Prato Workshop - From Donatello to Lippi
Until January 14 at Palazzo Pretorio in Prato the exhibition "From Donatello to Lippi" gather together works that represent an essential part of the art of the Renaissance from all over the world.
Until January 14 at Palazzo Pretorio in Prato the exhibition "From Donatello to Lippi" gather together works that represent an essential part of the art of the Renaissance from all over the world.
Prato is a very important but unrecognized artistic centre.
Located only 20 minutes by train away from Florence , its artistic prestige was no doubt obscured by the fame of the nearby ‘‘Cradle of the Renaissance’’.
The prestigious Palazzo Pretorio, one of the most beautiful old town halls in central Italy, has been closed for more than 16 years because of restoration work.
With the Officina Pratese (Prato workshop) exhibition, its doors will once again been opened.
The monumental symbol of the city, it has towered over the historical Piazza del Comune since 1284. From 2014 it will house the new Museum in a flexible and innovative space, enhancing the beauty of its public rooms and its frescoes, as well as the masterpieces from the city’s art collections.
Some of the most singular and fascinating works of the early Renaissance period were produced in the workshop of the old Prefecture – later Cathedral – of Saint Stephen, which had some of the major artists of the period as its protagonists.
Since the end of the fourteenth Century the city became an extraordinary laboratory of new ideas and the Cathedral was its gravitational centre, with its spectacular pulpit by Donatello, Paolo Uccello’s frescoes and many treasures of art in great part related to the cult of the Sacred Belt, the Marian relic preserved in the Church from the twelfth century.
The reopening of Palazzo Pretorio, after so many years, provided an occasion to gather works that represent an essential part of the art of the Renaissance from all over the world complementing the masterpieces present in the city, above all the frescoes by Fra Filippo Lippi in the main Chapel of the Cathedral, in which the great artist unlashed his bright imagination.
The exhibition is a tribute to this great and restless painter, who will be represented by many of his major works. It also provides an opportunity to get to know the school that developed around him during his long stay in Prato: the anonymous Master of the Castello Nativity, Fra’ Diamante and mostly his son Filippino, who soon became Botticelli’s most excellent pupil.
The first part of the exhibition, on the other hand, is dedicated to the youth of Donatello and Paolo Uccello, and represents the first attempt to systematically reconstruct the early career of the latter, an intriguing and eccentric genius. Divided into seven sections, the exhibition features more than sixty works from museums around the world, here compared for the first time with the masterpieces preserved in the city.
Among the others, the Kunsthalle of Karlsruhe, the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford and the Alana Collection of Newark gave their contribution to this exceptional reunion.
It will be possible to see and compare almost all his works dating from that time: an exhibition within the exhibition in the hidden gem of art the City of Prato is. • Prato Workshop - From Donatello to Lippi • Prato – Museo di Palazzo Pretorio • September 13th 2013 – January 14th 2014
