La mostra

"This exhibition starts from a single painting to tell the story of women's lives in Renaissance Florence and the objects of their daily existence, from textiles to glassware, and from ceramics to furniture. A central role is thus entrusted to the great tradition of craftsmanship, which at the time was part of the same universe as painting and sculpture. VIVE continues to promote these arts, anticipating the permanent layout of Palazzo Venezia dedicated to the so-called “Fatto in Italia”, from the Middle Ages to the dawn of modern Made in Italy, and launching a collaborative network with specialized museums from Prato to Montelupo, and from Gambassi to Vicenza."

Edith Gabrielli, Director of VIVE and exhibition curator

Across its eleven sections, the exhibition follows three interconnected and interdependent lines.

→ Piero di Cosimo’s La Maddalena
The work is examined from an iconographic and stylistic perspective, placed within the artist's career and interpreted through its cultural coordinates.

→ Florentine women of the Renaissance
From birth and education to religious life; from marriage and motherhood to household management; from devotion to occupations both inside and outside the home, including personal care.

→ Decorative arts in the Italian Renaissance
The extraordinary aesthetic and technical quality of the so-called decorative arts in Renaissance Italy, where a fabric, a pitcher, or a jewel was an integral part of the same cultural and productive universe as a painting or a sculpture.

The narrative is told through over sixty documents and objects produced in Florence or imported from major centers across the peninsula. These are featured thanks to a newly signed agreement with the General Directorate of Archives and contributions from some of Italy’s most prestigious museums, archives, and libraries.

Letters, poems, and account books written by famous women like Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Lorenzo the Magnificent’s mother,  or nearly unknown figures like Sister Paraclita engage in dialogue with manuscripts illuminated by Gherardo di Giovanni or Attavante degli Attavanti. They are joined by precious textiles, pottery, glasses and goblets, knives, rings, wedding chests (cassoni), terracotta altars, jewelry, and caskets. These objects do not merely illustrate life, they restore it.

A rich digital educational apparatus accompanies the visitor: twenty-two video installations created for the event and a multimedia room that allows visitors to see firsthand how the exhibited objects were made - such as ceramics, glass, textiles, jewelry, and, of course, painted panels - highlighting the labor, technique and expertise involved.

Palazzo Venezia, which houses one of Italy's primary collections of decorative arts, is the ideal venue for this initiative. The exhibition represents a step toward the new permanent display on the main floor (piano nobile), curated by Edith Gabrielli and Michele De Lucchi, dedicated to the great artistic and artisanal tradition of the peninsula.

In a broader context, the exhibition is part of a strategy to promote decorative arts spearheaded by VIVE through a network including the Textile Museum of Prato, the Ceramics Museum of Montelupo, the permanent exhibition "Glass Production in Gambassi (13th-16th centuries)," and the Jewelry Museum of Vicenza.

Entering this exhibition means drawing closer to the lives of Renaissance women and their objects. An experience that brings tangibility back to what history has made distant, making it visible once more.