Paolo Penko’s solo exhibition at Palazzo Medici Riccardi
THE JEWELLERY OF PAOLO PENKO. PRECIOUS ART AT PALAZZO MEDICI RICCARDI
The personal exhibition of Paolo Penko, Florentine master goldsmith, present in private and public collections, such as the Museo degli Argenti in Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, is open to the public.
The goldsmith’s art of Paolo Penko is on display in the exhibition rooms on the piano nobile of Palazzo Medici Riccardi (Via Cavour 3, Florence), the headquarters of the Metropolitan City of Florence. The solo exhibition inaugurated today is the first in the series “Masters of Artistic Craftsmanship”, organised by the cultural association ModoFiorentino, in collaboration with Oma-Osservatorio dei Mestieri d’Arte, dedicated to high level artistic craftsmanship both in the city and nationally.
On display, works created by master goldsmith Paolo Penko for the occasion, such as those inspired by the Medici picture gallery and the famous painting of “The Madonna and Child” by Filippo Lippi. In particular, master Penko has created a sceptre inspired by the similar object found in the portraits of the Grand Dukes of the Medici family depicted in the picture gallery of Palazzo Medici Riccardi, which the artist will pay homage to the palace itself and therefore to the city of Florence.
The exhibition, curated by Anita Valentini, boasts the patronage of the Region of Tuscany and the Municipality of Florence, and will be open from 5 to 28 February, from 9 am to 7 pm (closed on Wednesdays).
Paolo Penko is one of the most internationally renowned Florentine goldsmiths, whose creations can be found in numerous public and private collections, starting with the Museo degli Argenti in Palazzo Pitti. In recent years he has worked, with a modern spirit but in the wake of the great local tradition, for Florentine public institutions to coincide with celebrations, anniversaries, festivals and traditions of the lily city.
“In the history of goldsmith and silversmith art, Paolo Penko already occupies a very special position: he is a craftsman with precise ideas who, by re-elaborating and re-proposing ancient artistic working techniques, has made his name synonymous with a classic-contemporary style – explains curator Anita Valentini -. His creations identify him as something more than a craftsman of precious metals: he presents himself as an artist, a master and an ‘inventor’ of working techniques that draw on tradition, but in the wake of modernity to create ‘forms of his own’. He reinterprets methods and canons from Greco-Roman and Renaissance culture and tradition in his works in gold, silver, gilded copper and gems.
Its aesthetics refer to the great Italian and European sumptuous art and to the magnificent painting of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, rich in illusory spaces and forms. Present today at the ribbon-cutting ceremony were: Benedetta Albanese, Metropolitan Councillor; Eugenio Giani, Regional Councillor of Tuscany; Cristina Acidini, Art Historian; Anita Valentini, Curator of the exhibition and catalogue; Luigi Bicchi, President of the cultural association Modofiorentino which, in collaboration with Oma-Osservatorio dei Mestieri d’arte, is behind the exhibition and the exhibition cycle in which it is included, “I maestri dell’artigianato artistico”.
