"Empoli 1424. Masolino and the Dawn of the Renaissance"

From April 6 to July 7, the Museum of the Collegiate Church of St. Andrea and the Church of St. Stefano in Empoli are the scene of an extraordinary and unrepeatable art event, dedicated to Masolino da Panicale (1383/84 - 1436/40), an author who, alongside Masaccio and Beato Angelico, made a decisive contribution to the start of Renaissance painting in Florence in the 15th century and who precisely in the Tuscan city experienced one of the decisive moments of stylistic growth.

600 years after the completion of the Cycle of the True Cross (Ciclo della Vera Croce) for the church of Santo Stefano, the exhibition "Empoli 1424. Masolino and the Dawn of the Renaissance" brings together the largest number of works ever presented so far, some preserved in Empoli, others from prestigious institutions, such as the Uffizi Galleries and the Bargello Museum in Florence, the Pinacoteca Vaticana, the Musée Ingres in Montauban, the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, the Museo di Palazzo Venezia in Rome, the Museo di San Matteo in Pisa, and many more.

The aim of the exhibition is to reconstruct the cultural context in which Masolino moved, whose works will be flanked by those of painters who shared his same openness to new stylistic solutions, such as Lorenzo Monaco, Gherardo Starnina, Giovanni Toscani and others.