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ART ITINERARIES

DAVID, A MESSENGER OF BEAUTY & COURAGE

CECILIE HOLLBERG, DIRECTOR OF THE ACCADEMIA GALLERY MUSEUM IN FLORENCE, TELLS US ABOUT THE MUSEUM text Francesca Lombardi

“David, an icon of harmony and per- after spending 350 years in the square fection, represents Italian art in Dubai, just outside, Piazza della Signoria. Beand is an invitation to visit Italy and fore then, there was the risk of missing see all of its beauty. His figure is also out on the marvellous Pontormo and the bearer of an important positive Allori portraits, Bartolini sculptures, message of rebirth, hope and courage” and Lorenzo Monaco golden panels, - with these words, Cecilie Hollberg, kept within the building, at the heart Director of the Accademia Gallery of the city. Museum, presented the 1:1 scale copy To help us go beyond David, can you of David for the Italian Pavilion at the tell us about the works you treasure Dubai Expo. More than a mere copy the most at the Academy? the most famous and beloved sculp- It’s a difficult question. In taking care ture in history, it is the result of cut- of every single work in the museum, ting-edge ‘Made in Italy’ technology, I slowly discover them all. Because with the young hero scanned by high maybe they need to be restored, or beprecision instruments in his home in cause more research needs to be done the Tribune of Florence’s Accademia on one of the pieces that has not been Gallery Museum. On the basis of this scan, a precise physical copy was then CECILIE HOLLBERG, given enough attention. It’s the whole that makes the difference. You can’t made, and flown to Dubai to be placed DIRECTOR OF THE say which is Bartolini’s most beautiat the centre of the Italian Pavilion. ACCADEMIA GALLERY ful bust, or which is the most precious “Seeing the original David”, continues the director, “in all its height and harmony, in the original material, that is, very white marble, and, last but not IN FLORENCE BEAUTIFUL MUSEUMS IN THE WORLD golden panel, but being able to see them in dialogue with each other, and knowing their stories, transports you into a fantastic world. Of course, next least, in the Tribune that plays host to to David, which we have already talkit in Florence, is a different emotion. It speaks of the great- ed about, how could we not mention the Prigioni? These ness of Michelangelo, who, at only 26 years old, created a beings, who try to make their way through the stone and perfect work of art. It allows us to discover an important out of the block that surrounds them, are of such breathpiece of the history of a city that has kept him safe for more taking beauty, precisely because they are unfinished, and than 500 years. Finally, it allows you to get to know a mu- their imperfection makes them almost alive. Then, there is seum that is a true treasure trove of masterpieces”. the sweetness of certain Madonnas, the colours and transPeople come from all over the world to see David today, parencies of other paintings. In every object, I find a great just as in 1882, when it was transported into the museum, fascination, but I simply could not choose one over the

COVER STORY

Lorenzo Bartolini’s plaster busts inside the Accademia Gallery Musseum in Florence (ph Massimo Sestini)

other. I repeat, it is the whole, the dialogue that is created of Lorenzo Bartolini, one of the most important Italian between the various individual works that achieves perfect. sculptors between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuToday, the museum has a special arrangement, since we ries - normally houses around 450 pieces that are usually are carrying out important modernization work. not very visible because they are placed on high shelves. We have just finished the huge job of the air conditioning All these busts are now grouped by theme, and placed at system, and we have started work on the individual rooms, eye level along the corridor housing the Prigioni. In the and on the lighting system. But we decided never to close rooms of the ex-Florentine artists, usually used for temthe gallery, and not to take any of the porary exhibitions, are now paintwork into storage. For this reason, in ‘THE DAVID: FULL ings that were, before, in the Hall of these months, you can enjoy a truly OF FEARS BUT the Colossus, still closed for refurspecial, unrepeatable, almost mysti- WITH A STRONG bishment. This extraordinary colleccal setting that is well worth seeing. The section dedicated to musical instruments is on show, a real gem of FAITH IN GOD, YOUNG WITHOUT tion of Florentine paintings of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, in this setting, also thanks also an exhibit that collects together some BEING WEAK, more accurate lighting, regains all of really rare, unique pieces, which is NAKED WITHOUT its preciousness. Think, for example, now directly connected, through a BEING HELPLESS. of the Thebaid by Paolo Uccello, new passage, to the temporary exhibition rooms, spaces where it will be possible to immerse yourself in the AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE’ the marvel of Cassone Adimari by ‘Lo Scheggia’, brother of the more famous ‘Masaccio’, and the Trebbio magic of the Renaissance, thanks to Altarpiece by Sandro Botticelli, as the paintings arriving from the Hall of the Colossus. En- well as the pieces by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo di tering towards the Tribune, where David stands out, the Credi, Jacopo del Sellaio, Filippino Lippi and Mariotto visitor is accompanied, on the way between Michelangelo’s Albertinelli. However, this arrangement is subject to conPrigioni, by the plaster casts of Lorenzo Bartolini, which stant changes, as we finish the various rooms, which will are usually kept in the Hall of Models, or the ‘Gipsoteca’. find their final layout in late spring. It’s certainly a museum Indeed, the Gipsoteca - which ideally recreates the studio where it never gets boring!

An almost mystical setting, where works of art from different periods create fascinating and unprecedented dialogues (ph. Guido Cozzi)