The name Pietro da Cortona is undoubtedly synonymous with Baroque painting, and not just because of the artist’s activity in Rome, but also with regard to Florence. Pietro da Cortona spent much time working here on different occasions between 1637 and 1647, leaving his mark primarily by frescoing the famous rooms of Palazzo Pitti.One key figure in Pietro da Cortona’s time in Florence was Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, owner of Casa Buonarroti, where the artist stayed. In gratitude to his friend and generous host, Pietro da Cortona left significant examples of his art, and these provide the basis for the exhibition. One example is the fresco Buonarroto di Lodovico รจ nominato conte palatino da papa Leone X (Buonarroto di Lodovico named Count Palatine by Pope Leo X), but the precious and highly refined inlaid wood pieces are especially striking: the marvellous Virgin and Child inserted above the altar in the Camera degli Angioli and the six double doors in the Gallery, shining with wood of various colours and mother-of-pearl inlays. These pieces will be a part of the exhibition, although nearly all of them are located in the museum’s seventeenth-century halls, through which the exhibition passes. The exhibition includes a remarkable selection of paintings and drawings chronologically related to the artist’s Florentine period, on loan from museums in Italy and beyond. These illustrate the very decade in which Florence opened up to the Baroque style and started out on new paths in the field of figurative art, paths dictated by Rome and destined to spread throughout Europe. The exhibition has been arranged with the indispensable contribution of the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.
Information:
A European glory: Pietro da Cortona in Florence (1637-1647)
Casa Buonarroti, via Ghibellina 70 - Florence
Until 11 October 2010
Admission: Full price € 6.50; concessions € 4.50; school groups €
2.25; € 8 combination ticket with the monument complex of Santa Croce
(Portions of this article first appeared in "Toscana & Chianti News")
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