BUFFONI, VILLANI E GIOCATORI

This exhibition catalogue, unique in its kind, collects and exposes an interesting theme of gender painting dedicated to those figures who circulated at the Court of the Medici as clowns, players and dwarves coming from the countryside but also from afar in the wake of grand duchesses and princesses promised brides. The works on display from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, mainly coming from the deposits of the Palatine Gallery, illustrate bizarre figurative subjects and have considerable importance because they were created by artists such as Suttermans, Giambologna, Bronzino and Gabbiani. Among the most famous subjects represented are Meo Matto, the dwarf Morgante and Gabriello Martinez who cheered and entertained the illustrious guests of the Grand Dukes.

Edited by: Anna Bisceglia, Matteo Ceriana, Simona Mammana