Exhibitions

Lorenzo Puglisi | In front of Michelangelo

Crocifissione, umanità, mistero

Basilica di Santo Spirito. Firenze

20.09.2020 | 01.11.2020. Opening 19/09/2020 h. 11.30

Introduction by
Cardinale Giuseppe Betori Archbishop of Florence
Vittorio Sgarbi
Father Giuseppe Pagano
Davide Rondoni

In one of the most significant Florentine basilicas, the essentiality in painting will be compared with the "fleshyness and softness" of sculpture, as Giorgio Vasari wrote. As part of the celebrations for the 20 years since the return of Michelangelo's Crucifix to the monumental complex of Santo Spirito in Florence, the Augustinian community will welcome the presence of Lorenzo Puglisi's Crucifixion, right next to Buonarroti's Crucifix of Santo Spirito.
The exhibition “Lorenzo Puglisi | In front of Michelangelo. Crucifixion, humanity, mystery”. Organized by Francesca Sacchi Tommasi of Etra studio in collaboration with ArtCom Project, the exhibition proposes the exhibition of Puglisi's painting depicting the Crucifixion alongside the famous wooden Crucifix, an early work by Michelangelo Buonarroti, in the Sacristy of the Florentine Basilica.
The exhibition will remain visible until November 1st.
In addition to the author of the painting, the vernissage introduced by the greeting of Father Giuseppe Pagano (Prior of Santo Spirito) will be attended by Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, Archbishop of Florence, the art historian Vittorio Sgarbi and the poet Davide Rondoni who will read a poem composed for the 'occasion.

20 years after the return of Michelangelo's Christ
The wooden Crucifix that Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpted between 1493 and 1494 «to please the prior», that is, to thank him for his hospitality and the opportunity to study anatomy, had remained «hidden» for centuries, in the sense that it had been lost the tracks. However, its existence was testified to by Vasari's writings and it was precisely this that pushed the scholar Margrit Lisner to deepen her research which, thanks to the welcome of the Augustinian father Guido Balestri, allowed the discovery of the naked Christ and its attribution to Michelangelo From 1962, the year of its rediscovery, until today, the Crucifix has lived a long history that led it to Casa Buonarroti, where it remained until December 2000, when the Augustinians, after many attempts, managed to bring it back "to house".
In the Basilica of Santo Spirito, however, due to architectural transformations it was not possible to put it back in its original location - occupied by Caccini's altar - so the Barbadori Chapel of the Sacristy by Giuliano da Sangallo was chosen.

One exhibition, two Crucifixes
In one of the symbolic basilicas of the Florentine Diladdarno, for about 40 days the Crucifix of Santo Spirito and the Crucifixion by Lorenzo Puglisi, an artist who lives and works in Bologna, who created an oil painting on a poplar panel shaped like of a cross - taking up a historical-artistic tradition that originates from the painting of primitives and which had been completely lost in contemporary art -, with a black background, on which only the results of his "search for essentiality" appear, that is, the representations of the head inclined, of the hands and feet of Christ who died on the cross.
As Father Pagano writes, «Lorenzo Puglisi will be in front of Michelangelo to express all the strength of the Crucifixion, all Humanity and the Mystery. Thus Lorenzo's interest in human nature and the mystery of existence remains, trying to represent it with a painting in the dark, almost as if he wanted to express that light that is there, that pushes, but which is still held back by the darkness, just as Michelangelo breaks down the reality of death on the cross with beauty and a smile which are already an expression of a reality different from the one we see".

For his part, Puglisi underlines that

«the Crucifixion is a symbolic and real image at the same time, both in the Christian tradition and in the most intimate reflection on the condition, possibility and reason for being of man, as can be understood from the knowledge transmitted to us over time by the ancients, in numerous forms. The vision of Michelangelo's sculpture touches the heart and has a rare lightness and delicacy. For me as a painter, the need to look for a vital and sculptural painting emerged immediately, and Michelangelo was a great master of this. Therefore my attempt at painting is aimed at the vision of something that is other than the empirically visible, but with which it is inseparably intertwined, is mixed with it; the search for the essential of representation, as ambition and goal, is linked to the search for essentiality in life and is a consequence and hope of knowing. Crucifixion, humanity, mystery. It's all in these three words."

Lorenzo Puglisi | Davanti a Michelangelo. Crocifissione, umanità, mistero

20.09.2020 | 01.11.2020

Basilica di Santo Spirito | Piazza santo spirito 30 | Firenze

Opening: Saturday 1 9.09.2020 h. 11.30

Opening hours: monday/saturday h. 10-12.45 / 15-17.45; sunday h. 11.30-13.15 / 15-17.45

Entrance: 2 euros

www.basilicasantospirito.it

Ph: +39 (0)55 210030

In front of Michelangelo

Exhibitions 2020

7:01