Lorenzo Bartolini’s Arnina

The absolute star of this delightful small exhibition is an exquisitely-wrought marble statue portraying the Nymph Armina, which was discovered in a private collection in England by the scholar John Kenworthy-Browne. This unpublished work is therefore being displayed to the public for the first time alongside its beautiful plaster cast belonging to the Accademia Gallery, which has returned here after being held for several decades at the Civic Museum of Prato. The exhibition also displays various documents illustrating the complex history of Bartolini’s work, this version of which bears the dedication to Giovanni degli Alessandri, a prominent figure in Florentine cultural life in the early nineteenth century.