Art is woman, Giovanni Maranghi on display at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence

An all-female exhibition that will be inaugurated tomorrow, Saturday 15 October in the Sala d’Arme in Palazzo Vecchio. Giovanni Maranghi, a Florentine painter much appreciated throughout the European continent, presents 22 works all depicting women, with the emblematic title “Il Rosa Fiorentino”, curated by the art critic Luca Beatrice.

In this exhibition the artist reinterprets some great female icons: from Plautilla Nelli to Margherita Hack, from Caterina de ‘Medici to Botticelli’s Venus. Maranghi identifies with them, their stories and their feelings. On display we will not find portraits executed in the canonical sense, but works that through studied elements, refer to the history and nature of the subject. At least two interpretations are dedicated to all the protagonists, as in the case of Anna Maria Luisa de ‘Medici, who is portrayed in double guise: in one composed and noble, in the other alluring and bourgeois. Through this identification and this in-depth investigation, Maranghi manages to transport the women of Florence into twenty-two works.

The project, of international scope, is promoted by Cra (Art Collection Center) and boasts the collaboration of two galleries, the Italian Casa d’Arte San Lorenzo and the German Kunstgalerie Bech.
“It is at the same time a pleasure and a great honor to host this exhibition at Palazzo Vecchio – explains the mayor of Florence Dario Nardella – the work of the master Maranghi is well known and appreciated and the choice to dedicate it completely to women at this time is very significant “.

Technically, Maranghi’s painting is characterized by a propensity to mix different elements, by an extraordinary peculiarity and by a strong curiosity towards materials and skills that are not strictly traditional. With the exception of encaustic, there are many industrial materials used to obtain a different tactile and luministic rendering. He uses synthetic fibers such as resin, plexiglass, PVC, Kristal but we also find a use of collages and silk-screen prints that give his paintings a complex dynamism.

The woman, who has always been the protagonist in his pictorial research, is here idealized by Maranghi and rendered in an ethereal way through essential and elementary features. This time the artist tries his hand at real figures, who have left an indelible trace in Florentine history, exalting the woman as an archetype; time passes, situations change, but the beauty and sensuality of being a woman remain forever. The inauguration will take place tomorrow at 3 pm and it will be possible to visit it every day from 10 am to 6 pm until Sunday 13 November.