Uffizi Diffusi stops in Monsummano with an exhibition of drawings by Giovanni da San Giovanni

New stage of the Uffizi Diffusi project: the Florentine museum this time stops in Monsummano Terme (Pistoia), where from December 20, 2021 to February 13, 2022 the exhibition Art in times of plague will be held. Giovanni da San Giovanni in Monsummano and Beyond. 1630-1633: the exhibition displays the sheets for the frescoes painted by Giovanni da San Giovanni (Giovanni Mannozzi; San Giovanni Valdarno, 1592 - Florence, 1636) in the porticos of the basilica of Maria Santissima della Fontenuova: they will be displayed in the Museum of the City and Territory of Monsummano Terme, overlooking the same square where the sanctuary stands.

The sheets come from the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe (Drawings and Prints Cabinet) of the Galleries: four drawings executed between 1630 and 1633 will thus be exhibited in the town of Valdinievole, by Giovanni da San Giovanni, who at the time was active precisely in Valdinievole and Pistoia, lands in which he took refuge to escape from a Florence devastated by contagion. Invited by Cosimo Bargellini, Superintendent of the Opera della Madonna della Fontenuova, the artist created precisely in the loggias of the basilica frescoes in which with an immediate and lively style he recounts the events of the Monsummanese church.

The Uffizi drawings now on display at the Museo della Città e del Territorio (where they are flanked by reproductions of the frescoes) are precious testimonies not only to Mannozzi’s “modern” style, but also to the design evolution of his work in creating the lunettes in the porticos of the very nearby basilica of Maria Santissima della Fontenuova, overlooking, like the museum itself, the central square of Monsummano. The exhibition allows visitors to admire the talent of the artist from San Giovanni Valdarno and follow his creative process, from the design phase (the Uffizi drawings) to the final realization of the frescoed lunettes of Maria Santissima della Fontenuova.

“The loan of the Uffizi to the Museum of the City and Territory is an important milestone for the city of Monsummano Terme,” says Elena Sinimberghi, councillor for Culture and deputy mayor of Monsummano Terme. “The Municipal Administration wanted and carried out the adherence to ’Uffizi Diffusi,’ the revolutionary project of Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt. It is an honor and a joy to have come to host the drawings, which are so significant for the artistic history of our Basilica, and for this we can only thank Director Schmidt and his staff for making this collaboration possible, which we obviously hope to continue in the future.”

“In the panorama of seventeenth-century Florentine painting,” Eike Schmidt emphasizes, “Giovanni da San Giovanni is one of the most imaginative and free artists. Juxtaposing these drawings, with their fast and free, joyful strokes, with their final realization in fresco, is a way to bring to life the invention and the mental journey, freed from any academic bridle, that lay behind this extraordinary cycle.”

Uffizi Diffusi stops in Monsummano with an exhibition of drawings by Giovanni da San Giovanni

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.