Floriano. Ponte di arte e fede tra i popoli d'Europa

One thousand seven hundred years from the martyrdom of Floriano, which occurred on 4 May 304, this is a journey of discovery into the cultural and spiritual roots of Europe, of its variegated unity and of a saint that marked its destiny.
The book, which is part of the Illegio exhibition, documents aspects of the challenging journey to maturation of European cultural and spiritual identity from the ninth century to the end of the second Christian millennium through one hundred masterpieces from significant museums throughout the world and includes panel paintings and wood sculptures, canvases, codes and gold works from artists such as Dürer, Pacher, Altdorfer, Parth and Grassi.
Noteworthy among the masterpieces is the series of panels on the martyrdom of San Floriano (wonderfully reunited for this occasion) painted by Albrecht Altdorfer, and which is filled with historic and theological narrative and at the same time landscape detail and an extremely sophisticated and intense colour work. Since the sixteenth century the panels of this cycle have been held in different European countries: for the jubilee of Floriano they have finally been brought together.
Also noteworthy is the series of more than thirty sculptures in wood from Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Alto Adige, and Friuli, spanning the fifteenth century to the eighteenth century, where the magic of wood and gilding is used to depict the saint and, at that time, the most precious garments of the era, the most sophisticated armour, and the external features of both the populace and their culture. The exhibition also includes oil on canvas works, especially in from the Friuli and Veneto areas, but also codes such as the Passio Floriani, probably published in the Aquila area a few decades after the martyrdom of the saint, and present through transcriptions in two precious codes from the eighth and ninth centuries. In addition, there are gold works, painted glass, prints, wood cuts and every-day objects, proof of the spread of the cult of this saint who was much loved by the peoples from mountain areas.