La Repubblica
November 9, 2010
“Perfection: The replica of the Tondo Pitti in Bronze.”
The bronze castings of the Marinelli Foundry are known well in the art world, like the masterpieces they reproduce. In Florence, The Marinelli Artistic Foundry has been active for three generations making such copies as the Bacchus of Giambologna between the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) and Borgo San Jacopo, The Boar at the Mercato Nuovo, and the four Cellini figures on the base of his Perseus, which is in the Loggia dei Lanzi. There are examples of many works made by craftsmen that still work with life-sized figures in the old fashioned ways of many of the famous masters of the past. This is why the museum dedicated to Michelangelo, The Casa Buonarroti, decided to host from now until January 10, 2011 an exhibition, with eleven bronze pieces of Michelangelo made by the Marinelli Artistic Foundry. In the courtyard of the museum will be the Moses and the Medici Madonna located in the New Sacristy, while in the exhibition halls of the ground floor visitors will be able to admire a series of works by Michelangelo from his works as a young man, including The Madonna of the Stairs to his works later in life, including the tragic The Rondanini Pieta.The Florence show is enhanced by three original documents from the Buonarroti archive on events related to the Bacchus, The New Sacristy, and the Moses, which is the central figure of the Tomb of Pope Julius II. Original documents and letters used in the exhibit help us understand the development of the work of Michelangelo and the suffering he went through during what is called “the tragedy of the tomb” for Pope Julius II. The Marinelli Artistic Foundry was commissioned to create the bronzes by New Renaissance Art, and an American Society that will take these works of art worldwide. The American company has organized a traveling tour in the United States, Mexico, and Asia, called The Michelangelo Experience.