A lot goes on under the Tuscan sun, especially when the hillside becomes a classroom
and the landscape a springboard for young contemporary artists to experiment with regional
colour. It has been a few years since Professor Adriano Bimbi first decided to replace his classroom with a more stimulating setting, taking selected students from the Accademia di Belle Arti to spend summers in the Mugello – an area as rich in beauty as in cultural heritage. The Mugello was the
birthplace of not only the Medici family but also of some of the most influential artists from Giotto and Cimabue to Fra Angelico. Today, it is other young artists who use the rolling hills of the summer landscape and convents and old tobacco factories as their studios where they renew the image of the world once depicted by the grandfathers of the Renaissance. Through paintings
and drawings, they have created their own fresh, contemporary look at this age-old vision.
Last December, several young Tuscan artists from the Accademia had the chance to enter the international art scene by exhibiting their works at Pace University in New York. The project has been carried out through the help of the local towns of San Piero a Sieve and Barberino di Mugello and thanks to the support of the Tuscan American Association, an independent non-profitt organisation dedicated to strengthening long-standing ties of friendship as well as cultural,
economic and scientifi c exchange between Tuscany and the United States. Five annual Mugello excursions have resulted in an exhibition called ‘In the Valley of the Masters’ created by eleven of these young artists.
Lorenzo Barbieri, a 25-year-old Florentine, was one of the students involved in the Mugello adventures and the New York exhibition. His mixed-media painting for the exhibition was a large geographic study of the Mugello landscape. The painting depicts the artists at lunch, surrounded by the golden yellow, burnt sienna and sky blue of the summer landscape. One cannot
help but compare the work of these contemporary artists to that of the Renaissance artists. They
are from the same place, working in the same environment, even – in Barbieri’s case – working with
the same medium, reminiscent of a traditional triptych altarpiece. It is as if today’s artists are translating a millennium of art history into something that can be read with contemporary
vision. G. Cordoni writes of Barbieri’s triptych, ‘His orchestration of frontal perspective develops
as if it were a great narrative, gently reminiscent of the progression of certain classic visions from the early Renaissance.’
What initially began as an educational project has slowly transformed into much more. For Barbieri, this infl uential experience was a meeting between man and nature, the past and the present: ‘I tried to recreate, day by day, the scenes in which our history is rooted. Despite everything, it has remained in tact enough for us to appreciate and want to be a part of it.’
As a result of the New York exhibition’s success in December, there are plans to organise a follow-
up exchange in which American students from Pace University will come to the Mugello to work
alongside Prof. Bimbi’s students. The project, designed to encourage an exchange of backgrounds, cultures and ideas, will promote exhibitions of the artists’ works in Italy and the US. The Tuscan American Association will again be co-ordinating the exchange, as it is a perfect way to create significant links between young art students working in Florence and New York. Tuscan
American Association President Lynn Wiechmann calls the experience ‘the fi rst step in what we see as a long and fruitful relationship between Pace University, the Accademia di Belle Arti and communities in the Mugello.’
While young American artists are given the opportunity to explore the history and beauty of the Mugello, aspiring Italian artists can enter the energetic world of contemporary art in the US. The project provides a taste of two cultures and invites participants to experience the best of both worlds. A rare opportunity for young artists that even the Renaissance masters wouldn’t have been able to beat.
