“If there was an artist of the full-fledged Renaissance who merits the title of “universal”, or who at least did everything he could to deserve it, this is Jacopo Ligozzi who is finally the protagonist of a monographic exhibition that presents – in addition to the splendid and incisive naturalist panels for which he is best known – his activity as a painter, an illustrator and author of models for the decorative arts” (Cristina Acidini). This is how the Superintendent opened her presentation to the catalogue of the monographic exhibition – the fifth show of Firenze 2014. Un anno ad Arte – that the Galleria Palatina in collaboration with the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi has dedicated to painter Jacopo Ligozzi.

More than one hundred works will be on show, including loans from prestigious international institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the British Museum of London, the Albertina of Vienna, and the Louvre.

Born in Verona in circa 1549 into a family of Milanese embroiderers and son of painter Giovanni Ermanno, Ligozzi’s early activity unfolded in Trento, Verona and Venice, before reaching Florence where, in 1575, his presence is documented at the court of grand duke Francesco I, where he set up a successful workshop and lived stably until his death in 1627.

The painter’s long and complex artistic fortunes have been investigated by the important studies of Mina Bacci (1963), and more recently by the contributions Alessandro Cecchi devoted to specific sectors of his activity (1997), by Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi (1993) and by Lucilla Conigliello (1990) who also curated an exhibition dedicated to his production in Arezzo (1992), and a show centred on the drawings held in the collection of the Departement des Arts Graphiques du Louvre (2005).

The results of the studies conducted to date, combined with a substantial series of documents that make it possible to reconstruct Ligozzi’s life ad annum and, moreover, the presence of the largest group of his works in the collections of Palazzo Pitti and the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, explain the necessity for this exhibition, which will attempt, for the first time, to systematically illustrate the span of the painter’s activity, highlighting the various ambits he worked in and his multifaceted and versatile physiognomy on the Florentine panorama.

For this reason, we have found it appropriate to divide the exhibition into thematic sections. The first section is dedicated to the artist’s early activity at the Medici court, where from his arrival Ligozzi was highly appreciated as a draughtsman of natural history exhibits known as naturalia, for his refined production of drawings painted with watercolours or highlighted in gold, which the show will illustrate with a selection of works from the collection of the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi.

He later enjoyed the same success as a portraitist: the show presents, in particular, the fine portrait of a woman, Virginia de’ Medici, today in the Uffizi, and the splendid Portrait of Maria Gonzaga from the Museo Nacional of Lisbon. The artist was also a talented creator of decorative apparatus, as in the case of the paintings, today lost, that decorated the wainscoting and windows in the Tribuna of the Uffizi that Francesco I commissioned in 1584, as well as those, also lost, in the Cave of Thetis at the Medici Villa at Pratolino. We must not forget that Ligozzi was also a painter of history, as in the large paintings on slate on the walls of the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio, and again for the decorative apparatus created on the occasion of the wedding of Ferdinando I and Cristina of Lorraine, which the exhibition documents with the preparatory study today held at the British Museum in London. Alongside these undertakings, Ligozzi also distinguished himself as a talented and sensitive designer of clothing, embroideries for fabrics, as well as of creations in semiprecious stones. The show will exhibit several of his drawings for embroidery as well as the marble inlay surfaces made on his designs by the Medici Opificio, and respectively held in the Galleria Palatina, the Museo degli Argenti, the Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure, and in the Galleria degli Uffizi.

The exhibition will also devote special attention to the theme of the ‘moral allegories’, which Ligozzi tackled on many occasions and which constitutes one of the points of greatest interest, also for a better understanding of his production. Quite significant in this sense is the presence of works like the Allegory of Redemption from Madrid, the Allegory of Love defending Virtue against Ignorance and Prejudice, probably commissioned by Francesco I (Baroni Collection, London) and Greed (Metropolitan Museum, New York). The profoundly religious artist also devoted great attention to the themes of ‘Vanitas’ (the transience of worldly life), depicting subjects of an extraordinary originality and emotional impact: quite extraordinary are the two portraits of unknown youths (private collection) that on the back present two horrid still-lifes with their decomposed craniums.

The second part of the show will focus on the religious production the painter devoted himself to from his years of service at the Medici court, which intensified in the 1590s after he fell out of favour. The large altarpieces he created for the churches of Santissima Annunziata, Santa Maria Novella, Ognissanti and Santa Croce in Florence, as well as for churches on the territory of Arezzo, in Lucca and in San Gimignano, testify that he authentically shared the aspirations of devout and reformed painting that Florentine painting assumed between the late XVI and early XVII centuries: the show presents his Saint Jerome supported by the Angel from the Church of San Giovannino degli Scolopi, the Martyrdom of Four Crowned Saints from Ravenna, the Saint Hyacinth adoring the Virgin and Child from Palazzo Mansi (Lucca).

In addition to various naturalistic images shown in Palazzo Pitti, a limited group of botanical drawings will show in the Detti Room of the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi.

This section is intended as an integral part of the show that in its complete development in Palazzo Pitti proposes to thoroughly document the many facets of this versatile artist, the “universal painter” in the well-suited definition of contemporary historian Filippo Baldinucci.

Curated by Alessandro Cecchi, Lucilla Conigliello and Marzia Faietti with the collaboration of Anna Bisceglia and Giorgio Marini, the exhibition, along with the catalogue published by Sillabe, is promoted by the Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, Direzione Regionale per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici della Toscana, Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze, Galleria Palatina di Palazzo Pitti, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe della Galleria degli Uffizi with Firenze Musei and Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.

Galleria Palatina di Palazzo Pitti

Piazza de Pitti, 1
Florence 50125 Italy
Ph. +39 055 294883
www.unannoadarte.it

Opening hours

Tuesday – Sunday from 8.15am to 6.50pm
The ticket office closes at 6.05pm

Tickets

Full rate: € 13.00
Concessions: € 6.50 for EU between 18 and 25 years old
Admission free for EU citizens under 18 and over 65 years old

Related images
  1. Jacopo Ligozzi, Tavole naturalistiche – Gli Uccelli - Cavaliere d’Italia (Himantopus himantopus), Corriere grosso (Charadrius hiaticula), Martin pescatore (Alcedo atthis), Rana verde (Rana esculenta), 1577-1587 ca pietra nera naturale, pigmenti policromi di natura organica e inorganica, su carta con imprimitura a bianco di piombo, Firenze, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli uffizi
  2. Jacopo Ligozzi, Tavole Naturalistiche – I Pesci - Cernia? (Epinephelus guazza), 1577-1587 ca, pietra nera naturale, pigmenti policromi di natura organica e inorganica, su carta con imprimitura a bianco di piombo, Firenze, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi
  3. Jacopo Ligozzi, Tavole naturalistiche - I Mammiferi e i Rettili - Topo quercino (Eliomys quercinus) e talpa (Talpa sp.), 1577-1587 ca, pietra nera naturale, pigmenti policromi di natura organica e inorganica, su carta con imprimitura a bianco di piombo, Firenze, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi
  4. Jacopo Ligozzi, Allegoria dell’Avarizia, 1590, olio su tela, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  5. Jacopo Ligozzi, Respice finem, penna e inchiostro, inchiostro diluito, pigmenti di origine naturale, mm 266 x 195, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada
  6. Jacopo Ligozzi, Sacrificio d’Isacco, 1586 ca, olio su tavola, Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi