New exhibition Terre degli Uffizi: Giotto's followers are on stage in Montespertoli

The fourth exhibition of the Terre degli Uffizi project arrives in Montespertoli (Florence), from September 26, 2021 to January 6, 2022: titled Followers of Giotto in Valdelsa, the small review is set up at the Museum of Sacred Art of San Piero in Mercato, and is part, as mentioned, of the series conceived and realized by the Uffizi Galleries and Fondazione CR Firenze within their respective projects Uffizi Diffusi and Piccoli Grandi Musei.

The exhibition compares two rare medieval works, in a room of the museum recovered and refurbished for the occasion (it will then serve to host exhibitions in the future as well): a Madonna and Child (c. 1315-1320) painted by Lippo di Benivieni (documented fal 1296 to 1327), an imaginative and expressive follower of Giotto, of whom, however we know very little about, and part of a famous polyptych by the Alessandri family made for the destroyed church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence, on loan from the Uffizi (it is not from the storerooms, but is part of the collection on display), and a Madonna and Child (c. 1310-1315), almost identical in size, kept in the Museum of Sacred Art at San Pietro in Mercato in Montespertoli. The Montespertoli Madonna has also been attributed by some scholars to the painter Lippo di Benivieni, and has been the subject of lively critical debate. The Montespertoli painting was originally kept in the church of San Lorenzo in Montegufoni, near the castle where, during World War II, many masterpieces from Florentine museums were hidden, sheltered here for precautionary purposes in order to save them from bombings and the passage of armies. The painting was then stolen, to great dismay, in 1985, only to be recovered a few months later: the perpetrators of the theft, as often happens in similar situations, were unable to place the painting on the market (too risky) and therefore had the Madonna rediscovered. The episode, moreover, accelerated a process underway in the 1980s and 1990s, that of the establishment of small museums on the territory in order to collect works that were kept on the territory itself and could not be kept safely.

The two paintings, executed at the time when Giotto dominated the Italian art scene, have many elements in common, in addition to the affectionate and very human manner in which the subject of the Madonna and Child is interpreted. Both panels, now reduced in size, constituted the central part of complex, multi-compartment structures, although only of the Uffizi painting are known the side parts, which depicted Saints Peter, Paul, Zanobi and Benedict. (The polyptych is moreover signed by Lippo di Benivieni on the sword of St. Paul, one of the side figures, all of which are preserved in the private collection of the work’s former owners: the dismembered polyptych is one of the cornerstones for getting to know Benivieni’s work but also for understanding how much Giotto’s followers had worked in Valdelsa). On the occasion of the exhibition, the two Madonnas have been displayed side by side so that visitors can see their features up close and at their best. A more distinctly educational part has also been set up to enable the public to understand how the paintings were made, what materials and what techniques were used. The exhibition also intends to address scholars in order to reopen the debate around the work already in Montegufoni: the affinities and differences between the two works can in fact be pondered and elaborated by specialists in order to reach more precise conclusions about the author of the exemplar preserved in Montespertoli.

The works in the Uffizi and Montespertoli demonstrate a common Giottesque ancestry, and one of the purposes of the comparison is also to show how Giotto’s art had been instrumental in the development of 14th-century painting in Italy, with its modern and decidedly innovative style. Since in the various towns, villages, castles and museums of Valdelsa there are many works by masters who were his direct pupils or who followed his lesson, the exhibition is an opportunity to get to know two important figurative testimonies that are an integral part of the history of this land. Finally, the exhibition aims to be a further demonstration of how the concept of the “diffuse museum,” a characteristic of all Italy, finds in Tuscany one of the most representative territories from this point of view.

The statements

“Today is an important day for Montespertoli,” said Mayor Alessio Mugnaini , “because the collaboration with Le Gallerie degli Uffizi for the Terre degli Uffizi project begins. We have set up an ad hoc room for this project, a room that will host works from the Uffizi in a kind of continuous exhibition each time with a different theme. The first exhibition is about an imaginative and creative Giottesque painter such as Lippo di Benivieni, whom we decided to enhance with some interactive displays. I thank all those who in various capacities have worked on this project for the great willingness and professionalism they have shown, and I am happy that Montespertoli has been ready and up to the task.”

“Who knows if Dante, whose seven hundredth anniversary of his death is being celebrated this year,” remarked Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Galleries, “might have known the author of these two paintings: he certainly had been in exile for a few years at the time they were painted. Dante, however, is the author of the famous verses ’Credette Cimabue in painting kept the field, and now has Giotto the cry, si che la fama di colui è scura’ (Purgatorio XI, 94-96). With the phrase ’ha Giotto il grido’ he certainly also alluded to the overwhelming pictorial current inaugurated by the great artist, which found throngs of followers and formed true regional schools, investing the entire Peninsula, from Naples to Padua to Rimini, among other cities. The Montespertoli exhibition is thus an occasion for a series of celebrations: Dante, indeed, with Giotto and his school, represented here by two precious works to be admired yes, but also to be studied. But it is also one of the first opportunities for this project that sees Tuscany as the leader of a major project to rediscover the territory and its treasures. With the Uffizi Diffusi we are putting the smaller museums on a system, and we are putting them on a system precisely with what is perceived as the central museum to also have a concrete exchange value, to also have a function for tourism for the whole territory, and only by considering the territory is it possible to think about real growth (in 2019 the art cities were already packed, so growth is only possible by extending it to the territory), and in this context Empolese Valdelsa is strategic: here is also the largest Medici villa ever built, the Villa Ambrogiana, which when it is restored in a few years will house a museum within the Uffizi Diffusi project that will transform the whole Empolese Valdelsa and more generally the whole Tuscan territory. So today we begin our presence from here.”

“Even this fourth exhibition,” stressed in a message Luigi Salvadori, president of the Fondazione CR Firenze, who was not present at the inauguration, “as happened with the one recently opened in Anghiari, marks for us a happy return to the land of the Giotteschi. In 2006, Valdelsa was in fact the scene of one of the first editions of the territorial marketing project Piccoli Grandi Musei conceived and promoted by our Foundation. It was entitled ’The Valley of Treasures,’ and in recent years this program has gradually grown and is now presented in a format that develops and amplifies the original idea and is implemented together with the most important Italian museum. Because, as we can see in this small but very original exhibition, we really do preserve treasures. And even if only two works are compared on this occasion, we can appreciate the great value of the ’Terre degli Uffizi’ project: inviting visitors to read in the beauty of the landscape, in the small parishes and among the houses half-hidden among the olive trees, the civil and cultural harmony of our territory. And to become more aware of the admirable historical and artistic heritage that has been left to us and that has no equal in the world.”

“The exhibition itinerary that we inaugurated today,” pointed out Giacomo Cucini, mayor of Certaldo and cultural delegate of the Unione Comuni Empolese Valdelsa, “is an example of virtuous dialogue in the name of culture and art, capable of going beyond the borders of the Union of Municipalities. It is a bridge between Empolese Valdelsa and realities of excellence such as the Uffizi Galleries and Florence. I can only say thank you to those who made this possible, with the hope that the Terre degli Uffizi project may soon embrace other realities of Empolese Valdelsa.”

Pictured: on the left, the Uffizi Madonna and on the right, the Montespertoli Madonna.

New exhibition Terre degli Uffizi: Giotto's followers are on stage in Montespertoli

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