Broken art reveals history in Florence exhibition
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Curators in Florence, Italy, are displaying over 80 fragmented artworks from four continents at the Palazzo Strozzi exhibition, “Broken: The Power of Fragmentation.”
The exhibit explores how broken sculptures and artifacts from a 4,500-year span, ranging from ancient Egypt to modern art, still hold meaning and tell stories. Organizers chose a fragment of a statue of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten as the exhibition’s visual identity, highlighting how even small pieces can reveal details about craftsmanship and power.
The show does not present fragments as simply losses, but as independent objects that retain memory and continue to provoke questions. Examples include a right hand from a colossal statue of Constantine, a clay prototype by Michelangelo, and a partially completed marble sculpture by Adrián Villar Rojas created with a robotic machine.
Political motivations also account for the destruction of art, as demonstrated by a fragment of a sword, a garment piece, and a leg from a bronze equestrian statue of Demetrius the Poliorcetes, deliberately broken and discarded by Athenians after an attack. The exhibition also features a bullet-ridden bust of Benito Mussolini, damaged by Italian partisans after World War II, and artifacts damaged by war and natural disasters, like a Neo-Hittite tomb sculpture shattered during bombing raids in Berlin.
The exhibit runs until January 24th and will then move to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
