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From July 20th, 2010, to May 15th, 2011, at the Museo degli Argenti at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the exhibition "Vinum Nostrum: art, science and myths of wine in ancient Mediterranean civilisations" will take place. From Mesopotamia to our tables, from the rite of communion to avoidable drunkenness, from distasteful habit to gate of spirituality, wine and the grapevine are the protagonists of the exhibition. Original showpieces, sculptures, frescoes and mosaics, accompanied by multimedia and video installations will recount the millenarian history of the grapevine and of wine, and the important influence they exerted on the culture of the ancients. Following a chronological development, the exhibition will illustrate the origin of wine-growing in the Near East, its full affirmation along with its related symbolic, religious and cultural significance in the Hellenic world, up to its production and large-scale diffusion practised by the Romans. By virtue of the abundant archaeological remains of the Vesuvian cities, the particular case of the vineyards of Pompeii will be illustrated, while the exhibition will devote another section to the extraordinary contribution of the Phoenicians and the Etruscans, who played an essential role in spreading the cultivation of the vitis vinifera throughout the Mediterranean. While inviting visitors to reflect on the evolution of cultivation techniques (reproduction and genetic improvement, ploughing the land, bedding plants, tending the vineyard, theoretical principles and practical instructions for pruning and grafting), specially selected exhibits will also illustrate the religious and cultural values of the grapevine, expressed since the most remote epochs through a very vast series of depictions which speak of the divinities, rituals and festivities of wine. Precious sculptures and painted vases will illustrate the birth and spreading of the cult of Dionysus, capable according to tradition of continuously changing form and substance. Moreover, elegant table-services will clarify how the consumption of wine represented one of the most important moments of conviviality among patricians. A cella vinaria where wine was stored, scenographically reconstructed based on precious finds uncovered at Pompeii and on the precise descriptions contained in Latin literature, will enable the visitor to delve into the reality of the past, as he walks amidst tools for the vineyard, wine amphorae and wooden barrels, baskets for harvesting, carts and all of the necessary equipment. The exhibition itinerary aims not only at scientifically documenting the entire cycle of wine, from harvest to consumption, but also at stimulating taste, smell and sight, the senses that have a close relationship with wine which emerge at different historical and social levels. open 8:15am - 6:50pm

From the 10th of September 2010 to the 10th of January 2011, at the Bargello National Museum in Florence, the exhibition "The Large Bronzes of the Baptistery: Leonardo and Rustici" will take place. This is the first exhibition ever dedicated to Giovanfrancesco Rustici. Born in Florence in 1475, the sculptor trained in the celebrated Garden of San Marco under the protection of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and was the heir of the lesson of the workshops of Andrea del Verrocchio and Benedetto da Maiano. Close to Leonardo, whose student and assistant he was, Giovanfrancesco was also friend of Andrea del Sarto, Jacopo Sansovino, Domenico Puligo and Baccio Bandinelli, and preceded Rosso Fiorentino and Benvenuto Cellini in accepting the invitation of Francis I - king of France tied to the birth of the so-called Fontainebleau School - in 1528 moving to France, where he died in 1554. The focal point of the exhibition is Rustici´s masterpiece, the Sermon of Saint John the Baptist. This group sculpture of three grandiose bronze figures, designed and executed with the participation of Leonardo da Vinci, was placed over the North Door of the Baptistery of Florence in 1511. The challenging restoration it was subjected to (completed in 2008) has restored the splendour of material and conception: an undertaking supported by the Opera del Duomo di Firenze and the generous contribution of the "Friends of Florence". The presence in the show of the monumental group sculpture constitutes an unmissable twofold opportunity: on one hand, to show Leonardo´s contribution in its creation through the comparison with Leonardesque autographic works and, on the other hand, to reconstruct for the first time Rustici´s artistic personality, which the latest studies have shed light on. The show will indeed present a practically complete review of his works (glazed ware, marbles, terracottas, paintings and other bronze sculptures of middle to small dimensions) which testify to his great technical versatility and the features of his style. Alongside Rustici´s works from the Bargello - such as the monumental Della Robbian "Noli me tangere" altarpiece or the Struggle of Horses and Horsemen in terracotta, inspired by Leonardo´s Battle of Anghiari - the exhibition will be completed by the most significant pieces attributed to his hand, and today divided among the major museums in Europe and the United States. The show will be hosted on the Museum´s ground floor in the rooms that already hosted (in 2008) the other bronze group sculpture of the Baptistery of San Giovanni for the monographic exhibition dedicated to Vincenzo Danti, which confirms a meditated planning and scientific continuity between the administrations of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello and the Opera del Duomo of Florence. The scientific project of this exhibition directed by Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi is by Tommaso Mozzati and Philippe Sénéchal, authors of two recent monographs on the sculptor.

From September 24th, 2010 up to January 23rd, 2011 the Palazzo Pitti in Florence will house the important exhibition Bronzino. Artist and Poet. One of the greatest painters of the sixteenth century, Agnolo di Cosimo Tori, known as Bronzino (1503-1572), embodied the fullness of the ‘modern manner’ in the years of the government of Cosimo I de’ Medici. Florence is clearly the preferential location for a monographic exhibition on Bronzino, since the majority of his paintings are still conserved here, above all in the Uffizi, but also in other city museums and in the churches. This exhibition, the first devoted to Agnolo’s pictorial work, will also avail of loans from the most important museums all over the world. Design and planning carried out well in advance will make it possible to offer visitors not only the latest critical and philological novelties, but also everything else that emerges from the constant commitment of the curators and the scientific committee in the three years prior to the opening of the exhibition in 2010. However, this is not an exhibition conceived solely for the specialists. It will comprise a selection of only works of the very highest level: autograph works by Bronzino and other artists connected with him – such as Pontormo and Alessandro Allori. The idea is, through direct comparisons made possible for the first time, to enable a broad public to admire and comprehend the unrivalled poetic heights achieved by the artist. Finally, it will be possible to study and compare several works, most of them attributed with certainty to Bronzino, that are being displayed to the public for the first time. The exhibition will be divided into chapters devoted to crucial phases, episodes or genres in Bronzino’s work. The show will bring together a wide variety of Bronzino’s masterpieces, some of them displayed together for the first time, in addition to a selection of drawings originating from the greatest museums in the world. Alongside the works conserved in the Uffizi, the exhibition will present works such as the Adoration of the Shepherds from the Szépmuvészeti Múzeum in Budapest, the Portrait of young man with a book from the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the Holy Family and Saint John, in the version of the Louvre (Paris) and of the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna. The Scientific Committee will be composed of the major experts on the period, who will contribute to the exhibition catalogue with essays of elevated scientific importance. The show is designed to play a central role within the ambit of celebrations for the “Bronzino Year”, together with the major exhibition Drawings of Bronzino (January 20-April 18 2010) scheduled to run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, dedicated to the artist’s graphic production.

An Installation by Michelangelo Pistoletto will be coming to Palazzo Strozzi´s Cortile Metrocubo d´Infinito in un Cubo Specchiante (Square Metre of Infinity in a Mirror Cube), an installation covered externally with opaque steel plates and internally clad with mirrors, is intended to offer the public an opportunity to experience boundless space. Its centre will be occupied by one of the artist´s historic works, the Metrocubo di Infinito (Square Metre of Infinity), 1966, which consists of exceptionally opaque surfaces on the outside and reflecting surfaces on the inside, thus taking the potential of refraction to its extreme limit. Pistoletto himself argues that “the mirror expands the eye´s characteristics and the mind´s capabilities to the point where it offers a vision of totality”. The work of art becomes a secular place for meditation, where man with his capacity for imagination is the only true value. In partnership with Castello di Ama per l’arte contemporanea With the collaboration of Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto; Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin; Carlo Falciani