Art & Antiques at Florence’s 2024 BIAF
Celebrating the 33rd edition and in return over 60 years of the event, the Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato di Firenze (BIAF) gathers together art dealers both Italian and international to display quality modern and early pieces. Whether created by the hands of Italian masters themselves or artists who have engaged in Italian artistic heritage whilst working in Italy, BIAF offers its visitors the opportunity to browse a selection of antiques and artwork in the creative hub that is Florence, from September 28 to October 6.
The BIAF exists as one of the most important events dedicated to Italian art in the world, with over 25,000 visitors attending the last edition in 2023. The event also works in tandem with a rich cultural programme which involves and stretches across the entire city.
Florence’s mayor, Sara Funaro describes the fair as offering the occasion to immerse ourselves in the beauty and richness of art, “a unique opportunity for all art lovers to admire rare and precious pieces up close.”
The ornate rooms of Palazzo Corsini, which overlook the Arno River, serve as a backdrop to the fair. The building dates from the 17th century and has previously been passed through the Ardinghelli, Medici and finally, the Corsini families with the Corsini descendants remaining as the owners today. The antiques show is set up to complement the late Baroque interior, comprising the terracotta details on the ceilings and the paintings executed by painters such as Anton Domenico Gabbiani, Alessandro Gherardini and Pier Dandini.
Florence itself is renowned for its artistic heritage and the city’s appreciation for art from all eras. Likewise, the BIAF prides itself on showcasing works from ancient times to more recent memory, with pieces from the late nineties as the most contemporary at the event. This year’s edition welcomes 80 prestigious exhibitors with 14 galleries joining the occasion for the first time; additionally, 13 more galleries will be in attendance from overseas.
The galleries in attendance comprise a unique group of dealers including Conalghi, Agnews, Botticelli Antichità and Enrico Frascione in addition to Sarti, Tornabuoni, Lampronti, Piva, Sperone & Westwater, Dickinson, Caretto & Occhinegro, Romano Fine Arts and Flavio Gianassi. Also joining the event are Lullo Pampoulides from London and Rob Smeets from Geneva, both experts in old master paintings.
In the year of its 30th anniversary, Gallery Maurizio Canesso presents Bronzino’s Madonna col Bambino. The work is an “extraordinary testimonial to the crucial moment of Bronzino’s career where Pontormo’s artistic influence is still vivid in his paintings but is in conversation with the purity and vivacity that would become characteristic of Bronzino’s maturity,” dating from 1525-26.
Bronzino, a Florentine artist of the 16th century, is best known for his portraits, in particular of the Medici family. Having only produced 85 paintings in his lifetime, the inclusion of this piece at the BIAF is certainly notable. The work demonstrates the point in Bronzino’s career during which he begins turning away from Pontormo, to whom he was apprenticed, and instead embraces the style that he would become best known.
Carlo Orsi will showcase Madonna con il Bambino and Santa Maria Maddalena, an oil painting by Tiziano Vecellio, or Titian, that is excellently preserved and executed with mastery. Created between 1555 and 1560, it is superior to other pieces by the Renaissance artist (1488/90 – 1576) depicting the same subjects and has been displayed in renowned museums such as Museo di Capodimonte, Galleria degli Uffizi and Hermitage of Saint Petersburg.
Botticelli Antichità presents the sculpture Testa del vescovo of Bishop Andrea de’ Mozzi, an important name in regards to the artistic development of 13th century Florence, responsible for the creation of Santa Croce and the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital.
Other notable pieces at the BIAF include Ambrogio Borghi’s polychrome plaster sculpture La Chioma di Berenice, or The Tresses of Berenice, which replicates the Carrara marble sculpture of the same name that the artist famously brought to the International Exhibition of Paris in 1878. It was there that this sculpture of “the most beautiful body of a young woman who has ever come out […] of a block of Carrara” (Parisian Gazette) was rightfully successful and even sold before the auction itself. The figure of young Queen Berenice is portrayed wearing only a necklace and raising her hands to the divine, supposedly vowing to sacrifice her flowing hair for the safe return of her husband from the war.
The Moroni Renzo gallery is offering two classical still-lifes featuring fruit, dating from the 17th century. The first is Natura morta di uva, pesche, anguria posta su un piano in pietra e un cardellino, painted by Luca Forte. The second, by Francesco Annicini, is entitled Natura morta di melagrane, uva, prugna e pesche, also an oil painting of the same era. Fruit still-lifes, whilst popular for their practicality to create, are also symbolic of the impermanence of life.
Amongst other works, Gallery Robertaebasta is showing Elefantessa con Elefantino (Elephant with baby elephant), a dark patinated bronze sculpture by Italian animalier Sirio Tofanari. Born in Florence in 1886, Tofanari became best known for his monkey sculptures, as was popular on the French market, thus the Elefantessa con Elefantino sculpture presents an alternative, unique insight into the artist’s body of works.
Also exhibited by Robertaebasta is Bernard Buffet’s Moustique (Mosquito), from 1952. Often compared to Pablo Picasso in regards to popularity and artistic capacity, Buffet was one of the most famous French painters, printmakers and sculptors in the 1950s. Despite having created a considerably diverse body of work, Moustique is characteristic of the figurative and “miserabilist” style that Buffet is remembered for.
On the topic of this year’s BIAF, general secretary of the event Fabrizio Moretti states that “The list of galleries speaks for itself […] Each exhibitor is the expert in their field, so to have them all gathered under one roof at Palazzo Corsini is an unmissable opportunity for collectors and the general public.”
The International Biennial Antiques Show
September 28 – October 6
Palazzo Corsini Via del Parione, 11, Florence.
Open from 10.30 am to 8 pm daily
Admission: €15
