| The Gallery of Modern Art |
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Address: Piazza Pitti, Palazzo Pitti
The Gallery of Modern Art presently occupies the second floor
of the Pitti Palace, in the
rooms along the facade formerly the Palatine Library and those in
the side wings used by the Medici children and retainers. Founded
in 1860 and rearranged in 1918, it comprises a large group of
works brought from the Academy of Fine Arts at that time. The
layout is conditioned by the interiors as arranged by Ferdinando
III and Leopoldo II in the Lorraine period, when the top floor of
the palace was transformed. Great care has been taken to show to
advantage the nineteenth century interiors, from the hand-made
floors to the textiles, ensuring that the objects displayed have
something of their original setting.
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Through around 2000 exhibits, many by important artistic
personalities of the period, the world of nineteenth.century
academicism is revealed as belonging to an artistic movement
found throughout Europe from the eighteenth century. The
selection begins with both Neo- classical and Romantic works,
including the Oath of Saxons to Napoleon by Pietro Benvenuti
(1769-1844) or the grandiose Entry of Charles VIII and portrait
of Marie Antoinette by Giuseppe Bezzuoli (1784-1855), or The Two
Foscari by Francesco Hayez (1791-1882). There are also many
historical pictures which represent one of the most significant
aspects of early nineteenth century culture, such as those of
Sabatelli, Pollastrini or Stefano Ussi, whose Expulsion of the
Duke of Athens represents his debut in this genre. Fine sculpture of
the same period is shown, such as Antonio Canova's head of
Napoleon, Pietro Tenerani's Psyche and the famous Cain and Abel
by Giovanni Duprè.
The paintings which most characterize the gallery however are
those of the Macchiaioli, the famous Tuscan artists of the
mid-nineteenth century whose far-reaching innovations were of
national importance. These artists were mostly trained in the
Florentine Academy, but rejected its formal and technical ideas
in favour of smaller paintings inspired directly by nature or
daily life and created with patches of colour and the use of
light and shade. Many paintings by the best known of this group
Giovanni Fattori (1825-1908) are found here, including the
splendid Rotonda Palmieri and the Battle of Magenta, the
"Staffato" and a series of landscapes and scenes of
life in the Maremma area (the Market in Maremma, the Ox-Cart, the
Salto delle Pecore). The views and interior scenes of Silvestro
Lega (1826-1895) and Telemaco Signorini (1835-1901) are notable,
as is the large series of portraits by Giovanni Boldini
(1842-1931) belonging to the gift made by Diego Martelli the
noted critic and friend of the Macchiaioli. Paintings, and above
all sculpture by Adriano Cecioni (1836-1886), one of the most
lucid and aware of the group, show the effect on terracotta
sculpture of the tonal ideas prevalent among these artists to
whom the "touch" was so important. Among recently
opened rooms it is worth noting the one dedicated to Michele
Gordigiani, the celebrated portraitist of Italian aristocracy.
The most notable group of paintings in the Gallery of Modern Art
are therefore mainly of the nineteenth century, and the lack of
examples of the early twentieth century movements is one felt
very strongl in the Florentine collection.
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