Florence can boast a leading role in Paul Cézanne’s enigmatic, artistic career thanks to the farsightedness of Egisto Paolo Fabbri and Charles Loeser. Cézanne in Florence dicments the fertile period when Florence was one of the world’s most important cultural capital. This exhibition will be held in Palazzo Strozzi from March 2nd to July 29th 2007

ARTS AND CRAFTS AT THE COURT
Palazzo Pitti until November 5, 2006
Art and crafts at the court of Florence From the decline of the Medici to the Empire (1732-1815).
The rooms housing the exhibition in the Palazzina della Meridiana, specially restructured for the occasion, are open to the public for the first time. Their exceptional splendour is now, as in former times, a match for their sumptuous contents. The approximately 180 works on view, including paintings, sculpture, costumes, goldsmith's work, jewellery, porcelain, scagliola work and above all precious stones, bear witness to the fact that from the Medici Grand Duchy through until the Lorrainese period the crafts were already considered on the level of a major art. In the wonderful and sumptuous rooms of the Palazzina della Meridiana the visitor finds himself journeying immersed in history, and able to imagine the life of unending enchantment that lay open to the Medici and their court. He sees them moving at a stately pace in gorgeous gilded costumes adorned with a dazzling set of jewels fashioned in the court workshops by order of Elisa Baciocchi, or perhaps with an astonishing pendant composed of shells of incredible colours... And the environment seems all the more genuine, and reproduced exactly, because every object has its history, from the highly ornate table, regal gift of Cosimo III, to the splendid Annunciation formed of precious stones, once in the possession of the Margravine of Baden.
Summoned to direct the Grand Ducal workshops was the Frenchman Louis Siries, former goldsmith to Louis XV and thereafter to the last of the Medici. Together with his son and his nephew, who carried on his work, he succeeded in his aim of maintaining a liason with the leading Florentine artists of the time. And visitors to this exhibition will be amazed at the results.

Price of admission: € 7.00 (including entrance to the Boboli Gardens and the Bardini Garden) Reduced price: € 3.50 for EU citizens aged 18-25. Entry free for EU citizens under 18 or over 65.
Opening hours: 8.15-18.30 in May, September, October / 8.15-19.30 in June, July, August / 8.15-16.30 in November
Closing days: the first and last Monday of each month
Information and booking: Firenze Musei Tel. 055 2654321Booking for school groups is free but compulsory