The world of craftsmanshipThe Museum has a large collection of ivory works from antiquity to the nineteenth century, made by Italian, European and Oriental craftsmen. The ivories belonged to the Florentine grand-ducal collections or come from nineteenth-century purchases, but most of them were donated by the antique dealers Jean-Baptiste and Louis Carrand. The new layout of the Sala degli Avori – inaugurated last May – traces a path that allows to appreciate these works of different types. The Bargello’s collection also makes it possible, as illustrated in the catalog which presents about 250 exemplars described by various specialists in the field, to retrace the vicissitudes of collecting, the variations in taste, the movement of the works, the changing of the exhibition criteria in accordance with the provisions of the law and of inventory: it is another “history” which makes the ivory works even more intriguing.
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence Tel.+39 055 0649440 mn-bar@beniculturali.it
