Lorenzo Bartolini, the Sculptor of Natural Beauty presents works of this artist from Prato, who studied and was active in Paris before returning to Italy, to work first in Carrara, and later at the Accademia in Florence. In this city he left important works, such as his funeral monument of Sofia Zamojska in Santa Croce, his Charity as Educator at the Galleria Palatina and a marble composition dedicated to Nicola Demidoff, that can still be seen in the square on the Lungarno named after the Demidoff family.

Though he wasn’t much appreciated by the artists of his time for his stylistic choices, that led him to move from a neoclassical approach to the realistic imitation of nature, during the first half of the XIX century he was nonetheless much sought after as a portrait artist in Florence, a city which was an obligatory stop on the Grand Tour. Bartolini, whose artistic talent was valued by Europe’s most outstanding personalities in the fields of music, literature and politics, portrayed Madame de Staël, Byron, Liszt, Rossini, Lord and Lady Burgheresh, the Marquis of Londerry.

Bartolini’s stylistic evolution is illustrated by approximately seventy works from various museums, creating a continuous and original contrast with the models present in the Gipsoteca.

For the first time since the XIX century, Florence will be presenting numerous important sculptures, such as a bronze of Napoleon I from the Louvre in Paris, Elisa Bonaparte with a Dog from the Musée des Beaux Arts in Rennes, The Grape-treader and Maria Naryškina Gourieva from the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Anne Lullin de Chateauvieux Eynard loaned by the Eynard Palace in Geneva and the poignant Trust in God from the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan.

Lorenzo Bartolini, the Sculptor of Natural Beauty

31st May –8th January, 2012

Galleria dell’Accademia, Firenze
Admittance: € 11.00. Opening hours: from 8.15 am to 6.50 pm. Closed on Mondays.
www.unannoadarte.it