Beato Angelico, masterpieces in transit on the occasion of the Forlì exhibition “Dante: The vision of art”
The exchange planned between the San Marco Museum in Florence and the Pinacoteca of the Forlì Civic Museums
Two masterpieces by Beato Angelico are the protagonists of the collaboration agreement between the Regional Directorate of Tuscan Museums, the San Marco Museum in Florence, the Cassa dei Risparmi Foundation of Forlì, and the Culture, Tourism and Legality Service of the Municipality of Forlì on the occasion of the “Dante: The vision of art” exhibition scheduled at the San Domenico Civic Museum in Forlì (opening dates are not yet known). Thanks to this exchange, the diptych with the Nativity and Oration in the Garden will be temporarily exhibited in Florence, in the setting that represents almost a sanctuary for the art of the great Dominican artist.
The Final Judgment by Beato Angelico (Vicchio del Mugello, c. 1395 – Rome, 1455), made for the church of the Camaldolese Florentine convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence, will be on loan to Forlì, preserved from the time of the suppressions at the San Marco Museum in Florence. The diptych with the Nativity and the Oration in the Garden was donated to the city of Forlì in the first half of the nineteenth century by the abbot Melchiorre Missirini (Forlì, 1773 – Florence, 1849), a great scholar with many interests.
The collaboration between the two museums
This is an interesting collaboration for both museums, although it’s not new for the San Marco Museum: at the end of September 2019, the Annunciation by Robert Campin arrived in San Marco from the Prado Museum on the occasion of the museum’s 150th anniversary. The purpose of the initiative is to allow Florentines and tourists to visit this masterpiece in person. It’s an example of his period of activity that was more attentive to the renewed models of the Renaissance vision.
The Director of the Uffizi Galleries Eike Schmidt commented, “The effectual exchange of works of art confirms the effectiveness and value of the Uffizi Galleries policy to decentralize and enhance places that are erroneously considered peripheral, but which, on the contrary, are the true centers of culture and exchange, both today and tomorrow”.
