Icons of Power and Beauty

From 11 December 2025 to 9 April 2026, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze will host the exhibition Icons of Power and Beauty.

Curated by Daniele Federico Maras and Barbara Arbeid, the exhibition brings together twenty precious artefacts from the Medici collections around four life-size gilded bronze heads: three imperial portraits from the Santa Giulia Museum in Brescia and a Venus from the ancient grand ducal collections, which has just been restored.

Coins, gems, rings and necklaces complete the exhibition, recounting the evolution of the image of power in imperial Rome.

Visitors will be able to admire medallions and coins (aurei, sestertii, denarii, asses) that conveyed the imperial portrait as a symbol and guarantee of the continuity of power, as well as gems, rings and gold necklaces, intended for “private” use but no less rich in symbolic meaning, and a splendid life-size eagle's head, symbolising the majesty of Jupiter.

The exhibition is part of the Bronze Idols project, made possible thanks to a virtuous collaboration between the  Fondazione Brescia Musei and  Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze.

The admission ticket to the exhibition is included in the museum admission fee.