Palazzo Strozzi presents Women in Power ~ Caterina and Maria de' Medici

Saturday, 27 December 2008 20:09

 

Florence, Italy - On 30 June 1559, the young Florentine bride of the French King Henri II suddenly found herself a widow. In the failing light, her dashing and headstrong 40-year-old husband was killed in a friendly joust by the young captain of his Scottish guard whose lance accidentally pierced the king’s eye through his metal visor. As her own childhood had been shaped by intrigues and assassination attempts, Caterina knew how important it was to keep and exercise power. The Palazzo Strozzi  presents Women in Power: Caterina and Maria de’ Medici - The Return to Florence of Two Queens of France, on view through 8 February 2009.

Women in Power tells the story of one of the ways in which the two Medici Queens of France used powerful images to legitimise their claims to rule over warring families and factions at a time when women in power were rare. The exhibition brings to Florence fifteen monumental tapestries portraying The Story of Artemisia dedicated to Caterina de’ Medici (1519-89) in the 1560s and completed in the early 17th century by Maria de’ Medici (1573-1642), herself widowed by the brutal assassination of her husband Henri IV, as illustrations of the education of the ideal prince, her son the future Louis XIII.

The tapestries, of different sizes but each close to five metres in height, became separated until 2005 when the seven tapestries owned by Mobilier National of Paris were joined by the eight acquired by Chevalier Atelier. Restored to celebrate the Royal Manufactures of France, these magnificent works come to Florence, the native city of their patrons, for the first time.

Tapestry weaving is a technique going back to ancient Egypt. In medieval times, tapestries were one of the most important forms of artistic expression which proclaimed the owner’s wealth, power and status. They made rooms both more colourful and warmer by insulating stone walls and they could be taken down, rolled up and moved easily from place to place. The Artemisia tapestries in this exhibition are superb examples of the skill and dedication of the artisans in the royal tapestry workshops in Paris (later to become les Gobelins), who laboured for years following the designs of some of the most gifted artists of the time, translating them into miracles of gold, silver and coloured thread. The drawings by Antoine Caron (c.1521-99) and Henry Lerambert (1550-1609) that were the basis for the cartoons used for weaving will also be on show.

The Galleria degli Uffizi has loaned two paintings by Jacopo Chimenti called l’Empoli (1551-1640) depicting the marriages of Caterina to Henri II in 1553 and of Maria to Henri IV in 1600, as well as portraits of Caterina by Santi de Tito (1536-1603) and Maria by Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569-1622). A portrait of Maria at the age of 58 in 1631 by Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) from the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, and a 17th century cameo with portraits of Maria and Henri from the Musée du Louvre are amongst the important loans from French museums.

Several curious pieces in the exhibition include a letter with one of Maria’s drawings, a small canvas that portrays her at an outdoor banquet with her husband Henri IV, a 17th century terracotta dish depicting Henri and his family, and a precious jewellery collection. Other treasures include a rock crystal, silver-gilt and enamel casket, 1532, and a rock crystal and enamelled gold Diane de Poitiers cup, named after Henri II’s mistress, from the Museo degli Argenti in Florence.

Not only does every exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi have bilingual labels throughout, it has special labels for families and children. For this exhibition one of Italy’s leading children’s authors, Roberto Piumini, has developed two discovery trails for children and families, one in verse and the other a play in which families can act out the scenes in the tapestries. Also available is a ‘suitcase’ packed with costumes and activities that allows families to take a trip back to the time of the Medici court. 

The exhibition Women in Power: Caterina and Maria de’ Medici is as contemporary as it is historical, bringing the Medici Queens of France back to life. Visit The Palazzo Strozzi at : http://www.palazzostrozzi.org/

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