Galleria d’Arte Moderna – Palazzo Pitti
From the 17th of May to the 11th of September 2011
The exhibition is part of the initiatives to celebrate the 150 years of the Unification of Italy, focusing on a specific topic,which is florentine and international at the same time: the new opportunities that, after 1861, the artistic workshops of Florence had. They flourished under the shadow of the court of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany for nearly three centuries and were famous throughout Europe for its inimitable works made of semi-precious stones.
With the Unification of Italy, the ancient laboratories or “Galleria dei Lavori”, founded under the Medici, changed their status which, up until then was at sole service of the court in order to open new markets and, thus new commercial possibilites. The florentine workshops started to offer their works to a private clientele amongst which we find members of the principal Royal houses of Europe such as the Czars of Russia and Ludwig II of Bavaria.
Exhibition website: From the splendors of the court to bourgeois luxury (website available only in Italian)