Florence, Academy Gallery presents program 2023

The Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence has presented its 2023 program: it will be, as director Cecilie Hollberg explained, “a year punctuated by a highly articulated program with initiatives that will involve diverse audiences.” The most important event will be the first monographic exhibition in Europe dedicated to Pier Francesco Foschi (Florence, 1505 - 1567), a Florentine painter, a pupil of Andrea del Sarto who also collaborated with Pontormo, whose long and successful career took place during the central decades of the 16th century, and whose Holy Family with St. John the Baptist is preserved in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. The Pier Francesco Foschi (1502-1567) Florentine Painter exhibition will open from November 27, 2023 to March 10, 2024, and will be curated by Elvira Altiero, art historian and head of the art history department of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Nelda Damiano, who curated the exhibition dedicated to the artist at the GeorgiaMuseum of Art, University of Georgia (Athens, USA), and art historian Simone Giordani. The exhibition intends to address not only art historians, connoisseurs of the subject, but also those who will encounter Foschi’s name for the first time; it will bring together more than forty autographs of the painter, including paintings and drawings, which will trace the main aspects of his prolific activity. Thanks to this exhibition, important restorations of some of his works found in the territory, such as in the basilica of Santo Spirito in Florence and in the Propositura dei Santi Antonio e Jacopo in Fivizzano, will be financed. The exhibition will be accompanied by a scholarly, extensively illustrated catalog.

Then, in 2023, new work will begin in the first part of the year, involving both the main facade of the museum and the construction of a new entrance. As for the exterior, the work will involve the conservative restoration of the main facade of the building facing Via Ricasoli, not only of the Accademia Gallery of Florence but also of the Academy of Fine Arts and the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory, in the very interest of enhancing the entire architectural complex. The external graphic apparatus with related signage will also be reorganized. Inside, the entrance, with the ticket office, will change not only in the design of the furnishings, to coordinate them with the museum’s new aesthetic, but will be made more adequate for both visitors and staff: these are fundamental rooms for decorum, welcoming the public and introducing them to the other rooms. The estimated cost for these construction sites is about 500 thousand euros.

The year 2023 will be a year in which collaborative relationships will be born and strengthened, thanks to shared initiatives, with other Florentine institutions including the Museo della Misericordia and the Istituto degli Innocenti. Collaborations with other Italian and international cultural realities will also be activated.

There are many meetings and events to mark on the calendar. Already tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 14, for Valentine’s Day, the Feast of Lovers, the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze, with some students of the photography course of the Accademia di Belle Arti, invites all visiting couples to participate in the initiative ART INSPIRES LOVE #artinspireslove, stopping by the photographic set, specially set up in the Sala del Colosso and the Tribuna del David (in two time slots: 10-12, 14-16), and then becoming protagonists on social media and on the museum’s website (#gafirenze | www. facebook.com/galleriadellacademia | www.galleriaaccademiafirenze.it). Again, Monday, March 6, is Michelangelo Buonarroti’s birthday, and it’s 6 years since the Association of Friends of the Accademia Gallery of Florence, chaired by Fausto Calderai, was founded, at the behest of director Hollberg, who makes the museum’s activities possible thanks to his invaluable efforts. The Gallery is preparing to celebrate this double anniversary with a special evening for members: a visit to the new museum displays and the exhibition The Riace Bronzes a journey through images, accompanied by music performed by some students of the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory. This will be an opportunity to join the Association and be a concrete part of the Gallery’s life(www.friendsofdavid.org).

The Gallery will then participate in the MiC-Ministry of Culture’s events and special openings of the year, scheduled for 2023: European Night of Museums, May 13; Music Day, June 21; European Heritage Days, Sept. 23 and 24; International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Dec. 3, as well as #SundayatMuseo, which includes free opening every first Sunday of the month.

Still, the museum will commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the death of Perugino whose Vallombrosa Altarpiece, dated 1500 and commissioned from the Umbrian painter for the Abbey’s high altar, is preserved at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. As part of the official celebrations, a study day will be held on Monday, March 13, with talks by Marco Pierini, director of the National Gallery of Umbria and by Professor Francesco Salvestrini, of the University of Florence. Then, given the new arrangement of the collection of keyboard musical instruments, which will be realized in January 2023, a series of lectures with concert will also be organized, which will allow for an in-depth study of some aspects of the excellence of the collection itself.

On the publishing side, the Accademia Gallery has just come out with the second volume on the exhibition Michelangelo: the bronze effigy of Daniele da Volterra, edited by Cecilie Hollberg, (Edizioni Mandragora), which will be presented in the spring by Francesco Caglioti, art historian and critic, professor of medieval art history at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. The publication brings together the proceedings of the study day held on the occasion of the exhibition at the Gallery on Feb. 15, 2022, along with the surprising results that have emerged from the analyses, both classical and innovative, on the bronze portraits, and which, with the contribution of international experts, have led to untangling the complex case, after nearly 500 years, of the identification of the three original busts. Another release will be La disputa sull’Immacolata Concezione nella Toscana del Cinquecento (Centro Di), edited by Cecilie Hollberg, which collects the proceedings of the study day held in 2019. The Immaculate Conception of Mary began to appear in artistic works as early as the Middle Ages, when a bitter theological debate was ignited, with the Franciscans and the Benedictine Order on one side and the Dominicans on the other. It was a debate that continued into the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, when at the height of the doctrinal clash with the Dominican Order, an original iconographic theme, that of the Dispute of the Doctors of the Church on the Immaculate Conception, was developed in Tuscany in the Franciscan sphere, in which artists portrayed their opposing views. The Franciscans, in particular, used these sacred images as a ’palimpsest’ for their preaching. Precisely because of this theme’s connection with the Franciscan order, the volume will be presented at the Opera di Santa Croce. Also regarding publications, the volume DAVIDINO discovers the Gipsoteca will be released, with texts by Cecilie Hollberg and drawings by Paolo Fiumi, a publication that is aimed at younger children to introduce them to the collection of the Gipsoteca, its history, its works and how they were created, and the characters portrayed. And it does so in a fun and animated way through the encounter of the young boy Davidino and the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini, who takes him on a visit to the fascinating world of the 19th century. A scholarly catalog of all the paintings preserved in the museum is also being published.

The Gallery is also in the process of finalizing two new acquisitions, a painting and a sculpture, which will enrich the collections and will be officially presented in the coming months.

Image: the Hall of Colossus. Photo: Guido Cozzi

Florence, Academy Gallery presents program 2023

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