The “Diffused” Uffizi
The “Diffused” Uffizi is a project sought by the director of the Uffizi gallery, Eike Schmidt, with the aim of delocalising the museum and bringing several of its artworks outside the Tuscan capital city. A revolutionary operation, for both tourists and locals, intended to celebrate the cultural and landscape heritage of Tuscany.
The project, set to last five years, was implemented for the first time in 2021 with five exhibitions forming part of the celebrations for the 700-year anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, and at the same time, deepen the link between the territory and the museum’s collections.
The Diffused Uffizi are thus the first step towards greater knowledge of our artistic wealth, regenerating the region’s lesser-known cities and concentrating on local art and history, thus attracting a large and varied audience. This renewed approach to enjoying the Gallery’s collections will therefore allow the Uffizi to work in synergy with other museums located throughout the region, encouraging more sustainable tourism capable of bringing the art closer to peripheral cities.
For visitors, several somewhat unusual itineraries have been prepared, made easier to follow thanks to captivating and simplified graphics, designed especially for the project.
The protagonists of the second edition in 2022, consisting in 8 exhibitions, are not only Anghiari, Montespertoli, and Poppi, which were already involved in the first edition, but also Reggello, Arezzo, San Giovanni Valdarno, San Casciano, and San Piero a Sieve.
The exhibitions include: ‘A comparison of Masaccio and Masters of the Renaissance to celebrate 600 years of the San Giovenale Triptych’, on display from 23rd April to 23rd October at the Museo Masaccio d’Arte Sacra di Cascia (Reggello). This first new exhibition is dedicated to Masaccio on the occasion of the sixth centenary since the making of the San Giovenale Triptych, and traces the artist’s links with the painting of his time.
Also dedicated to Masaccio is the exhibition ‘Masaccio and Angelico. Dialogue on truth in painting’, which will open from 17th September through to 15th January 2023 at San Giovanni Valdarno in the Museo delle Terre Nuove and in the Museo della Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie: it will be dedicated to the innovative contributions of these two great Renaissance painters to the history of art, with a selection of paintings linked to the iconography of the Madonna and Child.
In Anghiari, ‘The Warrior Pope. Giuliano della Rovere and men-at-arms of Anghiari’ is the exhibition that will open from 21st May to 25th September at the Museo della Battaglia di Anghiari. The event follows the scientific project of the first edition of Terre degli Uffizi ‘The civilisation of arms and Courts of the Renaissance’, which investigated the presence of a powerful social class in the village of Arezzo, which profited from the crafting of weapons.
At the Museo d’Arte Sacra di Montespertoli, ‘The altar-step of the Uffizi saved at the castle of Montegufoni’, from 14th May to 8th January 2023 will display a 15th-century altar-step that had been kept in the castle of Montegufoni, together with other works such as Botticelli’s Primavera, during the Second World War.
Casa Museo Ivan Bruschi in Arezzo will host the exhibition ‘Pietro Benvenuti in the age of Canova. Paintings and drawings from public and private collections’ from 17th June to 23rd October, on occasion of the second anniversary of the death of Antonio Canova. Rather the exhibition at the Castello dei Conti Guidi, or the Poppi Castle, from 8th July to 1st November, will be dedicated to the mystery of life and birth, ‘In the sign of life. Women and Madonnas in the time of waiting’, which revolves around a painting by Sante Pacini preserved in the monastery of Vallombrosa, but originating from Santa Trinita in Florence.
Dedicated to the seventeenth-century painter Jacopo Vignali on the other hand is the exhibition at the Museo Giuliano Ghelli di San Casciano, ‘Jacopo Vignali in San Casciano. Paintings from the Uffizi Galleries in memory of Carlo del Bravo’, from 2nd October to 8th January 2023. The choice is also owing to the interest in this author expressed by Carlo del Bravo, full professor of Modern Art History at the Università di Firenze, originally from San Casciano.
Lastly, from 1st June to 6th November, ‘A Renaissance masterpiece from France in Bosco ai Frati: Nicholas Froment’s triptych. Terre degli Uffizi in Mugello’ will see the temporary relocation to the Convent of San Bonaventura in Bosca ai Frati, in San Piero a Sieve, of the work housed for centuries in the convent’s church before being moved to the flourishing Galleries.
In all corners of Tuscany, art returns to fill the streets, proudly celebrating the history of this beautiful region.
