Saints Poets Navigators… The 9th edition of the “I mai visti” exhibition series. Masterpieces from the Uffizi storage

The 9th edition of the “I mai visti” exhibition series presents a magnificent portrait by Amico Aspertini (c. 1474-1552) , dated prior to 1521, portraying the Bolognese physician and philosopher Alessandro Achillini (1463-1512). The portrait was donated by “Amici degli Uffizi” Association, which has been engaged alongside the Uffizi Gallery in the promotion of specifically-conceived, free exhibitions focusing predominantly on little-known or unknown works housed in the repositories.

The painting was previously part of the collection of portraits of illustrious men belonging to Paolo Giovio, a native of Como, he was an Italian physician, historian, biographer, and prelate. Giovio had a villa on lake Como, which he used for his collection of portraits of famous soldiers and men of letters. The exhibition aims to illustrate the fortune of the theme of famous and illustrious men in Florence and the vicissitudes of the collection of portraits that Cosimo I ordered to be copied by Cristofano dell'Altissimo from the most beautiful paintings in Giovo’s Musaeum. Originally, Cosimo’s collection was conceived as a “biographic encyclopaedia” depicting illustrious and famous men.

The exhibition showing about 70 works is a striking portrait gallery of characters who have made history: saints, poets and navigators, but also kings and emperors, men-at-arms, popes and humanists. The exhibition itinerary aims to illustrate the culture of the Renaissance and the leading figures of that period.