Rome, 24th May 2011

Tomorrow, 25^th May 2011, the Menarini Group, in collaboration with Viviani Editore, will be presenting the volume dedicated to ‘Bronzino’ at Palazzo Barberini in Rome.

The monograph, edited by Professor Claudio Strinati, traces the career of one of Italy’s most famous mannerist painters, Agnolo Bronzino, permanently active in Florence as court artist under Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici and contemporary of Giorgio Vasari. A pupil of Jacopo Pontormo, Bronzino was a 16^th century artist capable of toning down the darker and anti-classical works of his time whilst deftly maintaining intact the design and expressive power of both acrid colours and iridescent hues.

The presentation will commence at 18:00 in the splendid and majestic hall named after Pietro da Cortona in Palazzo Barberini.

Professor Rossella Vodret, Superintendent of the Historic, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Museums of Rome will be opening the presentation along with Professors Claudia Cieri Via, and Alessandro Zuccari. The author, Professor Claudio Strinati, Superintendent in Rome for more than twenty years, shall also be present, accompanied by co-author Stefania Pasti.

" This volume is the latest addition to our collection of monographs on some of the Italy’s finest painters and sculptors, and we are proud to have been able to carry on the almost half a century tradition with such a wonderful work on ‘Bronzino’. This superb volume also recalls the magnificent exhibition recently put on in honour of this great 16^th century artist," commented a member of the Menarini Group.

"A volume which is both rich and philological, capable of bringing readers truly close to this great Florentine artist" added Anna Lo Bianco, Director of Palazzo Barberini.

The event is sponsored by MIBAC, the Lazio Region, the Province of Rome and the Municipality of Rome.