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Open daily from 9-8pm till January 22, 2012.


clearly on a higher plane, and justly ruled the town. Penitence or patronage it was all great propaganda. If modern day bells of recognition are now


ringing – a visit to this splendid and incredibly timely exhibition will have them clanging. At the entrance you are confronted by a gigantic Incoronazione della Vergine commissioned by the Mint (la Zecca), no less. Then follow various themed sections. Image


of Florence in the World with the very first florin coined in 1252. Usury: beady eyed, tight mouthed money lenders record obsessively in their ledgers chastised by saints. Bankers and Artists relates how works moved away from the sacred to secular, nativity paintings have become an excuse to cram in likenesses of the great and good of Florence. The paintings of fashionably dressed Madonnas


and courtiers tell the story themselves, as do the ugly usurers and their cronies, but it would be a pity to miss the pictures’ lables. Each work is commented in a separate and sometimes differently angled way by the two curators Ludovica Sebregonda , Art Historian and Tim Parks the well known English author whose book Medici


UPFRONT


Money makes the world go round. Thought Giovanni Rucellai standing on the


Lungarno in 1492 watching the inauguration of his luxurious palazzo.


Marinus van Reymerswaele (Reymerswaele c.1490 – Middelburg, documented up to 1567), The Money-changer and his Wife, 1540; oil on panel; 84 x 114 cm. Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Carrand Legacy, inv. 2058 C.


Money inspired the exhibition. Mr. Parks’ ironic comments are particularly good in the section dedicated to trading and money -making where ancients ledgers, commodities like English wool or alum (the mineral used to dye cloth) and plenty merchants’ paraphernalia are laid out. Crisis is the last section: the reforming


monk Savanarola rails against the secular sinfulness of the town. He burns their books and paintings, they burn him at the stake . But by now money has run out, the Medici bank is liquidated. Only the Botticellis remain.


Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro Filipepi; Florence 1445–1510), The Calumny of Apelles, c.1497 (?) tempera on panel; 62 x 91 cm. Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, 1890 inv. no. 1496.


The exhibition includes books and activities for children including an ingenious touch screen game “Follow your Florins” where you can put yourself in the shoes of a Renaissance merchant and test your investment skills! Open daily from 9-8pm till January 22, 2012.


THE TUSCAN MAGAZINE | 9


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