The Uffizi Museum has moved to Elba island: Artworks narrate Emperor Bonaparte

This art show is the first exhibition to be opened as part of the Uffizi Diffusi project.

The Museum’s Director Eike Schmidt: “We are celebrating Napoleon’s bicentenary by uniting the collections of the Galleries with the artistic wealth of the region”

Sculptures, paintings, and artworks are collected at the exhibition Nel Segno di Napoleone (In the name of Napoleon): The Uffizi Diffusi at Pinacoteca Foresiana in Portofferaio, to celebrate Napoleon Bonaparte on the bicentenary of his death. The art gallery has been opened to visitors starting July 9^th 2021 and will be present until October 10^th 2021. The Uffizi Galleries concretely inaugurate the large-scale dissemination plan across Tuscany presented in the past weeks.

The exhibition also provides an opportunity to reopen to visitors the cultural space of the Pinacoteca Foresiana, inside the prestigious historical De Laugier barracks in Portoferraio, after last year’s shutdown due to the pandemic.

“Nel segno di Napoleone” will have a twofold purpose: highlighting the strong bond between the French Emperor and Elba Island, which was the site of his exile between May 1814 and February 1815, while enhancing a fundamental stage in the island’s history, using the treasures of the Uffizi Museum and the Pinacoteca.

The influence of Bonaparte’s figure in the Tuscan region went far beyond the period of his political domain over the territory. It had a profound effect on the development and renewal of the art sector in Tuscany, leaving a lasting mark on the future eras.

A selection of artworks from the Uffizi Galleries – paintings, sculptures, and art objects – have been collected to provide a compelling illustration of Napoleon’s time in Tuscany.

The imperial style was marked by the elegance of Roman times and yet open to a modern design. It has become indeed an effective way of promoting the heroic myth of Napoleon and his wife Marie-Louise of Habsburg, and the other members of the Bonaparte family, through the reproduction of portraits, sculpted or painted, that were able to spread the image of the royal family in all territory that were under the French authority.