Michelangelo sculpture at the Year of Italian culture

Bargello sculpture gallery in Washington, USAYear of Italian culture in the U.S. opens in Washington. Italy’s foreign affairs minister will inaugurate The Year of Italian Culture in the United States event Wednesday with the loan of a Michelangelo sculpture to a major American gallery. Giulio Terzi will open the year-long event at Washington’s prestigious National Gallery of Art by unveiling the famous David-Apollo sculpture by Michelangelo.

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Door of Paradise unveiled after 27 years

Door of ParadiseAn eight-ton gilded bronze door so splendid Michelangelo dubbed it the “Door of Paradise” will be unveiled to the public again after 27 years of restoration work. But Lorenzo Ghiberti’s 15th-century door which bears scenes from the Old Testament won’t be going back in its place on the baptistery of Florence’s duomo, or cathedral. Instead, starting on Sept. 8, it will go on display in a case at a Florence museum, the Museo dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, to preserve it from renewed damage.

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Snow and ice in Florence over the centuries

Arno frozen (1985)This winter is one of the coldest in decades. But snow and ice have been “regular” events in the history of Florence. There are books that tell snowfall since the Middle Ages. Giorgio Vasari wrote about Piero de’ Medici, the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. He asked to Michelangelo to do “a statue that was beautiful” in the courtyard of his palace after the “big snow” of 1493.

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