In Arezzo an exhibition displays a monumental masterpiece and everything needed to travel back in time and enter the creative mind of one of the geniuses of the Renaissance
“Our Giorgio,” wrote the admiring Cosimo I, referring affectionately to Giorgio Vasari. Some letters have survived in which Vasari exchanged correspondence with Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, his patron, and with his collaborators. In these, the multitalented artist from Arezzo expressed concern about the accelerated pace of the work in the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio, in Florence. Vasari openly discussed the difficulties encountered in the grand project and responded to the Duke’s pressure to meet deadlines.
But Cosimo I de’ Medici was a patron not to be disappointed: he was powerful and highly skilled at using culture as a political tool to bring glory to his dynasty and position Florence at the center of the political landscape of the time. The two were made for each other.
Vasari must had grown accustomed to working at an extremely fast pace and with top-tier collaborators, not only as painters but also as carpenters, for the construction of the supports.
Therefore, it is not surprising that, according to documents, Vasari completed in forty-two days, in exchange for the modest sum of one hundred and twenty-eight gold scudi, a painting nearly 20 square meters in size (2.8 x 7.12 m) with as many as 64 figures, which is still in relatively good condition.
The work, The Banquet of Esther and Ahasuerus, one of the largest panel paintings of the sixteenth century, was created for the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Flora and Lucilla in Arezzo, at the request of the abbot, a friend of the painter, Don Giovanni Benedetto da Mantova.
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“Alcuna cosa fuor dell’uso comune”, The banquet for the wedding of Esther and Ahasuerus by Giorgio Vasari, is the title of the exhibition curated by Luisa Berretti, which revolves around this monumental painting. The exhibition is part of the “Arezzo. The City of Vasari” program, celebrating 450 years since the death of this cultured and avant-garde artist, who was also a writer. After all, we owe to him the first modern history of art with his Lives of great artists.
The project is organized by the Municipality of Arezzo, CR Florence Foundation, Guido d’Arezzo Foundation, in collaboration with Mic Italia and the Regional Directorate of National Museums of Tuscany.
The exhibition, hosted at the National Museum of Medieval and Modern Art in Arezzo, is quite intriguing. It offers an opportunity to understand the inspiration and genesis of this masterpiece. A particularly interesting theme that takes us back in time to the artist’s workshop and, in a way, into his mind.
“This is a unique opportunity to admire, in front of the largest panel painting created by Vasari, some of the preparatory drawings and documents that attest to its execution,” explains the curator, Luisa Berretti.
Manuscripts discussing the painting, preparatory sketches, and others referencing compositions related to the painting are on display, shedding light on the artist’s figurative choices.
Also on display are objects from Vasari’s time, mirroring those depicted in the painting, making the immersion in the past even more real.
Vasari’s wooden panels are always of excellent craftsmanship (Art-Test has worked on many of this master’s works, among them the astonishing panels from Bosco Marengo, which stand out for their exceptional craftsmanship), and the same can be said of the preparatory drawings that precede the painting’s execution.
These can only be seen with infrared reflectography, a technique that uses detectors sensitive to this region of the spectrum, and produces infrared images allowing us to view what the artist originally sketched on the panel, now hidden beneath the paint.
For this reason, the curator also wanted the infrared images of the artwork to be included in the exhibition. Unfortunately, however, they are somewhat outdated (over 30 years old) and were made on only a limited number of areas. The curator confides that she hopes to find a sponsor to extend this study to the entire surface of the painting using modern, more advanced tools.
While waiting for someone to come forward, we can only invite you to go to Arezzo and take a seat at Vasari’s banquet.
