I can't believe my luck (to make up for missing the Getty exhibit) - I'll be in Florence right after this opens for 5 days for the first week of April; would love to meet anyone on this board who is in Europe who might be traveling to Florence to catch this (and drink copious amounts of wine while discussing the exhibit afterwards in light of the cards). If you are in Europe I don't know how you can miss this exhibit, so germane to virtually every thread we've had here lately....

http://www.palazzostrozzi.org/Sezione.jsp?idSezione=938

The Springtime of the Renaissance. Sculpture and the Arts in Florence 1400-1460
Palazzo Strozzi, 23 March-18 August 2013 Musée du Louvre, 23 September 2013-6 January 2014
Organised by: Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and Musée du Louvre
Curated by: Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi and Marc Bormand

The exhibition proposes to illustrate, in theme-based Sections, the origin of what is still known today as the "miracle" of the Renaissance in Florence, doing so principally through masterpieces of sculpture, the branch of figurative art in which that new season first saw the light of day.

The first section is devoted to the rediscovery of the ancient world during the "rebirth" that occurred between the 13th and 14th centuries–from Nicola Pisano to Arnolfo and their successors–and following assimilating the expressive richness of the Gothic style, especially of French origin (Section I: The Legacy of the Fathers), the two panels depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi and the model of Brunelleschi's Cupola represent the fundamental starting point of the Early Renaissance (Section II: Florence 1401. The Dawn of the Renaissance).

At that time the writings of the great Humanists, singing the praises of the Florentine Republic's political achievements, its economic power and its social harmony, were spreading the legend of Florence as the heir to the Roman Republic and as a model for other Italian city-states.

Monumental public sculpture (by Donatello, Ghiberti, Nanni di Banco, Michelozzo and others in those veritable beehives of innovation that were the city's major construction sites, the Cathedral and Orsanmichele for example) is the first and loftiest testimony to this exaltation of Florence and its leading citizens (Section III: Civic and Christian Romanitas), while it also had a profound influence on the painting of such artists as Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno and Filippo Lippi (Section VI: Sculpture in Paint). Other themes of classical antiquity were assimilated and transformed through sculpture in this new language that gave voice not only to the city's creative fervour but also to its spiritual and intellectual mood (Section IV: 'Spirits' Both Sacred and Profane; Section V: The Rebirth of the Condottieri). The search for a 'rational' space and Brunelleschi's discovery of perspective were implemented in their most advanced forms precisely in the art of sculpture, in Donatello's bas-reliefs, for instance the predella of the St George and Herod's Banquet in Lille, and their echo reached well into the middle part of the century in the work of Desiderio da Settignano and Agostino di Duccio in an ongoing dialogue-cum-debate with painting, including that of the classical era (Section VII: History 'in Perspective').

From the 1420s on, the new standards of sculpture perfected by the great masters and illustrated by a number of masterpieces—like Donatello's Pazzi Madonna from Berlin and the Fiesole Madonna attributed to Brunelleschi—spread via a seemingly endless output of bas-reliefs for private devotion (in marble, stucco, polychrome terracotta and glazed terracotta), which fostered the widespread propagation of a taste for the 'new' beauty in every level of society (Section VIII: The Spread of Beauty; Section IX: The Eternity of Colour. Luca Della Robbia and the Invention of Glazed Terracotta). At the same time, the most prestigious artistic commissions in Florence began to focus on venues of solidarity and of prayer (churches, confraternities and hospitals) (Section X: Beauty and Charity).

Thus, arranged around the city's absolute symbol—the wooden model of Brunelleschi's Cupola for Santa Maria del Fiore—the exhibition offers a retrospective of sculpture that was also to have a crucial impact on the development of the other figurative arts, in a direct debate with its classical predecessors, from the tombs of the Humanists, to the inspiration provided by ancient sarcophagi, to the rebirth of the equestrian monument and the carved portrait. The carved portrait, which started to become popular towards the middle of the century—in the marble busts of Mino da Fiesole, Desiderio da Settignano and Antonio Rossellino—heralds the transition from fiorentina libertas to the private patronage that was soon to lead to the hegemony of the Medici family (Section XI: From City to Palace. The New Patrons of the Arts).

The exhibit exceeded my expectations; visit it if you can.

The book for the exhibit becomes available today via Amazon (way too heavy to buy and lug around in Florence - plus cheaper on-line):
The Springtime of the Renaissance: Sculpture and the Arts in Florence 1400-60
by Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi (Editor) , Marc Bormand (Editor)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8874611862

Looks like it was amazing!

I imagine it was a bit like walking into a deck of cards? It must have been overwhelming?

robert wrote:Looks like it was amazing!

I imagine it was a bit like walking into a deck of cards? It must have been overwhelming?

Robert,
Certainly the highlight of my 6 days in Florence (was also in Bologna, Assisi [day trip to Rimini] and Rome) - and I must have hit 30+ museums there. I see you are in Oxford - hop on a train or take a cheap Ryan Air flight and get down there!

BTW: The book must weigh 25 pounds; came in the mail today from Amazon. Something you don't want to buy when traveling...