The Gleam of Gold The International Gothic Style in Florence 1375-1440

An important exhibition that intends to reconstruct the panorama of Florentine art is hosted at the Uffizi Gallery. A beautiful and quite golden exhibition which focuses on the artistic period between 1375-1440 often known as “gothic style”. Spanning the latter part of the fourteenth and early fifteenth century, International Gothic sprang out of a world where, thanks to flourishing new European trade routes, artists travelled more widely than ever before. The late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries were a period of transition in which no single style dominated in Florentine art.

The exhibition presents paintings that have been famous for centuries, alongside other exquisite paintings little known to the general public, along with sculpture in wood and marble, illuminated codices, works of sacred and profane art. Works of art of superlative value and undisputed historical importance which come from prestigious public museum institutions, as well as from Italian and foreign private collections.

The exhibition sets out to illustrate a uniquely varied and multifaceted period in the history of art. The exhibition itinerary follows a chronological order and visitors can admire works of the greatest artists from the late fourteenth century, including masters such as Agnolo Gaddi, Spinello Aretino, Antonio Veneziano, Gherardo Starnina, Lorenzo Monaco and Gentile da Fabriano as well as Lorenzo Ghiberti and Fra Angelico.

Gentile da Fabriano’s “Adoration of the Magi” (1423) is one of the supreme masterpieces of any era and widely recognized as the apex of late Gothic painting. It was commissioned by Palla Strozzi, one of the richest men in Florence, an advanced advocate of humanism and an early scholar of Greek.

Conceived as a sequel to the 2008 show Giotto, Art and Florence 1340-1375, the current display reveals how late-14th-century masters refined Giotto’s robust, colourful boldness with a new, more opulent delicacy.