The François Vase, a masterpiece of Greek art, stars in the new display at the Archaeological Museum of Florence

The Archaeological Museum of Florence is dedicating a new space entirely to the François Vase, named in honor of the archaeologist Alexander François who recovered fragments of it from the depths of a necropolis in Chiusi between 1844 and 1845.

Thanks to funding from two American donors, Laura and Jack Winchester, who used the nonprofit Friends of Florence foundation, the vase (which measures 66 cm in height by nearly 60 in diameter) is preserved in a display all its own with special lighting designed to highlight its rich ornamental details. In addition there is also a bilingual (Italian and English) educational apparatus and two computer stations that will provide a series of insights into classical Greece, the Trojan War, myths, sagas and more.

In its new space, the vase is not alone: there are also two other smaller decorated vases, one depicting the “Judgement of Paris” on the beauty of the three goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, the other telling the legend at the origin of the Trojan War. Surprisingly, the object that caused the sudden (though fortunately temporary) destruction of the vase 118 years ago is also on display there: the stool with which, in 1900, a museum custodian in a rage literally disintegrated the vase into 638 pieces, necessitating painstaking work to reassemble the fragments by restorer Pietro Zei. Reward of fate, several decades later the François would miraculously escape the fury of the waters during the 1966 Florence flood.

Also thanks to the two American donors, the "Sarcophagus of the Amazons," an Etruscan treasure (but of Greek workmanship, both in material, limestone alabaster, and in decoration) dated around 350 B.C., the only example in the world of a painted marble tomb, also finds its place: it is a luxurious burial destined for a noblewoman of Tarquinia and adorned with paintings of Amazonomachy.
Other rooms in the museum see displays devoted to a vast collection of Greco-Roman bronzes, three rooms and eleven showcases housing 180 small sculptures, including Greek originals and copies from the Roman period.

Ph. Credit Polo Museale della Toscana

The François Vase, a masterpiece of Greek art, stars in the new display at the Archaeological Museum of Florence

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