If you are an art lover of art and are visiting Tuscany, you should not miss the Pretorio Palace in Prato. Within this building is a unique heritage that recounts ths history of the city through works of indescribable beauty.
Visiting its rooms, you may come across works by Bernardo Daddi, Giovanni da Milano, Donatello, Filippo and Filippino Lippi, admire the great altarpieces painted by Santi di Tito and Alessandro Allori and plaster casts by Lorenzo Bartolini and watch two video projections, one on the history of the Palace and the other on the Sacred Cintola, the the relic belt which has become a symbol of the city.
But the Pretorio Palace is also home to temporary exhibitions. And so I went to see SYNCHRONICITY.
Two surprises were waiting for me at the entrance:
1- with CartaFreccia, you can visit the museum visit 2 for the price of 1. At the ticket office, you will find other reductions available to visit the museum [in addition to CarteFreccia].
2- at the top of the Pretorio Palace, there is a magnificent terrace with view. It isn’t always open, and if it is, it usually is on the weekends. Check the museum’s website for openings. From up here you can see and love Prato, from another point of view: magnificent, imposing, elegant. A “belvedere” that fills the heart and soul of joy and beauty.
But back to us and to the exhibition SYNCHRONICITY.
A glow of modernity in the midst of such great and gentle ancient beauty. Works, from Lippi to Warhol, violently contrast in the rooms and alternate with the permanent collections of the museum.
The project is the work of Stefano Pezzato, curator and researcher at the Contemporary Arts Pecci Center, while the exhibition is curated by Francesco Procopio.
The juxtaposition of ancient–modern is strong but, at the same time, allows the visitor to appreciate the research of the contemporary with an eye to the artistic past. We are who we were. And it is thanks to the past, to the old, to what art was that today there are multiple paths of study and new forms.
Let’s not forget what art was but let’s look at contemporary art appreciating it with a different set of eyes.
“Synchronicity” between the present and the past.
The gaze penetrates the canvas and only you can enjoy the beauty that you find in front of yourself. Relax and let yourself get involved with art’s sharp contours.
With SYNCHRONICITY, you will fall in love with artistic pursuits that occupy the space from the Second World War to the present day.
Some names? The 30 works on display and selected by Stefano Pezzato include works by Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Daniel Spoerri, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Matthew Barney and Vanessa Beecroft (and many others).
SYNCHRONICITY Contemporanei, da Lippi a Warhol
Museum of Palazzo Pretorio – Piazza del Comune – Prato
Until January 10, 2016
Open daily (except on Tuesdays, exception on December 8th) from 10.30am to 6:30pm.
Closed on Christmas Day.
Ticket office closes at 6pm.
