The Palace
by Antonio Paolucci
Special Commissioner for the Florentine Polo Museale

Florence - At the time of Sandro Botticelli (born in Florence in 1445, died in 1510) and Filippino Lippi (Prato 1457- Florence 1504) who was Botticelli’s talented alter ego and only true heir, Palazzo Strozzi was already standing. It had been commissioned, around the end of the fifteenth century, by wealthy banker Filippo Strozzi and built, in the form we know it today, by the architect Giuliano da Maiano. Palazzo Strozzi is the archetype of Florentine civilized living, the emblem of Medicean Florence, that great season of which Botticelli and Filippino Lippi were the protagonists.
And what better place than Palazzo Strozzi for an exhibition dedicated to Botticelli and to Filippino, the fifth centenary of whose death is commemorated this year?
The masterpieces of these two great painters (and Filippino is equally as great as Botticelli, as this exhibition will definitively and unequivocally demonstrate) will be on show in those places and in those architectural settings which they would have wanted when alive.
The city that from 11 March to 11 July 2004 will pay tribute to Botticelli and Filippino is their city. Their works will be displayed in the churches and museums of Florence and surrounding area (in the Uffizi Gallery, at the Palatine Gallery, in S. Maria Novella and Santo Spirito, at Prato and Montelupo). And in Palazzo Strozzi their works will be exhibited in the setting created by the architect who was none other than their contemporary, Giuliano da Maiano. For the discerning tourist who appreciates the special charm of seeing these works of art restored to their original environments and surroundings, this is certainly an opportunity not to be missed.
Over sixty paintings are on display, 25 by Botticelli, 16 by Filippino Lippi as well as various drawings executed by both and a series of other reference works by Leonardo, Pietro di Cosimo, etc.
There are famous masterpieces by Botticelli (Pallas and the Centaur and Calumny from the Uffizi, two of the scenes from the Story of Nastagio degli Onesti from the Prado Museum, Lamentation over the Dead Christ from the Poldi Pezzoli of Milan) and by Filippino Vision of St Bernard from the Badia Fiorentina, together with other little known or less famous works. By Botticelli, the Annunciation from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, Portrait of a Lady, on show for the first time in Italy, from a private American collection, Madonna del Padiglione from the Ambrosiana Gallery etc…; by Filippino, Portrait of a Musician, from Dublin, Allegory of Love from a private English collection, etc.
The tribute Florence makes to Botticelli and Filippino has a sub-title: Grace and Unrest
. Why grace? Because the century of Lorenzo il Magnifico and Agnolo Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola chose grace (which at that time meant intellectual elegance and refined representation of sentiment) as its aesthetic emblem.
Why unrest? Because the era of Botticelli and Filippino ended under the sign of uncertainty and anguish, overshadowed by the apocalyptic threats Gerolamo Savonarola, the charismatic and tragic prophet of the eclipse of Humanist ideals.
The exhibition addresses this too, through the works of these two painters which best express this spiritual season of passion (Botticelli’s Mystic Nativity on loan from London, St.Mary Magdalen and St.John the Baptist by Filippino from the Accademia in Florence).
The first edition of the exhibition was held at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, where it encountered extraordinary public and the critical acclaim. Now it has arrived in Florence, renewed in name (with Filippino Lippi as co-protagonist) and contents, because there are many more of Botticelli’s works on display in Palazzo Strozzi than in Paris. The curators are: Pier Luigi De Vecchi, Jonathan Nelson, in charge of the section on Filippino Lippi and co-author, together with Patrizia Zambrano, of the latest scientific monograph on the artist, and Daniel Arasse, our lamented friend who died prematurely. Arasse was a Parisian art historian, a expert on the Renaissance, enamoured of Florence, where he lived and worked for many years as Director of the French Institute of Culture. This exhibition is dedicated to him.

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