Splendida Minima

Museo degli Argenti, Florence

NOW CLOSED

Ritratto di Augusto del Tipo “Prima Porta” (1580), Antonio Gentili. Gallerie degli Uffizi, Tesoro dei Granduchi

Precious small sculptures in the Medici collections, from Francesco I de’Medici’s Tribune to the Grand Ducal treasure

The Uffizi Galleries house the most important collection in the world of small sculptures in semi-precious stone carved chiefly in the Hellenistic and Roman eras, an extremely rare sample of glyptic art. No longer widespread during the Middle Ages, this art was rediscovered, thus receiving a new life and impulse, during the Renaissance period. This exhibition – the first ever to explore this specific theme – not only brings together the entire Medici collection of micro-sculptures but also showcases other works of sculpture carved in precious materials in such a way as to offer the visitor comparisons capable of highlighting the unique chromatic, technical and stylistic features of these objets d’art.

Preview the exhibition below | The top five exhibitions opening this week