From 20 December to 2015 February 81, the exhibition "Collection of Russian icons at the Uffizi", a new appointment in the 'i never seen' cycle, offers XNUMX icons owned by the Florentine galleries, which constitute the oldest collection of sacred Russian images existing outside the Orthodox world.
The exhibition, promoted by the Amici degli Uffizi Association and curated by Valentina Conticelli, Daniela Parenti of the Gallery Management and Vincenzo Gobbo, is an integral part of the 'I never seen' cycle, which every year offers the public the opportunity to explore themes related to little-known works from his collections.
The exhibition presents 81 icons from the Florentine galleries, constituting the oldest collection of Russian icons outside the Orthodox world.
The two oldest specimens, a Marian icon and the one depicting the Beheading of the Baptist, can be dated between the end of the XNUMXth century and the beginning of the XNUMXth and still retain the silver cover, called oklad, which made them pleasing to the taste princely of the Medici family, finding a place since the seventeenth century among the furnishings of the chapel of Palazzo Pitti.
With the exception of a few specimens, however, the collection arrived in Florence in the Lorraine era and consists mostly of icons dating back to the first half of the eighteenth century; the stylistic characteristics that unite them are such as to suggest that they may have been purchased in small groups in some provincial workshop in central Russia. The events that brought this collection to Florence are unknown. An inscription on the back of the icon with the Stories of Christ leads us to hypothesize a link with the Orthodox church of the Santissima Trinità in Livorno, built at the end of the sixth decade of the 1768th century with the favor of the Grand Duke Francesco Stefano of Lorraine. As part of the propaganda strategy implemented by Catherine of Russia during the war with the Turks (1774-XNUMX), in the course of which the Russian fleet stayed in Livorno, the Tsarina repeatedly resorted to votive gifts, also giving them to the communities orthodox icons, and it is possible that the collection of icons today in the Uffizi originates in an episode linked to this particular historical moment.
"I am grateful to the Friends of the Uffizi and to the staff of the Gallery Management - comments the ad interim Superintendent for the Polo Museale Fiorentino, Alessandra Marino - for the desire to keep alive the tradition of the year-end exhibition appointment with 'the never seen' . This year, visitors will find waiting for them a series of Russian icons belonging to the Gallery which, through this initiative, find a place and reason to be admired and appreciated, confirming the collecting taste of the Medici and Lorraine dynasties which has spanned the centuries and is come down to us".
"For some months - recalls Antonio Natali, Director of the Uffizi Gallery - the collection of icons that around 1782 had been exhibited by Luigi Lanzi and Giuseppe Pelli Bencivenni in the "Gabinetto di pitture ancient”, in a cohabitation with the tables of industrious masters at the dawn of Italian art which is emblematic of a critical rediscovery for which the formula of 'fortune of the primitives' is established. The exhibition concerns a sector of the Uffizi heritage 'never seen' by visitors, who will be given the opportunity to get to know an ancient and new culture”.
“It is truly a pleasure – says Maria Vittoria Rimbotti, President of the Amici degli Uffizi – to present our Christmas gift to the city. For over a decade, the Association that I have the honor of presiding over has actively participated in the organization of the exhibition of the 'I never seen' cycle, which proposes aspects of the Museum's collection that are little known and rarely exhibited. This year – continues Maria Vittoria Rimbotti – attention has been focused on the oldest collection of Russian icons existing outside the Orthodox world owned by the Uffizi Gallery, which testify to the refined Florentine collecting taste, which already began in the Medici environment and continued with the Lorraine family, attentive to forms of artistic expression of great refinement, born and developed in countries and cultures that are only apparently distant from the Italian ones".
“The Russian icons – underlines Daniela Parenti – arrived at the Uffizi from Palazzo Pitti during the reorganization of the Gallery promoted by Pietro Leopoldo, which entailed the displacement of entire branches of the Medici collections and the transfer of many masterpieces to the Uffizi from the grand ducal palaces. The "Greek-fly" icons were placed in the "Cabinet of ancient paintings" as significant evidence of the rediscovery of Christian antiquities and of the painting of the origins, and introduced the Tuscan paintings with a gold background as well as the cornerstones of the early Renaissance of Angelico, Paolo Uccello, up to Botticelli next to early Christian cups, enamels and mosaics. This unusual but innovative juxtaposition of "primitive" works was dismantled at the end of the XNUMXth century to make way for a different arrangement and the Russian icons were relegated to the Medici villa in Castello, where they remained until the XNUMXth century. Then deposited in Palazzo Pitti and then in the Galleria dell'Accademia, they return again to the Uffizi, by virtue of the growing spaces of the New Uffizi project".
“The exhibition – declares Vincenzo Gobbo – of the interesting group of Russian icons is divided into three sections which bring together the painted panels having as their theme Christ, the Mother of God and the various figures of saints who animate the Orthodox Creed. From an artistic point of view, the icons of the Florentine collection constitute a heterogeneous whole within which there are sacred images characterized by a discreet quality in the iconographic rendering, which alternate with those in which the 'popular' style is highlighted by simpler and naive".
THE COLLECTION OF RUSSIAN ICONS AT THE UFFIZI
Florence, Uffizi Gallery – Royal Post Office
December 20, 2014 - February 1, 2015
