The great Donatello exhibition in Florence awarded as the best exhibition of 2022
There exhibition “Donatello, the Renaissance” (held in Florence in the two venues of Palazzo Strozzi and the Bargello National Museum between 19 March and 31 July 2022) and curated by Francesco Cagliottiwas awarded as the best exhibition of the year 2022 as part of the ceremony of the Press Apolloheld in London on December 6, 2022, organized by the prestigious international magazine Apollo Magazine.
The Apollo Awards represent the most important international awards for museums and cultural institutions, celebrating each year the most relevant artists, exhibitions, museums, publications and initiatives of the global art scene. The assignment of the Apollo Award as exhibition of the year to Donatello, The Renaissance took place by selecting from the shortlist of six finalists, international exhibitions of great value such as: “Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, “Matisse: The Red Studio” at the MOMA in New York, “Oskar Kokoschka: Enfant terrible in Vienna” at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, “Raphael” at the National Gallery and “William Kentridge” at the Royal Academy of the London Arts.
Curated by Francesco Caglioti (full professor of Medieval Art History at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa) and realized in collaboration with the Staatliche Museen of Berlin and the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the exhibition has in fact reconstructed through over 130 works the exceptional journey of one of the fathers of the Renaissance, compared with masterpieces by contemporary artists such as Brunelleschi and Masaccio, Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini, but also later such as Raphael and Michelangelo. Since its opening, the exhibition had been acclaimed by the national and international press, already named exhibition of the year globally by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Times and the Guardian. The exhibition also achieved an extraordinary success with the public with a total of 150,000 visitors to Palazzo Strozzi and over 117,000 admissions to the Bargello National Museum. The exhibition was also the occasion for a renewed attention to the territory, with the enhancement of over 50 works by Donatello scattered throughout the territory of the Tuscany Region through the “Donatello in Tuscany” project: a journey starting from Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello throughout the region, thanks to a publication and a special digital and physical thematic map that linked 16 different places in an idea of a widespread exhibition to learn more about and learn about the master’s works in the area.
“The awarding of this recognition fills us with joy and satisfaction” – says Arturo Galansino, Director General of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation – “It confirms, once again, the quality of Palazzo Strozzi’s offer, which produces exhibitions as original and courageous as successful, keeping faith with the Foundation’s plan to bring cultural events of an international level to Florence. The success of this great exhibition is the result of the incomparable curatorship of Francesco Caglioti, of the fundamental collaboration with the Bargello Museums and of the generous support of the most important museums in the world which have allowed us to create a truly unique and unrepeatable exhibition”.