Pieve di San Michele Arcangelo and Bill Viola

In the town that usually hosts Pontormo’s Visitation, now on display in Palazzo Strozzi in dialogue with Bill Viola’s The Greeting, a conference introduces the Florentine exhibition.

Bill Viola said: “No, I hadn’t seen the Visitation. And besides, it was outside Florence, in Carmignano. My encounter with the painting occurred in California. I’d gone to a bookstore and out of the corner of my eye I saw a new book on Pontormo with the Visitation on the jacket. I was struck by the colours. I knew nothing about the picture but I just couldn’t stop looking at it. I bought the book and took it home but I waited for months before picking it up. Finally I opened the book, read it, and was mesmerised by the painter’s ideas and colours. That was how The Greeting was conceived.”

Piazza dei Santi Francesco e Michele 1, Carmignano
tel. +39 055 8712046

This initiative is part of the project Piccoli Grandi Musei by Fondazione CR Firenze