'Power and pathos. Bronze sculpture from the Hellenistic World' at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
From 14 March to 21 June 2015, Palazzo Strozzi in Florence will be the first venue to host the major exhibition entitled Power and Pathos. Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World devised and produced in conjunction with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archaeologici della Toscana, Tuscany's directorate general for archaeology. After Florence, the exhibition will be moving to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles from 28 July to 1 November 2015 and then to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC from 6 December 2015 to 13 March 2016.
Male Portrait Head c. 100 BCE, bronze [Credit: National Archaeological Museum, Athens]This important joint venture confirms Palazzo Strozzi's international reputation for excellence. The exhibition will be showcasing – for the first time in Florence – some of the greatest masterpieces of the ancient world from such leading Italian and international archaeological museums as the Museo Archaeologico Nazionale in Florence, the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, the Musée du Bardo in Tunis, the Museo Archaeologico Nazionale in Naples, the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion (Crete), the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Archaeologicial Museum of Thessaloniki, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Vatican Museums and the Musei Capitolini in Rome.
Alexander the Great on Horseback first century BCE [Credit: Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples]Power and Pathos uses 50 absolute masterpieces in bronze to tell the story of the spectacular artistic developments of the Hellenistic era (4th to 1st centuries BC), when new forms of expression began to prevail throughout the Mediterranean basin and beyond, riding on the back of an extraordinary leap forward in the development of techniques to form the first instance of globalisation of the language of art in the known world. In a cosmpolitan climate, art was, in effect, going international.
Athena (Minerva of Arezzo) 300–270 BCE [Credit: Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Florence]Curated by Jens Daehner and Kenneth Lapatin from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the exhibition will offer a comprehensive overview of the Hellenistic world and its historical, geographical and political environment.Monumental statues of gods, athletes and heroes will be displayed alongside portraits of historical figures and sculptures in marble and stone, in a journey allowing visitors to explore the fascinating stories of these masterpieces' discovery, primarily at sea (in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea) but also in the course of archaeological digs, thus setting the finds in their ancient context. That context could be a sanctuary where they were used for votive purposes, a public space where they celebrated personalities or events, a home where they fulfilled a decorative function, or a cemetery where they performed the function of funerary symbols.
Athlete Holding a Strigil(Apoxyomenos from Ephesos) 1–50 CE [Credit: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna]The exhibition is promoted and organised by the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archaeologici della Toscana, with the participation of the Comune di Firenze, the Provincia di Firenze, the Camera di Commercio di Firenze, the Associazione Partners Palazzo Strozzi and the Regione Toscana, with a contribution from the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.
