The area of the Foresteria, now introduced by a touch-screen point illustrating the various phases of the demolition of the historic centre, is that which best maintains the archaeological feel of the display originally wanted by Carocci, who arranged the material according to typological criteria, grouping together pieces of the same kind to create an overall effect of undisputed fascination. The eye is treated to an array of stone brackets, capitals, fragments of cornices that only apparently resemble each other, thus inviting the visitor to look for the similarities and differences. On the left wall are fragments of inscriptions in Hebrew, all that remains of the Israelitic Temple, which fell in the first phase of demolitions that
Lia Brunori Vice director of the San Marco Museum
restoration in progress • Beato Angelico, Pala di San Marco, panel • Beato Angelico, Crocifissione e santi, fresco from the Sala del Capitolo
works on loan • Beato Angelico, Trittico di san Pietro martire • Lorenzo Monaco, L’abate Pafnunzio visita sant’Onofrio • 14-century Florentine sculptor, Marzocco in: Firenze, the Uffizi for the exhibition: Bagliori dorati. Il gotico internazionale a Firenze 1375-1440 until 4 November 2012 • Beato Angelico, two panels of the Armadio degli Argenti in the church of Santissima Annunziata with eleven Stories of Christ • Fra Bartolomeo, Ritratto di Fra Girolamo Savonarola • Follower of Beato Angelico, Madonna con il Bambino fra i santi Giacomo e Sebastiano in: Beijing, Thien’ an Men Museum for the exhibition: Il Rinascimento a Firenze. Capolavori e protagonisti until 30 April 2013 • Fra Bartolomeo, Madonna con il Bambino in: Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art for the exhibition: Raffaello 2 March-2 June 2013
exhibition
Arte torna arte until 4 November 2012 ‘Art returns to Art’ is an expression coined by Luciano Fabro: taking this expression as the title of an exhibition means embracing the principle that all of art unfolds from a single root and that the persistence of models and forms is the very essence of art history, of its languages and its visual and plastic character. This exhibition therefore considers history and iconology as vibrant forms of belonging, through the works of Bacon, Bourgeois, Burri, Catelani, Creed, De Dominicis, Dijkstra, Duchamp, Fabro, Feldmann, Ghirri, Gormley, Klein, Kounellis, La Rocca, Leoncillo, Le Witt, Mattiacci, Nicolai, Ontani, Paolini, Parmiggiani, Penone, Picasso, Pirri, Pistoletto, Ranaldi, Savinio, Struth, Tan, Viola, Warhol.
events linked to the exhibition Three Concerts around an Exhibition A programme of concerts outlines in music the theme of historical continuity, of common roots and the persistence of formal models in their dialogue with research and innovation. 1 October 2012 at 21 11 Klavierstücke by Karlheinz Stockhausen Bernhard WambachHavemann, piano 22 October 2012 at 21 Homage to John Cage Daniele Lombardi, piano and toy piano 5 November 2012 at 21 Luciano Berio Danilo Rossi, violin; Jonathan Faralli, percussion; Tempo Reale; with sound direction by Francesco Giomi For a programme of events (meetings with artsist, concerts, films and performance) consult the museum’s website
the accademia
involved the entire block of the Ghetto, north of Piazza del Mercato. Two 13thcentury mullioned windows record the ancient structure of the Bishop’s Palace, demolished during the last phase of the clearance, while the large door of the Linen Merchants, Cloth Dealers and Tailors’ Guild at the end of the gallery, together with the other door coming from the Innkeepers’ Guild, situated instead at the entrance wall, records one of the many residences of the Guilds, the heart of the economic and cultural life in medieval Florence. For this door, made by Andrea di Nofri in 1414, archive documents also give the names of Bartolomeo di Marco, the carpenter who executed the door panels in 1429, and Andrea di Cecco, the blacksmith who forged the nails; the door gave access to the residence of the Linen Merchants who in the Sala Grande kept the celebrated Tabernacle of Beato Angelico, today in the Sala dell’Ospizio of the Museum of San Marco. This reference, at the very moment of leaving the museum, to such an important work by Angelico, whose work the visitor has admired in the first exhibition room, heightens the sense of circularity in the various sections of the museum which are never closed in themselves, but interact together in a subtle dialogue that every attentive visitor surely picks up on.
n 1873 Michelangelo’s David was transferred to the specially designed tribune from piazza della Signoria. The presence of the David, the Prisoners and Saint Matthew indicate that in the 19th century the Gallery was already identifying itself as a Michelangelo museum. Yet the Gallery’s main collection is built upon the 18thcentury collections of the Accademia del Disegno and the Accademia di Belle Arti, enriched with works from the suppressed monasteries. The works collected here, in addition to the plaster casts, were used as teaching materials for the students of the Accademia. The holdings comprise mostly paintings by major artists who worked in and around Florence between the mid13th and the late-16th century. The collection is especially important for its unique paintings on a gold background, the splendid lateGothic polyptychs and the collection of Russian icons.
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Department of Musical Instruments
Also displayed in the Accademia are about 50 musical instruments (17th to 19th century) from the private collections of the Medici and the Lorraine, shown against the splendid backdrop of various paintings representing scenes of the musical life of the Medicean court, panoplies and still lifes with musical instruments. Among them are some remarkable instruments, both for their sound (audible on headphones at the terminals giving information on the musical culture of Florence under the grand dukes) as well as their exquisite workmanship. Among the most precious pieces are the ’cello and tenor viol by Stradivarius (1690), the only surviving pieces of the Quintetto mediceo that belonged to Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici. via Ricasoli, 58-60 open: Tuesday to Sunday 8.15-18.50 closed: 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/ musei/accademia
activities
Lorenzo Bartolini 17-19 February 2013 Three study days devoted to the sculptor, in collaboration with the Gabinetto Vieusseux
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opera di santa maria del fiore
stablished at the end of the 13th century to oversee the construction of Florence’s new cathedral, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore today administers a group of monuments and buildings of exceptional importance, structures that developed around the Cathedral. The complex of buildings, apart from the Duomo and the Baptistery, consists of a variety of ‘places’ characterised by a striking individuality and a historical and functional specificity.
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The Gates of Paradise in numbers 2 doors 3,08 metres wide 5,20 metres high 9 tons in weight 10 biblical scenes 11 centimetres thick 16 years to make (1436-1452) 48 little figures in the frame 58 reliefs in bronze and gold 884 florins paid to Lorenzo Ghiberti
Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore
Designed by the architect Arnolfo di Cambio, and the world’s third largest church, Santa Maria del Fiore was built on the earlier church of Santa Reparata and dedicated in 1412 to Santa Maria del Fiore, clearly alluding to the lily, a symbol of the city. The façade was completed only at the end of the 19th century. open: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10-17; Thursday 10-16.30, in May and October 10-16, from July to September 10-17; Saturday 10-16.45; Sunday and holidays 13.30-16.45
Crypt of Santa Reparata
(archaeological site) A major excavation beneath the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, carried out between 1965 and 1973, brought to light the remains of the ancient basilica of Santa Reparata, the oldest evidence of early Christianity in Florence. open: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10-17, Saturday 10-16.45, 1 May 8.30-17 closed: on the occasion of major holidays
The Cupola
The construction of the cupola, the largest dome ever built, began in1420; five years later construction was under Filippo Brunelleschi alone and was completed up to the base of the lantern on 1 August 1436. open: every day 8.30-19, Saturday 8.30-17.40 closed: Sunday and holidays
Giotto’s Campanile Giotto’s bell tower, begun in 1334, is one of the four principal components of piazza del Duomo. At a height of 84.70 metres and about 15 metres wide, it is the most eloquent example of 14thcentury Florentine Gothic architecture. open: every day 9-19.30
Baptistery of San Giovanni With an octagonal plan, entirely faced with polychrome marbles, the Baptistery we see today was built over a smaller and earlier Baptistery dating from the 4th or 5th century. open: every day 12.15-19; 1st Saturday of the month, Sunday and holidays 8.30-14
Museum of the Opera del Duomo Established in 1891 and rearranged in 1999, the museum is being restructured and enlarged, work that should be finished by 2016. The museum is one of the most important ecclesiastical museums in Italy. Since the late 19th century, works of art have been removed from their outdoor location at Santa Maria del Fiore, the Baptistery and the Campanile in order to conserve them in the museum.
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piazza del Duomo, 9 open: Monday to Saturday 9-19.30, Sunday 9-13.45 in May and October every day 10-15.30; from July to September 10-17 closed: 1 January, Easter, 8 September, 25 December
The restoration of the Gates of Paradise According to Vasari, it was Michelangelo who came up with the name of the Gates of Paradise, “they’re so beautiful they would grace the entrance to paradise”. A colossal work, occupying Ghiberti and his collaborators for years, of a beauty and perfection that merited the position of honour, on the east side of the Baptistery, facing the Cathedral. This complex work, made with an unprecedented degree of skill that has not been equalled since, was not immune to the damage of time which deadened the sheen of the bronze, needing restoration only decades after the work was completed. Today a long and complex restoration project, lasting 33 years, led by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure has arrested the damage provoked by pollution, war, flood and the weather. It has also shown that the Gates can no longer remain in their original position and must be protected and kept in the museum. A history of the Gates 1425 The merchant’s guild, the Arte di Calimala, commissions Ghiberti – who the year before had completed the north door – to produce a second set of doors for the Baptistery, later known as the ‘Gates of Paradise’ 1429 The Arte di Calimala pays 1,800 florins for the purchase of “brass” for casting the frame of the doors; the number of panels is reduced from 28 to 10 1436-1447 Ghiberti begins to cast the relief panels with the assistance of his son Vittorio and of Michelozzo. With the purchase of more metal from Flanders and after 11 years of work, the 10 reliefs were finished
1448-1450 Ghiberti begins to model the door frames and the friezes of the jambs, finished two years later, when he was granted an extension to finish the doors 1452 between April and June the 58 reliefs, re-cleaned and chiselled, were gilded using the mercury method. The panels were inserted into the appropriate spaces in the bronze frame, reheated and expanded. Ghiberti was paid for the work on 16 June, and in September the doors were set in place on the east side of the Baptistery
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Maintenance and restoration 1475 maintenance work begins on the doors, which are washed at periodic intervals 1772 after cleaning tests, the antiquarian of the royal family, Raimondo Cocchi, decides not to carry out a complete clean of the doors, arguing that the gilding was not applied by fire, but as leaf fixed with mordant. The gilding brought to light is covered with a dark, uniform oil-based paint applied with a brush 1943 the Gates are taken down and stored in a safe place, together with other works, in a railway tunnel at Incisa, near Florence 1946 after the war, the Superintendent Giovanni Poggi proposed a cleaning of the doors: a sample of the surface layer is sent for chemical analysis to the Central Institute of Restoration in Rome. The layer is found to consist of sandstone dust (from the paving stones in the square), oil, carbonate and copper sulphide 1946-1948 in agreement with the Ministry of Education the doors are restored by Bruno Bearzi with concentrated caustic soda applied with a brush, revealing the mercury gilding. On 24 June 1948 the Gates were again on show to the public 1966 the flood of 4 November damages the Gates, ripping off 6 relief panels. The panels are reinserted by Bruno Bearzi; each one is attached to the door wings with 4 bronze screws 1978 The Superintendent of the Opificio, Umberto Baldini, decides to conduct diagnostic studies to ascertain the causes of the deterioration in the doors, and to find a solution 1979 restoration work commences: the Joseph panel, in the middle of the right wing, is chosen for its position and because it was one of the first five made by Ghiberti. The relief is placed in a Rochelle salt solution, capable of removing dirt and soluble salts
1983 a second panel, the Creation, is taken for restoration. Ghiberti made it later than the first panels and it comes from an area which appears to have deteriorated the most 1985 a third panel, David, is taken to the Opificio; it appears less affected by corrosion, but has suffered due to the fact that it can easily be reached by the hands of visitors. In the same year a fourth panel, Cain and Abel, is taken to the Opificio 1990 the doors are taken to the Opificio, and replaced with a copy, made thanks to the generosity of the Japanese businessman Choichiro Motoyama. The reproduction is cast in Florence by Aldo Marinelli, using moulds made at the time of the post-war restoration. The copy is then taken to Paris for galvanic gilding, the mercury gilding by now banned because of its toxicity 1990-1996 restoration work stops for several years. In 1996 it is decided to detach the other reliefs in order to wash them in the Rochelle salt solution, but the job proves extremely difficult 2000 the Institute of Applied Physics of the National Research Council (CNR) in Florence manages to develop a new laser to quickly “burn” off the deposits on the gold before the heat reaches the bronze. Once restored the panels are sealed in polyethylene, fueled with nitrogen, to ward off air and humidity 2012 the restoration of the Gates of Paradise is complete. The Gates are taken to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, and placed in a specially designed case to preserve the work in optimum conditions. On 8 September, the Gates return to public view and will eventually be placed in the new museum in the room devoted to the old façade. In the meantime work continues on a protective barrier which will protect the Gates but leave them fully visible to visitors
opificio delle pietre dure and the restoration laboratories
s might be gathered from its unusual name, the origin of the Institute is composite, fruit of an ancient and illustrious tradition and modern, wideranging activity. Founded in 1588 for the manufacture of furnishings using semiprecious stones, in the late 19th century the Opificio changed character, shifting toward restoration. Following the catastrophic flood of November 1966 and the establishment of the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Assets in 1975, the old Medici Opificio and the Restoration Laboratory of the Fine Arts Service were merged to create a single entity. In 2007, the Opificio became an Istituto Centrale and specialised in restoration, applied research and education, subdivided into specific sections including: tapestries, bronzes and antique weapons, paintings on canvas and on panel, wall paintings, works on paper and fibre, stone materials, mosaic and Florentine commesso work, goldsmiths’ and silversmiths’ work, painted wooden sculptures, ceramics and models, and textiles. The adjacent museum mirrors the history of the centuries of work carried out here, work that included prestigious creations today preserved in palaces and museums throughout Europe. The collection contains pieces of great evocative power and sophistication, outlining the history of the workshop over three centuries, as well as an important collection of antique marbles and semiprecious stones brought together in order to be used for the commesso fiorentino inlay technique. Opificio via degli Alfani, 78; Fortezza da Basso, viale Strozzi, 1; Palazzo Vecchio, Sala delle Bandiere
Museo via degli Alfani, 78 open: Monday to Saturday 8.15-14 closed: Sunday and holidays Information: 055 2651357
www.opificiodellepietredure.it
activities open to the public “effetto restauro” This initiative is designed to show the public some of the most significant works after their restoration or in the course of restoration in the Opificio laboratories. visits to the Restoration Laboratories Guided tours of the Restoration Laboratories in via degli Alfani, the Fortezza da Basso and the workshop for the restoration of the tapestries in Palazzo Vecchio. For information and reservation
opd.promozioneculturale@beniculturali.it new publications Initiated in 1986, ‘OPD Restauro’ is an annual publication containing the most significant findings following restoration in all fields. • The second series is now at its 23rd volume (1, 1989-23, 2011) published by Centro Di.
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orsanmichele
uilt in the 13th century as a granary and market, in the next century Orsanmichele became a religious place and in the middle of the 14th century was consecrated for Christian worship. From then until the 17th century the building, which served both civil and religious functions, was modified and enriched by the city guilds with the 14 canopied niches of the exterior. Religious services take place regularly, and concerts of classical music are held here, overlooked by the splendid marble tabernacle by Orcagna and the 14th-century Madonna delle Grazie by Bernardo Daddi. On the first floor of Orsanmichele is the Sculpture Hall, which houses the original statues from the tabernacles.
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via dell’Arte della Lana open: Church every day 10-17, Museum Monday 10-17
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/ orsanmichele
Toscana Classica 2012 until 29 October 2012 The varied programme of this 13th season offers opera, symphonic and chamber music, and includes a series of concerts at Orsanmichele 4 October 2012 Quartet from the Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina, Toscana Classica 18 October 2012 Duet Michelangelo, Toscana Classica 29 October 2012 L. Boccherini Quintet, Toscana Classica
Photo Antonio Quattrone
Fuligno
San Salvi
The museum occupies part of the historic Benedictine convent of Sant’Apollonia. The Refectory houses his Last Supper (c. 1450) which represents the first painting of this subject in the Renaissance style in Florence.
Located in the former convent of the Franciscan nuns of Sant’Onofrio, also known as the Fuligno Sisters from the name of their town of origin, is the Last Supper now recognised as the work of Pietro Perugino and workshop (1490).
The museum, housed in part of the former monastery of Vallombrosan monks beside the church of San Michele a San Salvi, is named after Andrea del Sarto’s magnificent Last Supper (1526-1527).
via XXVII Aprile, 1 open: every day 8.15-13.50 closed: 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday, 2nd and 4th Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
via Faenza, 42 open: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 9-12 closed: 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
Museo del Cenacolo di Andrea del Sarto via di San Salvi, 16 open: from Tuesday to Sunday 8.15-13.50 closed: 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
Cenacolo di Ognissanti
Cenacolo della Calza
Cenacolo di Santo Spirito
The refectory of the Convento degli Umiliati houses the Last Supper painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in 1480. As the fresco has been detached, the sinopia is also visible.
In the refectory of the ex convent of San Giovanni Battista, known as the Calza, after the white hood worn by the Jesuit lay bretheren, is found the Last Supper by Franciabigio (1514).
Church and convent of Ognissanti borgo Ognissanti, 42 open: Monday, Tuesday and Saturday 9-12 closed: 1 January, 1 May, August, 25 December
Convento della Calza piazza della Calza, 6 open: upon request 055 222287
cenacoli
Sant’Apollonia
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Fragments of the Last Supper by Andrea Orcagna (c. 1370) and Crucifixion. see Museo della Fondazione Salvatore Romano p. 31
Cenacolo del Carmine Last Supper by Alessandro Allori (1582). see Cappella Brancacci p. 30
santa croce complex
he Franciscan basilica of Santa Croce is a sort of open workshop that in 700 years has seen the most extraordinary religious and civil events and contains an exceptional wealth in works of art. It contains the tombs of many great figures in Italian history, and is thus defined the ‘tempio delle itale glorie’. A visit to the monumental complex includes: the Basilica, the cloisters and the early Renaissance Pazzi Chapel, the hall of 19th-century funerary monuments, the exhibition devoted to the wood engraver Pietro Parigi, the great 20th-century Italian illustrator, the Museo dell’Opera, which includes the Sala del Cenacolo (Refectory), with important works including Cimabue’s Crucifix and Taddeo Gaddi’s frescoes of the Last Supper and the Albero della Vita.
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Discovering art Exploring the restored frescoes in the Cappella Maggiore until spring 2013 Guided tours of the restoration work-sites make it possible for us to admire at first-hand one of the most splendid artistic productions of the Middle Ages: the Cappella Maggiore frescoed by Agnolo Gaddi with scenes from the Legend of the True Cross. A guide illustrates the events narrated by the frescoes and the pictorial techniques employed, accompanying visitors onto the scaffolding along an itinerary comprising 7 levels (90 steps without elevators) with three intermediate stops for explanations.
piazza Santa Croce open: Monday to Saturday 9.30-17.30; Sunday, 6 January, 15 August, 1 November, 8 December 13-17.30 closed: 1 January, Easter, 13 June, 4 October, 25 and 26 December
www.santacroceopera.it
Information and booking: 055 2466105 int.3 booking@santacroceopera.it
Photo Emilia Daniele
The Confraternita dei Buonomini was founded by Saint Antoninus to assist the “poveri vergognosi” and was established in 1478 in rooms behind the church of San Martino, which were eventually transformed into an oratory. The space is decorated with a series of lunettes, painted around 1480 by Domenico Ghirlandaio’s workshop, illustrating the story of San Martino and the confraternity’s charitable work. The adjacent rooms house a rich archive documenting over five centuries of work of the confraternity. Oratorio dei Buonomini di San Martino piazza San Martino open: every day 10-12 and 15-17 closed: Friday and holidays
Crucifixion by Perugino Dated 1257, the original church and its adjacent monastery were dedicated to Santa Maria Maddalena delle Convertite recalling the hostel for repentant prostitutes which previously stood here. The church was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century to a design by Giuliano da Sangallo. The Sala Capitolare houses Perugino’s evocative fresco of the Crucifixion and Saints (1493-1496), with the figure of Mary Magdalene kneeling at the foot of the Cross. This is the most important artistic evidence of the Cistercian period of the monastery. Church and monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi access via the Liceo Michelangiolo via della Colonna, 9 open: Tuesday and Thursday 14.30-17.30 closed: public holidays and school holidays
Chiostro dello Scalzo
fresco cycles
Frescoes in the Oratorio dei Buonomini di San Martino
The cloister originally formed the entrance to the Chapel of the Brotherhood of Saint John the Baptist, founded in 1376 and known as the Scalzo. Andrea del Sarto was responsible for the fresco cycle, which he painted in several stages (1509-1526). The fine monochrome scenes represent episodes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist and the Virtues. Two of the episodes were actually painted by Franciabigio (1518-1519). via Cavour, 69 open: Monday, Thursday, Saturday 8.15-13.50 closed: 1 January, 1 May, August and 25 December
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libraries
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Biblioteca Riccardiana
Biblioteca degli Uffizi
opened to the public: 1571 by order of Grand Duke Cosimo I origin: a collection begun by Cosimo il Vecchio collection: about 11,000 manuscripts, 2,500 papyri, 150 drawers of single leaves, 43 ostraka, 566 incunabula, 1,681 cinquecentine, 592 periodicals and 126,527 printed books
opened to the public: after 1659 origin: the collection of Riccardo Romolo Riccardi made in the 16th century collection: 4,450 manuscripts, 5,529 single leaves, 725 incunabula, 3,865 cinquecentine, 20,000 antique printed books, 40,000 modern printed books, 276 drawings
piazza San Lorenzo, 9 open: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 8-14, Tuesday, Thursday 8-17.30
via de’ Ginori, 10 open: Monday, Thursday 8-17.30, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 8-14
opened to the public: 1998 origin: the first public library in Florence, founded by Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine (mid-18th century) collection: 74,000 titles, including 470 manuscripts, 5 incunabula, 192 cinquecentine, 1,445 books from the 17th to the 19th century, 1,136 periodicals
www.riccardiana.firenze.sbn.it
www.bml.firenze.sbn.it
exhibitions
Magnifici tre.
I libri-gioiello di Lorenzo il Magnifico
11 September-20 October 2012 As spectacular as paintings, as precious as jewels, the three Books of Hours which Lorenzo il Magnifico had made are exhibited together for the first time after five centuries. Commissioned from Antonio Sinibaldi as wedding gifts for his daughters, they are embellished with lavish bindings in gold, silver, precious stones and polychrome enamels. The manuscripts from the Laurentian Library and the Rothschild Collection of Waddesdon Manor are accompanied by a facsimile of the volume from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek of Munich, too fragile to be brought to Italy. 60 reproductions of the pages, divided by subject, make it possible to compare the illustrations of the calendars and the extraordinary frontispieces and, can also be touched by visitors. open: Monday to Saturday 9.30-13.30
www.magnificitre.it
Le vie delle lettere. La stamperia medicea tra Roma e l’Oriente
curated by Pier Giorgio Borbone with Sara Fani and Margherita Farina 26 October 2012-June 2013
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Loggiato degli Uffizi open: Tuesday 9-17, Wednesday 9-13.30, Friday 9-13
The ‘Stamperia Orientale Medicea’, founded in Rome in 1584 by Pope Gregory XIII under the patronage of Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici, had the function of supplying grammar books, lexicons, sacred and liturgical canonical texts for the spread of the Catholic faith in the Eastern churches and for an Orthodox education of the Eastern clergy in Rome. It also introduced printed books to the Eastern market and collected, in the East, important manuscripts to be printed containing scientific, philosophical, linguistic, literary and theological works. The exhibition illustrates the history of this courageous undertaking, shedding light on the intense cultural, political and commercial relations linking Tuscany and Rome with the East. The material on display is kept mainly in the Biblioteca Laurenziana and Biblioteca Nazionale and includes manuscripts from the East, printed texts produced by the Stamperia and part of the equipment used in the Roman laboratory – stubs, punches and characters of Eastern script – exhibited with archive documents.
www.polomuseale.firenze.it
exhibition
Antiche maschere giapponesi Magia e fascino Biblioteca Riccardiana and Palazzo Medici Riccardi 5-30 October 2012 On exhibit 52 Japanese masks, mainly from the Kyoto area, used for theatrical performances, shown in comparison with western theatre through manuscripts and illustrated printed works from the Biblioteca Riccardiana. For the event the library has organised an international conference on the subject of ancient Japanese masks (19 October 2012, Palazzo Medici Riccardi).
activities
Travels in the World of Amerigo Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Salone Luca Giordano; church of Ognissanti 24-25 November 2012 International conference marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Vespucci, ending with Holy Mass in the Church of Ognissanti with 17th/18th-century IberoAmerican religious music performed by the Musica Ricercata ensemble.
Of wisdom and beauty.
The restored monumental rooms of the Library October-December 2012 Three months dedicated to the celebration of the 70 years of the library’s reopening to the public, ending on 13 December 2012 with the inauguration of the exhibitions room after restoration. The event includes a virtual tour reconstructing the Biblioteca dei Riccardi and an exhibition on the family’s collectionism and on the phases of the recent restoration.
Biblioteca Moreniana opened to the public: 1942 origin: 1870, from the collection of Domenico Moreni (1763-1835) collection: about 2,000 manuscripts, 287 boxes containing letters, documents and booklets, 71 incunabula, 952 cinquecentine, 11,000 early printed and modern books, about 10,000 printed public notices, 265 play scripts, maps and drawings via de’ Ginori, 10 open: Monday, Thursday 8-17.15, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 8-14
www.provincia.fi.it/palazzo-medici-riccardi/ biblioteca-moreniana
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale opened to the public: 1861, with the unification of the Magliabechiana and Palatina libraries founders: Antonio Magliabechi (Magliabechiana) and Ferdinando III (Palatina) collection: 6,000,000 printed books, 120,000 periodicals, 4,000 incunabula, 25,000 manuscripts, 29,000 cinquecentine and more than 1,000,000 autographs piazza dei Cavalleggeri, 1 open: Monday to Friday 8.15-19, Saturday 8.15-13.30
www.bncf.firenze.sbn.it
exhibitions
Pinocchio in Prima Visione: con Giunti in Biblioteca nazionale curated by Silvia Alessandri, Roberto Maini and Francesca Socci until 27 October 2012 On show from the Giunti archive, original plates by the illustrators of Pinocchio from the various Italian editions. Sections include plates from The Fox and the Cat, the Montblanc Writer Editions dedicated to Collodi, Gianni Greco’s collection and 36 plates by Attilio Mussino from the 1911 Bemporad edition.
“La porti un bacione a Firenze”. Gli Anni Trenta tra moda, riviste e caffè letterari in collaboration with the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi 10 November 2012-27 January 2013 Special show related to the exhibition The Thirties. The Arts in Italy Beyond Fascism at Palazzo Strozzi.
Il viaggio del Castoro. Mariotti, le copertine di un’avventura editorale
in collaboration with the Centro Pecci of Prato February 2013 From 1967 to 1984 Mario Mariotti designed the covers for volumes published by La Nuova Italia in the Castoro series. For the first time on show are 62 original works created by the artist for the covers, the volumes themselves, and some covers for the Castoro cinema series.
opened to the public: 2007, following the restoration of the complex origin: the Biblioteca Comunale Centrale (1913) collection: the section on conservation and local history alone consists of over 50,000 documents via dell’Oriuolo, 26 open: Monday 14-19, Tuesday to Saturday 9-24 (times subject to change)
www.bibliotecadelleoblate.it
activities
Walks in the library until December 2012
libraries
Biblioteca delle Oblate
Every first Saturday of the month free guided tours of the former convent Booking required 055 2616512
Biblioteca Marucelliana opened to the public: 1752 founder: Francesco Marucelli (1625-1703) collection: the core of the collection, which grew as a result of successive acquisition, consists of about 6,000 volumes; since 1911 the library has been the repository for all books published in Florence and its province via Cavour, 43-47 open: Monday to Friday 8.30-19, Saturday 8.30-13.45
www.maru.firenze.sbn.it
exhibitions
Fumetti e dintorni.
Editori e illustratori a Firenze negli anni Trenta 30 November 2012-27 January 2013 Special show related to the exhibition The Thirties. The Arts in Italy Beyond Fascism at Palazzo Strozzi.
Photo Francesca Anichini
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medici chapels
State museum since 1869, the history of the Medici Chapels is tied to the history of the basilica of San Lorenzo to which they belong. The museum includes the New Sacristy, designed by Michelangelo, the Chapel of the Princes, a mausoleum in hard stone, the crypt, containing the tombs of the Medici grand dukes and their relatives, and the Lorraine crypt, with the tombs of the Lorraine princes and the funerary monument to Cosimo il Vecchio. The museum also displays items from the Treasury of the basilica of San Lorenzo.
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piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, 6 open: every day 8.15-16.50 closed: 2nd and 4th Sunday, 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/cappellemedicee
focus The altar of Ferdinando. An unfulfilled dream - the end of the story?
The altar wanted by Ferdinando I for the sumptuous Cappella Reale aspired to be a unique work of its kind, thanks to its sophisticated iconography and the rare and precious materials which it was made. In line with the dictates of the Catholic Counter-reformation, the altar was intended for the eternal glorification of God, an expression both of the prince’s Christianity, his refinement and exquisite artistic sensitivity, and the wealth of his family and its European-scale political aspirations. The complex and grandiose altar with its magnificent ciborium was intended to be placed in front of the apse, along the vertical axis of the chapel, exalted by the light of the windows with a spectacularly theatrical effect of ‘transparencies’ and colours. The large columns in rock crystal were to have supported the ciborium inundated with light, which would have become itself both earthly and divine light, with its cover in crystal slivers and the niches matching the door of the Holy Sacrament, these too with crystal columns. A theatrical effect intended to capture the onlooker’s interest and arouse feelings of profound devotion. Following the dictates of the Counter-reformation, the faithful would have been educated by the biblical scenes illustrated in the panels in pietre dure inlay with the clarity of the language recommended by the Council of Trent, in which heroes of the faith moved around as if on stage, with mimed gestures. Having contemplated the biblical scenes, the onlooker would have been attracted by the light and guided toward the relics in the niches, to then focus on the tabernacle, total light and final response of the holy reading up to the Resurrection. The insignia of Ferdinando I, the director and donator of this artistic and spiritual spectacle, were to have been placed on the pediment of the triumphal arch. The rounded walls, ensuring the incidence of bright light free of any impediment, were perfectly suited for a facing in pietre dure, which required direct light to guarantee the brilliance of the materials and exalt their precious colours. Almost finished in 1653, the altar was disassembled in 1779 on the orders of Pietro Leopoldo, whose intentions and tastes were far removed from those of Ferdinando. In the 1780s Pietro Leopoldo decided to use a large part of the little scenes and decorative elements for three new altars in a sober neoclassical style, though covered with shining inlays, which were intended for the new Cappella Palatina in Palazzo Pitti, the Basilica of San Lorenzo and Poggio Imperiale. The metals were melted down and the panels either sold off or placed in deposits; some of them can be seen today at the Museo degli Argenti, the Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure, in the Cappella dei Principi and in other Italian and foreign museums. Thus the Cappella dei Principi remained without an altar. In 1821 Ferdinando III of Lorraine commissioned a new one, of which only various projects and some splendid inlaid panels survive, now at the Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure. Only in 1927 did the Opera Medicea Laurenziana, founded in 1908, show interest in the altar of the Cappelle Medicee and charged Amedeo Orlandini with the preparation of a new project that involved the maximum use of the existing materials. In 1937 a wooden model of the project, on which the already made manufactures in stone could be arranged, was set up in the Museo dell’Opificio . Although not approved, on the occasion of Hitler’s visit to Florence in 1938, Orlandini moved the model to the Museo delle Cappelle Medicee, thus giving the semblance of an altar to the Cappella dei Principi. Despite the negative opinion expressed by a ministerial commission in 1941, the model stayed in the Chapel where it has remained to this day. Today we may wonder whether its stay in the Cappella over the last 70 years makes the altar a now “historicised” work, or whether the time has come to think of a new project and to make it real by exploiting the unrivalled qualities that Florence and the Opificio undeniably possess. Monica Bietti Director of the Medici Chapels
From Ferdinando I de’ Medici 1549-1609 Maiestate Tantum, exhibition catalogue edited by M. Bietti and A. Giusti (Florence, Medici Chapels, 2 May-1 November 2009), Livorno 2009
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open: every day 9-18
www.palazzo-medici.it
via Cavour, 3 closed: Wednesday
www.provincia.fi.it
palazzo medici riccardi
alazzo Medici Riccardi, a stone’s throw from the Duomo, is one of the most interesting palaces in the heart of Florence, both in its architecture and decoration, and in the cultural initiatives offered by the provincial administration, based in the palace. The museum includes Michelozzo’s courtyard, Benozzo Gozzoli’s Cappella dei Magi, the room with frescoes by Luca Giordano, and the Marbles Museum.
La “quinta luce”.
Manierando tarocchi.
Opere di Vastimil Košvanec
Una storia raccontata da Massimo Biondi
until 11 November 2012
30 November 2012-2 January 2013
The fertility of myth, the nostalgia of beauty, Mediterranean light and colours, the radiant happiness of nature are central themes in the 36 works by the Bohemian artist (Prague, 1887-1961). Pervaded by modern nymphs reminiscent of Belle Époque and Art Nouveau images, the compositions of Košvanec, conceived as friezes or cycles, revive the academic teaching and plein air painting of Monet, Renoir or Cézanne with experimentation in light, colour and material.
Personal exhibition of Massimo Biondi on the symbolic world of the Tarot trumps, or Trionfi, the 22 Major Arcana, reinterpreted by the artist in surrealistic and metaphysical vein. Also on display are precious historical and esoterical cards and various books on the history of divination, made available by the ‘Associazione Le Tarot’, the most important institution of historical research on the subject at an international level.
Il Novecento di Primo Conti
L’amore nell’opera di Antonio Manzi
13-27 November 2012
1 December 2012-8 January 2013
The exhibition organised by the Fondazione Primo Conti, enriched by a section of documents, shows 13 paintings executed between 1915 and 1984; the works, owned by the Fiesole museum dedicated to him, almost entirely cover the long artistic career of Primo Conti who painted his first work, a self-portrait, at the age of 11. Three lectures are planned during the exhibition: ‘Moda e costume’ (16 November 2012 at 16.30), ‘La Musica del Novecento’ (20 November 2012 at 16.30) and ‘Officina Fiorentina. Overview su ottantotto anni di ricerche artistiche a Firenze’ (23 November 2012 at 16.30).
With 23 works the artist (to whom an entire museum at Campi Bisenzio has been devoted since 2007) narrates erotic and amorous relationships through art: sculptures in plaster and marble, collages, marble bas-reliefs, dishes and vases in majolica. Techniques and materials express the relationships that are established between two people: plaster symbolises the uncertain beginning of a relationship, while marble assumes a sensual, refined appearance and collage leads to amorous representation; ceramic and majolica express poetic characteristics and the explosions of colour reflecting the complexity of each relation.
From September 2012 the museum houses the worksite that will, in two years time, be responsible for its extension and reorganisation. During the period of closure the monumental areas, the Cortile degli Uomini and in part the Cortile delle Donne are however visitable with a reduced admission fee. In the Sala Grazzini an exhibition has been set up illustrating the history of the Institute over the last two centuries. Information: 055 20371 museo@istitutodeglinnocenti.it
mudi
The new Mudi
Vorrei baciare le tue mani.
he history of the Istituto degli Innocenti in Florence began in 1419 with the foundation of the Spedale, or foundling hospital, by the Silkweavers Guild, thanks to a bequest from Francesco di Marco Datini, a merchant of Prato. The intention was to “begin a new place […] which will nourish children and allow them to grow up”. Culture and beauty have always been an integral part of the social and educational function of the Istituto degli Innocenti. The modernity of the Renaissance architecture and a new concept of child care were closely linked in the structure designed by Brunelleschi. The Museo degli Innocenti (Mudi) – housing works such as the Adoration of the Magi by Domenico Ghirlandaio, a Virgin and Child by Luca della Robbia, the Virgin and Saints by Piero di Cosimo, and a splendid Virgin and Child by Sandro Botticelli – is located in the gallery, originally designed as the children’s living quarters, above the portico which enhances the façade.
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piazza della Santissima Annunziata, 12 open: every day 10-19 closed: 1 January, 25 December
www.istitutodeglinnocenti.it
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archaeological museums
Museo Archeologico Nazionale
In 1881 the museum was transferred to the 17th-century Palazzo della Crocetta, built for Cosimo II’s sister, Maria Maddalena de’ Medici. Over time it has acquired masterpieces from the Medici and Lorraine collections and fine examples of art from the Greek, Etruscan and Roman periods, flanked by the important Egyptian Museum collection. Among the large bronzes not to be missed are the Chimera, found near Arezzo in 1553, and the Etruscan Aule Meteli, known as L’Arringatore. The collection of rare figured ceramics is equally prestigious and includes the large black figure François Vase (c. 570 BC). In the area of stone work is a collection of marble sculptures and an important group of rare Etruscan funerary artefacts, with urns from the areas around Chiusi and Volterra and stone and marble sarcofagi, including the famous Amazon sarcophagus (4th century BC). The Egyptian Museum of Florence, second only in Italy to the Turin museum, is also housed here. It is made up of Medici and Lorraine collections and from 1880 was further enriched by Ernesto Schiaparelli, private donors and scientific institutions. Adjacent to the museum is a delightful garden which can be visited on Saturday mornings. piazza della Santissima Annunziata, 9/b open: Monday 14-19, Tuesday and Thursday 8.30-19, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 8.30-14 closed: 1 January, 1 May, 15 August, 25 December
www.archeotoscana.beniculturali.it
exhibitions
Reperti orientali dai depositi del museo project by Maria Cristina Guidotti March 2013
The National Archaeological Museum has among its collections a heterogeneous group of finds from the Near East, which for almost thirty years have been stored in the deposits of the museum and never shown to the public. The finds come mainly from Anatolia (ceramics and small statues), Mesopotamia (tomb furnishings from the excavations of Kilizu, an Assyrian basrelief and numerous cuneiform tablets), and Syria (Roman glass objects and Islamic material). In the absence of an Orientalist on the museum staff, the director of the Egyptian Museum has assumed scientific responsibility for this material. The project includes the exhibition of a selection of the rich material, one of the most important Oriental collections in Italy, and the presentation of the collection catalogue. abroad:
Austria and Finland
Viaggio verso l’immortalità. Mummie egizie e vita eterna
project by Maria Cristina Guidotti Mistelbach (Austria) until 28 October 2012 Tampere (Finland) 15 November 2012-31 March 2013
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Already presented at Frankfurt, the exhibition focusing on the concept of the soul’s immortality and the need for bodily reincarnation resulted from a study of some years ago on the mummies of the Egyptian Museum in Florence. This exhibition presents, in a scientific way, the embalming procedures practised by the ancient Egyptians and illustrates aspects of their religion associated with the concept of immortality that are reflected in the funerary ornaments placed in Egyptian tombs. All the objects on display – sarcophagi, human mummies, funerary steles, papyruses, statues and objects of daily life – come from the Egyptian Museum in Florence.
Reorganisation of Room I of the Egyptian Museum Following the museum’s reopening in autumn 2012, with a new design to various rooms, the project of renewing the first room dedicated to prehistory and the Old and Middle Kingdoms following the criteria adopted for the new rooms is now underway. The opening of the room is planned at the end of the present year or at the start of 2013. The director also hopes to proceed with the reorganisation of all the rooms in the Egyptian Museum.
Created in 1946, the museum brings together, classifies and conserves the prehistoric collections once scattered throughout the city of Florence. The library consists of about 3,000 volumes. via Sant’Egidio, 21 open: Monday 14-17, Tuesday and Thursday 9.30-16.30, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 9.30-12.30 closed: 1 January, Easter and Easter Monday, 1 May, week of the 15 August, 24-26 and 31 December
www.museofiorentinopreistoria.it
Workshop for children see p. 55
Villa Corsini Villa Corsini, on the western outskirts of Florence in the Castello district, was donated to the Italian State in 1968. The villa was used for storage by the Soprintendenza Archeologica della Toscana and has now been completely restored to display an important group of antique sculptures, including the Arianna dormiente and the recently restored Apollo saettante. The Antiquarium shows the results of research on objects found locally, dating from the Iron Age to the Roman period. via della Petraia, 38 open: Saturday and Sunday 9.30-13 closed: 1 January, 25 and 26 December
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/ musei/villacorsini
Parco Archeologico di Carmignano
archaeological museums
The “Paolo Graziosi” Florentine Museum and Institute of Prehistory
The centre for archaeology brings together in a single system the Archaeological Museum at Artimino and the various Etruscan sites of the area. The four main sites in the Archaeological Park are the Artimino necropolis at Prato Rosello, the fortified settlement of Pietramarina, the Tumulus of Montefortini and the Tomba dei Boschetti at Comeana. The Archaeological Museum at Artimino exhibits a collection of finds discovered in the area of Carmignano and arranged according to topographical and chronological criteria in two sections dedicated to the “world of the living” and the “world of the dead”. Archaeological Museum at Artimino piazza San Carlo, Artimino (Prato) open: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9.30-13, Saturday and Sunday 10-13 and 15-18 closed: Easter, 15 August, 25 December
www.parcoarcheologicocarmignano.it
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public fountains
For this issue VisitArt has mapped all the public fountains, whether in use or not, in the streets and squares of the city. Among the oldest, the most well-known and imposing is without doubt the Fountain of Neptune in piazza della Signoria, but no less loved by Florentines and tourists are the twin fountains in piazza della Santissima Annunziata and the Porcellino fountain in the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo. Among the public fountains that are still in use, many were built between the 19th and 20th century for reasons tied both to propriety and decoration of the rapidly expanding urban fabric, but also to ensure the necessary provision of water to various areas of the city.
1 Fountain
to Queen Victoria
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4 5
2 1
1897 marked the sixtieth year of Queen Victoria’s reign and in her honour the Florentine British community commissioned a fountain in Veronese red marble. The engineer Lorenzo Priuli Bon designed the fountain in the neo-Gothic style and its construction was entrusted to the Pellegrini workshop in Verona. viale Fratelli Rosselli
2 Fountain in via Il Prato the marble tablet at the top of the fountain records its transfer from piazza dei Mozzi in the 19th century. The moving of the fountain, built in stone by Giuseppe del Rosso (1810), may have been due to the need to redistribute the water supply points in the various districts of the city. Decorated with cornices and ledges, the fountain is no longer in use: formerly water spurted from an opening in the lower part and poured into a small oval basin at the bottom of the base.
of the Palazzina Reale
the ‘palazzina’, temporary residence of the royal court, was designed in 1934-1935 by the Gruppo Toscano (Baroni, Berardi, Gamberini, Losanna and Michelucci). In 1935 the sculptor Italo Griselli built the large fountain that was placed in front of the building faced in Fior di Pesco Carnic marble; the sculpture represents the allegory of the Arno river and its valley, represented as a river god with a shell and as a woman with a lamb.
3 Fountain
the area of the gardens of the Fortezza was designed in the second half of the 19th century by Giuseppe Poggi as part of the project for the creation of the city ring road. Laid out on three slightly different levels, the garden develops around the large ellptical basin; in the middle of the small lake, which once had swans, are two small islets on either side of a mound of sponge rocks that sprays jets of water.
it was the ‘Potenza festeggiante del Reame di Beliemme’ – the local company responsible for popular festivities and street decoration – that commissioned this monumental tabernacle. Under the aedicule in pietra serena housing the Robbian Madonna and Child with Saints (1522), seven jets of water spurt from the mouths of as many putti heads in bas-relief and pour into a rectangular marble basin supported by brackets with lion’s paws.
in the gardens of the Fortezza, viale Filippo Strozzi
via Nazionale on the corner with via dell’Ariento
at the Fortezza
7 Fountain in piazza D’Azeglio
via Valfonda
5 Fountain at the Tabernacolo delle Fonticine
via Il Prato
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4 Fountain
6 Fountains
in piazza della Libertà
the small octagonal basin surrounded by an iron fence dates from the time the park was built, the city’s first public garden designed on the model of the English square (1865-1868). The fountain has a mound of sponge rocks with a central jet of water. in the gardens of piazza D’Azeglio
in the square designed by Giuseppe Poggi (1865-1875), between the old Porta San Gallo and the arch built in 1738 for the entrance of Francesco Stefano of Lorraine, is the large multi-lobed basin from which three mounds faced with porous rocks and vegetation emerge; two jets of water rise from the two side mounds, while on the large central mound is a sculptural group in bronze representing Apollo and Daphne, the work of Marcello Tommasi (1983). On one side of the Porta San Gallo is a public fountain.
set up in front of the gate, the fountain is composed of a marble plaque with a lion’s head that spurts water into a cup. It was inaugurated on 8 May 1929 in the presence of Vittorio Emanuele III, with a stone tablet commemorating the 530 inhabitants of the Santa Croce district who died in the First World War. Until 1869 there was another fountain near the gate that was removed during the demolition of the city walls.
piazza della Libertà
piazza Beccaria
8 Fountain at the Porta alla Croce
12 Fountains by Pietro Tacca
(right bank of the Arno)
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public fountains
di qua d’Arno
ordered for the port of Livorno by Ferdinando I – portrayed in the equestrian monument in the middle of the square – the two matching bronze and marble fountains were made by Pietro Tacco and his pupils Bartolomeo Salvini and Francesco Maria Bandini (from 1627). Later moved to the Florentine square, the fountains were inaugurated on 15 June 1641. From a pair of sea monsters water pours into large matching shells under which garlands of marine animals hang in an ensemble of zoomorphic elements that recalls the taste for caprice and the grotesque of Mannerist tendency.
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12
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piazza della Santissima Annunziata
13 Fountain of Neptune
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11
13
10
9
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Cosimo I’s project for the water supply of Palazzo Vecchio (1554) involved the building of a large public fountain in the square in front of it. Bartolomeo Ammannati won the competition of 1559 for the “fontana di piazza” and was assigned a workshop in the Loggia dei Lanzi. The Neptune in Carrara marble, alluding to Medicean maritime power and completed in 1565, was installed at the centre of the octagonal basin in mixed marble and was immediately nicknamed “Biancone” for its huge size and the whiteness of the marble. The four horses of the divine chariot emerge from the basin and on the edges sit Tethys, Doris, Nereus and Oceanus, each accompanied by pairs of bronze tritons. The fountain, animated by over 70 jets of water and teeming with zodiac signs, fish, shells and garlands, was unveiled to the public on 10 December 1565. piazza della Signoria
14 Fountain at the monument to Giovanni dalle Bande Nere illustrations by Silvia Cheli
11 the Porcellino
Fountain
9 Fountain
in piazza Santa Croce in 1609 the Medici entrusted Pietro Tacca with a new project for the fountain, already represented in Bonsignori’s plan; still unfinished in 1639, in 1673 it was the object of restoration work. Included in various projects for the square that were never put into effect, only in 1816 did Giuseppe del Rosso give the 17th-century fountain its present-day form: water spurts from the top, with the lily of Florence, into a circular dish, then flows into the lower basin and lastly, through lions’ heads, pours into shells attached to two of the main sides of the octagonal marble base. piazza Santa Croce
10 the Agnellino
Fountain
wanted in the middle of the 20th century by the city’s Comitato per l’Estetica, the now disused fountain spurted water into a small basin with a bronze lamb’s head, set into a stone aedicule. The image probably evoked the Agnus Dei of the emblem of the Wool Guild, which in the 14th century, in front of the Carcere delle Stinche, had had a public washhouse built here (demolished in 1834) used by dyers and Florentine women for their washing. via dei Lavatoi on the corner of via Isola delle Stinche
ordered by Cosimo II in imitation of the Roman copy of a Hellenistic marble conserved at the Uffizi, the bronze boar was cast by Pietro Tacca only in 1663. Adapted as a fountain and given a base decorated with plants, insects, molluscs and amphibians, in 1640 it was set up on the east side of the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo. Around 1930 the fountain was moved to the south side and in 1998 replaced by a copy of the Fonderia Marinelli (1988); after a long restoration, the original is today at the Museo Bardini. Much loved by Florentines and tourists, the “Porcellino” brings good luck and promises the return to Florence of those who stroke its snout and drop a coin from its mouth. piazza del Mercato Nuovo
added for public use in 1812 in front of the monument to Giovanni dalle Bande Nere – built in 1540 by Baccio Bandinelli – the fountain was designed by Giuseppe del Rosso. Water spurts from a lion’s head in white Carrara marble that recalls the bas-reliefs sculpted by Bandinelli on the base and collects in a large elliptical marble basin. piazza di San Lorenzo
15 Fountain at the Loggia del Grano inaugurated in 1764, the fountain marks the corner of the 17th-century loggia used for the selling of grain; mask in the late Mannerist style, framed by a shell and by a scroll, directs a jet of water into a basin set onto a supporting ledge. via dei Castellani on the corner of via dei Neri
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public fountains
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16
19 Fountain on the Ponte Vecchio
between the brackets supporting the windows of Palazzo Pitti are a series of lions’ heads surmounted by the grand-ducal crown. In 1696, on the wishes of Cosimo III, one lion’s head in pietraforte was converted into a public fountain: an opening for the water was made in it and the water collected in a marble basin resting on lions’ paws, made previously by Giovanni Fancelli for a grotto in the Boboli gardens and placed under the fountain by means of a double flight of steps.
on 26 May 1901, on the 4th centenary of the birth of Benvenuto Cellini, the jewellers of Ponte Vecchio inaugurated this fountain in honour of the celebrated Florentine goldsmith and sculptor. In addition to Raffaello Romanelli, who designed the work and modelled the bust, others who worked on the project were Egisto Orlandini, who designed the shell-shaped basins and base decorations – like the rams’ heads and diamond rings inspired by Medicean symbolism – and Mariano Coppedè, who made the enclosure. The parts in bronze were cast by the Fonderia Lippi of Pistoia.
piazza Pitti
on the Ponte Vecchio
18 Fountain
at Palazzo Pitti
17 Fountain
16 Fountain in the the circular basin fed by a simple jet of water and surrounded by a rim of porous stones, together with flower beds, benches and buildings used for recreation, was conceived by Poggi as part of the decoration of the avenue along the viale dei Colli, during the work of enlarging the city.
a niche faced in pietra serena characterises the corner of the palace designed by Giacomo Roster in around 1878, a few years after the making of this stretch of the Arno embankments; inside it a young Bacchus in marble with a cup and a bunch of grapes stands on a pedestal in sandstone, above the basin that collects water spurting from a lion’s mouth.
Bobolino gardens viale Machiavelli
lungarno Benvenuto Cellini on the corner of via della Fornace
Bobolino gardens
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of Young Bacchus
(left bank of the Arno)
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22
17
public fountains
di là d’Arno
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illustrations by Silvia Cheli
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22 Fountain of Bacchus
20 Fountains on the Rampe the system of cascades and basins along the Ramps of San Niccolò was designed by Giuseppe Poggi to embellish the pathway linking the tower on the Arno’s south bank with Piazzale Michelangelo: of the original project we see a series of wall fountains, grottoes and basins decorated with rustic mosaic and an elliptical basin with a jet of water on the first terrace of the Ramps. Rampe di San Niccolò, from piazza Poggi to piazzale Michelangelo
21 Fountain at piazzale Michelangelo although foreseen in Giuseppe Poggi’s original plan, the fountain was built only in 1911; the basin fed by a central jet of water and surrounded by flower beds was situated at the foot of the epigraph commemorating the architect under the Loggia built by him. piazzale Michelangelo
since the 18th century there has been record of a fountain in front of the Torre de’ Rossi, variously named according to the statue with which it has been embellished, like the Hercules and Nessus by Giambologna and the Greek group of Ajax and Patroclus, now in the Loggia dei Lanzi. In 1944, when the tower was bombed and reduced to rubble, it was adorned with a Young Bacchus attributed to Giambologna that was removed to safety. During post-war reconstruction a niche was built to commemorate the fountain, where in 1958 the Young Bacchus in bronze was set up again together with a marble Roman sarcophagus. The statue rests on a plinth decorated with a lion’s head in white marble with an opening for the water. borgo San Iacopo on the corner of via Guicciardini
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civic museums
he Musei Civici Fiorentini are made up of a varied and comprehensive group of collections. Their function is to preserve and exhibit the rich heritage of Florentine art, encouraging its enjoyment by the general public. Belonging to this cultural patrimony are some of the most important Florentine churches, religious buildings and numerous collections donated by collectors, artists and city institutions.
www.museicivicifiorentini.it
T
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Palazzo Vecchio Palazzo Vecchio was built between 1299 and the early 14th century as the seat of the city’s highest authority; it became a ducal residence in the mid16th century and is now the seat of Florence’s city council. The history of the building is reflected in the magnificent apartments and chambers that now form the museum – a series of halls and private rooms sumptuously decorated by some of the most famous artists of the Florentine Renaissance and Mannerism, and enhanced with furnishings of the period and masterpieces like Verrocchio’s Putto, Donatello’s Judith, Michelangelo’s Genius of Victory and the decoration of Eleonora’s Chapel painted by Bronzino. The new exhibition area Traces of Florence (situated on the ground floor) enriches the tour through the Monumental Apartments: this section offers an overview of the historical development of Florence in terms of urban planning and landscape, through the permanent display of a selection of paintings, engravings and drawings and a section dedicated to temporary exhibitions. piazza della Signoria open: from October to March Friday to Wednesday 9-19 (visits to the tower 9-17), Thursday 9-14 (visits to the tower 10-14); from April to September Friday to Wednesday 9-24 (visita alla Torre 9-21), Thursday 9-14. Extraordinary openings on special occasions. In case of rain, no access to the tower closed: 25 December
www.museicivicifiorentini.it/palazzovecchio
The splendour of Florence from the tower of Palazzo Vecchio On 24 June 2012 the tower of Palazzo Vecchio was opened to the public. Belonging to the early nucleus of the building and, like it, attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio, the tower has always been, together with Brunelleschi’s cupola, one of the main features of Florence’s urban landscape. Built when for some decades already the government of the “Primo Popolo” had ordered Florentine noble families to reduce the height of their towers to about 29 metres, with its imposing structure soaring to a height of 95 metres it was at once the symbol of Florentine magnificence and the supremacy of the Comune over private power. The first part, incorporated into the palace walls to a height of 32 metres, was erected between 1299 and 1302 over the foundations of an earlier tower belonging to the Foraboschi family, the ‘Torre della Vacca’. About two decades later the upper part was built, projecting beyond the corbels of the ‘camminamento di ronda’, and rising for another 54 metres to be crowned by a crenellated battlement and two bell-chambers surmounted by a weathercock. The visit, without the need for prior reservation, though with admission on certain conditions, includes the battlemented roof gallery and the climb to the top of the tower by way of an inner staircase, along which is the tiny cell called the ‘Alberghetto’ in which Cosimo il Vecchio in 1433 and Girolamo Savonarola in 1498 were imprisoned. Serena Pini Curator of the Museum of Palazzo Vecchio
The Roman Theatre of Florence (Palazzo Vecchio) The archaeological excavations in the ground below Palazzo Vecchio brought to light the remains of a Roman theatre (1st-2nd century AD). A series of galleries and walkways makes it possible to visit the fascinating vestiges of the ancient monument and the later medieval stratifications. Guided visits by appointment only. The excavations are partially accessible to disabled visitors not in wheelchairs (and accompanied by carers), and are not accessible to children younger than 8 for safety reasons. For information and booking: 055 2768224 2768558 info.museodeiragazzi@comune.fi.it
www.palazzovecchio-museoragazzi.it
Brancacci Chapel The 13th-century church of Santa Maria del Carmine houses the Brancacci Chapel, the masterpiece universally known for the frescoes of the cycle illustrating the Life of Saint Peter by Masaccio and Masolino. Executed in the years 1425-1427, the frescoes remained unfinished and were completed by Filippino Lippi between 1481 and 1482. A visit to the museum also includes the cloister and the Sala del Cenacolo housing the Last Supper by Alessandro Allori (1582). piazza del Carmine, 14 open: Monday and Wednesday to Saturday 10-17; Sunday and mid-week holidays 13-17 closed: 1 January, 7 January, Easter, 1 May, 1 July, 15 August, 25 December
www.museicivicifiorentini.it/brancacci The new Brancacci Chapel Museum From the autumn of 2012 the museum will be equipped with a new communications system and will be offering improved didactic material to visitors. In the Sala del Cenacolo, named after the splendid fresco by Alessandro Allori, a new video on the historical context and iconographical origin of the Cappella Brancacci frescoes will be projected. The adjacent Chapter House, which leads to the Chapel, houses the new information point, where an interactive tablet accompanying the visit to the frescoes of Masaccio, Masolino and Filippino Lippi is available to the public.
restoration in progress The restoration of the Monumento in memoria di Madame Anne de Fauveau, made by her daughter Félicie de Fauveau (1859) and placed in the cloister of Santa Maria del Carmine, is one among a series of initiatives reevaluating the work of the French sculptress.
Il Palazzo dei Fiorentini 14 October, 11 November 2012 Special opening times for people born and/or resident in Florence and the Florentine province who have the free ‘Un bacione a Firenze’ card. Free admission to and guided activities are held at Palazzo Vecchio, the Museo Bardini, the Fondazione Salvatore Romano, and the Santa Maria Novella Museum. Booking required 055 2768224/2768558 info.museoragazzi@comune.fi.it www.museicivicifiorentini.it
PERCORSI INSOLITI NEI MUSEI BARDINI, HORNE E STIBBERT
MUSEO BARDINI ANNA CASATI MODA A FIRENZE 1952-1994. DA VACANZE ROMANE AI FAVOLOSI ANNI OTTANTA 23 GIUGNO - 8 OTTOBRE 2012
MUSEO HORNE BORDI FIGURATI DEL RINASCIMENTO NELLA COLLEZIONE HORNE 22 GIUGNO - 8 OTTOBRE 2012
Luxury and fashion. Unusual exhibitions in the Bardini, Horne and Stibbert museums MUSEO STIBBERT
UNA TEENAGER NELLA MODA. LE COLLEZIONI IN SALA BIANCA DI GIOVANNA FERRAGAMO DAGLI ANNI SESSANTA AGLI ANNI OTTANTA 21 GIUGNO - 8 OTTOBRE 2012
A unique itinerary exploring five centuries in the art of fabrics, the history of costume and art collectionism, from Renaissance trims to the high fashion of the 20th century, which offers an unprecedented spotlight on the evolution of dressing through three exhibitions set up in three different Florentine museums. For the exhibitions at the Stibbert and Horne Museums see p. 40.
Lusso e moda a Firenze. Anna Casati 1952-1994
curated by Antonella Nesi, Eleonora Andreoni and Michela Daddi until 6 January 2013 The creations of Anna Casati, which from the 1950s appeared in the most important fashion magazines and in Beverly Hills shops, in this exhibition are set against a place of art, an expression of the refinement and propensity for luxury of Stefano Bardini. At her debut in 1952 the stylist met with immediate international success, which was maintained until the closing of the atelier in 1994, thanks to excellent craftsmanship that placed emphasis on the quality of the fabrics, details and design.
Museo del Bigallo This museum takes its name from the Greater Company of Saint Mary of Bigallo. It houses 14th century frescoes, including the Madonna della Misericordia from 1342, which contains the first known image of Florence, and priceless 14th and 15th century paintings, including a triptych by Daddi, paintings by Domenico di Michelino and the Master of San Miniato, and sculptures by the architect of the Loggia, Master Alberto Arnoldi. piazza San Giovanni, 1 open: Monday to Saturday 10.30-16.30, Sunday 10.30-13.30 Admission every hour, only by appointment, with tour guide 055 288496 bigallo@comune.fi.it closed: 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
www.comune.fi.it
Foundation Salvatore Romano The museum in the historic refectory of the monastery of Santo Spirito houses sculptures, architectural fragments and wall paintings, mainly medieval, donated to the city in 1946 by the antiquarian Salvatore Romano. piazza Santo Spirito, 29 open: Saturday to Monday 10-16 closed: 1 January, Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 25 December
www.museicivicifiorentini.it/romano
Museo Stefano Bardini Stefano Bardini (1854-1922) created a museum in the building he bought in 1881 to house his antiques’ business. The recent renovation entirely reflects the character of the collection as it was when Bardini left it to the city of Florence in 1922. Among more than 2,000 paintings, sculptures and objects in the applied arts are Tino da Camaino’s Charity, Donatello’s Madonna dei Cordai, Antonio del Pollaiolo’s Michael Archangel, Guercino’s Atlas and Pietro Tacca’s famous bronze Porcellino. There is also an interesting collection of medallions, bronzes, oriental carpets, 15th-century marriage chests and the precious armoury. via dei Renai, 37 open: Friday to Monday 11-17; group booking Tuesday to Thursday closed: 1 January, Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 25 December
www.museicivicifiorentini.it/bardini
focus Sassari in Florence. An unusual window in the lapidarium of the Museo Stefano Bardini
In the architectural representations of the upper section of the stone frame of the 16th-century window of Palazzo Marongiu we can admire the forms and austere nature of the towers and walls of fortified Sassari. Represented in the basrelief is the triumphal entry into Sassari of the valorous captain Don Angelo Marongiu, lieutenant of the viceroy, veteran of the battle of Macomer, where on 19 May 1478 he had defeated the army of Don Leonardo Alagòn, fourth and last marquis of Oristano. The window was in the centre of Sassari, in the house of Donna Rosa Gambella, the wife of Marongiu. In 1898, when Achille Oggiano, then the owner of the house, decided to carry out some restoration work, the window was removed and bought by the traders Dallai and Macciardi who in turn sold it, for a higher profit, to a painter from Cagliari named Enrico Castagnino. The window later came into the hands of the Florentine antique-dealer Costantini, who had it placed in the courtyard of his house, and it finally ended up in the personal collection of Stefano Bardini. Bardini decided to insert it into the façade of the Torre del Gallo, which he had purchased and restored at the beginning of the 20th century, though in 1914 he had it moved to his palazzo in Piazza dei Mozzi, today housing the museum which bears his name. Set into a wall of the Sala del Lapidario, the sculpture stands majestic and imposing, arousing the curiosity of tourists and the unconditional admiration of the numerous people from Sassari who never fail to visit the museum when they come to Florence. Eleonora Andreoni Museo Stefano Bardini
Santa Maria Novella Museum
civic museums
exhibition
The museum includes the cloisters decorated between the 14th and the 15th century – including the Chiostro Verde with important work by Paolo Uccello –, the Cappellone degli Spagnoli (Spanish Chapel), decorated with frescoes by Andrea di Bonaiuto, the Cappella degli Ubriachi and the Refectory with the late 16th-century work of Alessandro Allori. piazza Santa Maria Novella open: Friday to Monday 10-16 closed: 1 January, Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 25 December
www.museicivicifiorentini.it/smn
A new route in the Santa Maria Novella Museum From 9 June 2012 the Santa Maria
Novella Museum has its entrance at piazza Stazione 4. The new entrance leads directly into the Chiostro dei Morti, reopened to the public after thirteen years of closure, at the end of the first phase of the restoration campaign. The cleaning and consolidation of the paintings on the vaults has now made it possible to admire this old area, whose walls are decorated with rare and valuable examples of Florentine Trecento painting and with numerous tombstones. The visit continues with the Chiostro Verde, the Cappellone degli Spagnoli, the Cappella degli Ubriachi and the Refectory. The latter temporarily houses the frescoes of Paolo Uccello and his workshop, which come from the east side of the Chiostro Verde: these are presently under restoration and are now viewable from close up in the Refectory. Thanks to an agreement between the Comune di Firenze and the ‘Scuola Marescialli e Brigadieri dei Carabinieri’, at the time of exceptional openings and special city celebrations it will also be possible to visit the celebrated Chiostro Grande, situated in the part of the complex of Santa Maria Novella which since 1920 has housed the School. Built in the Trecento thanks to the generosity of local noble families, the cloister is decorated with a cycle of frescoes representing scenes from the life of Saint Dominic and other Dominican saints, executed between 1570 and 1590 by over fifteen different painters of the Accademia. Silvia Colucci Curator of the Santa Maria Novella Museum
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palazzo strozzi
The Thirties.
related exhibitions Five, free entry, special shows further explore topics covered in the Palazzo Strozzi exhibition
The Arts in Italy Beyond Fascism
curated by Antonello Negri with Silvia Bignami, Paolo Rusconi and Giorgio Zanchetti Florence section curated by Susanna Ragionieri 22 September 2012-27 January 2013
This exhibtion comprising 96 paintings, 17 sculptures, 20 household objects accompanied by sketches, graphics and photographs – both experimental and documentary – illustrate a complex and vital time of experimentation. This was a period of extraordinary transformation in the arts, from painting to sculpture, from design to mass communication, while fully conveying the aesthetic, cultural and ideological atmosphere of the period. 1930s Italy, during the Fascist era, witnessed a vigorous artistic battle, involving every style and trend, from Classicism to Futurism, from Expressionism to Abstraction, and from monumental art to salon painting. Seven sections display masterpieces by artists such Sironi, Martini, Guttuso and Fontana, rare photographs and 1930s film clips. The works come from important private collections, museums and foundations, in Italy and abroad.
upcoming The Springtime of the Renaissance. Sculpture and the Arts in Florence 1400-1460
23 March-18 August 2013
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Restoring order. The image of Florence on the occasion of the Führer’s visit Archivio Storico del Comune di Firenze 5 September 31 October 2012 The birth of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. The first festival editions: 1933-1939 Maggio Musicale Foundation open during shows in the 2012 season The Thirties at Florence Lyceum Lyceum International Club 8 November 2012 27 January 2013 La porti un bacione a Firenze. The Thirties in fashion, newspapers and literary cafés Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale 10 November 2012 27 January 2013 Comics and around. Publishers and illustrators in Florence during the Thirties Biblioteca Marucelliana 30 November 2012 27 January 2013
related events
Centres and Schools The exhibition starts with a focus on the influential artistic centres, each characterised by a particular style or taste: the Milan group, dominated by Sironi and Carrà, and representatives of the Novecentismo such as Garbari, Tosi, Funi and Wildt; Florence, with Soffici, Rosai, Lega and Viani, and Bologna’s Morandi; Rome, divided between Classical and Realist schools (Donghi, Bartoli, Carena and Ceracchini); Turin, with Casorati’s neo-15th century movement, drawing inspiration from France, including Chessa, Menzio, Paulucci; and Trieste, harking back to a Mitteleuropa suspended in time, represented by Nathan, Bolaffio and Sbisà.
Activities at Palazzo Strozzi A rich programme of events, lectures, courses and more with which to explore art in an enjoyable way, with something for everyone
Young Artists and ‘Irrealists’ The supranational character of Italian 1930s art is clearly perceptible in the work of the Futurist and abstract avant-garde and among the younger painters and sculptors, open to European and international influences with new anti-academic forms and references to European primitivism and expressionism. This section highlights their manifold and even conflicting characteristics through a selection of significant pieces by artists working mainly between Rome and Milan: Licini, Prampolini, Radice, Peruzzi, Crali, Scipione, Mafai, Guttuso, Pirandello, Cagli, Capogrossi, Basaldella, Birolli, Sassu, Gentilini, Fontana, Marini and Melotti. Travelling Artists The main artistic centres until 1933 were Paris and Berlin, cosmopolitan centres frequented by Italian artists looking for places more open to the modern. In this section the exchanges between Italy and Europe are illustrated both through examples of specific work by Italian artists abroad: the France of the Italiens de Paris with De Chirico, De Pisis, Paresce, Tozzi, Savinio, and others; the United States of Depero; the Germany of Mucchi and De Fiori and others, and then in reverse through the presence of such foreign artists in Italy as Germany’s Max Beckmann and Jenny Wiegmann, Russia’s Deineka and France’s Cheyssial. Public Art This section focuses on public art in its plastic and painterly (the mural) forms, starting with the Milan Triennale of 1933, which was dominated by Mario Sironi. It seeks to prompt a comparison with the French scene of the time, presenting sketches for murals and sculptures intended for public places, reliefs, glass panels and posters. This is illustrated with works by Martini, Sironi, Carrà, Fontana, and others. The idea of art as a means of communication and a vehicle for messages is typical of the 1930s. Contrasts The contrast between modernity and tradition gradually increased during the decade, culminating in the critical issue of ‘degenerate art’ in Germany, reflected in some respects in Italy, around 1940, in the clash between the ‘reactionary’ Cremona Prize and the Bergamo Prize, some entries for which were provocatively modernistic. This tension was reflected in metaphysical and ‘abstract’ works by Italian artists, at one time regarded as ‘shocking’ (De Chirico, Birolli, Carrà, Ghiringhelli, Reggiani and later Guttuso), set against works by German artists such as Dix and Ziegler who celebrated the regime. Design and Applied Arts This section concentrates on the dialectic between industrial reproduction – from tubular chairs to Luminator lamps, signalling the birth of design in Italy, celebrated in the Triennali di Milano of 1933 and 1936 – and the unique piece, artisanal and often a luxury object. It illustrates types of furnishing and shows internal spaces, using contemporary Italian cinema and vintage photographs of the Triennali. Florence The final section refers to Florence’s role as the city of the most important and dynamic cultural journals, connecting poetry, painting, writing, sculpture and music. This is complemented by the theme of The Strength of the Province and its Origins, works by Soffici, Rosai, Viani, Romanelli, Marini and Manzù. The section compares the theme of the representation of the human figure from Hildebrand to Berenson and De Chirico and that of modernity, with an atypical Futurist such as Thayaht, and his brother Ram, to ideas for the city’s renewal. Sketches for Volo di notte, staged by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1940, close the section.
palazzo strozzi
Sections of the exhibition
free activities with exhibition entry ticket booking required 055 2469600 fax 055 244145 prenotazioni@cscsigma
• The Radio Room and the Design Room: in a dedicated room visitors can listen to broadcasts of the period and record their own interviews and comments about the exhibition. Every week Controradio broadcasts a ten-minute programme produced by Radio Palazzo Strozzi. The Design Room contains a 3D printer, giving visitors the opportunity to experiment with drawing and Touchscreen and apps The touchscreen in the courtyard industrial design allows visitors to discover 1930s every day Florence through architectural • A più voci: activities for those designs, drawings and photos from with Alzheimer’s, their families and the Archivio di Stato di Firenze helpers. The project focuses on and compare those places with how imagination rather than memory they are today. The material is also or logical and cognitive faculties. available on an iPad app, allowing The aim is also to change social visitors to discover 1930s Florence perceptions of the illness in Italian, English and Chinese every Tuesday at 15
• Speaking of Art. A conversation in the exhibition: a conversation between visitors and educators in the exhibition opens an exchange of ideas for a deeper look at a selection of works reservation required the third Thursday of the month at 18 in Italian; avalaible in English by request at 055 3917141. Minimun group participation may apply
Publications As well as digital publications, Palazzo Strozzi has designed the family and children’s book Visible Listening. Growing up in the Thirties, edited by James M. Bradburne, illustrated with photographs by James O’Mara. A further volume tells the story of the restoration of Palazzo Strozzi as a public space between 1937 and 1940. Giuseppe Palumbo has created Jumbo, based on his archival research into the comics suppressed by Mussolini in 1938
• Sketching on Thursdays: Palazzo Strozzi proposes an exciting drawing experience in the exhibition. An artist accompanies you on an artistic adventure through the colours and forms of Italian painters of the 1930s. No Palazzo Strozzi Passport The Passport to the Thirties in experience necessary Tuscany takes visitors on a tour of 2 October, 6 November, 4 December 2012 1930s Florence that includes, in from 20 to 22 addition to the well-known masterpieces, sites such as Santa Maria Tuesday at the movies! A programme of screenings organ- Novella Central Station and the ised by Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi Deposito Rotabili Storici di Pistoia. and FST - Mediateca Odeon Cine- Visit 5 sites and get free entry to ma. Eight films that tie in with the the exhibition exhibition Series of lectures on Florence Cinema Odeon, piazza Strozzi 25 September, 2, 9, 16 and 23 October in the Thirties 2012, 8, 15 and 22 January 2013 at 20.30 On the occasion of the exhibition, a series of lectures are held in places Performance Venti contrari which evoke the period Through music and words, the duo in various venues in Tuscany Morgenstern/Gambino explore the from 9 October 2012 to 22 January 2013 work of artists who lived through the period of social instability that was the 1930s Palazzo Strozzi courtyard 6 October 2012 at 21.30
Families at Palazzo Strozzi activities for families on the occasion of the exhibition see pp. 54-56
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in the now
Museo Marino Marini
Centre for Contemporary Culture Strozzina
Created in 2007 as part of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, the Centre houses exhibition projects of contemporary art which explore themes and modes of expression with an interdisciplinary approach through meetings with artists, debates, conferences, workshops and video projections. The Strozzina programme expressly centers on the artistic developments of recent years, favouring multimedia projects and relational and interactive forms of art.
An exhibition space devoted to contemporary art. The collection of the artist Marino Marini’s own works is permanently on show, along with exhibits, and in-depth learning and training activities. piazza San Pancrazio open: Monday and Wednesday to Saturday 10-17 closed: Tuesday, Sunday, holidays and August
www.museomarinomarini.it
Palazzo Strozzi, piazza Strozzi open: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday to Sunday 10-20, Thursday 10-23 closed: Monday The Strozzina ticket is valid for a month; a special ticket gives entry to both exhibitions in the Palazzo
www.strozzina.org www.palazzostrozzi.org
Early one morning
exhibition
Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art. Nathalie Djurberg, Adrian Ghenie, Arcangelo Sassolino, Chiharu Shiota, Annegret Soltau curated by Franziska Nori and Barbara Dawson 5 October 2012 27 January 2013
Untitled (Seated Figure on a Dappled Carpet), 1971, oil on canvas, 198 x 147 cm, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Dublin © 2012 The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved
A number of works by Francis Bacon, including three unfinished works that have not been shown in Italy before, are placed alongside the work of five contemporary artists who share Bacon’s reflection on man’s existential condition and on the depiction of the human figure. Bacon’s paintings on display, concentrating on the often distorted human figure, are set against photographic and archival material from the artist’s studio: photographic portraits, reproductions of old masters, film stills, and pictures from books and magazines. Elements of Bacon’s work are to be found in the work of the five artists on show: Adrian Ghenie (Romania, 1977), in whose work the face, the symbol of a person’s individuality, is corrupted and made almost unrecognisable; Chiharu Shiota (Japan, 1972), who presents a site-specific installation built with an inextricable net of black threads which, in interacting with objects of everyday use, creates a space which brings out hidden, forgotten or imagined connections; the three installations shown by Nathalie Djurberg (Sweden, 1978) consist of figures in clay and plasticine, subject to decomposition and distortion; Arcangelo Sassolino (Italy, 1967), with a new installation made for the Strozzina spaces, uses mechanical systems to explore the effects caused by energy and extreme force on matter, demonstrating the transience of things without recourse to metaphor; and finally, a selection of works by Annegret Soltau (Germany, 1946) who works on the themes of the body and of identity, such as her ‘photo sewings’, in which the artist’s face or fragments of different faces are crisscrossed by thin black thread.
Thursday at CCC Strozzina Series of lectures, films and meetings to discuss the themes of the exhibition. every Thursday at 18.30 Let’s talk about art Drop-in language exchange in the Palazzo Strozzi exhibitions. every Wednesday in November at 17.30 Family Size Workshops for families on the occasion of the exhibition (see pp. 54-55)
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The project, which takes its name from a work by Anthony Caro, is dedicated to sculpture from the 1960s to the present day and presents a programme of exhibitions and events involving artists, students and the museum public. For each exhibition there are open meetings between the artist, the curator and the public, and talks on contemporary sculpture, as well as workshops and meetings with the artists available to students of Art Institutes and the Accademia. For the detailed programme see the website.
Yuri Ancarani 17 November 2012-February 2013 Dedicated to the decade-long production of the Ravenna artist, the exhibition presents works not on display before and is accompanied by the projection of ‘Il Capo’ and ‘Piattaforma Luna’ during 50 days of International Cinema in association with Lo Schermo dell’Arte.
Andreas Kvas February-April 2013 Exhibition of one of the most interesting Italian artists of recent times who interprets the practice of painting and sculpture in a way that makes them a single concept; for the occasion the artist has created an installation for the crypt of the museum.
Matthew Brannon and Nicola Martini April-June 2013
activities
The 5 hidden treasures in collaboration with the Compagnia Piccoli Principi until February 2013
related events
For a complete programme see the website www.strozzina.org
exhibitions
upcoming An Idea of Beauty 1 March 3 June 2013
The project groups together 5 museums in Tuscany and aims for an active relationship between public and museum with special visits and itineraries guided by two actors who transform the visit into a performance. 2, 3, 4 January at 10.30 and 15, 5 January at 10.30, 15 and 17, 11 January at 18 and 21 12 January at 10.30, 15 and 17, 18 January at 18 and 21, 19 January at 10.30 and 15 25 January at 18 and 21 Booking required 055 219432 educa@museomarinomarini.it
via Senese, 68
www.villaromana.org
exhibitions
N.N. curated by Adela Demetja
28 September-3 November 2012
Piotr Nathan Antje Majewski
Base
in the now
Villa Romana A centre of independent artistic production. Every year it provides hospitality for four German artists whose works are presented in an exhibition at the end of their residency. Apart from this aspect of its activities, the Villa also organises workshops and symposiums and a full programme of exhibitions and events dedicated to contemporary art.
I Premiati di Villa Romana
Cultural association and art gallery, supports in-depth research and collaboration with international artists.
15 February-22 March 2013
www.baseitaly.org
16-22 December 2012
Shannon Bool, Mariechen Danz, Heide Hinrichs, Daniel Maier-Reimer
via San Niccolò, 18r
exhibitions
Patrick Tuttofuoco 25 September 2012 10 January 2013
Fondazione Studio Marangoni
Franco Vaccari
The FSM fosters the art and teaching of contemporary photography with courses, workshops and conferences. Alongside the teaching, the FSM organises exhibitions in Italy and abroad. via San Zanobi, 32r and 19r
17 January-17 March 2013
Michael Sailstorfer 21 March 31 May 2013
exhibitions
www.studiomarangoni.it
Corso Triennale di Fotografia
Mostra dei lavori finali 20 September-20 October 2012
The Austrian Season Media Reflections Michael Michlmayr, Fußgänger/Pedestrians, 2005, lambda c-print, cm 80x80
project by FLUSS - Society for the Promotion of Photo and Media Art, Lower Austria 25 October-15 December 2012 Examples of contemporary photo and video art from Austria. Works by Renate Bertlmann, Eva Brunner-Szabo, Brigitte Konyen, Karin Mack, Michael Mastrototaro aka Machfeld, Michael Michlmayr and Robert Zahornicky. open: Monday to Saturday 15-19 or by appointment
and more... Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery
Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
Fashion, visual arts, cinema, photography, advertising, architecture and music all come together in Florence in the events organised by Pitti Immagine.
A prestigious institution, founded in 1784, today committed to developing the creative potential of its young students with university level courses.
via Faenza, 111
via Ricasoli, 66
www.pittimmagine.com
www.accademia.firenze.it
Stazione Leopolda, viale Fratelli Rosselli, 5
www.stazione-leopolda.com
Musicus Concentus Explores the new scene in electronic music, offering concerts and other musical encounters throughout Tuscany. piazza del Carmine, 19
www.musicusconcentus.com
Switch Creative Social Network
Cantieri Goldonetta Performance, residential workshops. The place for research into body language. Also the home of the Accademia sull’arte del gesto, devoted to exploring dance for children. In the summer it organises the Festival Oltrarno Atelier. via Santa Maria, 23-25
www.cango.fi.it
Tempo Reale
Urban creativity, musical experimentation and artistic entertainment. Switch offers meetings with musicians, deejays, urban writers and digital artists in a continual dialogue with the development of the city.
European reference point for research, production and education in new music technologies. It collaborates with Tuscan music festivals, offering performances by international artists who explore the confines of auditory experience.
via Scipio Slapater, 2
Villa Strozzi, via Pisana, 77
www.switchproject.net
www.temporeale.it
Fondazione Fabbrica Europa per le Arti Contemporanee The Fabbrica Europa project is a cultural festival that takes place in May in the Stazione Leopolda and other spaces in the city. On the programme are theatrical performances, concerts, dance, workshops and discussion. borgo degli Albizi, 15
www.ffeac.org
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in the now
Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci
exhibitions
The purpose of the Centro Pecci is to interpret and display the cutting edge in international contemporary art. In addition to the permanent collection of works, the Centre periodically stages temporary exhibitions, workshops and events. viale della Repubblica, 277, Prato open: Monday and Wednesday to Friday 10-19, 1 January 15-19 closed: 25 and 31 December
www.centropecci.it
Massimo Barzagli. Grandezza naturale
upcoming
Exhibition rooms 30 September-2 December 2012
Triggering Reality.
Continuing the series of exhibitions devoted to artists born in the 1960s, this is the first one-man show of Massimo Barzagli to be staged in a museum. The exhibition, which plays ironically with art, its history and its most recent styles, focuses on the production of the last ten years, presenting photographic records impressed directly on paper, like Mai Home and Leila’s Cast Bronz, together with works made for the occasion in which the artist explores his relationship with the history of art. By way of contrast, works from the early 1990s like Birdwatching and Fiorile, presented for the first time in its entirety, are also on display.
Nuove direzioni nell’arte e architettura olandese 10 December 2012-3 March 2013
I libri di Ettore Sottsass February-March 2013
activities
The 5 hidden treasures in collaboration with the Compagnia Piccoli Principi until February 2013
The project groups together 5 museums in Tuscany and aims for an active relationship between public and museum with special visits and itineraries guided by two actors who transform the visit into a performance. 27 January 2013 at 16, 31 January 2013 at 9.15 and 11, 1 February 2013 at 9.15, 11 and 17.30, 2 February 2013 at 16 and 17.30, 3 February 2013 at 10.30, 7 February 2013 at 9.15 and 11, 8 February 2013 at 9.15, 11 and 17.30, 9 February 2013 at 16 e 17.30, 10 February 2013 at 16 and 17.30 Booking required 0574 531835 edu@centropecci.it
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Ufo Story/Storia degli Ufo.
In viaggio per “la ricostruzione radicale dell’universo”
Workshops activities for families on the occasion of exhibitions see p. 56
Lounge/Project Area 30 September 2012-3 February 2013 The exhibition recounts for the first time the story of UFO, Florence’s “radical” avant-garde group dealing with architecture, action, art, design and communication. An experience lasting almost half a century – from 1967 to 2012 – narrated through materials and works from the collection of the Centro Pecci, the Lapo Binazzi – UFO Archive and the Carlo Palli Collection.
Florens 2012 International Biennale on Cultural Heritage and Landscape
Florens Returns from 3 to 11 November 2012 the second year for the Biennale on Cultural Heritage and Landscape 9 days devoted to culture, the environment and the economy; 3 days of the International Forum in Palazzo Vecchio, Salone dei Cinquecento and Salone dei Duecento; 300 international speakers; 43 conferences and dynamic round tables; 6 special lectures; 8 cultural aperitifs in Palazzo Vecchio, Sala d’Arme; 1 film première, National Geographic; many other events The three guiding themes for this second year Forum are: • Conservation, Communication and Exploitation of the Cultural Heritage • Fashion, Taste and the Creative Industries • Environment, Rural Landscape, Local Products and their Distribution Florens 2012 prizes the Italian brand; promotes culture and environmental projects, particularly those with a strong technological and infrastructure content; is sensitive to themes of ‘know-how’ in the artisanal and food areas; expands in depth on the development of visionary projects with economic themes. Florens 2012 intends to repeat the success of last year’s event, cited in the European Commission’s Report “State of the Cities” as the only “excellent” Florentine case in the last few years, and labelled “an example of a good policy with which to confront the challenge of cities”, which served to “strengthen local economies to improve the national and international position” of Florence, and to attain a “coherent and sustainable development”. The aim of Florens 2012 is to provide ideas but also precise strategic and operative indications to all those contributing to the evolution of the Italian and international cultural system. The crucial issues emerging during the event will be a precious source of inspiration for the policymakers, those responsible for cultural institutions of a public and private nature and the entrepreneurs of the creative industry sector. The International Biennale on Cultural Heritage and Landscape is run by a cultural committee, Mauro Agnoletti Professore Associato di Pianificazione del Paesaggio rurale e Storia dell’ambiente - Università degli Studi di Firenze, Andrea Carandini Presidente del Consiglio Superiore per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Professore Senior La Sapienza, Università di Roma, Walter Santagata Professore Ordinario di Scienze delle Finanze - Università degli Studi di Torino, and artistic director Davide Rampello Direttore artistico del Padiglione Zero Expo 2015. Updates and further details on Facebook and the website www.fondazioneflorens.it
ecrf exhibition area
The exhibition area, recently opened on the ground floor of the historic headquarters of the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, represents a new point of reference for Florentines, and an added asset for Florence, just a stone’s throw from the Duomo and the the main sites of artistic and cultural interest scattered throughout the city’s historic centre. The venue hosts prestigious exhibitions and cultural events. via Bufalini, 6
www.entecarifirenze.it
exhibition
Alchimie di colori L’arte della Scagliola La collezione Bianco Bianchi di antiche scagliole dal XVII al XIX secolo curated by Silvia Botticelli and Modestino Romagnolo
18 October 2012-6 January 2013
An artistic and cultural event of great interest, the autumn exhibition aims to revive interest in the fascination and beauty of an old artisanal tradition, also known as “moonstone”, deeply rooted in Italian and Tuscan territory, through an exhibition of the most important pieces collected by Maestro Bianco Bianchi. Exhibited together with about thirty old pieces are the contemporary manufactures created by Alessandro and Elisabetta Bianchi – the son and daughter of Bianco and faithful heirs to their father’s secrets and teachings – who, with passion and complete dedication to the true artisanal tradition, successfully continue to practise the art of scagliola. To help younger generations better comprehend the precious technique of this art, the exhibition contains a small didactic section: an area where visitors, particularly students and school pupils, have the opportunity to observe the materials used and the working phases necessary for the making of manufactures in scagliola. open: Monday to Friday 9-19, Saturday and Sunday 10-13 and 15-19 Free entrance Information and booking of workshops and guided visits: 055 5384964 staff@osservatoriomestieridarte.it emanuele.barletti@entecarifirenze.it
Workshop of the Della Valle brothers, table top with a view of Argegno on Lake Como, mid 19th century, multi-coloured scagliola, cm 111x74. Bianco Bianchi Collection
Reopening of the Museo Pietro Annigoni The idea of setting up a museum dedicated to Pietro Annigoni in Florence sprang from the determination of the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, the banking institution with cultural and public utility aims, which believed in the recovery and revival of the master’s human and artistic legacy more than twenty years after his death (28 October 1988). The initiative has also been spurred by the constant encouragement of his widow Rossella Segreto Annigoni who has always done her utmost to keep alive her husband’s memory. In 2007 the Ente Cassa bought an important collection of about 6,000 works – paintings, drawings, lithographs, engravings and sculptures by the artist – from the artist’s son and daughter Benedetto and Ricciarda. Among these are some absolute masterpieces, familiar to critics and public alike and several times published, including Solitudine II and Solitudine III, Cinciarda, Vecchio giardino, Interno di Studio, Soffitta del Torero, Morte del mendicante, not to mention similarly well-known portraits and self-portraits forming part of the collection. Once in possession of the collection, the Ente sought to create the conditions for a visibility that did justice to the complexity of Annigoni’s varied world, and founded the Museo Nazionale “Pietro Annigoni”, was set up inside Villa Bardini in association with the Fondazione Parchi Monumentali Bardini e Peyron and opened to the public on 15 November 2007. The aim of the curators, however, has always been to make it an ‘open’ museum, not a static exhibition but a periodic alternation, around a small fixed nucleus of masterpieces, of works relating to different aspects of the artist’s multifaceted expressive horizon: portraits, selfportraits, landscapes, themes referring to the sentiments and passions of humankind. In autumn 2012 the museum reopens to the public after a period of closure with a new presentation focusing on landscape, a theme that in Annigoni often took on a variety of expressions, from simple extemporary exercises to more substantial environmental constructions with strongly evocative and symbolic meanings.
Da Fattori al Novecento
Opere inedite dalla collezione Roster, Del Greco, Olschki curated by Francesca Dini with Alessandra Rapisardi
until December 2012
For the first time the original nucleus of a large and valuable private collection, enriched from generation to generation, and surviving to this day almost entirely unseen by the general public, is finally on show. The collection was started by the Garibaldian physician Giovanni Del Greco (1846-1918), a friend of Giovanni Fattori, who painted him on the battlefield in two paintings that can be seen through the course of the exhibition. On Del Greco’s death, part of the collection became the property of his son-in-law Alessandro Roster (1865-1919) and his grandchildren Renata and Rita who married respectively Rapisardi and Olschki. Roster was the person mainly responsible for the enlargement of the collection as we know it today, full of works by artists like Giovanni Fattori, Telemaco Signorini, Giuseppe Abbati, Eugenio Cecconi, Vito D’Ancona, Luigi Gioli, Ruggero Panerai, Oscar Ghiglia and Ulvi Liegi. Later generations added the significant nucleus of post-Macchiaioli painters, with a particular predilection for Llewelyn Lloyd with whom they entertained friendly relations during long stays on the island of Elba. Thus, a fascinating overview of Tuscan collectionism between the 19th and 20th century documented by the previously undisplayed works of Macchiaioli and post-Macchiaioli artists. The more than 100 pictures on show are accompanied by 60 evocative family photographs showing the Roster, Del Greco, Rapisardi and Olschki families at the beginning of the 20th century, holidays on the beaches of Elba and at Castiglioncello, life in Florence and friendships with artists such as Fattori, Fucini and Lloyd. open: Tuesday to Sunday 10-18 Free unsupervised parking at Forte Belvedere (Tuesday to Sunday 10-19) reserved for those with tickets to the exhibition Information and booking: 055 20066206 mg.geri@bardinipeyron.it For related events see: www.entecarifirenze.it
bardini villa and garden
exhibition
he Fondazione Parchi Monumentali Bardini e Peyron was established in 1998 by the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze in the wake of the project to revive the properties of the Bardini inheritance that had been acquired and restored. Since 2008 the Villa has not only housed the monographic museum dedicated to the artist Pietro Annigoni, but has also, and in this it surpasses the classic dimension of a ‘closed’ museum, been an exhibition centre for temporary events and scientific research, focusing particularly on the historical period between the late 19th and early 20th century. The Museo Capucci (see p. 45) and the Società Italiana di Orticoltura are also based on these premises.
T
Bardini Garden via dei Bardi, 1r; costa San Giorgio, 2 open: every day 8.15-16.30 in January, February, November and December; 8.15-17.30 in March; 8.15-18.30 in April, May, September and October; 8.15-19.30 in June, July and August closed: 1st and last Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December For times and events see:
www.bardinipeyron.it
events linked to the exhibition
Guided tours for individuals Saturday and Sunday at 10.30, 11.30, 15.30, 16.30 All the activities are free to those who buy a ticket to the museum the same day. The exhibition ticket is also valid for the Museo Capucci
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horne museum
n 1911, the English architect and art historian Herbert Percy Horne purchased Palazzo Corsi to house his collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and furnishings in such a way as to recreate the atmosphere of a Renaissance home. Horne died in 1916, his collection (which in the meantime had grown to include more than 6,000 works) was left to the Italian State, creating a foundation “for the benefit of study”. Today, visitors see the Horne Museum as the English collector would have wanted them to: an elegant treasure chest of masterpieces of painting and sculpture (from Giotto to Simone Martini, Masaccio, Filippino Lippi, Domenico Beccafumi, and Giambologna), but above all as a home, decorated with precious items dating from the 1200s to the 1600s, in which to relive the past and discover the customs and art as they were in 15th- and 16th-century Florence.
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Bordi figurati del Rinascimento nella collezione Horne curated by Elisabetta Nardinocchi and Laura Zaccagnini Horne Museum until 6 January 2013
upcoming Horne & Friends.
via dei Benci, 6 open: Monday to Saturday 9-13. Can be opened on special request.
Firenze un sogno da salvare
curated by Elisabetta Nardinocchi and Matilde Casati April 2013
Exhibited for the first time is the nucleus of silk, linen and gold thread Renaissance fabrics of the refined Horne collection. The 21 borders decorated with figures, dating from the 15th-16th century and intended for the embellishment of liturgical vestments, were woven with the ‘lampas’ or ‘brocatelle’ technique, while the designs of the religious figures are attributed to important artists like Domenico Ghirlandaio, Bartolomeo di Giovanni and Raffaellino del Garbo. These extraordinary masterpieces document a particular period of taste and trade in art: sought-after by collectors due to their small size and the preciousness of the materials, between the 19th and 20th century such fabrics were cut up and put on sale by art dealers.
exhibitions
www.museohorne.it
Luxury and fashion. Unusual exhibitions in the Bardini, Horne and Stibbert museums A unique itinerary exploring five centuries in the art of fabrics, the history of costume and art collectionism, from Renaissance trims to the high fashion of the 20th century, which offers an unprecedented spotlight on the evolution of dressing through three exhibitions set up in three different Florentine museums. For the exhibition at the Museo Stefano Bardini see p. 31.
Una teenager nel mondo della moda.
Le collezioni di Giovanna Ferragamo dagli anni sessanta agli anni ottanta nel Museo Stibbert di Firenze
stibbert museum
curated by Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti and Stefania Ricci Stibbert Museum until 6 January 2013 ow a foundation, the Stibbert Museum came into being in 1908 on the death of Frederick Stibbert (1838-1906). According to the terms of his will, Stibbert left his art collections and the building where they were housed, located at Montughi, to the city of Florence. The bequest is now a rare example of a 19th-century house and museum which is still well preserved. In recent years, many of the original arrangements and exhibits, altered during the 20th century, have been reinstated. The creation of the Japanese armoury was one of Stibbert’s passions and he went on collecting up until the last months of his life, hundreds of objects that document the styles of armour and the splendid quality of edged weapons from the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’. Today the collection is considered one of the most important in the western world.
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via Frederick Stibbert, 26 open: Monday to Wednesday 10-14, Friday to Sunday 10-18 closed: 1 January, Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 25 December
www.museostibbert.it works on loan
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The museum contributes to exhibitions at home and abroad with prestigious loans. From the Japanese collection 25 works for the exhibition Samurai (Rotterdam, Wereldmuseum 11 October 201224 March 2013),
and a number of works for Giappone, fra Mito e Realtà – Atto I: I Draghi (Turin, Palazzo Barolo and the Museo d’Arte Orientale, 10 November-23 December 2012). A precious work from the colletions goes to Rubens. Le origini: Italia e l’Atelier
Anversa (Tokyo, the Bunkamura Museum of Art, 9 March-21 April 2013; Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, 28 April16 June 2013; Nigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, 29 June11 July 2013).
As a homage to Giovanna Ferragamo 20 models made between the 1960s and 1982 are exhibited as if they were guests visiting the museum. The exhibition is the empassioned account of two stories – that of the Stibbert family and that of the Ferragamo family – which, although belonging to different centuries and different countries, are united by the same courage and determination that lead to success.
casa vasari
n 1561 Cosimo I donated a house in borgo Santa Croce to Giorgio Vasari, in recognition of his services. Enriched by a noteworthy collection of paintings, the house remained the property of the family until the death of its last member in 1687; the works of art were dispersed and some of the rooms were modified. The artist decorated some of the rooms with the help of Jacopo Zucchi and others; among them the Sala Grande, fortunately unchanged over the centuries, decorated with frescoes inspired by the Arts and the supremacy of painting, in the form of scenes taken from Pliny, of allegorical images and of the portraits of thirteen artists chosen by Vasari. Following a period of neglect, on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the birth of the Aretine artist in 2011, a long and complex restoration made available to visitors a building of extraordinary interest.
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borgo Santa Croce open: by appointment with guided tour. Information: Horne Museum 055 244661 fax 055 2009252 info@museohorne.it
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casa buonarroti
his fine 17th-century palazzo, built by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger to celebrate his family’s fame, is now a house museum with a dual function: to bear witness to the efforts of the Buonarroti through the centuries to expand and embellish their home, to protect the precious cultural legacies it contains (including the valuable Archives and the Library), and to preserve rare art collections; and at the same time, to celebrate the genius of Michelangelo, by exhibiting many of his works, such as the Madonna of the Stairs and the Battle of the Centaurs, and alongside them the extensive collection of drawings. The museum holds annual exhibitions addressing themes that relate to the Casa’s cultural and artistic heritage and its legacy, as well as to Michelangelo and his times.
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via Ghibellina, 70 open: Monday and Wednesday to Sunday 9.30-16 closed: 1 January, Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 25 December
www.casabuonarroti.it
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galileo museum
he Galileo Museum is heir to a prestigious tradition of scientific collecting that boasts nearly five centuries of history and centres on the importance attributed, by the Tuscan grand dukes, to the protagonists and to the tools of science. It revolves around the figure of Galileo Galilei, authoritative and controversial protagonist of astronomy and modern science. The new arrangement of the museum emphasises the importance of Galileo in the museum’s collections and the research activities that identify the dual function of the Galileo Museum – as an Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, an institute and a museum for the history of science.
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piazza dei Giudici, 1 open: Wednesday to Monday 9.30-18, Tuesday 9.30-13 closed: 1 January, 6 January, Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 1 November, 8 December, 25 and 26 December
www.museogalileo.it
Mineralogy and Lithology Collections of minerals, rocks and gems. Not to be missed is the large topaz crystal and an aquamarine weighing almost 1 kilo. Videos and innovative educational multi-media graphics describe and illustrate the museum’s collections. via Giorgio La Pira, 4 open: from 1 October to 31 May Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9-13, Saturday and Sunday 10-17; from 1 June to 30 September Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10-13, Saturday and Sunday 10-18 closed: 1 January, Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 25 December
“La Specola” On the ground floor is the Skeleton Hall where the skulls and complete skeletons of ancient and extinct animals are housed. On the first floor is Galileo’s Tribune, created in 1841. The second floor houses the zoological museum, providing an almost complete panorama of existing animals as well as a large number now extinct or in danger of extinction. The collection of anatomical waxes includes items of great scientific, and also artistic, interest; these continue to be consulted in the study of anatomy. The Torrino of the Specola exhibits important historic and scientific items including many from the Medici collections. The museum includes an exhibition of crystals (until 30 June 2013). via Romana, 17 open: from 1 October to 31 May Tuesday to Sunday 9.30-16.30; from 1 June to 30 September Tuesday to Sunday 10.30-17.30 Skeleton Hall and Observatory admission with reservation and guided tour only 055 2346760 closed: 1 January, Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 25 December
Geology and Palaeontology This museum exhibits the fossils of vertebrates that have been found in Tuscany over two centuries, illustrating the palaeontological history of the region, its palaeogeography and the progressive stages in the evolution of marine and terrestrial fauna. Among the items displayed is the skeleton of the oldest primate found in Tuscany. via Giorgio La Pira, 4 open: until 28 February Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9-13, Saturday and Sunday 10-17; from 1 March to 31 May every day 9-19; from 1 June to 2 September every day 10-19 closed: 1 January, 25 December
museum of mathematics
Botany
he Giardino di Archimede is a museum, the first of its kind, dedicated entirely to mathematics and its applications. It is organised into a number of interrelated sections, each of which functions as an independent exhibition. The section Oltre il compasso (Beyond the Compass), dedicated to the geometry of curves, is flanked by the section Aiutare la natura: dalle Meccaniche di Galileo alla vita quotidiana (Helping Nature. From Galileo’s Le Meccaniche to Daily Life), in which interactive machines, similar to those developed by Galileo, show that we continue to use such machines today. Un Ponte sul Mediterraneo. Leonardo Pisano, la scienza araba e la rinascita della matematica in Occidente (A bridge on the Mediterranean. Leonardo Pisano, Arab science and the rebirth of mathematics in the West), which highlights Leonardo Fibonacci.
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via San Bartolo a Cintoia, 19/a open: from 16 May to 30 September Monday to Friday 9-13; from 1 October to 15 May Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9-13, Tuesday and Thursday 9-13 and 14-17, Sunday 15-19 closed: holidays and August
www.archimede.ms
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Workshops for children see p. 55
This is the most important Italian scientific institution for the collection and preservation of plants. The museum houses some exceptional herbals, and artistic and didactic collections which include the still life paintings of Bartolomeo Bimbi and wax models of plants, fruits and mushrooms made in the 18th and 19th century. via Giorgio La Pira, 4 open: admission with reservation and guided tour only 055 2346760
Botanical gardens (Medicinal Herb Garden) The Botanical Gardens originated in 1545 as a garden of medicinal plants. Today the grounds cover an area of 3 hectares, with a series of thematic flower-beds, large hot-houses and smaller greenhouses. Itineraries are available for the blind, based on touch and smell. The gardens are also home to some monumental trees, several of which are over 300 years old. via Pier Antonio Micheli, 3 open: until 28 February Saturday to Monday 10-17; from 1 March to 31 May every day 9-19; from 1 June to 2 September every day 10-19 closed: 1 January, 25 December
Villa Il Gioiello
Biomedica
via Pian dei Giullari, 17 open: admission with reservation and guided tour only 055 2346760
viale G. B. Morgagni, 85 open: admission with reservation and guided tour only 055 2346760
Sapporo: i giorni all’Undicesimo Viale
Gli Ainu di Hokkaido nelle fotografie di Fosco Maraini curated by Maria Gloria Roselli Anthropology and Ethnology until 7 January 2013 The exhibition displays a selection of photographs taken of the Ainu people between 1939 and 1941, when Fosco Maraini (1912-2004) travelled to Hokkaido to study this population, and during later journeys in 1954 and 1971. From his first visit to the Japanese island, the ethnologist and photographer brought back a rare collection of objects relating to this ethnic minority with mysterious origins, whose culture today has vanished. The collection donated to the museum is today partially exhibited in room 5. The exhibition forms part of the programme of national events to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Fosco Maraini.
natural history and anthropology museums
exhibition
he Imperial and Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History, was founded in 1775 by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Hapsburg Lorraine to collect together natural artefacts and scientific instruments, previously kept in the Uffizi Gallery. It is commonly called “La Specola”, recalling the Astronomical Observatory which was completed in 1789. The institute now consists of six sections, or museums, located in palazzi throughout the centre of Florence, where items of quite exceptional naturalistic and scientific value are preserved. These include 16th-century herbals, rare 18th-century waxworks, fossilised skeletons of elephants and collections of brightly coloured butterflies, giant crystals of tourmaline, Aztec artefacts, majestic wooden sculptures and even the largest flower in the world. The museums represent an impressive universe of nature, history, science and art.
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Administrative offices: via Giorgio La Pira, 4
www.msn.unifi.it
Anthropology and Ethnology
The oldest items come from the Medici collections and the 18th-century collection of James Cook, while others were collected by researchers and scientists in the 19th and 20th century. The American Indians, Lapland, Siberia and Indonesia are all represented in separate sections. The collection of musical instruments is significant.
via del Proconsolo, 12 open: from 1 October to 31 May Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9-13, Saturday and Sunday 10-17; from 1 June to 30 September Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10-13, Saturday and Sunday 10-18 closed: 1 January, Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 25 December
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alinari national museum of photography
exhibitions
Akyiyoshi Ito.
Sogni sott’acqua Underwater dreams 13 September-14 October 2012 Educated as a painter and a sculptor, the Japanese artist comes to Italy for the first time, bringing his “miracles under the waves”. His passion for the sea and the underwater world gives birth to photographs of the seas of Japan, the Philippines and Hawaii, and all those places where the artist has been able to capture the beauty of incredible ecosystems, marvelous worlds hidden from our sight. In his photographs the big blue deserts of water contrast with the vitality and the bright colours of the coral reefs and their inhabitants.
Gli Archivi Alinari e la sintassi del mondo.
Omaggio a Italo Calvino curated by Christophe Berthoud 19 October 2012-6 January 2013 On the 160th annniversary of the Fratelli Alinari, a selection of about 80 photographs presents the diversity of themes and genres of the Alinari production through the combination system proposed in Italo Calvino’s The Castle of Crossed Destinies, where the Tarot de Marseilles are used as a “narrative device”. The narrative is protracted in the space of the exhibition, flanking photographs and Tarot cards to evoke hidden texts linked to their iconography.
Guy Bourdin.
A message for you curated by Shelley Verthime in collaboration with Samuel Bourdin and Nicolle Meyer 10 January-31 March 2013
he MNAF (Alinari National Photographic Museum), managed by the Fratelli Alinari Fondazione per la Storia della Fotografia (Alinari Brothers Foundation for the History of Photography), includes a space for temporary exhibitions of historical and contemporary photography and a permanent exhibition space devoted to the history and the techniques of photography. A particular feature of the museum is the Museo Tattile (Tactile Museum) for the blind: for the first time, a museum space devoted to photography includes specially designed braille supports for ‘reading’ the works.
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piazza Santa Maria Novella, 14a red open: every day 10-19.30 closed: Wednesday and in August
www.mnaf.it
Workshops for families see p. 57
Exhibition on one of the most innovative and astonishing 20thcentury photographers which, almost 18 years after his death, presents the late-70s production when the artist, at the height of his artistic maturity, recorded changes in society like sexual freedom, the increasing presence of the media and the excesses of consumerism. Influenced by the expressive freedom of the surrealists, Bourdin explored the distance between the absurd and the sublime, producing ambiguous and evocative images that contrasted with the conventions of commercial photography.
Museo Gucci In September 2011 Gucci’s new museum opened in the historic Palazzo della Mercanzia: on three floors, the museum offers a dynamic and interactive display, rich in history, using objects, documents and pictures of the well-known fashion house founded in 1921 in Florence. The palazzo also houses the private Gucci archive, a vast collection of ready-to-wear clothes, accessories, photos and objects collected and catalogued in order to document Gucci’s creative universe and its cultural influence. piazza della Signoria open: every day 10-20 closed: 1 January, 15 August, 25 December
www.guccimuseo.com
Museo Salvatore Ferragamo The collection of footwear on exhibition at this museum, inaugurated in 1995, documents the entire working life of Salvatore Ferragamo, from his return to Italy in 1927 until his death in 1960. The collection is enhanced by post-1960 production: every year, several contemporary models are given places in the Archivio Salvatore Ferragamo, from which the museum selects the materials for exhibition. piazza di Santa Trinita, 5r open: Wednesday to Monday 10-18; in August, Monday to Saturday 10-13, 14-18 closed: 1 January, 1 May, 15 August, 25 December
www.museoferragamo.it
exhibition
Marilyn
The museum was created in 1975 within the Istituto Tecnico Industriale Tessile Tullio Buzzi, as a cultural institution aimed at conserving the memory of local industrial production and acting as material support in the study of industrial textile design. via Santa Chiara, 24, Prato open: Monday and Wednesday to Friday 10-15, Saturday 10-19, Sunday 15-19
www.museodeltessuto.it
exhibition
Vintage.
L’irresistibile fascino del tessuto in collaboration with A.N.G.E.L.O. Vintage Palace 7 December 2012-30 May 2013 The story of vintage fashion, the most recent tendency in contemporary fashion, is illustrated with a thematic exhibition that recounts how “second-hand” clothes, strongly rooted in the history of fashion and fabrics, have in the course of time become a phenomenon. This confirms the fact that fashion increasingly often plays with legacies of the past: from the medieval practice of readapting clothes and fabrics to the exemplary case of Prato with the process of recycled wool and second-hand shops selling military uniforms and vintage denim, from worn garments symbolising protest for 20thcentury youth movements to the revival of luxury brand icons and the vintage craze that has caught on among international celebrities. For a calendar of collateral events see the museum website
Museo Roberto Capucci Housed in Villa Bardini, the museum opened in 2007 with the aim of making Capucci’s work better known through thematic exhibitions. The rotating exhibitions use the rich archive of the Fondazione Roberto Capucci which, since 1951, includes 450 creations, 300 illustrations, 22,000 sketches, 20 notebooks, 150 audiovisual sources, 50,000 photographs and 50,000 press articles.
fashion museums and archives
Textiles Museum of Prato
costa San Giorgio, 2 open: Tuesday to Sunday 10-18 closed: 1 January, 25 December
curated by Stefania Ricci and Sergio Risaliti
www.fondazionerobertocapucci.com
until 28 January 2013
exhibition
Fifty years after her death, the museum pays homage to Marilyn Monroe with an exhibition in which well-known photographs of the most photographed woman in the world are set against works of art tied to the myth of the actress and 14 pairs of shoes made for her by Salvatore Ferragamo, as well as costumes from Marilyn’s most well-known film roles. The diva’s shoes were made by the Italian designer to emphasise her abundant sensuality.
I colori: il mio grande karma The museum display, until this winter, invites visitors on a journey into the colourful world of Roberto Capucci through 28 creations in the three colours emblematic of his artistic production. In the works of Capucci green, the colour of vegetation, is presented in infinite shades that evoke natural structures and cover the majestic sculpture-dresses with iridescent leaves such as the so-called ‘Bouganvillea’. Red, representing both heavenly and earthly love, together with white and black, is taken up instead in ‘Nove Gonne’. Purple, much loved by Capucci, is the colour of art, fantasy and dreams, themes expressed best in the fabric architecture ‘Violano’.
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house museums
Palazzo Davanzati or Museum of the Florentine House An almost unique example of a typical Florentine house, which developed out of the medieval tower and preceded the appearance of the Renaissance palace. Built in the mid-14th century by the Davizzi family, during the 16th century it passed to the Bartolini and then in 1578 to the Davanzati who owned it until the late 1800s. In 1904 it was bought by the antique dealer Elia Volpi who restored the palace and furnished it with items from his collection. The palazzo was later bought by the State and opened to the public in 1956. The furnishings, paintings, tapestries and items of everyday use effectively recreate the interior of a noble Florentine house as it would have been from the 14th to the 17th century. There are also numerous paintings with secular and religious subjects including the tondo decorated with the Gioco del Civettino (Game of the Fop) by Giovanni di ser Giovanni known as lo Scheggia. Sculptures include Antonio Rossellino’s Bust of a young man. Of great interest is the collection of ceramics and majolica (14th-18th century) and the rare wall decorations, such as those in the Sala dei Pappagalli and the room known as the bedroom of the Castellana di Vergy. via Porta Rossa, 13 open: every day 8.15-13.50; the second and third floors are accessible by appointment 055 2388610 closed: 2nd and 4th Sunday, 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/ davanzati
exhibition
Museo Casa Rodolfo Siviero
House of Dante
The house was built in the neo-Renaissance style in 1875. Rodolfo Siviero, known as the “James Bond of the art world” for his contribution in ensuring that many stolen works of art were returned to Italy, bought the building in 1944 and lived there until 1983. He left the house to the Regione Toscana on the condition it became a public museum. As well as furnishings, archaeological finds and art objects of every type and period, in the collection there is a nucleus of 20th-century works by, among others, Soffici, Annigoni, Manzù, Berti, and de Chirico.
The Casa di Dante we know today dates back to 1911 when the architect Giuseppe Castellucci reproduced a rather quaint medieval style building in the area in which the poet was said to have lived. The museum illustrates the life of Dante Alighieri and the Florence of his times. The Museo degli Originali includes a collection of medieval edged weapons, ceramics and objects once in daily use.
lungarno Serristori, 1-3 open: Saturday, from October to May 10-18, from June to September 10-14 and 15-19; Sunday and Monday, all year 10-13; group booking Tuesday to Friday on request at casasiviero@regione.toscana.it closed: 1 January, 1 May, 24 June, 15 August, 25 and 26 December
www.museocasasiviero.it
exhibition
Io lo guardo e ci parlo... quattro busti all’antica amati da Siviero
27 October 2012-12 January 2013 The exhibition reunites the four 17thcentury classical-style busts from the Siviero collection, separated following the collector’s death. Two busts – restored by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure – have remained in the house museum, while the other two have been moved to the Accademia del Disegno.
Omaggio al Davanzati. Fiori di Tano Pisano curated by Elena Francalanci 8 September-31 October 2012 Educated at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, the versatile Italian artist, who today lives in Spain, returns to exhibit his work in Tuscany with an ambitious project involving two exhibitions, one in Florence, the other in Fiesole. In the Florence exhibition, a homage to local artistic craftsmanship, the artist draws inspiration from the rooms of Palazzo Davanzati, creating graphic works and ceramic and metal works which stand as modern reinterpretations of the furnishings and create a fascinating interplay with the museum collections.
The Museo Casa Rodolfo Siviero takes part in the initiative Luoghi insoliti (see p. 2)
Museo di Casa Martelli Palazzo Martelli, which became a State museum in 1999, was opened to the public in 2009 to make available for general viewing the historic home and artistic collections of this noble family. At the beginning of the 16th century the Martelli, bankers and allies of the Medici, bought a property that was to grow in the following years. Since the 17th century the first floor has housed an art collection that today retains its original arrangement. This house museum is, therefore, not the result of a posthumous reconstruction but derives from the centuries-old stratification of a family’s life.
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via Zannetti, 8 open: Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning by appointment
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/ casamartelli
The Association of the Friends of the Museums of Palazzo Davanzati and Casa Martelli is organising a calendar of events to promote the two museums www.amicidavanzatimartelli.it
via Santa Margherita, 1 open: from October to March Tuesday to Sunday 10-17; from April to September every day 10-18
www.museocasadidante.it
Casa Guidi After their secret marriage (1846) the poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning fled to Italy and lived in Florence until Elizabeth’s death (1861); the house was bought in 1971 by the Browning Institute of New York which restored the apartments, filling them with objects and furniture, some of which once belonged to the couple. piazza San Felice, 8 open: from April to November, Monday, Wednesday and Friday 15-18
Casa Guidi and the Museo Casa di Dante are part of the Associazione Case della Memoria
House of Benvenuto Cellini The goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was born in Florence in a house situated in what is now Piazza del Mercato Centrale, as recorded by a commemorative plaque on the façade. The story of Cellini’s life is also linked to that of Vicchio, where the artist stayed at different times between 1559 and 1571. In his Autobiography he tells of having bought a house in the town centre and a farm two miles away. Here places, names and people of the time are mentioned; among the episodes narrated is the dinner at the house of Pier Maria d’Anterigoli, known as “Sbietta”, where the artist ate poisoned food that left him ill and in need of treatment for a whole year. Apart from his autobiography few other sources record his stay at Vicchio. Historical and land registry documents provide reliable information about the identity of his house: the dwelling was situated inside the 14th-century town walls, in present-day Corso del Popolo, near to where the Torre Fiorentina once stood. Recently restored, the house now contains various tools of the goldsmith’s trade and is a space used for meetings, courses and exhibitions. corso del Popolo, Vicchio (FI) open: by appointment Comune di Vicchio 055 843921 cultura@comune.vicchio.fi.it
House of Lorenzo Bartolini Lorenzo Bartolini was born one snowy day in January 1777, in this “humble and glorious little house”, as it was called by the Prato archivist and historian Cesare Guasti. Already from 1772 Lorenzo’s father Liborio had rented this house with adjoining workshop where he practised his trade as a blacksmith. From the medieval village of Savignano, at the age of 12 Lorenzo moved to Florence and entered the Academy; at 20 he went to Paris and at the school of David became friends with the young Ingres and received important commissions, thus starting a brilliant artistic career that would eventually lead him to be professor of sculpture at the Academies of Carrara and Florence. In 1855, five years after the sculptor’s death, the Prato painter Antonio Marini had mounted on the house where Bartolini was born a commemorative plaque bearing an epigraph dictated by Cesare Guasti: QUI È NATO / LORENZO BARTOLINI STATUARIO / CCCVIII ANNI / DOPO FRA BARTOLOMMEO DIPINTORE / ANTONIO MARINI P[OSE]. Q[UESTA]. M[EMORIA]. / NEL MDCCCLV. via di Savignano 21, Savignano, Vaiano (PO) open: by appointment. Guided visits to the medieval hamlet of Savignano and other hamlets associated with Bartolini 0574 988188 info@casabartolini.net
www.comune.vicchio.fi.it
Appartamento dell’abate Agnolo Firenzuola Badia di San Salvatore, piazza Firenzuola, 1, Vaiano (PO) open: Saturday 16-19, Sunday 10-12 and 16-19; by appointment Monday to Friday 328 6938733 assopromuseo@libero.it www.cultura.prato.it/musei/badia/
Casa Giosuè Carducci
Casa Niccolò Machiavelli
Casa Giacomo Puccini
via Carducci, 29, Santa Maria a Monte (PI) open: Monday 15-19, Tuesday to Friday 1013 and 15-19, Saturday and Sunday 10-13 www.santamariaamonte.com
via Scopeti, 157, Loc. Sant’Andrea in Percussina, San Casciano (FI) open: Monday to Friday upon reservation 0577 998511 998519 machiavelli@giv.it www.giv.it
Casermetta San Colombano, Mura Urbane, 1, Lucca open: Wednesday to Monday, from April to October 10-18, from November to March 11-17 closed: Tuesday except holidays and 25 December www.fondazionegiacomopuccini.it
Villa Caruso Bellosguardo
via Signorini, 2, Mulazzo (MS) open: admission with reservation only, possible guided tours 328 2515230 lunigianadantesca@libero.it
Casa di Piero Bargellini
Casa Museo Francesco Datini
Palazzo Bargellini, via delle Pinzochere, 3, Firenze open: admission with reservation only 055 241724 bargellini.studio@libero.it
Palazzo Datini, via Ser Lapo Mazzei, 41-43, Prato open: Monday and Wednesday 8.15-17.20, Tuesday and Thursday to Saturday 8.15-13.50 www.archiviodistato.prato.it
Casa di Sigfrido Bartolini via di Bigiano, 5, Pistoia open: admission with reservation only 0573 451311 328 8563276 sigfrido.bartolini@gmail.com
Casa Giovanni Boccaccio via G. Boccaccio, 18, Certaldo (FI) open: from April to October every day 9.3013.30 and 14.30-19, from November to March Wednesday to Monday 9.30-16.30 www.casaboccaccio.it
Casa Ferruccio Busoni piazza Vittoria, 16, Empoli (FI) open: admission with reservation only 0571 711122 centro@centrobusoni.org www.centrobusoni.org
via di Vainella 1/g, Figline di Prato (PO) open: by appointment 0574 464016 info@laboratoriotintori.it
Case della Memoria Association Established in 2005, the association has grouped together 35 houses (27 of them in Tuscany) with the aim of preserving the memory of illustrious artists, musicians and historical figures. The headquarters of the association is at Palazzo Datini in Prato, while Boccaccio’s House at Certaldo houses the archive. www.casedellamemoria.it
www.laboratoriotintori.prato.it
via di Bellosguardo, 54, Lastra a Signa (FI) open: from September to May Wednesday and Thursday 10-13, Friday to Sunday and holidays 10-13 and 15-18 (from June to August 10-13 and 15-19) closed: 1 January, Easter, 1 May, 2 June, 15 August, 1 November, 24 and 26 December www.museoenricocaruso.it
Casa di Dante Alighieri in Lunigiana
House museum of Leonetto Tintori Leonetto Tintori (1908-2000) was one of the most famous art restorers of the 20th century, known throughout the world for his work on mural paintings; his career as a painter and sculptor, on the other hand, was successful mostly at a local level. He executed important restorations like the work on Giotto’s frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua and on Piero della Francesca’s Legend of the True Cross cycle in Arezzo. As a restorer he also worked abroad, for example on the Egyptian pyramids in the Sudan and in Mayan temples in Mexico. The house, which was bought in 1934 by Leonetto Tintori and his wife Elena – a painter in her own right – contains a vast collection of archaeological finds and prized pieces of ancient and modern art. The monumental park-museum surrounding the house contains instead about 100 sculptural works by Tintori and other Tuscan artists of the early 20th century, executed in a great variety of materials (bronze, ceramic, concrete, iron). Worthy of particular mention, among the most important sculptures, is Noah’s Ark, an artistic creation in ceramic containing the ashes of Tintori and his wife.
case della memoria
focus
Houses of sculptors
Casa natale di Leonardo da Vinci Loc. Anchiano, Vinci (FI) open: every day, from March to October 10-19, from November to February 10-17 www.museoleonardiano.it
Casa di Giotto Loc. Vespignano, Vicchio (FI) open: only on the occasion of special events 055 8439224 (Comune di Vicchio) cultura@comune.vicchio.fi.it www.comune.vicchio.fi.it
Casa di Francesco Guerrazzi Villa La Cinquantina, via Guerrazzi, San Pietro in Palazzi, Cecina (LI) open: 0586 680145 biblioteca@comune.cecina.li.it
Le ‘stanze’ di Indro Montanelli Fondazione Montanelli Bassi Palazzo della Volta, via San Giorgio, 2, Fucecchio (FI) open: from September to June Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 15-19; in July Saturday and Sunday 15-19, in August admission with reservation only 328 1289087 www.fondazionemontanelli.it
Casa Museo Giovanni Pascoli
Casa Puccini di Celle di Pescaglia Via Meletoli, Celle dei Puccini, Pescaglia (LU) open: admission with reservation only 0583 467855 lucchesinelmondo@virgilio.it www.lucchesinelmondo.it/museocelle.html
via Caprona, 6, Castelvecchio Pascoli (LU) open: from October to March Tuesday 14-17.15, Wednesday to Sunday 9.30-13 and 14.30-17.15; from April to September Tuesday 15.30-18.45, Wednesday to Sunday 10.30-13 and 15-18.45 www.fondazionepascoli.it
Dimora di Filippo Sassetti
Casa di Francesco Petrarca
Casa Sidney Sonnino
piazza Benassai, Loc. Castello, Incisa in Val d’Arno (FI) open: to be opened following restoration 055 8333432 socioculturale@comune.incisa-valdarno.fi.it www.comune.incisa-valdarno.fi.it
Castello Sonnino, via Volterrana nord, 6/A, Montespertoli (FI) open: information 0571 609198 info@castellosonnino.it www.castellosonnino.it
Villa del Mulinaccio, via Masso all’Anguilla, Vaiano (PO) open: Saturday admission with reservation only 0574 942428 942476 assopromuseo@libero.it www.comune.vaiano.po.it
Casa di Pontormo via Pontorme, 97, Empoli (FI) open: Thursday and Friday 10-13, Saturday and holidays 16-19 www.casapontormo.it
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fiesole museums
Civic Archaeological Museum
The museum exhibits early Etruscan, Roman and medieval artefacts which came to light during excavations in the area of Fiesole, as well as items donated by private collectors. As it began to grow in size, in 1914 the museum was transferred to a structure in the shape of an Ionic temple, designed by Ezio Cerpi and located inside the archaeological park. Reorganised in 1981, this also houses the Costantini Collection. via Portigiani, 1, Fiesole open: every day, March and October 10-18, from April to September 10-19, from November to February 10-14 closed: Tuesday from November to February
www.museidifiesole.it
Museo Bandini
Founded by Canon Angelo Maria Bandini in 1795, the collection was first housed in the church of Sant’Ansano and is now found in the building specially designed for it at the start of the 20th century by the architect Giuseppe Castellucci. On his death the Canon left the museum to the Chapter of Fiesole. Not to be missed on the ground floor are some fine Della Robbia terracottas (including the Effigy of a Young Man known as Sant’Ansano by Andrea della Robbia) as well as some fragments of classical sculptures, inlaid furniture and marble bas-relief sculptures. Displayed in the two rooms on the first floor are paintings by well-known artists (from Taddeo Gaddi to Nardo di Cione and Lorenzo Monaco) in addition to works dating from the 13th to the 17th century. via Giovanni Dupré, 1, Fiesole open: every day, March and October 10-18, from April to September 10-19, from November to February 10-14 closed: Tuesday from November to February
www.museidifiesole.it
exhibitions
Carrà, Rosai, Scuffi.
La modernità di una pittura che risale alla maestà dell’antico Sala del Basolato, Palazzo Comunale 27 September-4 November 2012 Five works by Carlo Carrà, as many by Ottone Rosai, and twenty by Marcello Scuffi on show, illustrating the line of continuity between the great painting of the early 20th century, which turning on the Futurist epic expressed the need for a “return to order”, and the work of important contemporary artists who, like Scuffi, inevitably refer to the masters of the past, and in particular to Giotto, Masaccio and Piero della Francesca. An exhibition steeped in a fascination for silent landscapes, obscure places, nature ubiquitously imbued with the emblematic presence of a surging poetry.
Tano Pisano in Toscana curated by Elena Francalanci Sala del Basolato, Palazzo Comunale 26 November 2012-16 January 2013 The eclectic Italian artist, now living in Spain, returns to exhibit his works in Tuscany in the two exhibitions organised in Fiesole and at Palazzo Davanzati in Florence. An attentive connoisseur of artistic techniques, aware of the importance of the preparation of the materials used for painting, sculpture and graphic art, in the Fiesole exhibition the artist concentrates on flowers, always an object of his interest, with works of graphic art, watercolours, paintings and ceramics that investigate this theme from different angles. The exhibition is completed by a sculpture made specially for the occasion, set up in the square in front of the town hall.
Fondazione Primo Conti The Foundation is housed in the 15thcentury Villa Le Coste where the artist lived for many years. In 1980 the villa became the seat of the Foundation when a donation by the Conti family led to the establishment of a Documentation and Research Centre on the Historic Avant Garde. The Foundation has three sections: the Museum with the works of Primo Conti, the Archive and the Studio. The Museum (with 63 paintings and 163 drawings by the artist) and the Archive (housing many archives including those of Papini, Conti, Pavolini, Carocci, Pea, and Samminiatelli) together represent a unique resource in Italy for the scholarly study and understanding of avant-garde movements. via Giovanni Dupré, 18, Fiesole open: Museum Monday to Friday 9-13. Visits also Saturday, Sunday and the afternoon, for groups by appointment Archive Monday to Friday 9-13, by prior appointment
www.fondazioneprimoconti.org
The Fondazione Primo Conti organises the exhibition Il Novecento di Primo Conti Palazzo Medici Riccardi 13-27 November 2012 (see p. 23)
The Fondazione Primo Conti is part of the Associazione Case della Memoria (see p. 47)
Tano Pisano, Papaveri, 2002, watercolour on paper, 23x31 cm
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medici villas
Villa medicea di Castello
Parco mediceo di Pratolino Villa Demidoff
Villa medicea della Petraia
original owner: Lorenzo and Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici (from 1477). modified by: Cosimo I de’ Medici. architecture: the villa is one of the oldest Medici family suburban residences, altered, with its garden, in the 16th century, under the supervision of Tribolo, Vasari and Buontalenti. to see: the terraced garden, considered by Vasari to be one of the most magnificent in Europe, is well worth the visit, as are Ammannati’s Fountain of Hercules and Antaeus and the Grotta degli Animali.
original owner: the Medici family. modified by: Francesco I de’ Medici (1568); Ferdinando III of Lorraine (1819); Leopoldo II of Lorraine (1837); Paolo Demidoff (1870). Acquired by the Florentine provincial administration in 1981, destined for public use. architecture: the Medici Villa, designed by Bernardo Buontalenti and demolished in 1822, was inside a large park that, with its water games, automatons and fountains, was imitated all over Europe. The existing Villa Demidoff was adapted from the paggeria while the transformation of the garden into an English park was carried out by Joseph Fritsch in the Lorraine period. to see: the park with its centuries-old trees; the Colossus of the Apennines and the Mugnone grotto (Giambologna), the Cupid grotto (Buontalenti, 1577), the Casino di Montili (Cambray Digny, c. 1820) and the chapel on a hexagonal plan (Buontalenti, 1580).
original owner: the Brunelleschi family; the Strozzi family. modified by: Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici. architecture: the building came into the possession of Ferdinando in the second half of the 16th century and was modified by Giulio Parigi in the 17th century. to see: the interior decoration and 19th-century furnishings and interesting decoration; the ballroom with frescoes by Volterrano (17th century); the formal garden planned by Niccolò Tribolo and the fountain with Giambologna’s Fiorenza, transferred from the Villa di Castello.
via di Castello, 47, Castello, Firenze open: from November to February 8.15-16.30, in March 8.15-17.30, in April, May, September, October 8.15-18.30, from June to August 8.15-19.30 closed: 2nd and 3rd Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/ villacastello
Villa medicea di Poggio a Caiano original owner: Lorenzo il Magnifico. architecture: the villa was built to a plan by Giuliano da Sangallo and reflects the humanist trends in architecture inspired by classical antiquity (1485-1492); the building was completed in the first half of the 16th century under Giovanni, then Pope Leo X. to see: frescoes by Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, Franciabigio and Alessandro Allori. piazza Medici, 14, Poggio a Caiano open: every day, from November to February 8.15-16.30, in March and October 8.15-17.30 (official summer time 18.30), in April, May, September 8.15-18.30, from June to August 8.15-19.30 closed: 2nd and 3rd Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/ poggiocaiano
Still Life Museum The first Still Life Museum in Italy exhibits, in the rooms of the Villa medicea di Poggio a Caiano, around two hundred paintings dating from the 16th to the 18th century and belonging to the Medici collections. Reservation required 055 877012 Accompanied visits (not guided), every hour, begin at 9 (excluding lunchtime between 13 and 14)
via Fiorentina, 282, Pratolino, Comune di Vaglia open: from April to October. In April and October, Sunday and holidays 10-17; in May and September, Saturday, Sunday and holidays 10-18; from June to August, Saturday, Sunday and holidays 10-19. The opening of the park is subject to weather conditions. Groups of residents and visitors can request to see the central area of the park on days when the park is generally closed: parcpra@provincia.fi.it 055 409427
www.provincia.fi.it/pratolino
Villa medicea di Cerreto Guidi original owner: Cosimo I de’ Medici. architecture: the villa was built in 1556 as a hunting residence and garrison for the area, to a plan attributed to Bernardo Buontalenti. to see: became a museum in 1978 and houses furniture and portraits of members of the Medici family (16th and 17th century); since 2002 it has housed a Historic Museum of Hunting and the Countryside. via dei Ponti Medicei, 7, Cerreto Guidi open: every day, 8.15-19 closed: 2nd and 3rd Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/ cerretoguidi
via della Petraia, 40, Castello, Firenze open: every day, from November to February 8.15-16.30, in March 8.15-17.30, in April, May, September, October 8.15-18.30, from June to August 8.15-19.30 closed: 2nd and 3rd Monday of the month, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/ petraia
Images of the Medici villas Utens’ lunettes at Petraia
The recent dismantling of the Museo “Firenze com’era” – the topographical history museum of the city established in 1909 and closed in October 2010 – has resulted in the return into state care of the celebrated lunettes painted for Ferdinando I de’ Medici by the Flemish artist Justus Utens in the late 16th/early 17th century. This takeover has led to the decision to house the 14 bird’s-eye views of the possessions of the grand duke in one of the five Medici villas in the care of the Polo Museale Fiorentino, all represented in the lunettes. The choice fell upon the Medicean villa of Petraia, where this summer three lunettes representing as many villas (Cafaggiolo, La Magia and Petraia) were previewed, flanked by a portrait of Ferdinando I from the deposits of the Galleria Palatina. The portrait and all 14 lunettes are destined to remain at Petraia in a permanent exhibition, open to the public from December 2012.
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Associazione Amici del Museo Ermitage (Italia) The Associazione Amici del Museo Ermitage (Italia), presented in Florence in the splendid rooms of the historic Museo Bardini on 4 July 2012, aims to be instrumental in strengthening cultural ties between Italy and Russia, countries that play such an important role in East-West relations. The new association, which brings together important figures in the Italian and Russian business and cultural world, aims to contribute to the continuing development of the monumental complex of the Hermitage, a museum housing one of the largest, most precious and most important art collections in the world. An inestimable cultural patrimony, a large part of which is thanks to Italian masters from all periods: Leonardo, Caravaggio, Titian, Giorgione, Andrea del Sarto, Raphael, Michelangelo, Canova. The aim of the Amici del Museo Ermitage is to promote the museum both in Italy and internationally, organising guided tours with preferential itineraries, lectures, seminars and meetings with art historians and cultural personalities devoted to the many Italian masterpieces in the museum, but also collaborating on exhibitions and other events. Other activities of the Association include participation in the publication of catalogues and volumes on the collections and the splendid Tsarist-age museum complex on the Neva river. The official presentation followed the signing of the cooperation agreement between the Hermitage State Museum and the Musei Civici of Florence; it was signed in Palazzo Vecchio by Prof. Mikhail Piotrovski, Director of the Hermitage Museum, by Prof. Sergio Givone, Assessore alla Cultura of the Comune of Florence, and by Dr. Massimo Maisto, Vice Mayor and responsible for culture in Ferrara, where the Fondazione Ermitage-Italia has its base, in the presence of representatives of other associations of friends of the Hermitage from all over the world. The Associazione Amici del Museo Ermitage (Italia), presided over by Cav. Francesco Bigazzi, has among its members important representatives from the world of culture and entrepreneurs particularly attentive to the importance of culture for the prestige of Italian business. www.amiciermitage.it
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Magical December in Saint Petersburg Fabulous party reserved for the
Friends of the Hermitage Museum! On 8 December 2012 the Amici Ermitage Italia will have the chance to meet the many international Friends of the museum during a brief but intense trip to Russia. During the weekend between the 7th and 11th of December Italian members can visit Saint Petersburg with a reserved flight from Italy and lodge in the prestigious hotels Astoria, Angleterre and Ambassador situated in the immediate vicinity of the museum. With the Friends of the Hermitage from around the world they will enjoy an exclusive programme of events including evening visits, dinners and theatre performances. To become a member of the association and receive information on the trip: amiciermitage@libero.it 055 5387819
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www.florins.ms/ cimitero.html
The ‘English’ Cemetery in Florence
In 1250 the Guelfs banished the Ghibellines, Arnolfo di Cambio taking the pietraforte stone, quarried from what is now the Boboli Gardens, from their towers of pride from which they fought their bloody vendettas, to build the walls of common defense of the city. In 1530, Michelangelo hastily erected further walls of defense against the Medici, one around the artificial hill (perhaps an Etruscan tomb) by the Porta Fiesolana or Porta a Pinti. In 1827 the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church in Florence bought their God’s Acre from the Grand Duke at Porta a Pinti on this land nestled outside the medieval Arnolfian wall and within Michelangelo’s Renaissance one. During 50 years the cemetery was gradually filled with 700 monuments sculpted in Carrara marble and pietra serena quarried from Monte Ceceri (a grey sandstone of great beauty but which does not endure well). Among our sculptors are Hiram and Preston Powers, Lorenzo Bartolini, Odoardo Fantacchiotti, Holman Hunt, Emilio Zocchi, Joel Hart, William Wetmore Story, Francesco Jerace, Frederick Lord Leighton, Johan Niklas Bystrom, Fyodor Fyodorovich Kemensky, Launt Thompson, Ettore Ximenes, Pietro Bazzanti, Michele Auteri Pomar, and Aristodemo Costoli, for the tombs of the famous such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Walter Savage Landor, Arthur Hugh Clough, Frances and Theodosia Trollope, Theodore Parker, Thomas Southwood Smith, Anita Garibaldi’s doctor Bartolomeo Odicini, and the Black slave from Nubia, Nadezhda De Santis. Finally, Giuseppe Poggi, when Florence briefly became capital of Italy (1865-1871), razed her medieval and Renaissance walls and gates, and left the so-called ‘English’ Cemetery, owned by the Swiss, as an island in the midst of boulevards, its cypresses famous from Arnold Böcklin’s Island of the Dead, being largely cut down. He also had the two stemma of the lily and the cross from the Arnolfian Porta a Pinti Gate be placed on the internal cemetery wall, which itself recycles the grey green brown stone of the Ghibellines’ private dwellings and the Guelfs’ walls of common defense. The cemetery was officially closed in 1877, after just 50 years of use, being now illegally within the city limits. The Cemetery is again open for use only for cremated ashes and for remains following a period elsewhere, these concessions helping fund the restoration and maintenance of its wall, its garden and its older tombs. Julia Bolton Holloway
photo Francesca Anichini
edited by Alyson Price
foreigners in florence
piazzale Donatello, 38 open: Monday 9-12, Tuesday to Friday 15-18 (summer) or 14-17 (winter)
Thunders of White Silence
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Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
The ‘English’ Cemetery
Founded in 1897, and part of the Max-PlanckGesellschaft since 2002, this is one of the oldest research institutions dedicated to the history of art and architecture in Italy. One of its principle aims is the education of scholars of an international level. The institute’s resources include the library with over 300,000 volumes, 940 ongoing journal subscriptions, and one of the most wide-ranging photographic libraries on Italian art, at the disposal of researchers from all over the world. via Giuseppe Giusti, 44
www.khi.fi.it
Dutch University Institute for Art History Founded in 1958 to encourage cultural exchange, particularly between northern and southern Europe, the institute has an extensive and specialised library with a prestigious collection of critical texts on the history of art and culture. The main areas of specialisation are Italian art and the art of the Netherlands. The insitute organises exhibitions, publications and lectures. viale Torricelli, 5
www.iuoart.org
European University Institute The EUI is an international postgraduate teaching and research institute established in 1972 by the six founding Member States of the European Community to promote cultural and scientific development in the social sciences, law, economics and the humanities in a European perspective. Lectures and seminars are organised with high profile figures on the international scene. The EUI carries out its work in various places near the city. Badia Fiesolana via dei Roccettini, 9, San Domenico di Fiesole
www.eui.eu
Georgetown University In 1979, Margaret Rockefeller Strong Cuevas, granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller, donated her father’s estate, Villa Le Balze, to Georgetown University. Her aim was that Le Balze would be a place of learning in honour of her father, himself a philosopher, writer, and educator. Georgetown University now offers students the opportunity to study in Florence, and organises conferences and publications Villa Le Balze via Vecchia Fiesolana, 26
www11.georgetown.edu
events Lecture Series Fall 2012 Images of friendship in Renaissance Florence Dale Kent 2 October at 17.30 A Tale of Two Cities: The Debate on the Origins of Fiesole and Florence in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Stefano U. Baldassarri 6 November at 17.30
foreigners in florence
New York University in Florence at Villa La Pietra
Syracuse University in Florence
The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies
La Pietra is the seat of the University in Florence and houses the Acton Collection with over 7,000 paintings, sculptures and other objects, and a Library with about 12,000 volumes and 16,000 photographs. The University hosts the Remarque Institute seminars, the Graduate Studies seminars, the Acton Miscellany, the Season Events and the La Pietra Policy Dialogues. The La Pietra Policy Dialogues aim to make a creative contribution to contemporary public policy debate by bringing together a wide array of actors not commonly called upon to reflect on policy questions or to sit at the same table together, including academics, politicians, business leaders, and other public intellectuals, with the ultimate goal of building a rich network across the Atlantic.
As one of the oldest study abroad programmes in Italy, Syracuse’s longstanding relationship with the Florentine community enable it to offer an extensive range of courses and cultural immersions. It is housed in Villa Rossa, purchased by the University in 1963.
The centre at Villa I Tatti is devoted to advanced study of the Italian Renaissance in all its aspects: the history of art; political, economic, and social history; the history of science, philosophy, and religion; and the history of literature and music.
piazza Savonarola, 15
www.itatti.it
Villa La Pietra via Bolognese, 120
www.nyu.edu/global/lapietra
events
www.syr.fi.it
events Villa Rossa Lecture Series Fall 2012 In honour of the ‘Anno Vespucciano’, Syracuse University is devoting its Villa Rossa Lecture Series to the intellectual inquiry into ‘the Other’ and travelling beyond known boundaries. The highlight of the series is a special lecture presented by former member of the Italian parliament and transgender activist Vladimir Luxuria (3 October 2012 at 18.30, Auditorium al Duomo, via de’ Cerretani 54r).
NYU La Pietra Dialogues Fall Events La Pietra Dialogues follows the ins and outs of the U.S. Presidential Election, the economic crisis, and explores creative approaches to imagining the French Institute in Florence City of the Future. Professor Joshua The French Institute, the oldest in the world Tucker reflects on the Electoral College and established in 1907, is part of the French (3 October 2012 at 18). European and State and of the cultural network of the French American students gather to talk about Embassy in Italy. It is located in the 15ththe U.S. elections viewed from Europe. century palazzo Lenzi and for over a century it Do American students have a different has constantly maintained an active cultural policy and developed its unique library and perspective, watching the elections from newspaper library. For events see the website. afar? Join us for the European Perspectives on the American piazza Ognissanti, 2 Elections Student Forum www.france-italia.it (17 October 2012). La Pietra Dialogues welcomes a group of distinguished Follow in the footsteps political analysts, media experts, and ENGLISH WALKS IN FLOR ENCE scholars to analyse the results of the THR EE ENGLISH QUEENS of THE Three English Queens POINTS OF INTER EST elections at our annual U.S. Politics THE GR AND TOUR in Florence THE VICTORIAN TOURIST Villa Palmieri via Giovanni Boccaccio 2012). An Dialogue (14-17 November EDWARDIAN R ESIDENTS THE Purchased in 1873 by the Earl of Crawford. The romantic gardens HE ENGLISH WALKS with TTHR international of students EE ENGLISH QUEENS appealedgroup to English visitors. Queen Victoriastarts stayed hereon during visits in 1888 and 1893. IN FLORENCE LPD’s Urban Acupuncture project, developing Laideas inspired a vision for Colombaia via Santa Mariaby a Marignolle, 2 Lauri Thorndyke Researched and writtenby by Lauri Thorndyke Setting for Queen Mary’s birthday celebrations. With grateful acknowledgement to the staff of the a sustainable future forseventeenth Florence. British Institute of Florence Organised with theviaCity of26 Florence. Villa Stibbert F. Stibbert, forNow their helpadded and supportto andthe for thebrief generousguides 1
2
3
Frederick Stibbert, the son of an Englishman, dedicated his life to collecting. On his death in 1906 the villa was given to the city of Florence and became a museum.
Villa Spence British Known Institute of Florence today as Villa Medici, William Blundell Spence and The Harold Acton Library his family were popular in 19th-century English social circles. 4
via Vecchia Fiesolana, Fiesole
Holman Hunt, the Pre-Raphaelite painter, was a frequent guest. Founded in 1917 to promote cultural 5 Villa La Pietra exchange between Italy and the via Bolognese, 120 EnglishHome of Sirthe Harold Acton, renowned for its early Italian collection speaking world, British Institute today and restored gardens. Visited by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother offers a comprehensive of during her later stays in programme Florence. courses in the Italian language, the English 6 Antique Market Piazza dei Ciompi language and history of art, as well as a Popular among early tourists, this historic market was moved to its location after the 1966 flood. wide rangecurrent of cultural events. 7 Doney’s Tea Rooms via Tornabuoni 14/16 Original site of the popular English style tea room favoured by the
lungarno Guicciardini, 9
www.britishinstitute.it aristocracy and upper-class English in Florence. It was closed in 1986.
events
Queen Victoria’s Fountain Piazza Vittorio Veneto Erected in 1897 by the Anglo-Florentine community to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the reign of Queen Victoria. 8
Violet del Palmerino: aspetti della cultura cosmopolita nel salotto di Paoli’s Hotel Lungarno Della Zecca Vecchia Vernon Lee, 1889-1935 Home to the family of Queen Mary on their arrival in 1883. 27-28 September 2012 conference Cascine held at the French Institute Popular park during the 19th century for carriage rides and horse (27 September 2012 at 18-20), the racing. British Institute (28 September 2012 at 9.30-13) and Villa Il Palmerino (28 September 2012 at 15.30-19.30) 9
10
Villa I Tatti via di Vincigliata, 26
the Libraryof andEnglish Archives. that follow access the totracks visitors to Florence is a new walk which follows the trail of Queen Victoria and the two Queens Consort, Mary and Elizabeth
events Three Berenson Lectures Gould Hall, Villa I Tatti at 18 Il piacere e i riti della lettura: autorappresentazione e dialogo con gli autori fra Medioevo e età moderna Lina Bolzoni 4 October, 15 November, 6 December 2012 Gazing Otherwise: Modalities of Seeing 10-12 October 2012 conference at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz I Francescani e gli Ebrei 25 October 2012 workshop at the Convento San Francesco, via A. Giacomini 3 Size matters 8-10 November 2012 conference at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
THE ENGLISH WALKS IN FLORENCE THREE ENGLISH QUEENS
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF QUEEN VICTORIA, QUEEN MARY AND QUEEN ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER
THE ENGLISH WALKS IN FLORENCE by Lauri Thorndyke
◉ THREE ENGLISH QUEENS 24 pages
13,7x29,7 cm in English and Italian
€5
THE ENGLISH WALKS IN For more information, suggested reading FLORENCE by Lauri Thorndyke and digital resources, please contact: ◉ THE GRAND TOUR ◉ THE VICTORIAN TOURIST ◉ THE EDWARDIAN RESIDENTS Library and Cultural Centre
British Institute of Florence 13,7x29,7 cm Lungarno Guicciardini 912 pages in English 50125 Firenze Tel: 39 055 2677 8270 € 5 for one library@britishinstitute.it € 12 the series www.britishinstitute.it
on sale in Florence at museum bookshops, at Paperback Exchange and My Accademia, at the British Institute or directly from Centro Di www.centrodi.it © L. Thorndyke.
Designed by: www.touchmedia.uk.net. Printed in England. Italian translation by Sara Novello
TRE SOVRANE INGLESI SULLE ORME DELLE REGINE VITTORIA, MARY ED ELISABETTA LA REGINA MADRE
children Activities generally take place in Italian, please consult websites for information regarding activities in English or in other languages.
october Obladì
november
december
Obladì
Obladì
the Oblate every Saturday
the Oblate every Saturday
the Oblate every Saturday
Tipi da biblioteca
Detective dell’Arte
Detective dell’Arte
Famiglie al museo
Famiglie al museo
the Oblate Uri il piccolo sumero Ahmose e i 999.999 lapislazzuli (reading and maths games workshop for children aged 4 to 6) 6 October at 16.30-18.30 Tra le righe trovo... me! (expressive reading workshop for young people aged 14 to 18) 22 and 29 October at 15-17 Storie all’amo (playful reading of the classics for young people aged 12 to 14) 20 October at 16.30
Detective dell’Arte
Museo Casa Siviero 6 October at every hour from 10 to 13 and from 14
Famiglie al museo
the Bargello Una collezione da scoprire: bizzarre decorazioni! (for older children up to 14) 14 October at 10 Costume Gallery Indiani d’America: i nativi delle praterie 20 October at 11 and 15 Casa Martelli Storia di una famiglia fiorentina e della sua dimora 27 October at 10
A tutta scienza
Galileo Museum Sperimentiamo il Museo! 6 October at 15 Gli strumenti di Galileo 7, 14, 21 and 28 October at 15 La chimica di Pietro Leopoldo 13 October at 15 Experiential visit (in English) 20 October at 15 Il cannocchiale racconta 27 October at 15
Family Size
Museo Casa Siviero 3 November
Museo Casa Siviero 1 December
Palazzo Davanzati Su e giù per le antiche scale: segui la mappa! 10 November at 10 the Accademia Fiori dipinti, fiori in giardino 17 November at 10 the Bargello Una collezione da scoprire: bizzarre decorazioni! (for older children up to 14) 25 November at 10
Museo Fiorentino di Preistoria Dal minerale al metallo 6 October at 9.30-12.30 La pittura 13 October at 9.30-12.30 Intreccio e tessitura 20 October at 9.30-12.30
Galileo Museum Impara l’inglese con la scienza 1 December at 15 Leonardo artista e scienziato 2, 16 and 30 December at 15 Gli strumenti di Galileo 9 and 23 December at 15 La chimica di Pietro Leopoldo 15 December at 15 Il cannocchiale racconta 22 December at 15 Sulla nave di Amerigo Vespucci! Alla scoperta del “Nuovo Mondo” 29 December at 15
Galileo Museum Sulla nave di Amerigo Vespucci! Alla scoperta del “Nuovo Mondo” 3 November at 15 Leonardo artista e scienziato 4 and 18 November at 15 Alla scoperta dell’universo dantesco 10 November at 15 Gli strumenti di Galileo 11 and 25 November at 15 Impara l’inglese con la scienza 17 November at 15 Sperimentiamo il Museo! 24 November at 15
Family Size
at the CCC Strozzina every Saturday at 15.30
Families at Palazzo Strozzi Palazzo Strozzi Percorsi Palazzo. The stone giant 2 December at 15.30-16.30 The Storyteller’s Tale... Phaëton and the Sun Chariot 4 December at 17.30-18.30 The memory machine every Sunday at 10.30-12.30
Family Size
at the CCC Strozzina every Saturday at 15.30
Families at Palazzo Strozzi Palazzo Strozzi Percorsi Palazzo. A grand family for a grand home 4 November at 15.30-16,30 The Storyteller’s Tale... Phaëton and the Sun Chariot 6 November at 17.30-18.30 The memory machine every Sunday at 10.30-12.30
Famiglie al museo
Sezione Didattica del Polo Museale for families with children aged 7 to 14 and accompanying adults
Families at Palazzo Strozzi
I giorni della preistoria
A tutta scienza
A tutta scienza
at the CCC Strozzina every Saturday at 15.30 Palazzo Strozzi The Storyteller’s Tale... Phaëton and the Sun Chariot 2 October at 17.30-18.30 Percorsi Palazzo. 100 ways to say “piazza” 7 October at 15.30-16.30 The memory machine every Sunday at 10.30-12.30
the Uffizi Il Natale nei dipinti della Galleria 15 December at 15 and 16.30 16 December at 9 and 11
Discovering masterpieces of art together with the whole family, let youself be guided, armed with curiosity and imagination. Activities include the guided visit and educational materials useful in following the trail.
Family Size
at the CCC Strozzina
booking required 055 284272 didattica@polomuseale.firenze.it www.polomuseale.firenze.it/ didattica
for children aged 7 to 12 and accompanying adults from 5 October 2012 to 27 January 2013 every Saturday at 15.30
guided tour of the exhibition Francis Bacon to discover the world of contemporary art, children and adults together booking required 055 3917137 didatticastrozzina@palazzostrozzi.org www.strozzina.org
Detective dell’Arte
at the Museo Casa Siviero learning from the detective Rodolfo Siviero every first Saturday of the month
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illustrations by Silvia Cheli
www.museocasasiviero.it
Obladì
february
march
Obladì
Obladì
the Oblate every Saturday
the Oblate every Saturday
the Oblate every Saturday
Famiglie al museo
Famiglie al museo
Famiglie al museo
Costume Gallery Piedi vestiti: dalla necessità alla moda 12 January at 10 and 11.30 the Bargello Una collezione da scoprire: dolci antiche note! 19 January at 10 Gallery of Modern Art Dipinti e parole: novelle che raccontano una storia... (for children aged up to 9) 26 January at 10 and 11.30
the Bargello Una collezione da scoprire: caccia al particolare! (for children aged up to 9) 16 February at 10 Costume Gallery Piedi vestiti: dalla necessità alla moda 17 February at 10 the Bargello Una collezione da scoprire: dolci antiche note! 24 February at 10
A tutta scienza
A tutta scienza
Galileo Museum Sperimentiamo il Museo! 12 January at 15 Gli strumenti di Galileo 13 and 27 January at 15 Impara l’inglese con la scienza 19 January at 15 Leonardo artista e scienziato 20 January at 15 Il cannocchiale racconta 26 January at 15
Family Size
at the CCC Strozzina every Saturday at 15.30
Families at Palazzo Strozzi Palazzo Strozzi The memory machine every Sunday at 10.30-12.30
for families with children aged 6 years and up
every Saturday morning until 20 October 2012
every weekend from October 2012 to May 2013
guided visits and workshops to find out about the techniques used in prehistory for painting, drawing, weaving, ceramics and fabric making
for families with children aged 8 to 13 This project offers the opportunity to learn about and experiment with traditional artistic techniques, thanks to the work of practising Florentine artisans. This winter there are two courses, each with three meetings in November and December: museum visit, meeting in an artisan’s workshop, pratical workshop information and booking 055 244661 info@museohorne.it
www.museohorne.it
booking required didattica@museofiorentinopreitoria.it 055 295159
Tipi da biblioteca
stories, readings, puppets, fantastic and entertaining characters guarantee enjoyment for all
at the Horne Museum
at the Museum of Prehistory
for children aged 4 and up
booking 055 265311 weekend@museogalileo.it www.museogalileo.it
Artigiani in famiglia
I giorni della preistoria
at the Galileo Museum
for adults and children
calendar and information: 055 2616526 sezioneragazzi.oblate@comune.fi.it www.bibliotecadelleoblate.it/ ragazzibambini
Galileo Museum Il cannocchiale racconta 2 March at 15 Leonardo artista e scienziato 3 and 17 March at 15 La chimica di Pietro Leopoldo 9 March at 15 Gli strumenti di Galileo 10 and 24 March at 15 Sperimentiamo il Museo! 16 March at 15 Impara l’inglese con la scienza 23 March at 15
A tutta scienza
guided visits and workshops including using Galileo’s scientific instruments and inventions
every Saturday
A tutta scienza
Galileo Museum Alla scoperta dell’universo dantesco 2 February at 15 Leonardo artista e scienziato 3 and 17 February at 15 Sperimentiamo il Museo! 9 February at 15 Gli strumenti di Galileo 10 and 24 February at 15 Sulla nave di Amerigo Vespucci! Alla scoperta del “Nuovo Mondo” 16 February at 15 Experiential visit (in English) 23 February at 15
Obladì
at the Oblate
Borbottoni Collection (seat of the Ente Cassa di Risparmio) Firenze di ieri, Firenze di oggi: scopri le differenze! 16 March at 10 San Marco Museum La Pasqua nei dipinti dell’Angelico 23 March at 10 and 11.30 24 March at 10
children
january
at the Oblate October 2012 workshops and playful readings in a month dedicated to Tuscan libraries with reservation only 055 2616512 bibliotecadelleoblate@comune.fi.it www.tipidabiblioteca.it
Musesplorando
at the Natural History and Anthropology Museum is the virtual space where you find all the educational options open to you for an exciting journey in the world of the sciences. Science at the click of a mouse! workshops, games, guided tours for the old and the young to understand the world of nature through play and experiment in the museum’s collections booking 055 2346760 www.musesplorando.it
Mathematical Sundays at the Museum of Mathematics
guided tours and surprises! every first Sunday of the month and on the following Sundays, depending upon demand booking required 055 7879594 www.archimede.ms
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children
A day out with the family at Palazzo Strozzi
for families with children aged 3 and over • Special labels designed to stimulate cross-generational discussion; for this exhibition the labels carry interviews with people who grew up in the 1930s, like Dario Fo and Franca Valeri • Separate audioguides for adults and children • A rich programme of activities with which to explore art, for different age groups from 3 and up, including workshops, storytelling, drawing in exhibitions, visits for parents with children under 2 in strollers • The special Family Ticket allows family groups (up to 2 adults + children up to the age of 18) unlimited admission to the exhibitions The Thirties and Francis Bacon • Art Monopoly: the family suitcase devised specifically for the exhibition allows you to discover the art and artists in a truly fun and innovative way • the Art Cards and the interactive rooms: a special series of cards devoted to the works on show offers children and parents short texts and activities, while in the interactive rooms everyone can participate in the exhibition: you can find out about yesterday’s and today’s innovative designs, read books by authors from the 1930s, and record your own interview for Radio Palazzo Strozzi • Christmas at Palazzo Strozzi (8 December 2012): a unique occasion to visit the entire palazzo with the family. Special entry ticket to the exhibition and free activities in the courtyard until 27 January 2013 for the exhibition The Thirties. The Arts in Italy Beyond Fascism Free activities with exhibition entry ticket; booking required for workshops Sigma CSC 055 2469600 (Monday to Friday 9-13, 14-18) fax 055 244145 prenotazioni@cscsigma.it Family activities are available in English on request at 055 3917141 The Family Suitcase Art Monopoly and the Art Cards free with an exhibition ticket; you can book the suitcase ahead of your visit by phoning 055 2645155 or ask directly at the information point on the first floor Information and calendar of activities: www.palazzostrozzi.org/famiglie
Percorsi Palazzo
The family suitcase
Look, Discover, Create
Have you ever really looked closely at Palazzo Strozzi? Over three visits, we’ll use our senses to discover the sounds, colours and forms of this building and its relationship with the city. Games and activities will help us discover the details which hold the clues to understanding this “grand home” of the Strozzi Family. first Sunday of the month until December from 15.30 to 16.30 for children aged 7 to 12 and accompanying adults no exhibition ticket required and it is possible to attend only one visit
Visits with workshop
every day for visitors aged 3 and over
The Storyteller’s Tale... Phaëton and the Sun Chariot
A work of art can tell us a million stories, we just have to learn how to listen! That’s exactly what the storyteller will be teaching us as he shares the folk tales, myths and legends hidden in a painting. This autumn a painting by Achille Funi introduces us to the Greek legend of Phaëton inside the exhibition. first Tuesday of the month until December from 17.30 to 18.30 for children aged 3 to 6 and accompanying adults
The memory machine
Workshops and events in the city Mille e una storia di... Anni Trenta!
For the exhibition, Palazzo Strozzi organises activities for families that exploit the narrative potential of works of art. This game, based on cards invented by the writer Gianni Rodari and on our own imaginations, develops around one question: how many stories can we invent starting from works in the exhibition? in various libraries and toy libraries, among them the Oblate for children aged 7 to 12 and accompanying adults
Works of art preserve the personal memories of artists and of their era, each contributing to the history of the time. Through close observation and activities we explore some of these fragments of memory, and discover how these works can also bring our personal and family memories to light. Back in the studio we get creative designing a machine with no engine and no wheels... a memory machine!
During the exhibition, a street theatre actress tours Florence’s parks, squares and school playgrounds on a bicycle with a specially-created performance based on the exhibition.
every Sunday from 10.30 to 12.30 for children aged 7 to 12 and accompanying adults
around the city for families and children
Workshops at the Pecci
workshops and guided visits to Massimo Barzagli’s exhibition (30 September-2 December 2012) for adults and children booking 0574 531835 edu@centropecci.it calendar and further information: www.centropecci.it
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Art Monopoly
Play the show! Art Monopoly, the family suitcase devised specifically for the exhibition The Thirties. The Arts in Italy Beyond Fascism, allows you to discover the exhibits and artists in a truly fun and innovative way. Open the suitcase and discover your gaming board, inspired by the famous game of Monopoly invented in the 1930s. A throw of the dice decides your path through the show, with an endless variety of possibilities! Don’t forget to stop by the Radio Room and record your interview: you’ll make your mark on the show and be a part of Radio Palazzo Strozzi’s very own radio programmes!
illustrations by Silvia Cheli
Kamishibai
Birthdays
at the Museo di Preistoria Saturdays 9.30-12.30
Celebrate a birthday in the museum with a guide who allows children to touch some of the prehistoric objects. At the end of the visit children join in the chosen workshop and treasure hunts designed for different age groups (ages 5 to 12) booking 055 295159 info@museofiorentinopreistoria.it didattica@museofiorentinopreistoria.it
(Children’s Museum) a collection of educational projects promoted by the municipality, offering a broad array of educational and cultural opportunities, with the participation of various museums. Over 40 activities, using drama, multimedia and hands-on interactive material
activities for families in Palazzo Vecchio Quartieri Monumentali
for families with children aged 3 to 7 •Piccole storie di animali •Vita di corte (4-10 years) •La favola del primo viaggio intorno al mondo al museo •La storia del furto nello Studiolo di Francesco I •La storia della meravigliosa e segretissima scala del duca Gualtieri •La favola profumata della natura dipinta •La favola della tartaruga con la vela The Museo dei Ragazzi has different activities going on over the same day, it is therefore possible to choose more than one activity; among them are guided visits led by guides in costume, workshops and special tours. information and bookings 055 2768224 fax 055 2768558 Monday to Sunday 9.30-17 info.museoragazzi@comune.fi.it www.palazzovecchio-museoragazzi.it
Birthdays
at Palazzo Vecchio celebrate a birthday in the evocative surroundings of the Palazzo Vecchio through the Children’s Museum. Celebrate with gifts and candles in a specially appointed room. Maximum numbers 20 children and 5 adults Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 14.3017.30; Saturday and Sunday 9.30-12.30 and 14.30-17.30. Activities for children begin at 10 and at 15. Parents have the first half an hour to decorate the birthday room
Visits and workshops
at the Horne Museum for families with children
Abitare a palazzo. Invito a banchetto Playful visits Gli arredi raccontano. Ori e colori Guided visits with workshop Artigiani per un giorno Workshop information and booking 055 244661 info@museohorne.it www.museohorne.it
children
Il Museo dei Ragazzi
Guided visits and workshops at the MNAF
for families with children aged 6 years and up the educational section organises guided tours and workshops for families, using educational aids designed specially to stimulate in participants a spirit of observation and creativity Alla scoperta del MNAF! Guided tours of the museum’s permanent exhibition La storia vera di un cavallo fotografo Guided tour on the theme of movement in photography, and a workshop in producing a ‘moving’ photograph Una camera oscura grande come la cattedrale di Santa Maria Novella Guided tour on the development of the old camera obscura and a workshop on optical apparatus Scatta Firenze! Tour around the city through photography L’Italia in posa Guided tour on the theme of the portrait in photography, and a workshop using multimedia games on well-known figures of the Risorgimento Fotografia: invenzione o scoperta? Guided tour looking at work illustrating the progress of this marvelous process, and a workshop of multimedia games Booking required for family groups, no less than 10 people. Guided tour of the historic Fratelli Alinari building (largo Alinari, 15) is possible for groups of up to 15 people booking: 055 216310 055 2395217 didatticamnaf@alinari.it www.alinarifondazione.it
Exhibition workshops at the MNAF Immergiamoci for families with children aged 4 to 14 from 13 September to 14 October 2012 Guided tours of the Akyiyoshi Ito exhibition Sogni sott’acqua/Underwater Dreams and workshops on the artist’s photos, with which both to experience a sea of emotions and learn to respect the environment Foto-racconti in omaggio a Calvino
Laboratorio Novecento#2
at the Sala delle Reali Poste for families with children aged 6 and up
guided visit to the exhibition and creative workshop to find out together how contemporary art depicts the body February 2013 only by appointment didatticacontemporanea@gmail.com www.polomuseale.firenze.it
for families with children aged 6 and over from 19 October 2012 to 6 January 2013 Workshops and visits to the museum and to the exhibition Gli Archivi Alinari. This homage to Italo Calvino explores the narrative extent of photography; the ‘invisible’ presence of Calvino leads the visitor booking required 055 216310
fax 055 2646990
mnaf@alinari.it didatticamnaf@alinari.it www.alinarifondazione.it
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music in the city
focus
The Teatro della Pergola museum
What is a theatre, if not a vibrant body that heaves and pulses at every moment of its existence, and not only when performances are being staged? A body whose corridors, rooms and remotest corners reverberate with the echoes of history and legends accumulated over centuries. The Pergola is no ordinary theatre building: built between 1652 and 1656, it was the first ‘sala all’italiana’, that is, endowed with boxes (palchi), and is one of the oldest still in use. A theatre mainly for opera until the beginning of the 20th century, it was much loved by Vivaldi, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi; it saw Eleonora Duse and all the great names in theatre up until modern times. It consists of a group of different areas – some of which long disused – which until the second half of the 19th century comprised the “Città del Teatro”, a self-sufficient agglomeration of laboratories, workshops, rehearsal rooms, deposits, even little dwellings and a street with shops and stores that lived around the theatre performances all day long. In these recondite areas, as well as in those used each day by those who worked at the Pergola and by the spectators, we gain an insight into the mysteries of the theatre, a journey that reveals the history of a building but also that of the theatrical art itself. Starting precisely with the old 19th-century “città”: the ‘Vicolo delle Carrozze’, the lane with the shops where everything needed by the artists was produced and sold, the ‘Pozzo’ that provided water for the dyers and firemen, the ‘Stanza dei Nomi’, the old stagehands’ changing-room which today contains old sound-effect devices, the ‘Salita dei Cavalli’, the oldest technical area still existing in the theatre (1713). And then the theatre now in use: the sumptuous Saloncino, the Foyer, the Sala and the Palcoscenico with the acoustic telephone installed by Antonio Meucci, the legendary First Dressing Room of Eleonora Duse, and the space under the stage where a host of wonderful objects are stored. The only theatre museum situated in the same place where theatre is still done, day after day.
Visits to the museum Le Strade del cibo, alla ricerca di nomi di vie e luoghi fiorentini che hanno a che fare col mangiare 29 September 2012 at 10.30 Voci perdute sempre presenti, itinerario tra i teatri chiusi o non più esistenti del centro di Firenze 6 October 2012 at 10.30 In sua movenza è fermo (performance visit, Teatro della Pergola) 14 and 28 October, 11 and 25 November, 9 December 2012; 13 and 27 January, 10 and 24 February, 10 and 24 March, 7 and 21 April, 5 May 2013 at 10.15, 11.15, 12.15 Visita storica al Teatro della Pergola 21 October, 4 and 18 November, 2 and 16 December 2012; 20 January, 3 and 17 February, 3, 17 and 31 March, 14 and 28 April 2013 at 10.15, 11.15, 12.15
58
Booking required Teatro della Pergola via della Pergola 12/32 055 2264312 museo@teatrodellapergola.com See the website for up-to-date information:
www.teatrodellapergola.com
Photo Daniela Tartaglia
Meucci, stagehand and inventor In the summer of 1831, the twentythree year old Antonio Meucci knocked at the door of the Pergola in search of work. Given his resourcefulness and a little experience gained at the Teatro della Quarconia, he was immediately hired by the chief stagehand Cosimo Canovetti. At the Pergola Meucci met his future wife (Ester, one of the theatre’s dressmakers) and resolved the problem of communication between the stage and the flyloft, known as the ‘graticcia’, the heart of the scenery movements, 18 metres above the stage. The noise during musical performances prevented the stagehands from communicating and a sort of Morse code was used consisting of yanks on the ropes which often resulted in misunderstandings and accidents: a momentary distraction and scenery would be raised instead of lowered, with all the imaginable consequences! Meucci installed a communication system consisting of an acoustic tube, common on ships but never before used in a theatre. Still visible, the device is seen as the first inkling in Meucci’s mind of the invention of the telephone, brought to completion with little success some decades later.
A unique theatrical device In 1857 the Accademia degli Immobili, which owned the Teatro della Pergola, was in search of funds. Since the most lucrative performances were the great dancing feasts held in the theatre, especially for Carnevale, it was deemed necessary to enlarge the space in the hall to house a greater number of people and sell more tickets. How could this be done? The solution was provided by the stagehand Cesare Canovetti, son of that Cosimo who had worked with Meucci: raise the floor of the stalls and bring it to the same level as the stage, thus forming a single even surface. Raising an area of over 200 square metres, however, was no easy task. Under the stalls Canovetti installed a winch, a large wheel used for raising heavy stage scenery: if it can hoist them from above, he thought, it can also surely give a powerful thrust upwards. Connected to a system of pulleys that reduced the strain, the wheel was turned by six men by means of a star-wheel and, by operating four arms, it raised the floor. Used until 1961, it was blocked after the flood in 1966; due to its uniqueness and peculiarity it is today one of great attractions of the theatre museum.
Bernardo Buontalenti e la Grotta Grande di Boboli, a cura di Sergio Risaliti, Firenze 2012. Il Palazzo e il Tempio. Palazzo Altoviti a Firenze: storia e simbologie, di Nicola Iannelli e Mario Pagni, Siena 2012.
Andrea Scacciati, pittore di fiori, frutta e animali a Firenze in età tardobarocca, di Sandro Bellesi, Firenze 2012. Bagliori dorati. Il Gotico internazionale a Firenze 1375-1440, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi, 2012), a cura di Antonio Natali, Enrica Neri Lusanna e Angelo Tartuferi, Firenze 2012.
Firenze e l’unità d’Italia. Un nuovo paesaggio urbano, a cura di Gabriella Orefice, ‘Storia dell’Urbanistica. Toscana’ 13, Roma 2012.
Bellezza e religiosità in Ludovico Cardi detto il Cigoli, a cura di Sandro Bellesi e Gianfranco Luzzetti, con un saggio di Giuseppe Cantelli, Arcidosso 2012.
Firenze, la materia della città. Materia e disegno pavimentale nelle strade del centro storico, a cura di Francesco Gurrieri, Firenze 2012.
Benedetto Luti. L’ultimo maestro, di Rodolfo Maffeis, prefazione di Edgar Peters Bowron, Firenze 2012.
Giardini di Firenze. Segreti, aneddoti, personaggi, di Paola Maresca, Firenze 2012. La serra del Giardino dell’Orticoltura a Firenze, di Daniele Vannutiello, Firenze 2012. Le caserme Tassi e Baldissera a Firenze. Opere d’arte e arredi d’epoca, di Maria Sframeli, Firenze 2012. Palazzo dei Visacci, XV-XX secolo, di Daniela Smalzi, con un testo di Moreno Minghetti, Firenze 2012. Seduzione dei giardini toscani, a cura di J.M. Bradburne, Firenze 2012.
Da Fattori al Novecento. Opere inedite dalla collezione Roster, Del Greco, Olschki, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Fondazione Bardini, 2012), a cura di Francesca Dini e Alessandra Rapisardi, Firenze 2012. Dalla raccolta dell’Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Sala d’Esposizione dell’Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, 2012), a cura di Anna Gallo Martucci e Domenico Viggiano, Firenze 2012. Félicie de Fauveau. Una scultrice romantica da Parigi a Firenze, di Silvia Mascalchi, Firenze 2012.
A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. Painters in Florence after the Black Death. The Master of the Misericordia and Matteo di Pacino, di Sonia Chiodo, Firenze 2012. Americani a Firenze. Sargent e gli impressionisti del nuovo mondo, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Palazzo Strozzi, 2012), a cura di Francesca Bardazzi e Carlo Sisi, Venezia 2012. Andrea Commodi. Dall’attrazione per Michelangelo all’ansia del nuovo, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Casa Buonarroti, 2012), a cura di Gianni Papi e Anna Maria Petrioli Tofani, Firenze 2012.
Florence au XVe siècle. Un quartier et ses peintures, di Cécile Maisonneuve, Paris 2012. Gino Terreni. Un percorso di vita e di arte, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Sala d’esposzione dell’Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, 2012), a cura di Leonardo Giovanni Terreni, Firenze 2012. Giovanni Insom (1755-1855). Uno scultore trentino a Firenze, di Chiara Radice, Trento 2012. I disegni del teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Inventario II (1943-1953), di Moreno Bucci, Firenze 2012.
info www.centrodi.it I s t i t u t o U n i v e r s i t a r i o O l a n d e s e d i S t o r i a d e l l’ A r t e, F i r e n z e
Gli Uffizi
Il Museo Nazionale di Antropologia e Etnologia di Firenze, di Emanuela Rossi, Firenze 2012.
Umberto Maestrucci, pittore, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Sala d’esposizione dell’Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, 2012), a cura di Silvestra Bietoletti, Firenze 2012.
Il Nano Morgante di Agnolo Bronzino: un dipinto a “due dritti” restaurato, a cura di Marco Ciatti e Diane Kunzelman, Firenze 2012. La Crocifissione di Giorgio Vasari nella chiesa di Santa Maria del Carmine a Firenze. Storia e restauro, a cura di Daniele Rapino, Firenze 2012. La Galleria degli arazzi. Epifanie di tessuti, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi, 2012), a cura di Giovanna Giusti, Firenze 2012. Luca Signorelli, catalogo della mostra (Perugia, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria; Città di Castello, Orvieto, itinerari, 2012), a cura di Fabio De Chirico, Vittoria Garibaldi, Tom Henry e Francesco Federico Mancini, Cinisello Balsamo 2012. Michelangelo. La stanza segreta. I disegni murali nella Sagrestia Nuova di San Lorenzo, di Paolo Dal Poggetto, Firenze 2012. Picasso e Firenze. Segreti e storie dell’artista in città, a cura di J.M. Bradburne, Firenze 2012. Ritratti di imperatori e profili all’antica. Scultura del Quattrocento nel Museo Stefano Bardini, a cura di Antonella Nesi, saggio e schede di Francesca Maria Bacci, Firenze 2012. Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli: la Chiesa, la Cappella di Loreto, di Divo Savelli, Firenze 2012. Seicento fiorentino. Sacred and Profane Allegories, catalogo della mostra (New York, Moretti Art Gallery, 2012), edited by Francesca Baldassari, Firenze 2012. Sir Joshua Reynolds in Italia (1750-1752). Passaggio in Toscana. Il taccuino «201 a 10» del British Museum, a cura di Giovanna Perini Polesani, Firenze 2012.
History
A tavola con la regina. Le ricette di Caterina e lo Zodiaco di Nostradamus, ricette elaborate da Emilio Marchitti, Firenze 2012.
Album della vecchia Firenze. Volume I: la città di Cacciaguida, di Andrea Petrioli e Fabrizio Petrioli, Firenze 2012. Album della vecchia Firenze. Volume II: l’Arno, i ponti e l’Oltrarno, di Andrea Petrioli e Fabrizio Petrioli, Firenze 2012.
Famiglia e memoria a Firenze. Volume II: secoli XIV-XXI, di Leonida Pandimiglio, Roma 2012.
Firenze massonica, di Fulvio Conti, Firenze 2012.
Guida insolita ai misteri, ai segreti, alle leggende e alle curiosità di Firenze, di Franco Cesati, Roma 2012. I Marmi di Anton Francesco Doni: la storia, i generi e le arti, a cura di Francesca Rizzanelli, Firenze 2012. La condanna a morte di Pietro Paolo Boscoli, di Luca Della Robbia, Macerata 2012. La frutta negli studi dei Georgofili (secc. XVIII-XIX), catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Accademia dei Georgofili, 2012), a cura di Lucia e Luciana Bigliazzi, Firenze 2012. La saga delle colombe. Villa La Selva, il lager alle porte di Firenze, di Giorgio Jonas e Matilde Jonas, Firenze 2012. Mercatura e arte. Uomini d’affari toscani in Europa e nel Mediterraneo tardomedievale, a cura di Lorenzo Tanzini e Sergio Tognetti, Roma 2012.
new books Centro Di autumn 2012-winter 2013 SOCIETÀ
Studi e Ricerche 23 I libri
From Pattern to Nature in Italian Renaissance Drawing: Pisanello to Leonardo
The Anglo-Florentine Renaissance. Art for the Early Tudors, edited by Cinzia Maria Sicca and Louis A. Waldman, New Haven and London 2012.
Il giardino dell’anima
DI
Prospettiva
INTERNAZIONALE
STUDI
DELLA
DI
STORIA
M I N I AT U R A
Rivista di storia dell’arte antica e moderna
Ascesi e propaganda nelle Tebaidi fiorentine del Quattrocento
a selection of books on Florentine art and architecture, published in Italy and abroad in 2012
Painting, Sculpture, Applied Arts
Il Maestro di Borgo alla Collina. Alcune proposte per Scolaio di Giovanni, pittore tardogotico fiorentino, di Alberto Lenza, Firenze 2012.
made by Arte&Libri via dei Fossi, 32r, Firenze www.artlibri.it
Firenze e Rosai: la città e il suo pittore, a cura di Carlo Cresti e Luigi Cavallo, Firenze 2012.
books about town
Architecture, Gardens, Museums, Palazzi
139 140 Luglio-Ottobre 2010
Alessandra Malquori R I V I S TA D I
Edited by Michael W. Kwakkelstein and Lorenza Melli
STORIA DELLA
M I N I AT U R A
rivista interdisciplinare di studi medicei
Università degli Studi di Siena Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘Federico II’ Centro Di
16 2012
Dóra Sallay
CORPUS OF SIENESE PAINTINGS IN HUNGARY 1420-1510
Corpus of Sienese Paintings in Hungary 1420-1510 by Dóra Sallay In English
Centro Di
From Pattern to Nature in Italian Renaissance Drawing: Pisanello to Leonardo International Conference Florence, 6-7 May 2011 The Dutch University Institute for Art History
edited by Michael W. Kwakkelstein and Lorenza Melli
Texts in original languages
Il giardino dellʼanima
Rivista di Storia della Miniatura Centro Di
Ascesi e propaganda nelle Tebaidi fiorentine Società Internazionale del Quattrocento
by Alessandra Malquori
series ʻGli Uffizi. Studi e Ricercheʼ, 23 directed by Antonio Natali
di Studi di Storia della Miniatura
Editor Giulia Orofino
Yearly publication
Medicea
Mitteilungen
Journal founded and directed by Marco Ferri and Clara Gambaro
Editors Alessandro Nova Gerhard Wolf
n. 11
giugno 2012
rivista interdisciplinare di studi medicei
Half-yearly publication
des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz
Texts in original languages
OPD Restauro
Rivista dellʼOpificio delle Pietre Dure e Laboratori di Restauro di Firenze
Editor Marco Ciatti
Yearly publication
Prospettiva
Rivista di storia dellʼarte antica e moderna
Fondata nel 1975 da Mauro Cristofani e Giovanni Previtali
Editor Fiorella Sricchia Santoro
Quarterly publication
Texts in original languages
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in tuscany
Archaeology and industrial development: the case of San Casciano In 2010, during excavation work for the building of a new industrial plant at Ponterotto near San Casciano – an area that had never before been surveyed from an archaeological point of view – the remains of some ancient structures emerged that led to the intervention of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana. The area had been earmarked for the building of a new factory for a leading company in the camper sector, capable of incorporating the activities hitherto carried out in a group of buildings scattered throughout the area of Tavarnelle Val di Pesa. Present in the area since the 1960s, the company is a consolidated concern in the Val di Pesa area and, despite having been taken over by a German multinational, has retained its Italian management and has decided against delocalising its buildings in order not to lose the knowhow accumulated in more than forty years of experience deriving largely from the skills of the local workers. Close collaboration between the company, the municipal administration of San Casciano, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana and the Regione Toscana led to the knowledge, recovery, restoration, contextualisation and territorial improvement of the architectural finds discovered. This shared initiative has resulted in the project to develop the archaeological area, which is therefore the fruit of an effective collaboration between public institutions and private business and thus is an example of how it is possible to reconcile cultural and economic needs, in this case archaeology and industrial development. The excavations Following preliminary surveys, the excavations brought to light finds and remains dating from two different periods: material evidence of a Hellenistic Etruscan building, and the pars rustica of a Roman villa. The state of conservation of the two structures was fragmentary and compromised by the later exploitation of the land, testified by the remains of drainage systems for the cultivation of vines. Although showing no physical or chronological connection, the two buildings had in common the choice of their location, characterised by the fertility of the land, the presence of a still active spring and the nearness to a river of modest size. However, these settlements were inhabited only as long as man was able to control the waters of the spring and the river; repeated flooding was in fact the cause of the destruction of the Roman building, at a time when the Etruscan structure had already been long covered by debris pushed downstream as a result of subsidence. The Hellenistic Etruscan building The building, consisting of five rooms, appears to have been inhabited in two distinct phases: the earliest, dating from the first half of the 2nd century BC, corresponds to the period of its construction, while dating to
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around the middle of the century is the building of a small channel to control the flow of rainwater. The whole building was abandoned at the end of the century. It was a house of modest size, used for a brief period, of which only the foundations in river stones and brick remain, while the walls and roof, made from perishable materials, have been entirely destroyed. The building’s exclusively domestic use is borne out by the presence of small hearths and remains of food (animal bones together with charcoal) and by the type of ceramic objects consisting mainly of ordinary tableware. There are interesting traces of a fireplace, recognizable by a layer of baked clay with an indentation possibly used for supporting a small column with a perforated plate for cooking.
In this issue VisitArt focuses on a case it considers interesting for the development and understanding of the local area.
The structures of the Roman villa About 250 metres from the Hellenistic Etruscan building various surveys have been carried out revealing a layer of frequentation dating from the Roman period. The excavations brought to light a farm, probably the pars rustica of a Roman villa, whose architectural nucleus is composed of three wings arranged in the shape of a horseshoe. The finding of a coin of the emperor Aurelian (270-275 AD) in the abandoned layer allows us to date the building to a period before the eighth decade of the 3rd century. The nature of the manufactures unearthed confirms the use of these rooms for the processing and storing of agricultural products; particularly noteworthy is a sandstone block with two rectangular holes that must have supported a press and some vats in cocciopesto of various sizes, possibly used during the production of wine and oil. The study of the ceramic and metal materials found, which will allow us to define more precisely the use and dating of the complex, has yet to be carried out.
result of the close and continued collaboration between the municipal administration of San Casciano, the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana, the Regione Toscana and the company. After assessing the extent of the finds and the various possible solutions for their conservation, development, use and enjoyment, the specially appointed technical/scientific committee approved a project involving the removal and repositioning of the archaeological remains in an area not far from the place where they were originally found. The solution chosen, which successfully reconciles the need to safeguard and exploit to the full the archaeological finds with the construction of the new company building, comprises various phases: the scientific stratigraphical excavation with an in-depth analysis of the area, the removal of the material finds, the restoration, the consolidation and final relocation in a public area. As part of a more extensive plan of development and exploitation of the archaeological area the chosen site was an area already being used as a riverside park, situated about 100 metres from the area of the archaeological
in tuscany
The development project The maintenance in situ of the excavated archaeological remains was judged to be incompatible with the building of modern structures, since some of the finds were discovered in the area designated for new foundations; the maintenance of the finds in loco would therefore have involved the covering over of the excavated areas and therefore any observation of the archaeological evidence would have been limited to photographic and document-based material. On the other hand, the adoption of alternative solutions – that is, a variation of the project for the industrial plant and the consequent delocalisation of production – would have involved penalising Chianti’s economic and productive system and would not have been consistent with the aim of creating a cultural and ecological ‘corridor’ capable of marrying the anthropic complexities of the area and its rich resources, both in terms of cultural expression and in relation to the agricultural, handcraft and manufacturing productive capacities of the district. The project to develop the archaeological area of Ponterotto was agreed upon as a
finds, in a context favourable to the creation of historico-touristic itineraries linked to the other archaeological sites of the area and to the Museo Civico of San Casciano. The work of removal and relocation aims to maintain the orientation and arrangement of the excavated structures, which will remain separate, although closer together compared to their original positions. The project also includes carefully designed landscaping that will involve the planting of trees, pedestrian and cycle paths, rest areas and bicycle parking lots, observation points from above of the archaeological finds and illustrative panels that will make for greater enjoyment and comprehension of the finds and their historical and territorial background. Also planned are didactic and educational activities for schools, families and adults with the participation of cultural associations based in the local area, while the Museo Civico of San Casciano is involved in the implementation of an archaeological section with the most important finds discovered during the excavation of Ponterotto, thus becoming the centre of a small local system simultaneously combining different realities.
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architecture walks
In this issue VisitArt draws the attention of those visiting the city, as well as those living in it, to the city’s paved areas, seeing them in their historical and cultural context, capable as they are of ‘influencing’ the way the city and its monuments are used and appreciated and significantly altering one’s perception of them
The cityʼs paved streets: polychromy and material variety in the roads of the historic city
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edited by Emilia Daniele
Emilia Daniele is an architect, Research Fellow in the History of Architecture and Urban Studies and professor at the Facoltà di Ingegneria Civile-Architettura at Pisa University. She assists the chair of the Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane – Sezione Toscana in the organisation of cultural events, such as the national and international studies conferences. She edits volumes of architecture, art and fiction.
Photo Emilia Daniele
To follow the Architecture Walk in this issue, VisitArt invites readers to close their eyes and make the effort to picture themselves in the middle of piazza della Signoria, turning round through 360°, taking in a sort of virtual panoramic view, and imagining the buildings and monuments rising above a pavement of red terracotta instead of the grey stone presently in situ. The visual and sensory perception of the enclosed area of the square would certainly be different (‘warmer’, ‘brighter’), just as the individual buildings, the statues and the fountain would stand out differently (more ‘distinctly’) against the ground, not to mention the very different physical sensation of walking on a surface made from an assemblage of small terracotta bricks laid on end rather than on a pavement made of stone. In imagining these colour effects we are helped by the painting at the San Marco Museum in Florence, dated c. 1498, representing the execution of Girolamo Savonarola: a rendering of how piazza della Signoria was originally paved in terracotta (and for a long time too, from the 14th to the end of the 18th century, despite being rarely documented). The red terracotta paving of the square is a highly alluring image, one which periodically appears on the wish-list of the municipal administration. It has in fact been recently mooted by the mayor presently in office, but more concretely was at the centre of a heated debate that gripped the city in the 1980s. The whole square was stripped of its paved surface to reveal the remains of the Roman city, only to be then covered over, thus not only thwarting the opportunity, hoped for by many, of resurfacing it in terracotta, but actually fuelling what will go down in history as the “scandal of the stones”, when the 18th/19th-century slabs of
hand-chiselled pietraforte were illegally sold off and substituted by new machine-squared paving stones. Another example: on the 24th of June 2012 the new stone pavement of via Martelli was inaugurated, an intervention whose main innovative feature is the absence of kerbed sidewalks, the pedestrianisation of the entire area around the Duomo having made obsolete the customary distinction between areas destined for pedestrians on the one hand and vehicular traffic on the other. The decision to abolish the sidewalks has, from the point of view of perception, resulted in a significant change in the relationship between the pedestrian (and therefore the observer of the city), the street façades and the monuments, since the point of observation is no longer determined by the linear course of the sidewalks. The same criterion of urban continuum one can only assume lies behind the planning of the new paving of piazza Santa Maria Novella (this too not without controversy). Far from wishing to participate even slantingly in any debate, VisitArt draws the attention of those visiting the city, as well as those living in it, to the city’s paved areas, seeing them in their significantly dynamic historical and cultural context, capable as they are of ‘influencing’ the way the city and its monuments are used and appreciated and significantly altering one’s perception of them. When it comes to historical pavements, in fact, it is almost always the defects and criticisms that are noted: where they are not perfectly maintained, the paving stones are seen understandably as potential hazards, hindrances to the full enjoyment of the city rather than as elements in themselves worthy of interest.
Giovanni Villani (1276-1348), referring to the city at the time of its Roman foundation, talks of “gleaming” main streets, an adjective that conjures the idea of the hardness and shiny smoothness of a paved road, especially when compared to the dull and uncertain consistency of a dirt track. In effect, archaeological investigations confirm that at the dawn of urban life the streets of Florence were paved (with alberese stone, a local calcareous rock varying in colour from grey to dark green to deep yellow), a characteristic that to a certain extent must have ‘educated’ the citizenry to a certain level of comfort and hygiene. It is significant, in fact, that around 1290, the century in which the city established itself as one of the wealthiest, most industrious and highly populated in Europe, it was already “considered natural that all the streets of Florence were paved, whereas those of Paris, at least still a century earlier, were turned by every shower into impracticable mires” (R. Davidsohn, Firenze ai tempi di Dante, Florence 1929, p. 451). Systematically a proper ‘plan’ of urban paving was carried out, “by which the city of Florence became cleaner, more beautiful and more healthy” (G. Villani, Nuova Cronica, VII, xxvi, 6-11). Thus, the stone paving ‘alla rinfusa’ (large polygonal flagstones perfectly fitting together, according to a technique inherited from ancient Rome) was now flanked by brick paving that conferred to the city streets a vivacious polychromy: in 1284 ‘lastricossi e ammattonossi’ around the recently constructed Orsanmichele; in 1288 Piazza San Giovanni was surfaced in terracotta and the new street of Via degli Spadai was paved (today’s via Cavour); in 1294 Ponte Vecchio was paved in terracotta; in 1330 improvements were made to the surface of the square in front of Palazzo Vecchio, “up to that time defective; a part was paved in stone and a part in terracotta” (R. Davidsohn, op. cit., p. 451). The maintenance of the streets, the pride of the city on a par with its monuments not only for their aesthetic value but also from the point of view of hygiene and safety, was handed down over the centuries, to the extent that they ‘impressed’ travellers even in the 18th century. In 1728 Montesquieu declared “there is no other city where one can live more modestly than in Florence: one is perfectly equipped with a dark lantern for the night and an umbrella for the rain. The streets are so well paved that one can easily get about on foot” (Viaggio in Italia, Bari 1971, p. 137); a picture of ‘decorous’ liveableness confirmed by Giuseppe Zocchi in his XXIV vedute delle principali contrade, piazze, chiese e palazzi della città di Firenze, published in 1744. In 1777 the architect Zanobi del Rosso drew up his Memoria on the techniques of stone paving and their design in Tuscany in which, among other things, he underlines Florence’s superiority over contemporary Rome, where most of the streets and squares were still unpaved. Despite the glossy literary and iconographical image, daily problems of deterioration and upkeep were certainly not lacking: it was under the Lorraine government, a period of enlightened reforms, that a proper urban plan was drawn up that intended, as we read in the documents of the Archivio Storico Comunale, to safeguard “an art that in matters of paving distinguishes Florence above most other cities in Italy”. Between 1781 and 1788 a plan was devised to cover the entire area of the ‘Comune’ with a single, elegant surface of uniform stones: a rigorous set of Istruzioni decreed that the only stones suitable for the paving of Florence’s streets were the same that had been approved by the architecture of the Renaissance, the pietra serena of Monte Ceceri and the pietra forte quarried from the hills to the south of the city. Although doing away with the old paving stones was prohibited, and the greatest care was taken to recover and re-use paving stones that were in good condition, the new norms expressed new aesthetic criteria that substituted the multicoloured aspect and varied materials of the medieval city streets with a more homogeneous paved surface, a sort of connective tissue at the base of Florentine buildings that at the most allowed the discreet two-tone effect of the blue-grey pietra serena and the greyish yellow pietraforte. New values that were also expressed in the hierarchy of techniques used on the basis of the street’s degree of representativeness: “square stones”, considered to be of greater elegance, were used for main squares, public promenades,
Filippo Dolciati (attr.), The Burning of Savonarola in Piazza della Signoria, c. 1498, tempera on wood, Florence, San Marco Museum Giuseppe Zocchi, Veduta della Piazza e Chiesa di S. Giovannino e de Palazzi dei SS.i Marchese Riccardi, e Panciatichi, from XXIV vedute delle principali contrade, piazze, chiese e palazzi della città di Firenze, Firenze 1744, pl. XIX
architecture walks
Or otherwise, if well preserved, the stones simply go unnoticed. The fact of the matter is that for a long time Florence’s paved streets have been a reason for the city’s prestige, if not on a par with, certainly a natural consequence of the fame of its monuments, to the point that they were remarked upon in the notes of medieval chroniclers and in the diaries of 18th- and 19th-century travellers.
embankments, bridges, the suburbs whose corresponding gates led to the sovereign basilicas and palaces, streets leading to theatres; jumbled paving stones were reserved for secondary streets; cobblestones, lastly, were used for minor streets and lanes. An approach that was confirmed and perhaps exalted by a new project of repaving of the city of 1820 which for reasons of excessive cost was never implemented. Further confirmation of the exceptional quality of Florentine street paving dates from just after Unification, when the city was obliged to compare its own costs of installation and maintenance with those sustained by other Italian cities. For Florentine street paving (in macigno) the annual expenditure was 1,38 lire/sq.m., against the 0,70 of Bologna and the 0,93 of Milan (both for terracotta paving). This discrepancy would decree if not the total abandonment of ‘historic’ techniques and materials – due to their excessive cost slabs of macigno were limited to sidewalks, jumbled paving stones were completely discarded, and pietraforte was naturally abandoned due to the extinction of the quarry – then certainly the combined use of non-traditional surfaces such as porphyry cubes and subsequently asphalt. What emerges from this brief digression is that the whole question of the conservation, restoration or substitution of historic paving stones is constantly relevant, fuelling legitimate discussions that see the city administration and ‘intelligentia’ clash over such choices as material, placement, colour, amount. And yet Florence can also boast a successful example of the replacement of historic paving with modern resurfacing, that of the sloping ground of piazza Pitti, made artificially at the end of the 20th century using a mixture of natural aggregates. An (appropriately treated) concrete that has the twofold advantage of agreeably restoring the chromatic effect of the previous ground and at the same time providing a surface which invites people to stay, a natural cavea on which to rest the mind and body with the palace and Boboli behind you; sufficiently distant also from the shops and bars along the street below. A sort of urban void, a precious asset in an art city like Florence, which would not have been so comfortable if left as dirt or paved in stone.
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