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THE EHXIBITION |
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“It is actually about interpreting our entire complex artistic heritage born in small parish
churches, villages, among olive trees, in castles, in big cities, as a unique asset,
a scattered
museum”
Edoardo Speranza,
President of Ente
Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze |
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Within the project “Little Big Museums” for the promotion of the museums scattered in the territory, this year, the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze presents, following last year’s 2005 edition of the exhibition The Madonnas of the Chianti, a new exhibition event: The Valley of Treasures. Mirroring Masterpieces Compared. |
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Five museums of the Empoli Valdelsa district (Castelfiorentino, Certaldo, Empoli, Fucecchio and Montespertoli) are the protagonists this year with an extraordinary opportunity to promote their heritage. This event is the exceptional comparison between the masterpieces housed in these “little big museums” and renowned works of art kept in more famous museums of Florence, Arezzo, Rome and Pisa.azio
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In the Museum of Sacred Art of Castelfiorentino the Annunciation by the sculptor and goldsmith Mariano d’Agnolo Romanelli, that comes from the antique church of Santa Maria della Marca is compared with another wooden group, an Annunciation, coming from the National Museum of San Matteo in Pisa, earlier in the church of San Francesco, and attributed to the sculptor, Francesco di Valdambrino, active between Siena, Pisa and Lucca.
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In the museum of the Collegiate Church of Sant’Andrea in Empoli, Botticelli’s Annunciation, a detached fresco executed in 1481 for the antique Florentine hospital of San Martino alla Scala and today in San Pier Scheraggio at the Uffizi, interacts with the Annunciation by Francesco Botticini housed in the Museum.azio
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In the Museum of Fucecchio, the altarpiece of the Nativity among Saints and God the Father, offers the opportunity for a comparison with other works by the “Master of the Kress Landscapes” who has recently been identified as Giovanni di Lorenzo Larciani. Surrounding the Nativity there are, offering an interesting and new comparison, the altarpiece coming from the parish church of Santo Stefano in Montopoli, and two Madonna with Child on loan for this occasion from the Borghese Gallery of Rome and the National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art of Arezzo.
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In Certaldo, visitors are welcomed by, probably the most monumental and exciting display: a comparison between the two 13th century wooden Crucifixes of giant size, one from the Museum of Sacred Art and one from the Church of San Vincenzo a Torri which is located in the surrounding area of Florence. The two crucifixes are similar in their huge dimensions and in their having preserved their original crosses – both of which have been shortened. Each shows Christ’s body in an entirely frontal position, with arms outstretched and face up. But, in the one of Certaldo, the eyes are open, as if they were gazing at the uncorrupted nature of existence, while in the other, from Torri, the eyes are closed as if to mark the iconographic passage from the Christus triumphans to the Christus patiens.
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The sweet and melancholy Madonna with Child by Filippo Lippi in the Montespertoli Museum of Sacred Art, unique for its depiction of the Child completely wrapped in swaddling clothes, mirrors the more famous twin from Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence.
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The project for the promotion of the Museums of the Empoli Valdelsa District, concludes with a visit to the complex of
Sacro Monte di San Vivaldo in Montaione. The implementation of a new set of didactic panels and the organization of guided tours, offer an opportunity to discover the twenty chapels of the so-calledPiccola Gerusalemme.
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The organization of this exhibition has brought an opportunity for restoration and renovation interventions of the museums. Among these are; the cleaning of the silver collection in Castelfiorentino and in Certaldo, maintenance interventions of the paintings in Empoli, the removal of the obstacles for the disabled in Montespertoli, a change in the access system in Certaldo, the setting up of a ticket office in Castelfiorentino and an overhaul of the lighting system in Montespertoli. Finally, new signs have been set up in the museum tours, and didactic initiatives and guided tours have been organized.
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“In this privileged part
of the world Beauty comes with Beauty. It is inside the museum and outside the
museum, it spreads in the squares and in the streets,
it lies in the contours of the hills, in the
colors of the facades, in the melodious
and rigorous order of the urban fabric.”
Antonio Paolucci,
Regional Director for Tuscany’s arts, culture and landscape
“Guided by the Archangel Gabriel
we start from Botticelli’s Annunciation
in Empoli, passing to the nativity and the Child in
Mary’s arms, ending with
the Certaldo Crucifixes:
a striking figurative-artistic itinerary
following
Jesus’ life.”
Rosanna Caterina Proto Pisani,
exhibition’s curator
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