Arezzo, an exhibition lets the public discover the secrets of Casa Vasari

As part of Arezzo. The City of Vasari on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the death of Giorgio Vasari (Arezzo, 1511 - Florence, 1574), from September 8, 2024 to February 2, 2025 the State Museum of Casa Vasari in Arezzo presents the exhibition Il disegno fu lo imitare il più bello della natura. The House, the Drawings, the Ideas: Giorgio Vasari and the Figure of the Intellectual Architect curated by Emanuela Ferretti and Rossella Sileno with the scientific and organizational contribution of the University of Florence. Arezzo. The City of Vasari is promoted by the City of Arezzo and Fondazione CR Firenze with Fondazione Guido D’Arezzo, in collaboration with the Regional Directorate of National Museums Tuscany of the Ministry of Culture and the Uffizi Galleries, curated by the scientific committee chaired by Carlo Sisi.

During the years he spent in the city of Arezzo, Giorgio Vasari made the city a true manifesto of the new social role of the artist, intellectual and courtier. The exhibition aims to rediscover the multifaceted forma mentis of the architect from Arezzo through the rooms that were his home and creative space. The path is divided into thematic nuclei with drawings, manuscripts, models and significant works related to the pictorial decorations of the House and Vasari’s poetics. Vasari’s artistic genealogy is explored in the Camera della Fama e delle Arti, where the importance of architecture for the artist is evoked by the model of one of the capitals of the Uffizi loggia, specially made for the exhibition. The symbolic meanings of the frescoes in the Chamber of Apollo and the Muses and the relationship with Cosimo I are emphasized by the presence of Willem van de Tetrode ’sApollo from the Uffizi Galleries. The Sala della Cucina presents an in-depth study of Vasari’s twentieth-century painter/architect fortunes through the drawings of Vincenzo Fasolo. Finally, the Hall of Triumph and Virtue hosts the Diana Ephesian from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, put in relation with the representation of the same deity that Vasari painted in the center of the entrance wall to the room, resuming an iconographic theme that became established in the 16th century and was identified with the creative force of Nature.

Arezzo. The Cityof Vasari is promoted by the City of Arezzo and Fondazione CR Firenze with Fondazione Guido D’Arezzo and enjoys the patronage of the Ministry of Culture, partners of the initiative State Archives of Arezzo, Diocese of Arezzo, Cortona and Sansepolcro, Arezzo City Library, Fraternita dei Laici di Arezzo, and Fondazione Arezzo Intour. Technical sponsors of the exhibition Drawing was imitating nature’s most beautiful Flavio Buonagurelli Broker, Dual ITALIA and FSC® ITALIA.

“Casa Vasari represents one of the most precious treasures kept by our city,” says Arezzo Mayor Alessandro Ghinelli, “extraordinary testimony to the artistic value of the Master and his sincere relationship with Arezzo. In the year dedicated to him, his home, which saw him as an architect and painter, is rightfully a protagonist as a privileged testimony to his talent and, for the occasion, the site of an exhibition that highlights and enhances his multifaceted nature.”

“On this 450th anniversary, it is clear that special attention had to be paid to the great artist’s home,” explains Lorenzo Cinatti, director of the Guido d’Arezzo Foundation, “and precisely for this reason the Foundation has worked together with the Casa Vasari museum, allocating important resources for the development of an original project carried out together with the University of Florence. We are confident that this effort will allow all visitors to appreciate a tour full of new insights and suggestions for a better understanding of this very special place.”

“The Casa del Vasari in Arezzo is a place where both the values related to the artist’s public role in society and in the context of the Tuscan grand ducal court are symbolically concentrated, as well as the more private ones expressed, however, in courtly and highly significant forms. This exhibition highlights them in a subtle and richly cross-referential way,” says Stefano Casciu, regional museums director.

“The great appreciation,” says Bernabò Bocca, president of Fondazione CR Firenze, “that the Vasarian events are meeting rewards a very articulate project that combines high scientific rigor with the ability to bring the general public closer. The extraordinary Vasarian figure deserved truly special attention that would reveal its many facets. This exhibition further confirms this by offering the opportunity to enter the artist’s domestic intimacy and better understand his multifaceted forma mentis.”

“We are pleased to see that the collaboration between the University of Florence and the Regional Directorate National Museums Tuscany has had a first concrete outcome of great scientific quality, with relevant connections to educational aspects. This experience provides an opportunity to better understand Vasari’s world, in which - however different and distant from us - Italian artistic architectural culture has its roots, thus offering significant food for thought,” adds Paolo Zermani, director of the Master Museo Italia at the University of Florence.

“Curating an exhibition is an activity that is based on collaboration and sharing,” elaborates co-curator Emanuela Ferretti, “putting to good use the integration of different knowledge, skills and sensibilities. This exhibition project was an important opportunity both to return to established research themes and to delve into significant aspects of Vasari’s world with regard to architecture. No less relevant was the educational experience of actively involving the students of the Master Museo Italia.”

“The peculiarity of the exhibition,” concludes co-curator Rossella Sileno, “is to present significant works of art, objects and drawings in relation to the values that Giorgio Vasari’s House expresses. The domestic dimension of the spaces and the strong characterization given by the pictorial decorations guided the entire exhibition project.”

Photo: Vasari House, Hall of the Triumph of Virtue

Arezzo, an exhibition lets the public discover the secrets of Casa Vasari

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