On the occasion of the Fra Angelico exhibition, Fondazione CR Firenze and Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi are promoting a series of special guided tours to explore the techniques and colors used by Beato Angelico and in the workshops of fifteenth-century Florence.
What stories do the colours in Beato Angelico’s paintings tell? How does an azurite blue differ from lapis lazuli? Each pigment carries its own history, opening a window onto the social, cultural and political life of the time: from the prestige of patrons to the fashions of 15th-century Florence, from trade routes to the mines where minerals were extracted. Colours also speak of the techniques handed down in the workshops of the period, knowledge shared across generations of masters and apprentices.
The Colours of Fra Angelico is a special tour of the exhibition that weaves together art history, the history of pigments, and art techniques, explored through a selection of works on display at Palazzo Strozzi. The tours are co-led by Martino Margheri, museum educator, and Bartolomeo Ciccone, specialist in painting techniques.
In Angelico’s works on panel and in fresco, colours enrich the splendour of figures or highlight the simplicity of spaces for prayer. The Colours of Fra Angelico offers a chance to step closer to the painting style of the monk painter and rediscover the stories of Renaissance Florence.
The visit continues at the Maria Manetti Shrem Educational Center at Palazzo Strozzi, where participants can explore the materials, techniques and tools used by Angelico and other artists of the Quattrocento.
Tours held in Italian.
Booking required.
Fondazione CR Firenze offers free admission and activities to residents of the Metropolitan City of Florence.
Calendar
Wednesday 5 and 12 November 2025, 18.00-19.30
Tuesday 9 and 16 December 2025, 18.00-19.30
Thursday 8 and 15 January 2026, 18.00-19.30
Reservation office
CSC Sigma
From Monday to Friday
9.00-18.00
Tel. +39 055 26 45 155
prenotazioni@palazzostrozzi.org
Cover: Fra Angelico, Reliquary Tabernacles of Santa Maria Novella, Funeral and Assumption of the Virgin (det.), early 1430s, Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, inv. P15w34. Photo credits: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
