Still on show until the 12th March, at the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence, in the historical Palazzo Spini Feroni, since 1938 seat of this famous brand, the exhibition: Salvatore Ferragamo: Inspiration and Vision. Two halls of the museum are now being totally dedicated to the history and works of Salvatore Ferragamo, Florentine shoe designer of the early 20th century, with shifting exhibitions on his most important creations, to satisfy fans of Ferragamo’s women shoes.
The project at issue is the most complex ever built by the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum. Except for the permanent section of the museum, which will exhibit over 102 different models of shoes, as well as documents, photos, and the wooden forms of the feet of famous clients, the exhibition itself will host 255 pieces, including 99 Salvatore Ferragamo shoes, dating back to the twenties through the end of 1950, and 156 works of art from public and private collections, not only international but especially Italian and Florentine.
What does the cloak of scarlet ibis feathers, made in the 16th century in Brazil and belonging to the collection of Cosimo II de Medici, the nativity of Sano di Pietro from the early 15th century, the illustrations by Sonia Delaunay for a French prose book, or either Andy Warhol’s drawings of shoes on gold paper share with Ferragamo’s models? The answers are found in the journey in time of Salvatore Ferragamo’s imagery, in search of the sources of his creative imagination.
Questions faced by curators in preparing the exhibition were as follows: Does an artist always have a source of inspiration in developing a creative idea? How is it elaborated, which is the way it profiles, which are the results it leads to? How does one’s personal history, culture, talent and emotions interact with the artist’s inspiration? The roads to take in account with any self-respecting artist are various. In the case of Salvatore Ferragamo two are the moments in life that favourably influenced his process of inspiration: the arrival in California in the 1910s and the return to Italy in 1927, and precisely to Florence, at that time the country’s centre of artistic and cultural life.
Florence, the birthplace and earliest centre of Italy’s modern fashion industry: a must for shopaholics. Link to one of our holiday accommodations in Florence.
