YOUR FLORENCE EXPERIENCE

FINE ARTS AND
CULTURE ACADEMY

The large Refectory of the Museum of San Marco reopens

The large Refectory of the San Marco Museum has been reopened to the public since October 1st, after a long period of closure that began last October, due to a lifting of the terracotta floor. The vast room of the large Refectory, where the friars consumed meals together, features architecture...

Out of town excursion: the Medici Park of Pratolino

Say you've come to Florence attracted by its immense artistic, historical and cultural heritage. Say you've already visited all the museums and churches and photographed all the beautiful panoramic views the city has to offer.Now add to all this that at this time of the year, days are sunny and...

Clet's Common Man on Ponte alle Grazie

On Ponte alle Grazie, a man leans out and bravely steps into the void. The man is that of the installation by Clet, a French artist who has lived for many ears in Florence, where he opened his studio in Oltrarno, becoming famous for his interventions on road signs. L’Uomo...

Details of Florence: the bas-relief of Perseo and Andromeda at the Loggia dei Lanzi

Looking up while busy admiring the spectacular statues of the Loggia dei Lanzi including the statue of Perseus holding the head of Medusa (1555) by Benvenuto Cellini, you might have missed to notice the beautiful bas-relief placed right at the base of this statue.This square bronze bas-relief depicting an episode...

5 extraordinary female artists who have left a mark in the History of Art

The world of art is historically a world dominated by men, very little has been said about women artists compared to men artists, but this does not mean that there have not been women who have left their permanent mark in the history of art. Today we want to remember...

The new Museo della Specola

After almost five years of closure and important redevelopment works, the Specola Museum in Florence reopened to the public with four days of free admission, offered to celebrate also the 250th anniversary of its foundation.Inaugurated on 21 February 1775 as the Imperial and Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History...

Anna Maria Luisa de Medici's legacy

On the 18th of February Florence celebrates a very special woman, the one to whom we owe the salvaging of our art heritage: Anna Maria Luisa dei Medici, also known as the Electress Palatine. Anna Maria was the daughter of Cosimo III and Margherita Luisa d'Orleans. Theirs was a very...

Alphonse Mucha, the Seduction of Art Nouveau in Florence

Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Paris was the center of the art world, it was the Belle Époque and almost all the new artistic trends started from the French capital.Photography and cinema gave a new cut to images and allowed us...

The abundance of the form in Botero

The style of Fernando Botero Angulo, characterized by subjects with dilated and full forms, of caricatural appearance, is absolutely unmistakable.The artist developed this style in the 1950s after painting a "fat" mandolin in a still life with mandolin. Since then he will continue to paint men, women, animals and inanimate...

“The return of Joseph, the prince of dreams” at the Salone dei Duecento

The Medici tapestries from the cycle “The return of Joseph, the prince of dreams” are back in the Salone dei Duecento, exhibited in rotation in five exhibition cycles. The twenty tapestries in the series are displayed, four at a time, according to their original location in the hall of Palazzo...

A loving mother: Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola

Raffaello Sanzio died very young, he was only 37, but in his short life he managed to establish himself as one of the most outstanding artists of the Renaissance, capable of masterfully interpreting a timeless ideal of beauty and harmony.One of his greatest masterpieces is the Madonna della Seggiola, painted...

The Museum of Illusions in Florence

The concept of the Museum of Illusions was born in 2015 in Zagreb, Croatia, and was then exported to various cities around the world, also arriving in Italy, first in Milan then in Florence and Rome.The museum has opened inside Palazzo Tornaquinci Della Stufa, a historic building, in via Borgo...

5 among the best kisses in the History of Art

Art has always been the means through which mankind gave a tangible form to emotions, desires and fears. Therefore it does not surprise that love, being perhaps the strongest emotions of all and what every human craves, became one of the main themes throughout the history of art. Everyone loves...

The column of san Zanobi

On January 26th, in Florence we celebrate San Zanobi (Saint Zenobius) so you might see a garland of flowers at the base of the column in Piazza Duomo - if you ever even noticed the column in the first place. Many people, including Florentines, pass by it every day not...

Escher's visionary worlds in Florence

Creator of visionary, ingenious, impossible worlds, M.C. Escher was one of the most original artists of the 20th century. His woodcuts, lithographies and engravings have now become part of our collective imaginary and still manage to fascinate and amaze today. The great Florentine exhibition, hosted in the halls of the...

The Chimera of Arezzo, an Etruscan masterpiece

The Chimera of Arezzo, was found on November 15, 1553 during the excavation works for the construction of the Medici fortification walls, near the Porta San Lorentino. Cosimo I de' Medici, great collector and art estimator, fell in love with this work so deeply that he decided to personally take...

Olafur Eliasson, nel tuo tempo at Palazzo Strozzi

One of the most important Florentine exhibitions of this season is that of the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, which can be visited at Palazzo Strozzi until January 22, 2023. Olafur Eliasson: Nel tuo tempo is the largest exhibition ever held in Italy by the artist and collects historic and site-specific...

Passione Novecento. From Paul Klee to Damien Hirst at Palazzo Medici Ricardi

Passione Novecento. From Paul Klee to Damien Hirst inaugurates at Palazzo Medici Riccardi, an exhibition that brings together 38 works of Twentieth-century art belonging to private collections that the public will be able to admire together for the first time. Among the big artists on display we find Paul Klee,...

Pietro Annigoni's painting of Queen Elizabeth II

September 8, 2022, one of the greatest icons of the 20th century, Queen Elizabeth II of England, dies. She is perhaps the most famous contemporary personality in the world, certainly known by anyone globally. Everyone recognizes the Queen's face, her brightly colored outfits and her hats. She was a woman...

Mr. Arbitrium: a giant in piazza San Lorenzo

If you pay a visit to the Basilica of San Lorenzo these days, you will come across a giant over 5 meters high leaning against the side of the church. With his mighty muscles, he has already "supported" the Medici Palace in Seravezza, the Cathedral of Pietrasanta and Carrara, the...

When the Nazis bombed the bridges of Florence

August 3, 1944, Florence is still occupied by the Nazis. It’s been almost a year, the Allies are expected to send help any day now, and rumor has it that, knowing this, the Germans want to destroy the Florentine bridges to cut off access routes. On July 30, everyone who...

Play it Again: Rä di Martino at Forte Belvedere

Forte Belvedere opens its spaces to Rä di Martino, a young contemporary artist, and to her solo exhibition entitled Play It Again, a project of Museo Novecento curated by Sergio Risaliti. Through a selection of works from 2014 to today, that includes installations, video art and photographs, Play it again...

Art Masterpieces: the Double portrait of the Dukes of Urbino

The Double Portrait of the Dukes of Urbino is one of the most famous portraits of the Renaissance, preserved today in the Uffizi Gallery. This diptych was commissioned in 1465 to Piero della Francesca, by Federico di Montefeltro, Lord of Urbino.   Represented in profile, we see the two spouses...

Oscar Ghiglia's Novecento Italiano at Palazzo Medici Riccardi

“Painting is based solely on the law of knowing how to find the right colour tone and getting i tinto its proper space.” – Oscar Ghiglia   The new exhibition at Palazzo Medici Riccardi features a beloved artist of the twentieth century: Oscar Ghiglia (1876-1945). "Oscar Ghiglia, The years of the...

Donatello, the Renaissance: the revolutionary artist on display at Palazzo Stroozzi and the Bargello Museum

An extraordinary exhibition, the one about Donatello entitled Donatello, the Renaissance, which can be visited until 31 July 2022 at Palazzo Strozzi and the Bargello Museum. Over 130 works including sculptures, paintings and drawings, including some unique loans, never granted before, and distributed in two locations of excellence.   Donato...

The Three Pietàs of Michelangelo side by side

When people talk about Michelangelo's Pietà, they usually mean the Pietà di San Pietro, or Vatican Pietà, one of his most renoknown works, but this is not the only sculptural group of this type that he ever made. In fact, he made three, and now for the first time they...

Chi vuol esser lieto sia! Lorenzo the Magnificent's Carnival

Quant’è bella giovinezza, che si fugge tuttavia! chi vuol esser lieto, sia: di doman non c’è certezza.   "How beautiful is youth, / though quickly it does flee! / be happy if you want to: / for tomorrow may not come" This is what Lorenzo il Magnifico wrote in the opening...

Erasmus Plus program: a contemporary art experience in Florence

Florence is a place rich in history and art that tourists from all over the world come to admire, transforming the city into a meeting place of many different cultures. People travel to here from all over the world not only to see the amazing art masterpieces scattered all over...

Masterpieces of Art: the scandalous Titian's Venus

The Venus of Urbino, or simply Titian's Venus, is one of the most famous paintings in the history of art, admired as much as discussed, it was a source of inspiration for many artists. Guidobaldo II della Rovere di Urbino, commissioned this painting from the Venetian painter with the intention...

Anj Smith's interior landscapes at the Stefano Bardini Museum

“I love the idea that painting, pointless technologically, can still hypnotise and seduce us.” Says artist Anj Smith, a statement that leaves space for reflection, not only about painting, but art itself. Art is created and consumed because human beings crave to express themselves, to look at something beautiful, something...

Jenny Saville in Florence

Florence welcomes in five of its major museums the works of one of the most important living artists in the world, Jenny Saville. This is a huge exhibition project, curated by Sergio Risaliti, director of the Museo Novecento, the fulcrum of the widespread exhibition. Here we find about 100 works...

The Chapel of The Magi in Palazzo Medici Riccardi

Benozzo Gozzoli (c. 1421 - 1497) was a Florentine painter, a pupil of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Beato Angelico, known mostly for the frescoes in the Magi Chapel in Palazzo Medici Riccardi. It was to him that Cosimo and Piero de 'Medici commissioned the frescoes for the chapel, a work that...

Galileo Chini at Villa Bardini

Villa Bardini reopens after two years, with the exhibition entitled Galileo Chini and European Symbolism. The exhibition, dedicated to the greatest Italian interpreter of Liberty modernism and one of the major exponents of Symbolism at European level, focuses on the artist's first twenty years of career, which made him famous...

The Terrace of Geographic Maps of the Uffizi: a testament to the power of the Medici family in Tuscany

After two years of restorations carried out by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence, we can return to admire the Terrace of Geographic Maps of the Uffizi, a place rich in history from which visitors can enjoy a beautiful view of the city. Giorgio Vasari had designed this space...

The Italian tradition of the Nativity scene

A Christmas tradition that has Italian roots is that of the Nativity scene, "Presepe" in Italian, a display of objects and figures representing the birth of Jesus. The term “presepe” derives from the Latin “praesaepe”, meaning manger, trough, or an enclosed area for sheep and goats. The baby Jesus, Mary...

Medici Chapels: the Chapel of the Princes

The Medici Chapels complex is part of the Basilica of San Lorenzo and includes the New Sacristy designed by Michelangelo in 1519, and the grandiose Chapel of the Princes built in the seventeenth century. Hard to decide which space is the most beautiful, the first emblem of formal purity, the...

Departures: the fresco inside Santa Maria Novella station in Florence

About 60,000 people transit through the Santa Maria Novella station in Florence every year, and yet, not everyone notices the huge 25-meter fresco placed on the south wall of the large arrivals and departures hall. A work created with an ancient technique, for which Italian and in particular Florentine art...

Grottesca: an extravagant ancient Rome decorative art rediscovered

The grottesca (or grotesque, from the italian grotta, cave) is a wall decoration characterized by a multitude of hybrid creatures, and zoomorphic figures depicted within a symmetrical decoration with naturalistic elements. The decoration appears airy and light thanks to the slender style of the figures. In Florence we have very...

The Odeon Cinema and its history

The Renaissance palace where the Odeon is located, now called Palazzo dello Strozzino, was a property of the wealthy Strozzi family, this was true for the majority of the buildings that surrounded Piazza Strozzi and for those in the street that is now via Monalda. It does not come as...

Jeff Koons.Shine in Florence

The series of exhibitions dedicated to contemporary art at Palazzo Strozzi continues, this time it is the turn of the very famous Jeff Koons, who had already been in Florence in 2015 with the much discussed golden sculpture Pluto and Proserpina, displayed in front of Palazzo Vecchio. Jeff Koons. Shine...

Vasari's Loggia del Pesce: a troubled history

The fish market was once located in today's Lungarno degli Archibugieri, then Piazza del Pesce, right next to Ponte Vecchio. In 1565, on the occasion of the marriage between the son of Grand Duke Cosimo I, Francesco, and the Archduchess of Austria Giovanna of Austria, the famous Vasari Corridor was...

Santo Stefano al Ponte: a hidden church in Florence

One of the most well-hidden churches in all of Florence is probably Santo Stefano al Ponte. However, the name suggests where we can find it: in the small Piazza Santo Stefano, near Ponte Vecchio. Founded before 1116, the year in which the first documentations mention it, the church of Santo...

Murals from another era: a fresco in Piazza della Calza

We are in Porta Romana, south of Florence, where the fourteenth-century walls are still standing, surviving the urban restructuring by Giuseppe Poggi in 1865. After the monumental door, a small square opens up, called Piazza della Calza. The name derives from the church and the convent that overlook the square....

Giuseppe Veneziano in Pietrasanta - The Blue Banana, when art is also fun

Pietrasanta is a small town 100 km from Florence, near the sea and at the foot of the Apuan Alps, from where the marble, that all Tuscan monuments have been built with, has been extracted for centuries. It has always been frequented by many artists, in the past even by...

The Trees in verse by Giuseppe Penone at the Uffizi Gallery and in Piazza della Signoria

The monumental installation by Giuseppe Penone entitled Abete, which has been in Piazza della Signoria since March, has already been talked about. A majestic tree, over 22 meter high, in steel and bronze. The installation of it in the square was only the preview of the artist's exhibition that is...

Photographic exhibitions at Forte Belvedere: Ieri, oggi, domani. Italia autoritratto allo specchio

After a year of pandemic and social distancing, Forte Belvedere reopens with Ieri, oggi, domani. Italia autoritratto allo specchio, a project of the Museo Novecento born under the artistic direction of Sergio Risaliti. The project includes two photographic exhibitions, open simultaneously at the Forte Belvedere from 25 June to 10...

The Baptistry of San Giovanni in Florence

On June 24, Florence celebrates its patron saint, San Giovanni, but this has not always been the case. Back in the day, when the religion was still pagan, the city was devoted to the god Mars. Many believe that the current Baptistery of San Giovanni was built from the ruins...

Pigments in Art

Red, black, brown, white and ochre were part of the color palette artists used in cave paintings. The first pigments, invented about 40,000 years ago, were a combination of soil, animal fat, burnt charcoal, and chalk, but since then, the number of colors available to the artists has continued to...

American Art 1961-2001 at Palazzo Strozzi

American Art 1961-2001 concludes the trilogy dedicated to American art at Palazzo Strozzi, which began in 2012 with the exhibition Americani a Firenze. Sargent e gli impressionisti del Nuovo Mondo and continued in 2016 with Da Kandinsky a Pollock. La grande arte dei Guggenheim. The exhibition retraces the history of...

Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - The Golden Ratio in art and at Palazzo Rucellai

This time the title "Beyond the Renaissance" should be interpreted as "Renaissance beyond itself", that is, at the top of its idea of ​​the world and of the rediscovery of classical culture. The facade of Palazzo Rucellai, designed by Leon Battista Alberti and completed in 1465, is celebrated as one...

The Rose Garden: a little piece of heaven in Florence

There is no better place to find inspiration for your art projects than in the Rose Garden, just under Piazzale Michelangelo. This garden was created in 1865 by Giuseppe Poggi, who also designed the piazzale, and it houses a collection of about 400 varieties of roses, lemons, and other plants...

The Bargello for Dante

The Bargello, former seat of the Podestà and prison where the condemned suffered the most terrible tortures, preserves many memories linked to Dante and pays him homage with an exhibition and important restorations, in the 700th anniversary of his death. The exhibition entitled Honorable and ancient citizen of Florence. The...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Manifattura Tabacchi of Florence and Women's emancipation

The Manifattura Tabacchi: a district of 16 buildings on an area of ​​100,000 square meters, next to the Cascine Park. Pure modernist rationalist architecture, designed by architects Giovanni Bartoli and Pier Luigi Nervi in ​​1933, completed in 1940. According to modernist architectural canons, the structure had to be functional to...

Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - The new Palace of Justice, the construction

Leonardo Ricci died in 1994, construction began in 2000 and the work was inaugurated in 2012.It is the second largest Palace of Justice in Italy, after the one in Turin, covers 3 hectares of land and has a useful area of ​​126,000 square meters. The measurements are: 230 m by...

An island in the city: the English Cemetery of Florence

Is it possible to find an oasis of peace and quiet right in the middle of the city traffic? In Florence, you can. If you venture outside the historical center, in Piazza Donatello, you will find the English Cemetery. Originally called Protestant Cemetery of Porta a Pinti, it was renamed...

Manga: from the origins to the present day

In Italy as in many other Western countries, comics are still considered by most to be a product for children, as we are used to the fact that storytelling with pictures is found in fairy tales and children’s books. In particular the Japanese manga, that uses images often consisting of...

The Wound at Palazzo Strozzi

Once again, Palazzo Strozzi decided to donate to the public an artwork that is visible from the outside, in compliance with anti-contagion regulations, an installation that can be enjoyed by anyone crossing Piazza degli Strozzi. JR, one of the most famous contemporary artists in the world, is the author of...

Fountains of Florence

Whether installed to celebrate an event, a personality of relevance for the city or just to decorate a piazza, Italian cities have always loved their fountains. Florence is no exception. There are many beautiful fountains scattered around the city,  so let's see some of the most famous and unique fountains...

Dante and Beatrice

“Tanto gentile e tanto onesta parela donna mia quand’ella altrui saluta,ch’ogne lingua deven tremando mutae gli occhi no l’ardiscon di guardare.”(“So kind and so honest she looksmy woman, when she greets others,that every tongue becomes, shaking, mute,and eyes dare not look at her.”)Thus Dante Alighieri introduces us to his beloved...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence -San Giorgio dello Spirito Santo alla Costa

The restoration of the Church of San Giorgio dello Spirito Santo alla Costa  - once again the seat of a neighborhood parish -  financed by the Gianmaria Buccellati Foundation under the direction of the Superintendence of Fine Arts of Florence, has been completed.We are in Costa San Giorgio, one of...

The lions of Florence

You might have noticed that lions are everywhere in Florence. Have you wondered why? They are guarding Palazzo Vecchio and the Loggia de Lanzi, they are on the weathervane on top of the Arnolfo Tower, they are represented in coat of arms, in paintings, and even the bases of lamplights...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Central Market of San Lorenzo

The San Lorenzo Market or Central Market is famous all over the world and frequented by anyone who visits Florence. Outside there are stalls for souvenirs, clothing, items made with leather and fabrics, inside groceries on the ground floor, restaurants and gastronomies on the first floor.The building is also a...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Art Nouveau Greenhouse by Giacomo Roster

The Orticoltura Garden was established for botanical scientific experiments in 1859 by the Georgofili Academy, an association founded in 1753, in the Enlightenment climate, for the study of agricultural techniques. Vineyards, fruit trees, vegetables and eccentric and rare ornamental plants were planted in the area. In 1876 the whole park...

The Center of Contemporary Art in Florence that doesn't exist, an incredible story

Florence  is universally considered the city of art and hosts many universities, schools and art institutions, but why doesn't it have a museum or a center of contemporary art to accommodate large-scale events like other big Italian cities? Certainly its efforts are mainly aimed at cultivating the past, both culturally...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - Il Villino Uzielli, Art Nouveau and Neoclassic

Not only Renaissance, other times, other architectures --- The VILLINO UZIELLI.  The original construction was built in 1870 on commission of Guido Uzielli, a wealthy banker. The building was part of the urban structure of the area according to Giuseppe Poggi's plan of 1865 Firenze Capitale, when the residences of...

Tuscan artists we love - Antonio Possenti

ANTONIO POSSENTI (Lucca, 1933 - 2016). Just a few words to mention the artists who animated the Tuscan, and especially Florentine, art scene in recent decades. Possenti, an autodidact, came to painting through the fascination of the magic of drawing and illustration. After an initial “pink-blue Picassian” period, he came...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Pagliazza Tower, the oldest building in the city

This tower has the honor of being the oldest building in Florence, miraculously remaining in its original appearance. Built in the 6th century AD, almost surely by the Byzantines during the war with the Goths (535 - 553), it was part of the second smaller city walls, after the Roman...

The Gardens of Florence - The Oblate Garden

This garden is 100 meters far from the Duomo Square, just in the center. It is part of the large Oblate complex, owned by the Municipality of Florence since 1936, which houses the Municipal Library and various cultural and academic institutions. The building was the first Florentine public hospital, founded...

The origins of the Italian language

Woe to speak ill of Florence to a Florentine, you could trigger a very heated discussion. Florentines have always been known for their patriotic spirit, proud of their city and their origins. We can't blame them after all, considering that in the past Florence has really played a key role...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Lorena triumphal Arch, a monument to the losers

Florence too has a triumphal arch like Paris, even if few people notice it, as it is isolated in a sea of traffic, in Piazza della Libertà. Any time of the day, gas and noise prevent passers-by from stopping for more than a few seconds, just long enough to wait...

5 Greek myths in Art

Admiring a work of art and understanding a work of art are two very different things. Of course, understanding art is not easy, but at least as far as the works of the past are concerned, it helps that the artists often used a few recurring themes. Knowing at least...

Florentine Gothic masterpieces: Giotto's Bell tower

We very often talk about Brunelleschi's spectacular Dome - an unrivaled architectural enterprise- the largest masonry dome ever built to date. Sometimes, however, we forget the other architectural masterpiece that sits right next to it: Giotto's Bell Tower!   It was July 18, 1334 when Giotto began to lay the...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - Il Villino Broggi - Caraceni, an Art Nouveau masterpiece

Built in 1911 by the architect Giovanni Michelazzi (1879 - 1920), it is considered one of the most significant Italian Art Nouveau buildings, certainly the most interesting in Florence. Michelazzi was a very refined architect, even if unfortunately he designed very few works, committing suicide in 1920 at the age...

Wolves Coming in Florence

These are certainly difficult times to travel and fully enjoy the beauty of a city like Florence. Especially because much of what it has to offer is enclosed within those very precious jewelry boxes that are its museums and churches. If you prefer to avoid as much as possible to...

Tutankhamon experience in Florence

It was November 27, 1922, when Howard Carter discovered the tomb - sealed and in perfect conditions - of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Made pharaoh at 9 years old and died at 19, of Tutankhamun it is still unknown the cause of death, which is assumed to have occurred after a fall...

ARIA: Tomás Saraceno at Palazzo Strozzi

Florence is the place where Leonardo da Vinci, 500 years ago, planned to fly using machines of his own invention. And it is precisely here that Tomás Saraceno decided to bring his flying spheres today, "aerosolar" balloons capable of flying without the use of fossil fuels, but only thanks to...

A vandal called Michelangelo Buonarroti

On the wall of Palazzo Vecchio, behind the statue of Hercules and Cacus by Baccio Bandinelli, you will notice, if you look closely, the face of a man engraved in stone. According to the legend, Michelangelo Buonarroti himself is the author of this artwork. Michelangelo was an excellent artist, but...

The mistery of the Medici coat of arms

A golden shield with five red balls, and a blue one decorated with three golden lilies. You must have seen it everywhere in Florence, since it is the Medici coat of arms. The Medici blazon underwent inexplicable changes during most of the fifteenth century, in particular in regards to the...

Florence Fortezza da Basso

The Fortezza da Basso, or fortress of San Giovanni Battista, today the main Florentine exhibition venue, has a long history, which began after the experience of the siege of 1529. At the time, Duke Alessandro de’ Medici commissioned to the artists and architects Pier Francesco da Viterbo and Antonio da...

The doors of the Baptistery of Florence restored, brought together at last

Finally, after 30 years of restoration, the 3 monumental doors of the Baptistery of Saint John have been brought together on display at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The first restoration work on the portals, carried out by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, began in 1990 with the removal of...

Inside Magritte's mysterious world

After Klimt, Monet, Van Gogh and Leonardo, it is René Magritte's turn to invade the baroque spaces of the church of Santo Stefano al Ponte. The multimedia exhibition dedicated to the Belgian artist, master of surrealism, will last until March 1st: Inside Magritte, conceived by Crossmedia Group and Hepco, directed...

The Last Supper by Plautilla Nelli: a female painter in the Renaissance

One of the greatest works of art created by a woman in the Renaissance has recently been restored: the last Supper by Sister Plautilla Nelli (1524-1588), painted in the mid-16th century. A four-years restoration, funded through a crowdfunding campaign by AWA (Advancing Women Artists Foundation) and carried out by Rossella...

VISIO. Moving Images After Post-Internet on display at the Strozzina

VISIO. Moving Images After Post-Internet, will be on display at the Strozzina of Palazzo Strozzi.only until December 1st . The exhibition brings together and promotes the works of 12 young artists, all under 35, who participated in the VIII edition of VISIO. European Program on Artists ’Moving Images, a project promoted...

Enigma Pinocchio at Villa Bardini

The protagonist of one of the most read books in the world becomes the protagonist of an exhibition at Villa Bardini titled Enigma Pinocchio. From Giacometti to LaChapelle, open until March 22nd. Pinocchio, character born from the pen of Carlo Lorenzini, continues to fascinate us in his topicality, and has...

XII edition of the Florence Biennale at the Fortezza da Basso

Every two years Florence promotes the talents of contemporary art though the Florence Biennale, opening this year on October 18th.The exhibition, in its XII edition, will be accompanied as always by a rich program of events such as conferences, exhibitions and performances.Over 470 artists and 200 designers will be present,...

Natalia Goncharova and the Advant-garde at palazzo Strozzi

A year after Marina Abramovich, another woman becomes protagonist at Palazzo Strozzi: Natalia Goncharova, one of the main representatives of the Russian avant-garde, and first female artist to be established internationally. Versatile and talented woman, Natalia was a painter, costume designer, illustrator, graphic designer, scenographer, decorator, stylist, film actress and...

La Botanica di Leonardo in Florence

During the summer, strange structures appeared in Florentine squares: a dodecahedron in piazza della Signoria containing a mulberry tree, a hexahedron (or cube) in piazza Bambini di Beslan, a tetrahedron in Piazza Stazione and an icosahedron in Piazza Santa Maria Novella. They are part of the exhibition that has opened...

Photography and sculpture at Forte Belvedere: Massimo Listi and Davide Rivalta

Until October 20th, Forte Belvedere hosts two important Italian artists: Massimo Listri, with the exhibition A perfect day, and Davide Rivalta, with My land, in a project conceived by Sergio Risaliti, promoted by the Municipality of Florence and organized by Mus.e.   Massimo Listri, known worldwide for the conceptual and...

Contemporary art in Florence: Museo Novecento

It is wonderful to stroll down the streets of the historic center of Florence and enjoying the city from every point of view, but during the summer months, being able to bear the stifling heat that grips the Tuscan capital can be difficult. Fortunately, many are the museums where to...

Tony Craigg at Boboli Gardens

They stand out among the tidy hedges of the Boboli Gardens like clumps of coagulated magma, like rocks eroded and smoothed by water, like desert rose crystals, like stalagmites, like strange primitive flowers and shapes free in space. Many are the images evoked by the sculptures of British artist Tony...

Florence celebrates Cosimo I

This year we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Cosimo I de Medici (1519-1574), the first Grand Duke of Tuscany. Son of the condottiere Giovanni de 'Medici, known as Giovanni delle Bande Nere, and Maria Salviati, he became lord of Florence when he was only 17, but was...

Rede Social in the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi

The new site-specific installation that made appeared a few weeks ago in the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi is truly a triumph of color. A series of 12 hammocks joined together form a huge rocking bed that will remain available to anyone who wants to participate in the experience, until July...

Sala degli Elementi reopens in Palazzo Vecchio

Coming out polished from a two-year restoration, Sala degli Elementi reopens in Palazzo Vecchio, part of the Quartiere degli Elementi where each room is dedicated to a mythological divinity to which corresponds a character of the Medici family. The hall, included in the private quarters of the Grand Duke Cosimo I, was...

The restoration of Giuseppe Poggi's Ramps

In the second half of the Nineteenth Century, after Florence had become the capital of Italy, the city changed its appearence due to the work of architect Giuseppe Poggi, in charge of the so-called urban Restoration. The city walls were demolished, the viali (avenues) were created inspired by Parisians boulevards,...

The treasures of the Cassa di Risparmio of Florence Collection

Once again the art collection of the CR Firenze Foundation reopens to the public. A collection of hidden treasures that can be visited free of charge, by reservation only on weekends until December 2019. Not an exhibition, but an exclusive visit to the Ente Cassa di Risparmio of Florence head...

The Biancone is shining bright again

The Fontana del Nettuno was finally inaugurated after a two-year restoration, generously funded by the Ferragamo fashion house. In 1559 Cosimo I de Medici announced a competition to design the first public fountain in Florence, which thanks to the construction of a new aqueduct would bring water to the city...

What I saw on the road - Kiki Smith in Florence

Drawings, sculptures and highly refined jacquard cotton tapestries constitute Kiki Smith's exhibition at Palazzo Pitti. The German artist, whose work has always been animated by a strong feminism and social commitment, now reflects on the universe, on female and animal nature, in a series of works that have a dreamlike...

Verrocchio, Master of Leonardo arrives at Palazzo Strozzi

Palazzo Strozzi is hosting a new exhibition from March 9th to July 14th, this time we strand from contemporary art for a while and go back to Renaissance times: 'Verrocchio, Master of Leonardo' celebrates Andrea del Verrocchio, in the first retrospective ever devoted to the Florentine artist. This means that...

Female Perspectives at Palazzo Pitti

'Female Perspectives. Women of Talent and Commitment' is the new exhibition open from March 7 to May 26 at Palazzo Pitti, to celebrate Women's Day, which tells the thousand facets of the female universe between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The exhibition moves the steps from the National Unity, a...

Antony Gormley is back: ESSERE at the Uffizi Gallery

If you happen to walk by Piazza della Signoria these days and in looking up you see a man on the Uffizi terrace, above the Loggia dei Lanzi: do not panic. It is not someone on the verge of suicide, it is only a sculpture by Antony Gormley, part of...

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