Giorgio Vasari

The exhibition catalogue provides the reader with an in-depth analysis of the Palatine Gallery Collection. It features essays and philological catalogues reflecting the exhibition itinerary.

The exhibition focuses on the Allegory of Patience, a painting by Parmigianino which was part of Leopoldo de'Medici collection, but which originally belonged to the archibishop Bernadetto Minerbetti, ambassador of Cosimo I, a man of learning, fervent admirer of Michelangelo and above all a close friend and patron of Giorgio Vasari.

It was Minerbetti himself to ask Vasari, shortly after 1550, a painting which could represent the highest virtue of his  personality in a new and emblematic way, that is the art of patience. Vasari accepted, and proposed his innovation based on the acient statuesque, enriched by a simbolic repertoire recalling time and uman life. This erudite image had a great success well beyond the borders of Florence, reaching the court of Ferrara of Ercole II d'Este, who didn't hesitate to obtain his own endeavuor.

Why was Vasari's invention so successful? And why was the Virtue of Patience so important in the art and literature of the full Reinissance period?

The exhibition analyzes the common thread of commissions, the literary sources and the career of the artist in the complex curtain of the courtesan Italy.

Next to the Allegory of Patience is another version of the same theme, executed by Camillo and Sebastiano Filippi and now part of the Estense Gallery of Mantua, where also the bust of Hercules II executed by Prospero Sogari is shown. On its base the same virtue is portrayed, through the medals of Pompeo Leoni (Florence, National Museum of Bargello). Next to those the Allegory of Patience, also known as Artemisia cries Mausolo,  will be shown to illustrate the iconografic motif in its complex genesis, attributed to Francesco Salviati.