Botticelli’s Annunciation exhibit opens in Jerusalem

FLORENCE, ITALY – The Botticelli masterpiece “The Annunciation of San Martino alla Scala” will have pride of place in one of the Museum of Israel’s most important halls in Jerusalem starting Tuesday.

This is the first time the work will be exhibited in Israel. “This is a gift that we are giving Israel – with the staunch support of the Italian embassy in Tel Aviv – for the 65th anniversary of its birth. It is a gift for the Jewish New Year, which recently started, and especially Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles),” which begins tomorrow, noted Simonetta Della Seta, director general of the Italian-Israeli Foundation for Culture and Arts, which is launching its activities in Israel with the exhibition of the Botticelli fresco.

The large work (almost six metres by three) will stay in Jerusalem for four months in order to give “the most Israelis possible the chance to see it. This is the first time that such an important Renaissance work has been shown here,” said Della Seta. It was not chosen randomly by the superintendent of the Florence museum circuit Cristina Acidini, but because it has all “the elements of Renaissance aesthetics, from prospective to draping, as well as because the history of the masterpiece actually happened in these lands.

This is an important connection.” The fresco arrived in Israel in two crates. First it went to Innsbruck and then Lieges, where it was loaded onto a cargo plane for Tel Aviv. Specialized technical staff watched over the work for the entire journey, as well as armed guards. The Botticelli “mission” to Israel – said the Italian ambassador to Israel Francesco Maria Talo’ – was followed “closely by the Italian and Israeli ministers Massimo Bray and Limor Livnat.”