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Exhibition reviews
Good news from Florence
It is well known that the famous Medici and Lorraine collections are housed in various museums in Florence, not just in the Uffizi and Pitti galleries (recently re-united under one director). The scientific collections are in the Museo Galileo, the musical instruments in the Galleria dellโAccademia, the Renaissance sculpture in…
The Heartwarming Middle Ages
โThe Heartwarming Middle Agesโ (Szรญvmelegรญtล Kรถzรฉpkor) is the title of an appealing small exhibition running at the Budapest History Museumโs Buda Castle site until September. The forerunner of the ceramic stove is thought to have originated in Alpine Switzerland sometime in the early Middle Ages, when simple clay pots were…
Waves of Art Nouveau
World Art Nouveau Day this year is celebrated on 10th June. In part to mark the occasion but also to honour the centenary of the death of Otto Wagner and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Marcell Komor, FUGA: Budapest Center of Architecture, in conjunction with the Hungarian Museum…
Titian in Brescia
Tiziano e la pittura del cinquecento tra Venezia e Brescia is an exhibition curently running (until 1 July) in the Museo di Santa Giulia in the Lombard town of Brescia. The centrepiece is Titianโs Averoldi polyptychโalthough it is in fact only present in a dramatic video show as the curators…
Raphael in Bergamo
There are two exhibitions in the two neighbouring Lombard towns of Bergamo and Brescia in northern Italy which are drawing crowds of visitors, especially from Italy itself. Bergamo has chosen Raphael since the townโs art gallery, the Accademia Carrara, owns one of his early masterpieces (St Sebastian), just restored. Brescia…
Dรผrer in Milan
A major exhibition is in progress (until 24 June) in the Palazzo Reale in Milan: Dรผrer and the Renaissance (between Germany and Italy). One wonders if the title was chosen rather to entice visitors than to explain the true content of the show: โDรผrerโ without โthe Renaissanceโ may have been…
Charles I: King and Collector
This magnificent display of Old Master paintings from the royal collection amassed by King Charles I, many of them reunited for the first time since the mid-17th century at the Royal Academy in London (running until mid-April) has been met with frenzied enthusiasm. And rightly so. There are some stunning…
Anna: Female destinies in Transylvania
โAnna: Fictitious Female Fatesโ (Anna: Vรกltozatok szรฉkely asszonysorsra) is the title of a disarmingly thought-provoking exhibition at the Hungarian National Museum, on tour from the Rezsล Haรกz Museum in Szรฉkelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuiesc, Romania). It follows the fortunes of the imaginary Anna, a Hungarian-speaking Szรฉkely, born in east Transylvania in 1920,…
Art Within Limits
โWithin Framesโ is the title of an exhibition running at the Hungarian National Gallery until February 18th. It looks at Hungarian art of the 1960s, a decade when state censorship controlled what people could publicly say or think. The English title, โWithin Framesโ, a literal translation of the Hungarian, does…
Collectors in Florence
An exhibition at Palazzo Pitti (Leopoldo deโ Medici, Principe dei Collezionisti, on until 28th January) displays a selection of the exquisite objects from the famous collection of Cardinal Leopoldo deโ Medici, youngest son of Grand Duke Cosimo II and Maria Magdalena of Austria. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this…
A people who changed history
The exhibition currently running in Pavia near Milan (Longobardi. Un popolo che cambia la storia) has been given a good amount of publicity in Italy since it is the first time artefacts produced in the period when the Lombards dominated the Italian peninsula have been collected together from many different…
The Scythians at the British Museum
โThe Scythians: Warriors of ancient Siberiaโ is the title of a major new exhibition at the British Museum, London, running until 14th January. The show attempts to redeem from oblivion the culture and character of a people who strewed their path across the steppe with gold but who are otherwise…
Ferragamo’s Return
Florence is determined to keep its place as a centre of fashion (despite fierce competition from Milan). Of the famous โPittiโ fashion shows, which are held throughout the year, the most prestigious remains โPitti Uomoโ, which takes place for a week in June. This year Eike Schmidt, director of the…
Grammar and Grace
This October it will be 500 years since Luther made public his famous 95 theses in Wittenberg. The anniversary is being celebrated on the web, by a pilgrimage and festival, with events in and around Wittenberg itself, as well as in print. In Budapest, the Hungarian National Museum has devoted…
Giuliano da Sangallo
The current exhibition (on until 20th August) of drawings by Giuliano da Sangallo and his circle at the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe (the Prints and Drawings Collection) on the first floor of the Uffizi provides an interesting and peaceful interlude if you are planning to visit Florence in…
News from Florence: Giovanni dal Ponte
There is a very interesting small exhibition (on until 12 March) at the Galleria dellโAccademia in Florence dedicated to the little-known painter Giovanni dal Ponte (or Giovanni di Marco di Giovanni, 1385โ1437/8). It is introduced with a stunning triptych by him of the Coronation of the Virgin (illustrated above), which…
Abstract Expressionism at the RA
Abstract Expressionism emerged in the 1940s in the United States and remained a predominantly American phenomenon. Its main characteristic, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Art, is the โdesire to convey powerful emotions through the sensuous qualities of paint, often on canvases of huge size.โ The Baroque movement of the…
Jesters at the Court of the Medici
A delightful small exhibition at Palazzo Pitti in Florence (until 11th September) of genre paintings and portraits from the mid-16th century to the early 18th illustrates the protagonists of the comic, sometimes bizarre side of court life in Florence in those years, which was otherwise locked away from public view.…
The Imperial Ramp in the Roman Forum
In 1900 the archaeologist Giacomo Boni uncovered some intriguing remains in the Roman Forum: those of the so-called โOratory of the Forty Martyrsโ and, leading off it, a covered brick ramp. These remains are usually closed to the public, and work on them is ongoing, but at the moment (until…
St Francis in Florence
For anyone in Florence, there are only a few more days left to catch this important exhibition at the Galleria dell’Accademia (closes 9th November) dedicated to art inspired by Italyโs most famous saint. Unfortunately it has limited space and the crowds of visitors who come to the Accademia just to…
