Florence, the Bargello Museum reopens the Hall of Majolica and the Islamic Hall

The Bargello National Museum, known for its outstanding collection of Renaissance sculpture and decorative arts, today celebrates the reopening of two important rooms: the Majolica Room and the Islamic Room. After a closure period that began in September 2023 for the refurbishment and installation of modern display cases, the two halls reopen to the public from Saturday, June 8, 2024. The refitting of the two halls was supervised by the architectural firm Guicciardini & Magni, with a focus on the conservation and enhancement of the works on display. The new showcases, equipped with anti-reflective crystals and microclimate control, allow better visibility and protection of the precious artifacts. Funding of €2,200,000 was provided through the Ministry of Culture’s “Great Cultural Heritage Projects” Strategic Plan, with the works contract managed by Invitalia and won by the temporary grouping of companies (RTI) consisting of Goppion SpA with the firm Masi.

The Islamic Hall

The renovated Islamic Room, curated by Giovanni Curatola and Marco Spallanzani, two of the top international experts in the field, houses nearly 100 works including metals, ivories, ceramics, textiles and carpets. The collection, one of the most important in Italy, was formed thanks to significant contributions such as that of antiquarian Louis Carrand (1827-1888), who donated his collection to the museum, and Baron Giulio Franchetti (1840-1909), who like Carrand left his collection of antique, Oriental and European textiles, dating from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, to the museum in 1906. Prominent among the exhibits are two 16th-century carpets from the Villa Medicea at Camugliano (Ponsacco, near Pisa), the only “twin” pair of this genre that has come down to us, and in good condition. These carpets, probably woven on a single loom during the last Mamluk period (first quarter of the 16th century), represent an outstanding example of Islamic textile art.

The Bargello’s Islamic collection testifies to the rich cultural and commercial exchanges between Florence and Muslim powers during the Renaissance (Florence, as early as Piero de’ Medici and Lorenzo the Magnificent, had relations with the Mamluks in Egypt and the Ottomans in Turkey). The museum’s ivory display case features very rare and among the most famous works in the world, such as a 10th-century Spanish casket and an Iraqi elephant/scacco from the same period. The most substantial part of the collection is that of metals, which includes numerous masterpieces. Prominent among them are an imposing jug from Egypt or Syria (1363-1377), a vase from Mosul, Syria (1259), and a spherical perfume burner (1317-1335). Pottery is also well represented, especially wall tiles. Of particular interest are those with “metallic luster” of Persian provenance (13th century) and those in vivid polychromy of Ottoman scope (16th century). On the walls, a large “Lotto” carpet of Anatolian provenance and a very rare pair of Mamluks further enrich the exhibition. Islamic decorative arts are anything but “minor”: they are representative works of a culture that is geographically extensive (from Spain to China) and with a broad chronology, which in this museum covers the period from the 10th to the 17th century. The extremely refined ornamentation of these works has always fascinated Western culture. Epigraphy, in various styles of writing and not necessarily religious, alternates with geometric and floral decorations typical of arabesques. There is no shortage of figurative images, as human representation was not forbidden but limited to the private sphere.

The Hall of Majolica

The Hall of Majolica, curated by Marino Marini, an expert in the field and author of the scholarly catalog of the museum’s ceramic collection, displays more than 400 pieces. These pieces, from various donations and transfers from the Uffizi Gallery (there are also majolica pieces from the grand Medici collection, which consisted of more than 6,000 pieces, including ceramics, majolica, and porcelain), offer a comprehensive overview of Italian ceramic production from the 18th to the 20th century.

Prominent works include majolica made by the Urbino potters, known for their figurations drawn from mythology, Greek and Roman history, sacred scriptures and printed texts such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Julius Caesar’s De bello Gallico and the Bible. Of particular note are the basins and refreshments historiated with the deeds of Caesar, created by the Urbino manufactures of the Fontana and Patanazzi families. These pieces replicate a famous service made to the designs of Taddeo Zuccari, requested by Guidobaldo II, duke of Urbino, as a gift for the Spanish king Philip II. Then again, a medallion with the profile of Francesco I de’ Medici and a basin with a figure of St. John, made of “Medici porcelain.” This elite and original production was undertaken in the court manufactory by the Medici grand dukes, with the intention of imitating Chinese porcelain.

The walls exhibit, in chronological order and according to the different areas of origin, majolica, graffito ceramics and tiles produced in Italy from the 13th to the 20th century, which are associated with a selection of specimens made by Moorish potters active in Islamized Spain. Italy’s most renowned ceramic centers are represented, including Savona, Milan, Venice, Faenza, Cafaggiolo, Florence, Montelupo, Siena, Deruta, Orvieto, Urbino, Rome, Castelli, and Caltagirone, as well as lesser-known ones such as Sansepolcro, Castelfiorentino, and Pisa. In addition to refined forms intended to be displayed as precious “parade” garments in aristocratic residences, the collection includes all types of ceramics intended for everyday use, such as plates, cups, tankards, coolers and mescirobes, as well as those for pharmaceutical practices such as albarellos, pourers and orcioli.

The exhibition hall on the ground floor

In conjunction with the opening to the public of the Hall of the Majolica and the Islamic Hall, the exhibition hall on the ground floor is also opened to the public. Here is located a selection of the 13 most representative works from Donatello’s Hall. The itinerary, curated by Ilaria Ciseri, head of collections at the Bargello National Museum, focuses on the production of the sculptor and some of his contemporaries. This allows visitors to admire the great masterpieces of Renaissance sculpture during the period when the famous monumental hall is closed to the public for restoration and refitting works (from June 5 to the end of October).

At the center of the exhibition hall of the Bargello National Museum are three outstanding masterpieces of Florentine sculpture, witnesses of the Renaissance. The absolute protagonist is Donatello’s celebrated David, the first bronze statue depicting a life-size, full-round nude made since antiquity. Next to the David, another world-famous bronze by Donatello is the Amore-Attis, a pagan deity from ancient Phrygia. This bronze refers to the classical theme of putti and spirits, one of the artist’s most beloved iconographic subjects, displayed alongside Andrea del Verrocchio’s bronze David. The latter, made between 1470 and 1475, represents a later but equally significant moment in Renaissance sculpture.

The walls of the room house additional masterpieces. Luca della Robbia, another founding father of the Renaissance and inventor of glazed terracotta, is represented by three reliefs showing his mastery in working with this material. Also on display are the two famous gilded bronze panels by Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti, submitted in 1401 to the competition for the second door of the Baptistery of Florence. Alongside these works, we find the two painted terracotta high-reliefs made by Dello Delli and Michele da Firenze in the third decade of the 15th century, which testify to the diversity of techniques and styles at the time. Two more works by Donatello complete the collection: the bas-relief with the Crucifixion and the Madonna of Via Pietrapiana. Finally, the exhibition ends with the Panciatichi Madonna by Desiderio da Settignano, one of Donatello’s best students. This selection allows visitors to admire the great masterpieces of Renaissance sculpture during the period when the famous Monumental Hall is closed to the public, due to ongoing restoration and refurbishment work.

Florence, the Bargello Museum reopens the Hall of Majolica and the Islamic Hall

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.