FRIENDS OF FLORENCE

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Friends of Florence

Restoring the Tribune

The noble heart of the Uffizi Gallery
by Alexandra Lawrence (issue no. 177/2013 / February 14, 2013)
Entering the Tribune in the 1580s, visitors must have felt as if they had been dropped into a giant treasure chest that had opened suddenly and surprisingly just for their benefit. The sumptuous octagonal room located in the Uffizi's eastern corridor was topped by a …
Friends of Florence

For whom the bell tolls

by Alexandra Lawrence (issue no. 132/2010 / November 18, 2010)
  No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. . . any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; …
Friends of Florence

Exquisite in the details

Friends of Florence restores ivories for the Museo degli Argenti
by Alexandra Lawrence (issue no. 131/2010 / November 4, 2010)
Here's a question for you: when was the last time you visited the Museo degli Argenti at Palazzo Pitti? I confess that I had not been since my long-ago student days, when the collection of jewels, crystals, cameos, semiprecious stones, ivories …
Friends of Florence

Rediscovering greatness

Master of Figline's Santa Croce crucifix
by Alexandra Lawrence (issue no. 113/2009 / December 10, 2009)
Rumor has it that Piero della Francesca's Early Renaissance masterpiece The Duke and Duchess of Urbino languished in the Uffizi's deposits until the 1860s, when the artist was ‘rediscovered' by Cezanne. Thanks to the renewed attention, the fifteenth-century della Francesca piece quickly became a must-see …
Friends of Florence

In full view

Restoration of an overlooked treasure
by Alexandra Lawrence (issue no. 105/2009 / July 2, 2009)
One of the most intriguing aspects of Florence is its ability to hide-sometimes in plain sight-many of its most special treasures.   Take the church and monastery of San Marco. Founded in the thirteenth century, the complex was enlarged in 1437, when Dominican …
Friends of Florence

The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist returns to life

Friends of Florence
by Alexandra Lawrence (issue no. 95/2009 / February 12, 2009)
What do a 33,600 euro bottle of wine and a restored bronze pharisee have in common? The answer is Friends of Florence. When Friends member Michael Corliss paid an astronomical sum for a nine-liter bottle of Ornellaia at a Christie's auction …
Friends of Florence

Around the David

Restoration of the great art of Michelangelo's century
by Alexandra Lawrence (issue no. 92/2008 / December 11, 2008)
The year 2004 marked the 500th anniversary of the year in which Michelangelo's David was completed and placed in the Piazza della Signoria. To honor the occasion, the Accademia Gallery, current home of the masterpiece, organized a program of conferences and …
Friends of Florence

Proserpina's cry

How Friends of Florence rescued a ruined masterpiece
by Alexandra Lawrence (issue no. 88/2008 / October 16, 2008)
Picture the scene: Florence, 2002. Palazzo Serristori. Antonio Natali, director of the Uffizi Gallery, notices something wrapped in plastic and rolled around a lamppost. He calls over restoration expert Muriel Vervat and together they unroll it, discovering that it is a …
Friends of Florence

For the love of a city

Friends of Florence - Fostering relationships, creating connections
by Alexandra Lawrence (issue no. 85/2008 / September 4, 2008)
What is it about Florence that makes people love it so? For many, it is the city's world-renowned art treasures-the determined look in David's eye, Botticelli's fluttery-draped blondes, Leonardo's crystal landscapes. It is the bronze of the baptistry doors and the …

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