The Uffizi tells the story of black culture in Renaissance Europe through masterpieces from their collections

The Uffizi Galleries hold a nucleus of works in which the protagonists are “black” characters from history, the Bible and mythology. These include the portraits of the kings of Abyssinia and Ethiopia made in the 16th century by Cristofano dell’Altissimo commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici; Albrecht Dürer’sAdoration of the Magi, in which one of the three kings has African features; the episode of Perseus freeing Andromeda depicted by Piero di Cosimo in which a musician with black skin and curly hair appears; the trio of commoners depicted by the Flemish Justus Susterman in the Madonna Domenica delle Cascine, the Cecca di Pratolino and Pietro Moro, and many other works.

The Florentine museum venue kicks off the Black Presence project, with videos and live streams on social channels to rediscover the artistic elements of black culture in the Uffizi collection.
Nine paintings featuring African protagonists that contextualize the African social and cultural presence in the consciousness ofRenaissance Europe, testifying to the great exchange relationship between these two realities of the planet.

Beginning on Saturday, July 4, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, a double live event will be held on the Uffizi’s social channels, offering food for thought on topics of current debate: from 8 p.m. on Tik Tok, Justin Randolph Thompson, director and co-founder of Black History Month Florence, a festival dedicated to black culture organized annually in Florence, will narrate in a walk through the museum’s rooms the works, also dwelling on the instances of racial equality. Next, on Facebook, from 9 p.m., live from the Gallery of Statues and Paintings, Burkina Faso-based multi-instrumentalist Gabin Dabirè will perform a concert with traditional African instruments in front of Piero di Cosimo’s Perseus Liberating Andromeda. Completing the Black Presence event will be eight videos posted each Saturday on Facebook starting July 4, where Thompson will detail each painting in the social review.

“The Uffizi is not a ’turris eburnea’ of art,” said the director of the Galleries, Eike Schmidt, “and indeed in their collections they include the great themes of contemporaneity: through art the museum can tell the great story of the past and make the works live in the present. The masterpieces in fact speak a universal language that helps not only to better understand their time, but also the future we intend to build.”

Image: Cristofano dell’Altissimo, Portrait of Alchitrof (c. 1552-1568; oil on panel, 60 x 45 cm; Florence, Uffizi)

The Uffizi tells the story of black culture in Renaissance Europe through masterpieces from their collections

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