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3,000 years of masterpieces on show at Palazzo Strozzi Peruvian Trail
[Maddalena Delli]
If passing by the imposing shape of Palazzo Strozzi one of these days you notice the banners advertising the ongoing exhibition about Peru, do yourself a favour: don't simply shrug and dismiss the thought. True, the Andes are thousands of miles away beyond the Atlantic; and indeed, you came to the cradle of the Renaissance to visit the Uffizi and Accademia galleries, to learn all about Brunelleschi and Michelangelo, to see Della Robbia terracottas and Botticelli's Venus (by the way, watch out for the great Botticelli exhibition coming up at Palazzo Strozzi in March!). Fine. Still, do try and think twice, because you'd be missing a unique opportunity if you skip this great exhibition. When the average you and me thinks of pre-Hispanic Peruvian antiquities, the impressive ruins of Machu Picchu are just about all one manages to conjure up. Well, as one might suspect there's more to it, and for the first time ever this exhibition tries to acquaint the general public with this complex and varied universe.
To start with, it covers the whole of 2,600 years of pre-Hispanic cultures which thrived in the area of present-day Peru from Chavin, home of the oldest Peruvian civilisation in about 900 BC, to the Incas until they were crushed by the Spaniards in 1532. Almost 400 works of extraordinary beauty and value have been gathered from leading Peruvian, Italian and other European museums by Antonio Aimi, an expert in Amerindian studies specialising in the interpretation of sources (finds and texts) from an anthropological, historical and aesthetic angle. He passionately employed all his expertise and talent to devise a boldly innovative exhibition layout, offering the first historiographic arrangement of an immense - and mostly unknown - cultural heritage. Aimi further explores for the first time the major aesthetic themes of pre-Hispanic Andean art, offering an interpretative key to their significance.
A major turning-point in Amerindian studies is achieved when, the issue of schools and workshops is addressed through the scientific instrument of attribution, thus enabling the experts to identify Peruvian masters as the authors of a number of pieces, to release them from anonymity and reveal the individual features of their creativity. Thus, for the first time ever, the art of pre-Hispanic Peru transcends the sphere of archaeology to enter the realm of aesthetics.
The exhibits include amazingly fine specimens of sculpture, paintings, jewellery, earthenware, fabrics and a delightful range of erotic art which must have been associated with fertility rituals. We learn that the Indians of Peru did not have any type of writing, or signs, or figures, but they made up for this partly through paintings and partly through a unique system called quipus. The quipus was a method of recording numbers by using knotted strings in which the various knots and colours meant different things. And it is incredible what they were able to achieve by this means, because everything that books can record in the way of history, laws, ceremonies and calculations is replaced by the quipus, in an equally precise manner.
Finally, an interesting section displays a number of important pieces from the Medici collection of exotica, underlining their enlightened approach to non-classical art and the key role played by Florence in the early appreciation of Amerindian arts in Europe.
Perů Three Thousand Years of Masterpieces is at Palazzo Strozzi (Piazza Strozzi, 1) until Feb 22nd
Open 10am-9pm (11pm on Thu and Fri)
Infoline: 055.2776406
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http://www.perupalazzostrozzi.it