Uffizi: January 8 kicks off the Dialogues of Art and Culture. And in March, the first Lectura Dantis

BeginningJanuary 8, 2020, every Wednesday at 5 p.m., as many as 21 appointments will be held at the Uffizi Galleries in theVasari Auditorium as part of the Dialogues of Art and Culture initiative. During each meeting, a scholar will cover a different topic: opening with Marco Cavalieri, professor of classical archaeology at the Catholic University of Leuven, on Jan. 8, with a lecture on the role and importance of footwear in antiquity.

The Art and Culture Dialogues will be divided into four categories: Treasures from the Depositories, where speakers will offer the public studies and reflections on a work from the museum’s storerooms and which, on the occasion of the lecture, will be exceptionally displayed in the Auditorium hall; Masterpieces on Paper, an appointment dedicated to drawings from the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of the Uffizi Galleries. These are works from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods, rarely visible to the public due to their delicate condition of preservation: during the conference they will be exceptionally displayed, as in a brief exhibition, for a few intimates. The Behind the Scenes meetings will lead to an understanding of how the idea of an exhibition, a display, or will make people understand the workings of the complex museum system; the Universal Workshop series, on the other hand, will be devoted to topics that take their cue from art but extend beyond it: these lectures will often be given by specialists from other disciplines who look at art heritage treasures in a different light than that offered by experts in the field.

On the occasion of March 25, the date that marks the Florentine New Year and the beginning of Dante’s journey in the Divine Comedy, the Uffizi is offering the first Lectura Dantis held at the Galleries: the event will be given by Paolo Procaccioli, a professor at the University of Tuscia and distinguished Dante scholar.

"It is a rich program, with a novelty: the introduction of the Lectura Dantis, a meeting that will become annual and with which the Uffizi resumes a tradition of the Florentine Renaissance. Started in 2017, the Wednesday meetings are now an appreciated reality in Florence, in the albeit wide and varied panorama of cultural offerings present in the city each month. In fact, the lectures at the Vasari Auditorium, also because of the frequent presence of works of art on display for the occasion, strongly connect the museum with the citizenry, creating interest and passion. In 2020, the spirit that had inspired this project from the beginning will remain unchanged: to return a central role to education and the dissemination of knowledge in the cultural policy of our museum," said the director of the Uffizi Galleries, Eike Schmidt.

The full program follows.

Jan. 8
Behind the Scenes
Marco Cavalieri
“Between Anthropology of Myth and Representation of Power: Footwear through the Prism of Antiquity”

Jan. 15
Universal Workshop
Hamdan Al-Zeqri
“The art of sowing hope: the museum as a tool for building intercultural dialogue for peace”

Jan. 22
Universal Workshop
Anna Chiara Cimoli
“The museum, incubator of social inclusion.”

Jan. 29 (4 p.m.)
Universal Laboratory
Luciano Canfora
“War and Slavery in Euripides.”

Feb. 5
Treasures from the repositories
Valeria d’Aquino
“The Furnace of Tugio di Giunta in Florence.”

Feb. 12
Treasures from the deposits
Novella Lapini
“The Uffizi epigraphic collection. An open dialogue between historical collection and new acquisitions”

Feb. 19
Behind the Scenes
Antonella Poce
“Heritage Education. Reflections and experiences.”

Feb. 26
Masterpieces on Paper
Marco Tanzi - Emanuela Daffra
“Revisiting Camillo Boccaccino at the Uffizi: a protagonist of the Grande Maniera in Valpadana.”

March 4
Universal Workshop
Paolo Pastres
“Luigi Lanzi and the Uffizi Gallery.”

March 11
Universal Laboratory
Veronica D’Ascenzo
“Art and Education in Helping Children with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Comparing Experiences.”

March 18
Behind the Scenes
Lucia Meoni
“Raphael and the tapestries for Leo X”

March 25
Lectura Dantis
Paolo Procaccioli
“For Dante and for Florence. Literary and artistic programs between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.”

April 1
Behind the Scenes
Maurizio Michelozzi
“Raphael’s School of Athens, an example of well-finished cardboard.”

April 8
Universal Workshop
Roberto Martusciello Cinquegrana
“Florentine jousts of the 15th century.”

April 15
Masterpieces from the storerooms
Nicoletta Pons
“An unpublished altarpiece by Jacopo del Sellaio from the deposits of Palazzo Pitti”

April 22
Behind the Scenes
Antonella Negri
“Information technology at the service of cataloging cultural heritage”

April 29
Masterpieces on Paper
Laura Da Rin Bettina - Roberta Aliventi - Raimondo Sassi
“Raphael and the Bolognese: new discoveries in the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of the Uffizi”

May 6
Behind the Scenes
Vanessa Gavioli - Elena Marconi - Ettore Spalletti
“The genesis of an exhibition and the rediscovery of one of the leading European artists of the early 19th century: Giuseppe Bezzuoli”

May 13
Masterpieces on Paper
Marzia Faietti
"Andrea Mantegna and the Medusa. A self-portrait of the artist at the Uffizi."

May 20
Universal Workshop
Nicholas Penny
“The Expressive Head” (in English).

May 27
Universal workshop
Gianni Caverni
“Quotations of works of art and archaeology in pop and rock music”

Uffizi: January 8 kicks off the Dialogues of Art and Culture. And in March, the first Lectura Dantis

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