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Innocent and Slandered, Exhibit on Painter Federico Zuccari (1539/40 – 1609) at the Uffizi Gallery
On the fourth centenary of his death, the exhibition Innocent and slandered. Federico Zuccari (1539/40 – 1609) and the artist’s revenge presents to the public the themes of polemic and revenge that certain artists, and Federico Zuccari in particular, exploited to declare their innocence before real or alleged slander and injustice. The exhibit is on display at the Uffizi Gallery, running hours are the same than the Uffizi, admission is free. The Exhibit will be on display until February 28.
The subjects of Truth revealed by Time, Truth delivered from Envy, the Triumph of Virtue over Envy and that of the Calumny – a subject that had enjoyed remarkable popularity since classical antiquity – are addressed by Zuccari with great figurative originality. An artist who, throughout his long career in Italy and in Europe, was constantly embroiled in a bizarre and recurrent contradiction: earning the trust of illustrious and powerful commissioners, immediately losing their favor, reacting by painting and disseminating “artistic revenge”, which then generated further tensions and damning consequences, so that in the end he felt himself to be persecuted, on a par with Aesop and Dante.
However it is not only on account of the appeal of this intriguing painter, intellectual and art theorist that the Commission of the Polo Museale Fiorentino, in collaboration with Firenze Musei, has decided to pay homage to this controversial artist. In Florence there are in fact around 2,400 square meters of paintings (the largest expanse ever painted in the city) by Zuccari in the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore; also in Florence is the house, previously belonging to Andrea del Sarto, that Zuccari lived in and embellished with mural paintings and reliefs celebrating the arts set on the facade of the studio, which can still be seen in Via Giusti, while again in Florence the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Uffizi conserves the most important fond of drawings and prints attributed to him, which on this occasion are being displayed in their entirety.
Among the loans is an outstanding guest, the canvas dedicated to the Porta Virtutis. The work, painted by Federico Zuccari and sent to the Duke of Urbino, Francesco Maria II Della Rovere in the 1580s, reached Florence the following century and became part of the Medici collections. Believed lost, it recently reappeared on the Florentine market, where it was purchased by the Italian State and destined to the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino.
This very painting, so dense with meanings and allegorical inventions, and symbolically set at the end of the display itinerary, effectively summarizes the most profound instigations of Zuccari’s art; throughout his artistic career he never ceased to proudly claim his freedom of thought and expression, contributing to enhance the social status of the artist.
Sport and Events - b0.01.20.12.26
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