Open from March 1, 2006 until June 15, 2006, Bargello National Museum, Florence.

This is the first exhibition that Italy dedicates to Giambologna, important artist, the most celebrated of the sculptors who lived in Italy after Michelangelo and before Bernini.

Inedited and substantial information today enables us to better comprehend Giambologna life and artistic personality.

The exhibition will concentrate on three aspects of Giambologna’s profane sculpture: nude figures with a mythological subject, models and sketches and equestrian monuments. A section will then be devoted to the works commissioned Giambologna by Grand Duke Francesco de’ Medici, the sculptor’s most important patron. The exhibition will present almost entire artist’s autographic works – today in museums all over the world – with a selection that privileges the highest quality of the pieces on show. Exceptional masterpieces on loan to the Bargello National Museum for this occasion include the Cesarini Venus, the bronze statues from the Kunstkammer in Vienna, the Museums of Dresden, architecture from Boston, the terracotta models from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, etc.

Beyond the walls of the Bargello National Museum, the exhibition ideally continues to many city sites which conserve famous works by this sculptor who, with his monumental creations, invented the most fascinating scenic design for Medici power.

For more information visit

• www.firenze2007.it