For more information contact the attache elucifero@palazzotornabuoni.com

Exact date and location still to be announced. Contact the Attache, elucifero@palazzotornabuoni.com

Florentine Genius is an exciting initiative presenting a series of events dedicated to significant figures such as Leonardo, Boccaccio and Dante. Exhibitions, performances, conventions and other entertainment fill a number of Florence´s historic venues. The 2009 edition included a full day dedicated to actor and director Francesco Nuti, a debate on Leonardo´s Gioconda, covering the origins, fortune and mysteries of the Mona Lisa, and "And all of a sudden… Dante: 100 songs for Florence", with more than 600 singers performing in some of the most sensational parts of the city.

For more information contact the attache elucifero@palazzotornabuoni.com

Special guest, Stephen Saltzburg will discuss current legal & political issues in the US, including Guantanamo Bay and the upcoming appointment of a new Supreme Court Justice. Afterward, please join us for an aperitivo in the library.Stephen Saltzburg is the Wallace & Beverly Woodbury Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. He began his legal career as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Saltzburg was also the associate independent counsel in the Iran-Contra investigation. He has served on the ABA Task Force on Terrorism and the Law, and the ABA President’s Advisory Group on Citizen Detention and Enemy Combatant Issues. He is a litigation expert specializing in Federal Rules of Evidence and Dispute Resolution, and has written numerous books and articles on evidence, procedure and litigation. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife.

Boris Belin plays the violin with the Ochestra della Toscana. Three Film Scores, Brahms and Schubert

Some would like to attribute to the young Michelangelo the nearly life-sized statue of a ‘Young Archer´, currently on loan from the French Cultural Embassy to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Acquired in 1905 by the architect Stanford White from a dealer in Rome, the statue was previously owned by the Florentine collector and dealer Stefano Bardini. Lynn Catterson of Columbia University assesses the vexing issues of provenance and style, as well as the attributional pros and cons.

Friends of Florence cordially invites all members to join them in celebrating the restoration of the south portion of the San Antonino Cloister at the Museum of San Marco All rsvps by May 7 to 055223064 or info@friendsofflorence.org

Members are invited to a spectacular evening in the Bardini Gardens of an exhibition of Angel Academy student paintings, done in the tradition of the 20th century painter Pietro Annigoni. For more information: 055 2466737

Matthew Licht´s collection of stories, The Moose Show, was nominated for the Frank O´Connor Prize in 2007. His next collection, Justine, Joe & The Zen Garbageman, will be published this summer. Westways, a novel based on fantastic behind-the-scenes adventures of American actress Mae West, produced in collaboration with the artist Rita McBride, is due out soon in Germany. Popularly known as The Least Blind Blues Singer in the USA, Matthew Licht will read two recent stories, one of them set in Florence, the other inspired by an incident in an infamous London pub.

Breakfast and lecture at the Palazzo by Katie Campbell author of Paradise of exiles: The Anglo American Gardens of Florence. Katie Campbell is a journalist, fiction writer and Garden Historian who lectures at Birkbeck College and Bristol University in the UK. She will give us an introduction to the History of Garden Design in Florence, focusing on the influence of the Anglo American community here and their contribution to the Italian landscape.

Palazzo Tornabuoni Gardens Seminar May 12-14, 2010 With Jessica Knight Since the late 18th century, foreigners have been attracted by the art, architecture and gardens of Florence and Tuscany. May of these visitors, especially American and English, sojourned in the City as part of their Grand Tour of Europe. Others, made Florence their home, renting, buying and building Villas in the surrounding hill towns. Their renovations to existing Villas and their new constructions almost always included the restoration or creation of a garden. This Anglo-Saxon influence on Italian Garden Design, which introduces a softer less rigid design, has led to the creation of some of the most beautiful and famous gardens in the World. During this seminar we will visit some of the most important of these gardens where both the original Italian design and the subsequent contributions made by the English and American owners may be clearly seen. Day 1 - May 12 8:30am - 10.30am Breakfast and lecture at the Palazzo by Katie Campbell author of Paradise of exiles: The Anglo American Gardens of Florence. Katie Campbell is a journalist, fiction writer and Garden Historian who lectures at Birkbeck College and Bristol University in the UK. She will give us an introduction to the History of Garden Design in Florence, focusing on the influence of the Anglo American community here and their contribution to the Italian landscape. 11:00am Villa Capponi Villa Capponi is a private residence whose gardens have been developed and expanded in a wonderfully harmonious way through the ages from the first garden created in 1500 to the most recent addition constructed in 1928 by the English designer Cecil Pinsent. As each terrace, or garden room, was created, it was linked to the previous terrace in such a way as to create a feel of absolute continuity. All of these garden rooms have been carefully preserved and maintained in their original designs. 12:30pm Giardino degli Iris The Iris Garden near Piazzale Michelangelo is only open during the month of May when these flowers, symbol of the City of Florence are at their most splendid. The garden is owned by the Iris Growers Society who cultivate 1,500 species of irises in their magnificent garden overlooking the City. 6:30 - 8:30pm Giardino Bardini You are invited to an exhibition of Paintings and Drawings from the Angel Academy of Art in the beautiful limonaia. The exhibition is celebrating the centenary of Pietro Annigoni. Aperitivi and entertainment will follow on the Terrazza Bardini. Day 2 - May 13th 8:00am Coffee in Library of Palazzo Tornabuoni 8:30am Van departs Palazzo Tornabuoni for Villa Medici 9:00am - 10:30am Villa Medici at Fiesole Villa Medici, commissioned in 1450 by Giovanni de’ Medici and designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo was the first of the Medici Villas built on a new design rather than resulting from the restructuring of a pre-existing castle. The original design of the property included the layout for a terraced garden which still exists today. In 1772 the Villa was bought by the first of many English owners, most notably Lady Sibyl Cutting, who would later marry Geoffrey Scott, partner of Cecil Pinsent the English Landscape Architect. Pinsent worked for many in the English ex-patriot community, including Bernard Berenson and Charles Augustus Strong and created the third garden terrace at Villa Medici. The evolution of the gardens a Villa Medici from the original Renaissance design to the last works completed by Cecil Pinsent is still clearly visible today. 10:30am - 11:30am Villa Le Balze - This Villa along with it’s gardens, was commissioned in 1912 by the American philosopher Charles Strong. Cecil Pinsent created this original design along one of the steepest sites in the hills above Florence. The garden is composed of a series of ‘green rooms’ along terraces which draws the visitor in by providing glimpses through windows and doors into the next space. The visitors journey begins in the most traditional style garden enclosed on all sides by walls and into spaces which allow larger and larger glimpses of the surrounding landscape until it ends at the final garden which provides a breathtaking view of the valley below. 12:00pm -1:00pm Villa Gamberaia- Edith Wharton wrote of Gamberaia: ‘Probably the most perfect example of the art of producing a great effect on a small scale...’ The history of this garden dates back to the 16th century yet most of the garden as it is now laid out was designed by the Capponi family who bought the property in the 18th century. Many, modifications, including the famous water parterre were commissioned in the 1920’s by the then-owner Hungarian princess Ghyka whose head gardener, Martino, was the father of one of Italy’s leading landscape designers, Pietro Porcinai. The garden was destroyed during World War II as chronicled by Bernard Berenson in Sunset and Twilight: AFTERNOON FREE Explore the Artisan Fair held at Florence´s Palazzo Corsini Gardens. Artisans from all over Europe use their stands as open-air workshops, demonstrating their skills in pottery, glass cutting, furniture restoration and more. Guided tours of the garden are conducted in the afternoons and an open-air restaurant serves traditional Tuscan food, snacks and drinks. The Corsini Gardens in Florence is an outstanding example of Italian renaissance garden design.
 Within the walls of the Palazzo Corsini, rising from the centre of the city a short distance from the Porta al Prato, the Giardino Corsini offers a paradise of peace and quiet from the noise of the city outside. Laid out in a geometrical pattern with box parterres as a decorative compliment to the Palazzo, this exquisite garden was designed by Bernardo Buontalenti in 1572.
Boroque features were later added to the palace by the architect Pier Francesco Silvani in 1624. -- the paths lined with roman statues, 130 lemon trees - one for each of the 130 tortoises that inhabit the garden. 7pm Aperitivi reception for participants in Garden Seminar in the Library or on the Terrazzo of Palazzo Tornabuoni Club. Day 3 May 14 8:30am Depart Palazzo Tornabuoni 10:00 Villa Cetinale The origins of this garden date back to 1676 when Claudio Chigi of the wealthy Senese banking family commissioned the architect Carlo Fontana to build the Villa and its magnificent gardens. When Lord Anthony Lambton bought the Villa from the Chigi family in 1977 he devoted much money and energy to the expansion of the gardens which is still, today, in progress. Lord Lambton personally oversaw most of this work, creating a modern garden which fully respects both the classic Italian and modern English styles. The result is truly spectacular. 11:30 Castello di Celsa The Villa and part of the gardens were designed by the 16th century Sienese architect Baldassare Peruzzi. The design of the main garden overlooking the spectacular sienese countryside was originally laid out in 1500. The additions made to the garden during the Baroque period are the semicircular pool in the main garden and a large fishing on the edge of the holm oak wood. In more recent times, the parterres in the main garden and the cypress hedging leading to the fishing pool were added. The most recent additions to this gardens are the large conifers which reflect the English Landscape style of the 1800’s. 3:00 pm M.I.T.A.L. 3:00 Terrecotta manufacturers since 1900. M.I.T.A.L. is one of the few producers of terracotta pots to still produce their articles modeled by hand and fired in a wood burning oven on their site in Impruneta. 5:00pm Return to Palazzo Tornabuoni for an aperitivo.

with the Orchestra della Toscana, and the Orchestra Givanile Italiana and soprano Nicola Beller Carbone.

Explore the Artisan Fair held at Florence´s Palazzo Corsini Gardens. Artisans from all over Europe use their stands as open-air workshops, demonstrating their skills in pottery, glass cutting, furniture restoration and more. Guided tours of the garden are conducted in the afternoons and an open-air restaurant serves traditional Tuscan food, snacks and drinks. The Corsini Gardens in Florence is an outstanding example of Italian renaissance garden design.
 Within the walls of the Palazzo Corsini, rising from the centre of the city a short distance from the Porta al Prato, the Giardino Corsini offers a paradise of peace and quiet from the noise of the city outside. Laid out in a geometrical pattern with box parterres as a decorative compliment to the Palazzo, this exquisite garden was designed by Bernardo Buontalenti in 1572.
Boroque features were later added to the palace by the architect Pier Francesco Silvani in 1624. -- the paths lined with

Many Florentine Museums will be open Saturday night on the occasion of Notte dei Musei. Entrance is free. The following is a list of museum and hours of opening. Galleria degli Uffizi, dalle 7pm to 1am Galleria dell’Accademia, dalle 7pm to 1am Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Piazza SS. Annunziata 9/b, 7pm to 1am Museo Casa Rodolfo Siviero, Lungarno Serristori 1, dalle 9pm- 11pm Museo di S. Marco, dalle 7pm to 1pm Museo di Storia Naturale, dalle 8pm to 1am: • Sezione di Antropologia ed Etnologia, Via del Proconsolo 12 • Sezione di Geologia e Paleontologia, Via La Pira 4 • Sezione di Mineralogia e Litologia, Via La Pira 4 • Sezione di Zoologia “La Specola”, Via Romana 17 • Villa Il Gioiello, Pian dei Giullari 42 Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Via del Proconsolo 4, dalle 7pm to 1am Museo Stefano Bardini, Via de’ Renai 37, dalle 5pm to 10pm Palazzo Davanzati, Via Porta Rossa 13, dalle 7pm to 1am Palazzo Strozzi, 9pm to 11pm

GUILLAUME CÔTÉ and ZDENEK KONVALINA coreography GUILLAUME CÔTÉ music Guillaume Côté e Zdenek Konvalina étoiles MaggioDanza New creation, first performance

All members and guests are invited to the library for an aperitivo

GUILLAUME CÔTÉ and ZDENEK KONVALINA coreography GUILLAUME CÔTÉ music Guillaume Côté e Zdenek Konvalina étoiles MaggioDanza New creation, first performance

Once Britain boasted some of the grandest Christian shrines in Europe attracting visitors from all corners of the continent. But after the Reformation, the shrines were destroyed. While the sight of groups carrying crosses remained familiar in Italy, Spain and Ireland, in Britain such public acts of Christian witness were no longer seen. But now, as writer and broadcaster Peter Stanford chronicles in his new book, The Extra Mile: a Twenty First Century Pilgrimage, the British are rediscovering in troubled times the ancient habit of pilgrimage. He describes his year-long journey round eight holy places including Stonehenge, Lindisfarne, Walsingham, Iona, Glastonbury and Holywell. This talk is sponsored by HDI Insurance Group.

Resident Artist pianist, South African, Nico de Villiers will be accompanied by Caitlin Andrews for an informal recital in the Sala delle Muse on Thursday evening. The two will be rehearsing throughout the week in the Sala delle Muse, members are welcome to stop in at any time to listen and enjoy.

In collaboration with Fabbrica Europa BALLET NATIONAL DE MARSEILLE NEW CREATION FRÉDÉRIC FLAMAND coreography AI WEIWEI scenery New creation, first performance in Italy

GUILLAUME CÔTÉ and ZDENEK KONVALINA coreography GUILLAUME CÔTÉ music Guillaume Côté e Zdenek Konvalina étoiles MaggioDanza New creation, first performance

- Fantasie in F minor Op. 49 - Nocturne in D flat major Op. 27 No. 2 - Sonata n. 2 in B flat minor Op. 35 - Barcarole in F sharp major Op. 60 - 3 Walzer - Berceuse in D flat major Op. 57 - Polonaise in A flat major Op. 53 On the occasion of the 200th. Anniversary of the Birth of Chopin

The Gori family invite members to join them in the Basilica of Santa Croce for a cocktail reception. Speak to the Attache regarding a possible shuttle van

All members and guests are invited to the library for an aperitivo

For more information on specific events and locations speak with the Attache

ZUBIN MEHTA conductor DANIEL BARENBOIM piano ORCHESTRA DEL MAGGIO MUSICALE FIORENTINO Béla Bartók - The Miraculous Mandarin Fryderyk Chopin - Concerto No. 2 in F minor Op. 21 Fryderyk Chopin - Concerto No. 1 in E minor Op. 11

The young painter Joseph Severn accompanied his dying friend John Keats to Rome in 1820, and his letters tell us everything we know about the poet´s last days. In the 1820s and 30s Severn was at the heart of the lively British community in Rome. As British Consul there (1861-72), he entranced visitors with his fallible memories of Keats. For the Victorians he was a paragon: today he is controversial. Sue Brown´s biography, Joseph Severn, A Life, published in 2009, offers the first full assessment of his life, work and ebullient character.

MASSIMO LUCONI conception and director PAOLO FRESU trumpet Pap Faye e Fernando Maraghini actors Papi Thiam drums and voice Dialy Mady Cissoko kora, drums and voice Lamine M’Baye voice and drums Mirko Guerrini saxophone and flutes Mirio Cosottini piano and trumpet

Artists in Residence, Amanda McBroom and George Ball invite members to join them for 45 minutes of love songs and italian favorites in the Sala delle Muse.

MAURO CECCANTI conductor Kaija Saariaho, Jean Baptiste Barrière: Visual Concert

Activities throughout the city in piazzas and shops. Look for the large blue poster outside venues who are participating.

For more information contact the attache elucifero@palazzotornabuoni.com

LONG YU conductor SALEM ABBOUD ASHKAR piano Tan Dun – Internet Symphony Eroica Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy - Concert No.1 for piano and orchestra in in G minor Op. 25 Antonín Dvořák – Symphony No. 8 in G major Op. 88

All members and guests are invited to the library for an aperitivo

Composer Thierry Mader and filmmaker Amos Poe bring you an evening of music and Dante from their work-in-progress La Commedia di Amos Poe Contact attache for reservations

LUCCA has a large antiques market (centred around Piazza San Giusto and Piazza Antelminelli) on the third Sunday (and preceding Saturday) of every month. There is also a craft fair, again in and around Piazza San Giusto

Pecci (permanet collection; Athos Ongaro-Michael Lin) www.centropecci.it Gori Fondation www.goricoll.it 550 euro a person The price includes transportation with a luxury car, lunch, entrance to the Foundation and catalog. For the first time ever, art lovers can now come to Italy and see private and public collections of Contemporary Art. A country known for its extraordinary Renaissance art, it is natural that this world has been mostly overlooked by the tour businesses of Italy. But Italy is in fact a haven of some extraordinary collections of contemporary and modern art, beyond the Biennale of Venice, and so this autumn, Palazzo Tornabuoni is launching a series of Contemporary Art Tours with a knowledgeable Italian Art Curator and Gallerist, Caterina Biagiotti, who has also been following this world from the inside, for over a decade. The half, full day and two to three day tours will offer private behind the scenes visits to the Contemporary Art collections and studios of Italy. With Caterina Biagiotti at your side, putting the works and collections in context, you will meet or be toured by the museum directors or curators, visit private collections and have an opportunity to meet the movers and shakers of this world. With all meals, transportation and housing carefully organized, you will have a carefree opportunity to explore and become one of the few to know this hidden world. See the schedule below. For issues of privacy, the list does not include private collections. For more details contact the Attachè elucifero@palazzotornabuoni.com.

"Le Macchine di Leonardo", the world’s biggest private collection of Leonardo da Vinci´s machines was born following the juvenile passion of Carlo Niccolai. Particularly skilled craftsmen, the members of the Niccolai family have so far developed 150 different models, based on the Da Vinci codes and on historical documents using the materials of Leonardo’s time: wood, metal, ropes and fabrics. According to the unwritten rules of Florentine craftsmen, Carlo Niccolai has passed on his passion to his sons and grandsons, who, thanks to their knowledge of new technologies, have enriched the collection with new models and organised more than a hundred exhibitions all over the world in the last ten years. Professor Carlo Pedretti, Director of the Armand Hammer Centre for Leonardo Studies at the University of California in Los Angeles and of its European division at the University of Urbino, has praised the accuracy in reproducing the models. In the last few years the models have been refined with Professor Pedretti’s support and have rapidly gained international credit. Leonardo Da Vinci´s machines are displayed at the Galleria Michelangiolo, where the Macchiaioli used to meet, in one of the most famous streets in Florence city centre. More than 50 models are displayed in four rooms: the largest one is dedicated to civil machines, in the second room flying machines are shown, war machines are to be found in the third and in the fourth the recently developped collection of anatomical models can be admired. Most of the models are real working machines. A documentary on Leonardo Da Vinci’s life and works is displayed on large screen monitors. The gallery has an agreement with Caffé Michelangiolo, the restaurant inside the exhibition area. At the bookshop you will find many publications and gadgets. Tickets: Full price: 6 € Reduced price: 5 € (students with Carta Studente; people aged 6-18 years and 65 years or older with ID) Groups: 3 € (at least 15 people, leader excluded)

Every working day and last Sunday of the month 055 328 3550

From February 13th to June 26th, 2010 the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence will open the new exhibition “Díaita. Heath rules in the manuscripts of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana” an exposition concerning life style and diet as strategies to ensure physical and mental wellbeing. This is a theme that is fashionable today as it was in the past when in Italy during the age of princely courts and wealthy merchants, the interest of the elite in preserving their health inspired the Regimina sanitatis - the offspring of the classical tradition gradually enriched by contact with the Arab world – contained in the manuscripts on display. The concept of a ‘life regime’ in the classical world was expressed by the term díaita/diaeta (which had nothing to do with adjusting rations according to an individual’s physical and biometric conditions, as it does today). Its meaning was far broader, encompassing all the areas that were not determined automatically by nature and that humans thus could plan of their own accord such as one’s relationship with air and water, food and drink, motion and rest, sleep and wakefulness, dejecta and sexuality, love and passion. Amongst the manuscripts that can be viewed, all from the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, in Latin, Greek or Italian Vernacular and dating from the XII to the XVI centuries, some are particularly interesting: the Treatise on Cooking by Apicius that witnesses the specific importance of eating; the Tacuinum sanitatis by Ibn Butlan; the Regime del Corpo by Aldobrandino da Siena present in different Italian translations one realized in May 1310 by the Florentine notary Zucchero Bencivenni. Important among others is the Compendium of the nature and properties of food by Barnaba from Reggio in a parchment manuscript copied between the 13th and 14th century. “The exhibition is about a type of knowledge that has often survived in traditional medicine." Catalogue: Diaita. Health rules in the manuscripts of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, ed. by Donatella Lippi, presentation by Maria Prunai Falciani, Firenze, Mandragora, 2010. Entries by : E. Antonucci, A.R. Fantoni, I.G. Rao, S. Magrini

A sold out show -- May be extended -- for those thinking of taking a day trip to Rome: Celebrating the fourth centenary of Caravaggio´s death, Rome´s Scuderie del Quirinale invites art critics and the general public to look at Caravaggio´s work from an innovative point of view. Bacco (Uffizi), musici (Metropolitan Museum) and other great pieces are displayed. This concise, yet carefully structured, exhibition coupled with new research findings enables the viewer to rethink the painter´s artistic essence.

In display mostly DeChirico´s work belonging to the so-called metaphysical painting lasted up to around 1918

Palazzo Strozzi will host an exhibition to celebrate the masterpieces of the father of metaphysical painting, Giorgio de Chirico, and of its perception of life after reading some works by philosopher and writer Friedrich Nietzsche. Isolation, a sense of abandonment, alienation, anxiety and despair are just a few of the feelings that De Chirico is capable to convey, allowing them to powerfully emerge through his works. Others have confronted and identified with this artist´s vision of the world, such as Belgian painter René Magritte, a leading representative of surrealism, and French painter Balthus, who, although initially inspired by pre-renaissance art, infuses his works with frequent elements of De Chirico´s metaphysical perception. Other works will also be exhibited at Palazzo Strozzi, such as those by Marx Erns, Carlo Carrà and Giorgio Morandi, all artists who were inspired by De Chirico´s experience. The primary goal of this exhibition is exactly that: to find any common themes, similar subjects and insights between the works of different artists. De Chirico´s poetics, which is appropriately considered the expression of that state of mind that characterized an entire century acts as the common thread between all the works in the exhibition. For more information: 055 2645155

Paolo Canevari – Nobody Knows, curated by Germano Celant. The exhibition will be shown until August 1st, 2010. The show will follow the main steps in the artist’s career, and will include new works created for the occasion. Canevari’s work investigates the impermanence of art, the meaning of sculpture and how it relates to the contemporary social fabric. Since the early nineties, Canevari’s elective material has been rubber – taken from tires and tubes – developing a personal language aimed at rethinking the everyday and the most intimate aspects of memory: overlappings of symbols, icons, pop culture, historical representation and political awareness. His work is among the most relevant contemporary syntheses of the linguistic expressions elaborated since the Sixties, and its forms know no boundary, including videos, installations and performance. Canevari’s work, however, avoids monumentality, and steers clear of all rhetoric connected to concepts such as “tradition” and “classic”. The primary, simple materials constituting his work relate to the notion of representation, and act as “keys” to which every possible reading is viable. They nonetheless bear witness to the continuous metamorphoses of matter, whose instability goes hand in hand with openness to interpretation. Paolo Canevari’s huge solo show, curated by Germano Celant, is focused on his Globes series, forming a constellation in the Museum’s spaces and centered on the image of a massive black globe holding the silhouette of a human figure, referencing art’s original nature: a place for the investigation of reality, of the world’s fates. A romantic image projecting the spectator in an ever uncertain future, “nobody knows”, the ?»??/? ??6?6artist always struggling with interpretive doubt, “nobody knows”, the original moment of inspiration of every artistic gesture. These ambiguities are synthesized in the show’s title, Nobody Knows. The show will also include previously unreleased videos – one of which is US (2009); a new series of drawings on black marble, depicting animal symbols of power and aggression, always an important element of Canevari’s imagery; some recent installations as of yet unreleased, as Hanging Around, a huge gallows turned into a swing by a hanging tire. The exhibition path will feature references and hints to important past works, offering a counterpoint to the latest production and marking the oeuvre’s continuity over time: animated films produced for Blobcartoon RAI 3 in the early nineties, the first inner tube sculptures (Elmi, 1900), the Lupa Roma (1993), the Colossei from a decade later. Other works from the nineties will include installations such as Esodo (1998), a crowd of people cut in tube rubber, and Jesus (1999), an eighteenth-century wooden sculpture holding a tire. The show will also feature the Bouncing Skull video, premiered in 2007 at the 52nd Venice Biennale and included in the MoMA’s permanent collection, and Little Boy, a huge atom bomb covered in mirrors like a disco ball. The show will be documented by a monographic volume, published by Electa and edited by Germano Celant. Paolo Canevari (Roma, 1963) lives and works between Rome and New York A selection of his recent shows includes the 14th Rome Quadriennial, Palazzo delle Esposizioni Rome,1999; Colosso, Christian Stein Gallery, Milan 2002; The Liverpool Biennial, 2004; Welcome to Oz, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center New York, 2004; Paolo Canevari, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Contemporary Art Museum, Johannesburg, 2005; Black Stone, Christian Stein Gallery, Milano, 2005; Rubber Car, MART, Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, 2006; Whitney Biennial Peace Tower Project, Whitney Museum of American Art, New?»??/? ??6?6 York, 2006; A Couple of Things I Have to Tell You, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, 2006; Into me Out of Me, Kunst Werke institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2006. 52° Venice Biennale, 2007; Senso Unico, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Continenti, Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome 2007; Nothing from Nothing curated by Danilo Eccher, Museo d´Arte Contemporanea (Macro) di Roma, Rome 2007, Decalogo, Istituto per la Grafica Calcografia Nazionale, Rome, 2008, Raw – War, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) - New York, 2008. His work is included in private and public art collection, among which: Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci - Prato, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) - New York, Foundation Louis Vuitton pour la Creation - Paris, Cisneros, Fontanals Art Foundation - Miami, Museo d’arte Contemporanea (Macro) - Rome, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Trento e Rovereto (Mart), Istituto per la Grafica Calcografia Nazionale - Rome, Johannesburg Art Gallery Contemporary Art Museum – Johannesburg, Perna Foundation - Capri.

Gem collecting was one of the most fascinating aspects of the rediscovery of antiquity which characterised the Renaissance. As of the first half of the XV century, cameos and intaglios were much sought after by popes, princes and cardinals, on several occasions indeed giving rise to harsh disputes between admirers who were even ready to spend large sums to secure themselves the desired piece. The reasons for this success were manifold. First and foremost, the art of carving gems required the use of rare and very costly materials, as well as master artisans with extraordinary technical capabilities, considering that the slightest error, in point of fact irreversible, could vilify months or even years of hard work. Secondly, special magical and mysterious virtues were attributed to cameos and intaglios depending on the type of material utilised and on the subject of the depiction. Moreover, their small dimensions and ease of transport made them ideal gifts for illustrious personages, as well as an excellent form of investment, a capital to draw on in moments of great difficulty. All of these factors explain the special liking that as of the XV century the Medici developed for carvings on precious and semiprecious stones, which they actively collected, forming one of the most important collections in history, and the source of great prestige for the entire family, which through the centuries continued to increase with new acquisitions. Presenting a select number of pieces of exceptional quality from the most important Italian and foreign museums, the exhibition will illustrate the complex history of this treasure, starting from its formation by Cosimo, Piero and, especially, Lorenzo de’ Medici who reserved a special place to cameos and intaglios in his art collections, and also purchased many prestigious specimens such as the so-called Seal of Nero, a splendid cornelian depicting Apollo and Marsyas, which was celebrated and admired by a host of men of letters and artists. Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello and Sandro Botticelli are only three of the artists who found important creative suggestions in the diaphanous depictions of the Medici gems. This aspect will be documented by a great variety of works, illuminated codices, medals, drawings, paintings and sculptures, which show the great fortune enjoyed by the specimens that belonged to the Medici. In many cases, these are faithful translations of selected iconographic models, but there are also original specimens in which the elements drawn from the carved stones are enriched with totally new aspects, as we can find in several drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti who in the Medici gems not only found a heterogeneous repertory of forms but also an effective instrument for the recovery of the sense of balance and the measure of proportions characteristic of classical art. Opening hours: Daily: 8.15 – 16.30 (November February) 8.15 – 17.30 (March) 8.15 – 18.30 (April, May, September and October) 8.15 – 17.30 (in the month of October when Daylight Saving Time ends) 8.15 – 18.50 (June August) Entry is permitted up to half an hour before closing time. Closed on the 1st and the last Monday of each month, New Year´s Day, May 1st and Christmas Day. Tickets: Full Price: € 10,00 Reduced: € 5,00 Ticket valid also for the Museo degli Argenti, the Costume Gallery, the Porcelain museum and the Bardini Gardens. Booking: Firenze Musei, ph: 055 294883 Booking charge: € 3,00

One of the most extraordinary mineral exhibitions. A wonderful collection with over 500 beautiful minerals from all over the world.

Prince’s Passageway 4/14/2010 - 7/7/2010 Telephone bookings for the Prince’s Passageway are no longer available; from Monday 26 April it will be possible to book through the website>> The Prince’s Passageway will be open to the public from 14 April 2010 to 7 July 2010 The Passageway connects Palazzo Vecchio to Boboli Gardens and Palazzo Pitti through the Uffizi Gallery and the Vasari Corridor. The visits will be organized: 4 visits on Wednesdays at 9,30 a.m. at 11,30 a.m. alle 2,00 p.m. and at 4,00 p.m. 2 visits on Thursdays at 9,30 a.m. and at 11,30 a.m. 2 visits on Fridays at 2,00 p.m. and at 4,00 p.m. Leaving from Palazzo Vecchio. On midweek holidays, visits will be organized in the morning only. . The “Prince’s Passageway” can be visited only by booking in advance through Firenze Musei, the Polo Museale Fiorentino’s concessionary for supplementary services, with a booking charge of €4, tel. 055 294883. At the point of departure in the Palazzo Vecchio Courtyard auxiliary staff will validate the integrated ticket on behalf of the municipality. The ticket will be checked in the state museums in accordance with current procedure for computerized tickets. Full-price ticket €19 inclusive of: Reservation €2 Group reception €2.75 Ticket for Palazzo Vecchio €6 Ticket for Vasari Corridor €3.25 Ticket for Boboli Gardens €3 Italians and E.U. citizens aged between 18 and 25 are entitled to a 50% reduction €12.88;

On April 24th, 2010 the Palazzo Borghese in Florence will house the Vesna Pavan exhibition. Vesna Pavan can be considered an eclectic and complete artist from all points of view, since she asserts her attention to the Life Style contemporary tendencies, without excluding, however, the influence of historic and artistic tradition. These influences, seem to converge on a crucial point of the present day transformation underlying, however, the concept of the art evolution across the ages. The goals achieved by the author, show an inexorable course of the pictorial experimentation, which continues its evolution through a process of the artistic maturation rooted in the execution of the creative expression, as the starting point for the future branching of the complex artistic language. The profound artistic research of Vesna Pavan, can be seen in the author´s attentive look on Europe, rich of the twentieth-century values, up to the eastern graphic works typical of Japan, so elegant in the sign interpretation and on the American Pop inflections. All these influences build up a new, a most personal theory of colour. Pavanian chromatism is founded on the predominant use of complementary colours and on the concept of the tonal contrast. Since the old ages, the colours have had a fundamental function in the art and the every day life. Being often the bearers of the important messages, also in the works of art the colour has the essential role, taking part in the completion of the visual and gesture communication and making easier to the observer the reading of imago. It is for these reasons that in all historical periods and particularly after the success of the impressionism, the colour becomes the indisputable protagonist in the comprehension of the artistic research. Decisive turn, in this sense, was given by the "Theory of simultaneous contrasts" introduced by Michel Eugène Chevreul (Angers, August 31st 1786 - Paris, April, 9h 1889), a famous chemist of the nineteenth century who carried out various studies of colours in the chemical area and their usage in art and science. The artistic culture still owes a lot to the French scholar, who asserted the inexistence of the pure colour, because each colour is influenced by the neighbouring one. He distinguished two chromatic typologies: the primary colours (red, yellow and blue) and the secondary colours (violet, green and orange). The colours used by Vesna Pavan appear saturated and are never softened. In the "Fusion" cycle, there is the optical effect of the simultaneous contrast, of which Chevreul was the first theorist, and the contrasting colours standing near one another become more intense, resulting pure. Thus, the eye registers the virginity of colours, the nobleness of movement and the ancestral sensuality of Pavan´s figures. In the Vesna Pavan´s art the use of colours has even the therapeutic function, as the antidote for the evils of the human existence, an anti-depressing form of art which gives us a great energy charge.

One of Europe´s oldest and most prestigious music festivals, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual celebration of concerts, opera and dance, taking place from April 29 until July 2. Performances take place at the Teatro Comunale, and elsewhere in the city, attracting stellar musicians from across the globe. This year, principal conductor Zubin Mehta is joined by names including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Lang Lang and Bruno Bartoletti. The calendar features Wagner´s Gotterdammerung, Verdi´s Machbeth, works by Handel to mark the composer´s 250th anniversary and a ballet staged in Piazza della Signoria at the city´s heart.

From April 30th to October 3rd, 2010, at the Porcelain Museum in the Pitti Palace in Florence, Paola Staccioli´s Living Ceramics exhibition will take place. The ceramics of Paola Staccioli are one-off pieces in terms of shape and decoration. The articles displayed in the show combine reduced dimensions with a potent magnetic presence and a throbbing physicality that emerges from who knows what psychic recesses. We find ourselves drawn into an intriguing, poetic world recounted through pure and enchanted eyes. The teapots serve for everything – to make us dream, or recall a fairytale, a trip or a person – except for tea: abandoning completely the functional aspect that their name indicates, they become the recipients of a pure aesthetic pleasure. The special atmosphere that hovers around the creations of Paola Staccioli is further accentuated by the unexpected details that create a sort of magic realism. The artist was born in Florence in 1972 and after studies in the humanities graduated in 1999 with a thesis on a theatrical text by Dickens. The decision to devote herself to pottery came later, as the natural conclusion of a process that, over the years, brought her close to the applied arts (batik, glass) in quest of interesting substrata to her decorative vision.

and the 1st Maggio Musicale Florentino Sketches, fashion plates and drawings for I Puritani by Vincenzo Bellini