September 26, 2024

The Florence International Antiques Biennale at Palazzo Corsini

Until Oct. 6, the festival returns with great works of art from around the world, gala dinners and special guests such as Andrea Bocelli

The 33rd edition of the Florence Biennale Internazionale dell'Antiquariato is preparing to welcome 80 galleries to Palazzo Corsini - September 28 to October 6, 2024 - with 14 new prestigious international participations.

780 guests from around the world gathered for the exclusive Gala Dinner on September 26 at Palazzo Corsini, directed by Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura. Gucci was, in fact, one of the main sponsors of this edition, in a refined combination of art and fashion. One of the most anticipated events was the dinner scheduled for September 27, held in the Salone dei Cinquecento at Palazzo Vecchio. An evening in the company of Maestro Bocelli, featuring an extraordinary charity auction.

“The 33rd edition of the Florence International Antiques Biennale,” said Mayor Sara Funaro, ”once again offers us the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the beauty and richness of art, thanks to the presence of 80 galleries from around the world. An event that is now a fundamental reference point for international collecting and an unmissable opportunity for all art lovers to admire rare and precious works up close.”

“This edition promises to be one of the finest under my management,” added Fabrizio Moretti Secretary General BIAF, ”We have the world's best dealers coming to exhibit their masterpieces at Palazzo Corsini. As always, the Biennale will become a museum for sale.”

EXHIBITORS

Galleries with ancient traditions such as Colnaghi, founded as far back as the 18th century, Agnews, a London-based gallery is from 1817, the Enrico Frascione gallery-whose family has been dealing in antique paintings since the late 1800s and boasts participation in the Florence Biennale since the first edition in 1959-and again Botticelli Antichità, inaugurated just in 1959, Bacarelli and Longari. Most of the galleries that will be exhibiting at BIAF have an average of 30 to 50 years of experience under their belt, such as Sarti, Tornabuoni, Lampronti, Piva, Sperone & Westwater, Dickinson whose founder Simon Dickinson in the past discovered works by Botticelli, Titian and Rubens, among many others. All these galleries, large or small, have helped shape the taste of international collectors and have sold-and still sell-masterpieces to the world's most important museums. Behind every piece exhibited there are, almost always, years of new studies and research, restoration and expertise to offer the market unpublished, rare works in the best condition of preservation, a fundamental criterion especially in the field of antiquities, of course.

MASTERPIECES ON SHOW

Among the highlights of Carlo Orsi's stand is a Madonna and Child with St Mary Magdalene by Titian Vecellio. This oil on canvas, datable between 1555 and 1560, has been recognised as an authentic masterpiece by the Venetian master by distinguished art experts, including Federico Zeri.

Next to Titian will be Michelangelo's Study of Jupiter from the Dickinson Gallery.

A Madonna and Child by Bronzino from Maurizio Canesso. Botticelli Antichità proposes a head of Bishop Andrea de' Mozzi (c. 1296-1300), attributed to a collaborator of Arnolfo di Cambio, a fragment of the funeral monument preserved in the now-destroyed church of San Gregorio della Pace, now incorporated in the Bardini Museum.

At Salamon & C., the splendid painting I giocatori di Carte won the Biennale Painting Prize.

EXHIBITED WORKS

Altomani & Sons reports a recent discovery: a Portrait of Grand Duchess Vittoria Della Rovere, painted by Marche artist Camilla Guerrieri (Fossombrone, 1628 - Pesaro, 1690). Caretto & Occhinegro Gallery presents a rare Nocturnal Landscape with Stories of Ceres by Jan Brueghel I, known as the Velvets. Colnaghi chose a work by artist Giovanna Garzoni (Ascoli Piceno, 1600 - Rome, 1670) Still Life with Flowers in a Glass Vase, ca. 1640-1650 (tempera on parchment with traces of black pencil).

From Orsini Arte e Libri, a unique work on parchment, considered the noble ancestor of paper and closely linked to the history of the family that owns the splendid residence that has hosted the Biennale since 1997, is the most curious and unusual element of the booth. It is a pair of miniatures by Venetian artist Antonio David depicting the portraits of Pope Clement XII (Lorenzo Corsini, 1652-1740) and his nephew Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini (1685-1770).

To the Florence of Cosimo III de' Medici and Giovanni Battista Foggini, we are introduced to the offerings of the Galleria di Alessandra di Castro: an extremely rare set of eight gilded bronze candlesticks and a canvas by Volterrano. From Robilant+Voena, an exceptional work: a majestic painting by Andrea Appiani, the Portrait of Achille Fontanelli (1813). The Tettamanti Gallery brings, by Eliseo Sala a Portrait of the Rustem Bey, Giovanni Timoteo Calosso, oil on canvas, from 1854. From Society of Fine Arts highlights a work by Vittorio Corcos from 1900, is a charmingly rich portrait of Anna Belimbau, wife of his friend Adolfo Belimbau. Antonacci Lapiccirella points to a Divisionist pastel by Umberto Boccioni (Portrait of a Young Man, ca. 1905). Richard Saltoun Gallery is showing for the first time at BIAF and does so with a booth devoted to three Italian women artists: the innovative minimalist Bice Lazzari (1900-1981), the pioneering ceramicist Franca Maranò (1920-2015) and the renowned sculptor and painter Antonietta Raphaël (1895-1975). Also announced for the twentieth century are works by Le Corbusier from Tornabuoni Arte, Alberto Savinio from Sperone Westwater with a 1950 “Nocturne,” a 1933 De Chirico from Farsetti titled The Daughters of Minos (Ancient Scene in Pink and Blue II).