Here are the masterpieces entered in the past two years at the Accademia Gallery in Florence, on display

The Florence Academy Gallery ’s 2019 begins with a small exhibition showcasing all of the Florentine museum’s acquisitions to the public: space, then, for the masterpieces that entered the Gallery’s permanent collection from 2016 to 2018, in an exhibition that runs from January 22 to May 5, 2019. The exhibition is simply titled New Acquisitions 2016-2018 and will also illustrate to the public how the works entered the institution’s collections. In fact, the provenance of the works has followed diverse paths: some were acquired on the antiquarian market, others arrived thanks to generous donations, others from confiscations following illicit exportation by the Carabinieri Heritage Unit, and others, finally, came to the Gallery from the deposits of the Certosa of Florence.

The panels acquired in 2017 with the ordinary funds of the Galleria dell’Accademia are two fine doors from a lost tabernacle by Mariotto di Nardo. The fragmented panels were bought by two different owners and reassembled after purchase. The tabernacle, embellished with refined gilded pastille decorations enclosing the figures of saints, is certainly the result of a prestigious commission and was executed by Mariotto di Nardo around 1420. The panels, which were certainly originally larger in size, most likely included two other pairs of saints, unfortunately lost or so far undiscovered. The four fragments now reassembled were, in the late 19th century, displayed in different rooms of the Corsini collection in the eponymous Florentine palace on the banks of the Arno.

As many as four works came to the museum in 2016 from a deposit located at the Certosa in Florence. They are a Coronation of the Virgin and Angels by Mariotto di Nardo, a Holy Trinity by Maestro from 1419, a Madonna and Child Enthroned among Angels by Maestro from 1416, and a Madonna and Child with Saints by Bicci di Lorenzo. Due to a poor state of preservation, Mariotto di Nardo’sCoronation and Maestro’s Trinity of 1419 have been recovered in their pictorial values by careful restoration work. Two extraordinary works such as the two saints by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, originally the right-hand compartment of a dispersed triptych, and the Madonna of Humility by the rare Master of the Bracciolini Chapel, have been assigned to the Gallery after their brilliant recovery by the Carabinieri’s Operational Department of the Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Culturale in Rome.

The beautiful small bust of playwright Giovan Battista Niccolini, a work by Lorenzo Bartolini, was on display at the last edition of the Florence Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, and was generously purchased and donated to the Gallery by the Associazione Amici della Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze. The sculpture was not yet in the master’s studio on a list drawn up at the time of the artist’s death, while a portrait of the man of letters was presented a few years later in Florence, by the Prato artist’s heirs, at the 1861 Esposizione Italiana agraria, industriale ed artistica. Having reappeared a few years ago on the antiques market, thanks to this donation, the marble sculpture and plaster model, already housed in the gipsoteca, will be reunited in the museum.

“A great little exhibition,” says Gallery director Cecilie Hollberg, “which fills us with pride as it gives us the opportunity to present to the public real masterpieces that have been recovered, restored and saved from certain dispersion thanks to the dedication of many people who work, as we do at the Accademia Gallery of Florence, to safeguard the cultural and artistic heritage.”

The exhibition can be visited during the Gallery’s opening hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 8:15 a.m. to 6:50 p.m. (last admission 6:20 p.m.). Tickets: full € 12, reduced € 6 (for E.U. citizens between 18 and 25 years old and permanent teachers of the U.E in service at public or peer schools), free reserved for under 18s of any nationality, handicapped persons and an accompanying person, journalists, teachers and students of Architecture, Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Education Sciences, Bachelor of Arts and Philosophy degree with archaeological or historical-artistic degree addresses, Bachelor of Arts degree or corresponding courses in EU member states. For more information you can visit the Florence Academy Gallery website. Below are photos of some of the new acquisitions.

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, Saint Jerome and Saint Julian (c. 1385; tempera on panel; Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia)

Master of the Bracciolini Chapel, Madonna of Heavenly Humility and Four Saints (c. 1410; tempera on panel; Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia)

Mariotto di Nardo, Announcing Angel and Virgin Announced (c. 1420; tempera on panel; Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia)

Mariotto di Nardo, Saints John the Baptist and Nicholas (left) and Anthony Abbot and Julian (right) (1422-1424; tempera on panel, 60 x 30 cm each; Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia)

Lorenzo Bartolini, Portrait of Giovanni Battista Niccolini (1827; white marble on green marble base; Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia)

Here are the masterpieces entered in the past two years at the Accademia Gallery in Florence, on display

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