On September 19 the Prato Textile Museum opens the exhibition “The Style of the Tsar”, created in cooperation with the most prestigious museums of Russia – Hermitage Museum and Museum of Russian Art in St. Petersburg, Kremlin Museum and Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in addition to several Italian museims of Florence. The exhibition brings together around 150 works and illustrates the birth and development of cultural, diplomatic and commercial relations between Italy and the ancient Muscovy, that spawned through the Italian textile channel trade.
The first part of the exhibit traces the development of Italian silk production from the late Fourteenth century until the Sixteenth century, through the display of textile masterpieces that respond to paintings of great prestige; a demonstration of the importance that these tissues had in the social and cultural context of that era. The second part uses maps and travel reports of merchants and ambassadors to document the territory of Muscovy and the image of the Tsar. At the end of the Fifteenth century, the economic and cultural relations between Italy and Russia intensified thanks to growing exports of silk manufactures. Mutual cultural influences are found in tissues and in the clothes as the Italian production adjusted to the Russian taste, amplifying the pomp and the gold and silver yarn. The third section compares the clothing of the great European courts with the garments of the Russian court from the Sixteenth century up to Peter the Great, when the Russian nobility becomes increasingly open and receptive to European fashion. The slow decline of the Italian silk production in the first half of the Eighteenth century does not stop interest in Italian art. Russian collectors begin import major Italian art works now part of the heritage of the most prestigious Russian museums. The exhibition ends with the exceptional exposure of the Pala della Circoncisione by Cigoli on commission of the church of S. Francesco in Prato. The Pala in the Nineteenth century passed to the Hermitage collection.
The exhibit will be matched by many theme events of various kinds in Prato. Gourmet events and shows will enliven Prato Lawn during the exhibition in the name of the Tsar. Many are also the exhibitions in museums sponsored by the Prato museum network in a collective artistic effort that passes from painting to textile art.
A special card called Card_a_Prato at a cost of 2 Euros, will allow reduced or free entry to ten museums and exhibitions, and discounts on taxi, car parks, shops, restaurants, and more.
More info at www.lostiledellozar.it.
Where you can find the museum:
View Museo del Tessuto Prato – Prato Textile Museum in a larger map
Thanks for this really good article summarizing this show — it looks really interesting, I must make a note to go to Prato to see it!