From 20 December 2022 to 12 March 2023, the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, in collaboration with the MArRC, Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Reggio Calabria, hosts THE RIACE BRONZES, a journey through images exhibition, photographs by Luigi Spina, curated by Carmelo Malacrino, director of the MArRC, created for the fiftieth anniversary of their discovery, an extraordinary event that has marked the history of our country’s artistic heritage.

“As part of the DAVID 140 programme, which celebrates the 140th anniversary of Michelangelo’s masterpiece in the gallery of our museum – says Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence – our aim was to bring together, albeit only virtually, the sculptures of the most beautiful and powerful heroes in art: the statues that emerged from the sea in Riace, restored and displayed for the first time in Florence, illustrated here by the beautiful photographs of Luigi Spina, and our David, to celebrate two important birthdays together with Carmelo Malacrino and the MArRC. A unique opportunity to create a significant and fruitful collaboration between two institutions of the MiC – Ministry of Culture, such as ours”.

“Bringing the image of the Riace Bronzes back to the city where they were displayed to the public for the first time will be an emotional occasion”, commented director Malacrino. “Fifty years after their discovery, these two “Mediterranean masterpieces” continue to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to Calabria from all over the world. I would like to thank director Hollberg for wanting to bring together two icons of art: the Riace Bronzes and Michelangelo’s David. It’s an evocative exhibition and a concrete example of synergy Involving great Italian museums”.

The two magnificent bronze statues were discovered on 16 August 1972, during an underwater fishing trip near Riace Marina, at a depth of 8 metres. After an adventurous salvage operation, the two warriors – two naked male figures, conventionally called A and B, or the “Young man” and the “Old man”, slightly larger than normal – were transported to the Museo Nazionale in Reggio Calabria, where they were subjected to initial restoration work, which was subsequently continued, at the start of 1975, at the Laboratorio della Soprintendenza Archeologica in Tuscany. The Bronzes were exhibited to the public for the first time in December 1980, in Florence, at the Museo Archeologico, and then, in 1981, in the Quirinale palace, in Rome. The event garnered huge media coverage, which attracted crowds of visitors from everywhere. Studies have established that the two works can be traced back to the golden age of Greek art, datable around the middle of the fifth century B.C., an example of a skilful, refined bronze-working technique, perhaps made by two different masters, but in any event for public display.

16 large-format photographs (90 x 134 cm), a work created by Carmelo Malacrino and Luigi Spina to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their discovery, will be exhibited in the temporary exhibition rooms on the ground floor at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. It is a tribute to the power and iconographic beauty of the Riace Bronzes, undisputed masterpieces of Greek art from the 5th century B.C. As Spina explains, the sequence of images, eight plus eight, dedicated respectively to statue A and statue B, creates a slow, incessant account. “It underlines the bronze epidermis, different on each subject, which takes shape, density and brightness, and the chiaroscuro of the bodies is tinged with the multiform spectrum of bronze which, as the light changes, shows bodily surfaces that communicate with the gaze of onlookers”. The photographer’s goal is to bring out aspects that are not only objectively visible, but profoundly appertain to our culture.

The exhibition is accompanied by a precious volume available in three languages (Italian, English and French), published by 5 Continents Editions, as part of the “Tesori Nascosti” series, in which Spina’s images are flanked by a historical and artistic account of the two statues, with texts by Carmelo Malacrino and Riccardo Di Cesare, an archaeologist and professor at Foggia University, allowing the reader to immerse themselves in the evocative history of the Bronzes, containing scientific truths and questions that still remain open.

Luigi Spina. His main research fields are amphitheatres, the civic sense of that which is sacred, links between art and faith, ancient cultural identities, the comparison with classical sculpture, an obsessive research on the sea and the caches of the archaeologist dreamer (Giorgio Buchner). He has published over 22 photographic personal research books and has created prestigious photographic campaigns for institutions and museums. Of the volumes published, in various languages and throughout the world, it is worth mentioning the project on the Roman Forum, L’Ora Incerta, Electaphoto (2014); The Buchner Boxes (2014), Le Danzatrici della Villa dei Papiri (2015), Diario Mitico, Cronache visive sulla collezione Farnese (2017), Canova. Quattro tempi (2020), I Confratelli (2020), all published by 5 Continents Editions; Volti di Roma alla Centrale Montemartini, Silvana Editoriale (2019), Sing Sing, il corpo di Pompei (2020), and Bronzi di Riace (2022) all by 5 Continents Editions.
In 2020, Artribune awarded him the title of best photographer of the year. In 2022, he is one of the finalists of the 73rd Michetti Award for Contemporary Art and winner of the first Digital Michetti.
The cultural institutions at which he has exhibited include: Museo Archeologico in Naples; Musei Capitolini in Rome; Museo Campano in Capua; Galleria San Fedele, Milan; Museo MADRE, Naples; Palazzo dell’EUR, Rome; Reggia di Caserta; MACRO, Rome; Galerie Patrick Mestdagh, Brussels; MIAFAIR Milan; Postermostra, Lisbon, Kranj, Slovenia; Gallery of Fine Art, Uzbekistan; MART, Rovereto; Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Reggio Calabria.
Some of his works are preserved and on permanent exhibition at the Museo Nazionale Romano di Palazzo Altemps, Rome; Capodichino Airport, Naples; Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples; Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Reggio Calabria; Fondazione Michetti, Francavilla al Mare (Chieti).