This exhibition is dedicated to the representation of one object: the stringed instrument. Like all instruments, it requires the intervention of the hand to fulfil its function. Only in this way can it create the sound of the strings, which, invisible and incorporeal, fills the surrounding space with harmonious sounds. The hand alone however can do very little: it all depends on whose it is. Orpheus, Apollo, Arion and David were all well-known for their extraordinary ability in playing a stringed instrument. In the works on display here we see how this musical object determines each of their stories, and vice-versa, how their narratives influence the perception of the instrument as a symbol of harmony in the broadest sense.

A group of prints and drawings from the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, primarily from the fifteenth and sixteenth century, have been further enriched with a small selection of works from the Biblioteca Marucelliana and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, which has also loaned the small statue of Orpheus by Bertoldo di Giovanni. The instruments depicted in these works are not only representations of harmony, but also testify to the history of the construction of musical instruments and their use in the early modern period, in continuity with the 1952 show Mostra di strumenti musicali in disegni degli Uffizi. This exhibition, curated by Susanne Pollack, reinforces the long-standing collaboration between the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut and the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi.