Rome, rediscovered Giorgio Vasari masterpiece is shown to the public for the first time

From Jan. 25 to June 30, 2019, the Corsini Gallery in Rome is exhibiting for the first time to the public a recently rediscovered masterpiece by Giorgio Vasari (Arezzo, 1511 - Florence, 1574): this is the Christ Carrying the Cross that the Arezzo artist and art historian made in 1553 for the banker and collector Bindo Altoviti (Rome, 1491 - 1557). The painting constitutes one of the pinnacles of the Arezzo artist’s production and one of the last paintings he made in Rome before his departure for Florence.

The event is entitled Vasari for Bindo Altoviti. The Christ Carrying the Cross and aims to illustrate in detail the finding, which is due to Carlo Falciani, an expert scholar of Vasari’s painting, who recognized it in the painting recorded by Vasari in his own book of Ricordanze, indicating the date and the name of the prestigious recipient. The painting testifies to a very important moment in the Roman activity of Vasari, then in the service of Pope Julius III and his circle. Placed in its context, the work proves to be an exemplary case for understanding Giorgio Vasari’s working practices and the distinctive features of his highly successful manner.

Giorgio Vasari certainly had a place of honor among the artists associated with Bindo Altoviti. In fact, sources recall numerous works commissioned from him, starting with the famous altarpiece of theImmaculate Conception in the church of Ognissanti in Florence (1540-1541) to this extraordinary Christ Carrying the Cross of 1553. In that year Vasari was in Rome as a guest of the very “cordialissimo messer Bindo,” in whose Roman residence he also frescoed the loggia with the Triumph of Ceres, the only decoration to have survived the destruction of the palace in 1888 and since 1929 relocated to the Museo di Palazzo Venezia. These are the last works the painter completed in Rome before returning to Florence to enter the service of Bindo Altoviti’s arch-enemy, Cosimo I de’ Medici.

A series of lectures on the work on display and the figure of the artist is planned to coincide with the exhibition. A catalog (published by Officina Libraria) edited by Barbara Agosti and Carlo Falciani will also be published. The exhibition and catalog are produced thanks to the collaboration and support of Benappi Fine Art. The painting was restored at the Daniele Rossi studio in Florence.

The exhibition can be visited Wednesday through Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. (last entry at 6 p.m.). You enter with the ticket of the Gallerie Nazionali d’Arte Antica: 12 euros full price, 10 euros reduced. The ticket is valid from the moment it is stamped for 10 days at both Museum locations: Palazzo Barberini and Galleria Corsini. Free: under 18 years of age, school groups and accompanying teachers from the European Union (by reservation), students and teachers of Architecture, Humanities (archaeological or historical-artistic address), Conservation of Cultural Heritage and Educational Sciences, Academies of Fine Arts, employees of the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Heritage and Activities, ICOM members, tour guides and interpreters on duty, journalists with a membership card, handicapped persons with an accompanying person, school teaching staff, tenured or with a fixed-term contract, upon presentation of appropriate attestation on the model prepared by the Miur.

Image: Giorgio Vasari, Christ Carrying the Cross (1553; oil on panel, 90.8 x 71 cm; Private collection)

Rome, rediscovered Giorgio Vasari masterpiece is shown to the public for the first time

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