Money and art at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

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Money and Beauty. Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities

17 September 2011 to 22 January 2012

 Masterpieces by Botticelli, Filippo Lippi, Beato Angelico, Paolo Uccello, Donatello, Antonio del Pollaiolo, Domenico Veneziano, Memling and Lorenzo di Credi – the cream of Renaissance artists – show how the modern banking system developed in parallel alongside the most important artistic flowering in the history of the Western world.   The exhibition also explores the links between that unique interweave of high finance, economy and art, and the religious and political upheavals of the time.   

Money and Beauty.  Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanitiesrecounts the birth of our modern banking system and of the economic boom that it triggered, providing a reconstruction of European life and the continent’s economy from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.  Visitors can delve into the daily life of the families that controlled the banking system and perceive the clash between spiritual and economic values that was such a feature of it.  The saga of the art patrons is closely linked to that of the bankers who financed the ventures of princes and nobles alike, and indeed it was that very convergence that provided the humus in which some of the leading artists of the time were able to flourish.

As with all Palazzo Strozzi exhibitions, there will be special labels for families and children, as well as workshops, books and a ‘passport’ to the city’s exhibition-related treasures.  Other interactive experiences include agame called Follow your Florins, and The Botticelli Code game in the special family suitcase.

PALAZZO STROZZI

Piazza Strozzi

50123 Florence, Italy

Tel. +39 055 277 6461

www.palazzostrozzi.org

Opening hours:            

Daily 9 am to 8 pm

Thursday 9 am to 11 pm

Admission:

Adult: €10.00

Concessions: €8.50, €8.00, €7.50, €5.00; schools: €4.00