To mark the centenary of the birth of the Tuscan sculptor Venturino Venturi, the Opera del Duomo Museum is exhibiting his Pietà di Micciano, worked from white Carrara marble.
The sculpture will be displayed until September 23, sharing a room with Michelangelo’s BandiniPietà, which depicts the deposition of Christ from the Cross. The decision to set these two pieces side-by-side, according to cardinal Giuseppe Betori, shows that “the works of the past are not dead but continue to inspire artists of every era.” Venturino’s model, however, was another of Michelangelo’s Pietà, specifically his famed version in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
Ph. Aurelio Amendola
Venturino was born in 1918 in Loro Ciuffena in the Province of Arezzo and died in 2002. He was educated in France and Luxembourg before returning to Tuscany to embark on sculpture courses at Florence’s Accademia delle Belle Arti. In 1945, he put on his first personal exhibition, and in 1948, he won the Garibaldi Prize for Sculpture. The Venturino Venturi Museum was opened in Loro Ciuffena in 1993. His works can be found in museums across Italy, including the Uffizi Galleries, the Modern Art Gallery in Palazzo Pitti, the Museum of Opera di Santa Croce and the Vatican Museums. The Pietà di Micciano was begun in 1997 in memory of Senator Giuseppe Bartolomei and his wife, at the request of their daughters.
This initiative was made possible thanks the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the Venturino Venuturi Museum and Archive, and the Associazione Medrisio Mario Luzi Poesia del Mondo.
