Uffizi Gallery Exhibition

CIML (Beijing)  managed the 82 painting exhibition from the Uffizi Gallery, which toured five cities in China:  Shanghai, Shenyang, Wuhan, Chengdu and Beijing.  The collection included paintings by famous artists such as Botticelli, Titian, and others.  It was an exhibition that brought west and east together and formed many friendships.  Here are some of the endorsements from dignitaries and several samples of the quality of the exhibition.
 
“…the visitor will encounter vision of different timbres: from the countryside that recedes vibrant behind the opulent Venus painted by Titian reclining on her couch, to desert lands where pinnacles of stone soar to form monumental wings to the story of the Magi, invented by Botticelli (rocky spurs reaching towards heaven with the peremptory slant of powerful stalagmites.”
                                                                                                                               Antonio Natali, Director
 
“The Uffizi Museum brought such artistic achievements and humanistic spirit to Beijing, an ancient cultural capital, so that we can truly feel human beings treating nature, city, life and human beings in front of these art treasures.  Beauty and these art treasures.”  
                                                                                                                              (translated)
…the first time to hold a large-scale roving exhibition in China.  Fortunately, the Hunan Provincial Museum will hold the exhibition as the fourth exhibition place in China in November 2010, and officially celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Italy on November 6.”                                                                 (translated)
 
“Integrating resources, strengthening inter-library exhibition cooperation across the world, and promoting cultural exchanges between different ethnic groups and regions is our concept.  The introduction of the Uffizi Museum Collection from Italy is something new for us.”  
                                                                                                                             (translated)
 
“This exhibition features 82 paintings from the Uffizi Museum and includes the early Florentine masters of the Renaissance, Boticelli, the Renaissance Venetian painting masters Tintoretto and Titian as well a many important works by Italian painters from the middle of the 16th to 20th century.  I believe that the audience will be able to experience the beauty of Western traditional painting through this exhibition.”                                                                                                                                               (translated)
 
“The long journey of these paintings is like a Florentine and Italian diplomatic mission moving through this vast country as a pledge for a future of cultural – and also, more importantly, human exchange, ever more intense and fruitful.”           
                                                                                                                            Cristina Acidini, Soperintenente per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico 
                                                                                                                            ed Etmoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della citta di Firenze
 
“I have always had a staunch conviction of the importance of collaboration between people and exchange between cultures.  …  Consequently, it is with a profound and conscious commitment that we wish to offer our Chinese friends a significant overview of works originating from the collections of one of the most prestigious museums in Italy, the Uffizi Gallery, so that the Chinese people of various regions may have the chance to approach our artistic heritage and come to know and appreciate some of its manifold expressions.”
                                                                                                                           Mario Resca, Direttore Generale per la Valorizzazione del                                                                                                                                                                  Patrimonio Culturale  MiBAC, Rome

Venus with Cupid, Dog and Partridge

Tiziano Vecellio, Better Known as Titian (Pieve di Cadore, probably between 1488 and 1490 - Venice 1576)
Oil on canvas
 
"The painting portrays a florid, naked Venus adorned with precious jewels and pears, reclining on her side with Cupid behind her embracing and caressing her; also present are a dog, symbol of loyalty, and a partridge, which could allude to both lust and fertility. ... The composition is part of a series of numerous works in which the Venetian artist addressed the subject of the reclining goddess, including the famous Venus of Urbino dated 1538, also in the Uffizi Gallery."  M.O. (From the Collections of the Uffizi Gallery) 
Uffizi Gallery Exhibition-01

The Adoration of the Magi

Sandro Filipepi, Called Botticelli (Florence 1445-1510) and 18th Century Painter 
Tempera on panel, partially colored in the 18th century
 
"Along the road coming from these regions advances a great multitude of men in the most varied of attitudes, hastening to adore Jesus, following the entourage of the Magi.  The three wise men, who according to the sacred texts, came to adore him, are in fact shown kneeling in the foreground before the infant, at once human and divine, who was to save the world.  The painting was executed by Botticelli in the last years of his life, but for reasons unknown was never completed.  This is why, possibly in the eighteenth century, an attempt was made to complete it, adding the color while following the design of the great fifteenth-century master.  However, since this operation too was left unfinished, we can still recognize the minute and expressive touch characteristic of Botticelli's last works."  S.G. (From the Collections of the Uffizi Gallery)  
Uffizi Gallery Exhibition-02

Portrait of a Woman Dressed as a Pilgrim

Alexis Grimou (Argenteuil 1678 - Paris 1733)
Oil on canvas
 
The painting, which shows a young woman dressed as a pilgrim, is signed and dated at lower right.  Together with its pendant piece, which shows a young female pilgrim, it is part of a series of French paintings that were purchased in Paris in 1793 by order of the Grand Duke Ferdinando III of Tuscany.  ... Grimou had a reputation as the French Rembrandt and was in the habit of portraying young men and women dressed as pilgrims, scholars, workers, actresses and musicians.  He portrayed these figures in a highly original manner, mostly half-bust, in the manner of the tradition of Dutch painting.  They were frequently characterized by joyful expressions, conveyed through a technique of rich glazing that contrasts with the denser pictorial paste of the clothing and backgrounds, where ochre, brown, red and antique rose are often enlivened by touches of peacock blue and saffron yellow. M.O.  (From the Collections of the Uffizi Gallery)
Uffizi Gallery Exhibition-03

Portrait of Maria de' Medici, Queen of France (Florence 1573 - Cologne 1642)

Giovanni Lionardo Henner (Active in Florence Between 1617-16410
Oil on canvas
 
"This painting is considered to be an original copy of one of the two portraits of Maria de' Medii by Frans Pourbus the Younger conserved in Florence, one in the Uffizi Gallery and the other in the Palazzo Pitti.  Both of these had pendant pieces, portraying Henry IV, the French consort of the Florentine queen. ...In 1600, she married Henry IV of Bourbon, King of France, by proxy in Florence; she was crowned queen in 1610, just before the attach in which her husband was tragically assassinated.  The queen is portrayed here in a precious gown of blue silk velvet, studded with golden lilies (the emblem of Florence) embroidered in relief, and she is embellished with over three hundred large pearls and numerous table-cut diamonds which were part of her extraordinary jewellery collection."  M.O.  (From the Collections of the Uffizi Gallery)
Uffizi Gallery Exhibition-04

Portrait of a Man

Florentine Painter Between 15th and 16th Centuries
Oil on panel
 
"The portrait shows a young man with long, copper hair and a large, black beret which sets off the white skin of his face.  The cold and wry gaze stares at the spectator, suggesting the proud and courageous countenance of the subject; the face is preoccupied and tense. In the past, this painting was attributed to Albrecht Durer, illustrious German master who influenced many Italian artists of the period. ... The artist, who uses the burnt tones typical of Flemish art, could however be a Florentine artist, deeply influenced by the northern manner.  It had been hypothesized, for example, that the painter was, Filippino Lippi, the sublime master who died in Florence in 1504.  The painting was part of the Feroni Collection and entered the Gallery in 1865."  M.O.   (From the Collections of the Uffizi Gallery) 
Uffizi Gallery Exhibition-05

Vase of Flowers

Andrea Scacciati (Florence 1644 - 1710)
Oil on canvas
 
"A very beautiful painting illustrating one of Scacciti's favourite types of pictorial composition, this vase of flowers offers itself to the observer like a colourful celebration of a rich and heterogeneous group of species.  The bunch of flowers is gathered in a decorated vase set upon a smooth and simple surface that contrasts with the opulence and colours of the flowers that completely invade the scene of the painting.  The gaze is captivated by a jubilation of tulips, roses and carnations that are no longer buds, but are already fully open, and fast approaching the fate common to all cut flowers.  It is a sort of sumptuous vanitas that reminds us of the ephemeral nature of beauty and the transience of earthly life.  Furthermore, the painting also reveals an element of naturalistic intention that surprises the observer in the illusion of the yellow tulip at the lower left which protrudes beyond the surface of the table almost as if it is falling out of the base.  The painting entered the Uffizi in 1865 along with the Feroni Collection."  V.Ci.   (From the Collections of the Uffizi Gallery)
Uffizi Gallery Exhibition-06