Opening on March 20, the exhibition at Palazzo Medici Riccardi is dedicated to one of the most important and immortal figures of classical myth, Orpheus. It will feature approximately 60 artworks including paintings, sculptures, drawings, manuscripts, installations, and films spanning from antiquity to the present day.
Highlights include the splendid Neo-Attic marble relief featuring Orpheus, Eurydice, and Hermes from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, as well as works by renowned artists such as Titian, Parmigianino, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Moreau, Feuerbach, De Chirico, and many others.
The exhibition by Sergio Risaliti and Valentina Zucchi is sponsored by the Metropolitan City of Florence and organized by MUS.E. It will be open for visits until September 8, 2024.
On show is the myth of Orpheus through the various episodes represented in the figurative arts: from the beautiful painting by Gerrit van Honthorst, the exhibition's icon, to the adventures with the Argonauts, the power of his song, capable of bewitching animals, to the death of Eurydice, illustrated by superb paintings by Tiziano, Delacroix and Moreau, and the subsequent descent to the underworld and the return to earth, masterfully depicted by Anselm Feuerbach, and the second loss of the beloved, her last song and the bestial fury of the Bacchae, represented in Odilon Redon's decapitated head of Orpheus.
In addition to the figurative works on display are precious manuscripts from the Biblioteca Riccardiana and Biblioteca Laurenziana, and works in music inspired by the Orpheus myth. A special section of the exhibition is dedicated to stage sets, figurines and masks by artists who collaborated with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, exemplified in the exhibition by Giorgio De Chirico's superb creations.
