Rollins Museum of Art Announces Beyond the Medici Exhibition

The Rollins Museum of Art (RMA) is pleased to announce it will unveil Beyond the Medici: The Haukohl Family Collection, a touring exhibition of Florentine Baroque art from the 16th to 18th centuries. Opening September 9 and running through January 7, 2024, the exhibition makes its first U.S. stop at RMA, traveling from there to universities across the country in a tour that seeks to advance the humanities and scholastic study of old master art at colleges and universities.

The exhibition features a selection of works from the Haukohl Family Collection, the largest private collection of Florentine Baroque art from the 16th to 18th centuries and perhaps the most important outside Italy. Considering the work in the context of the influential Medici dynasty, whose leadership in Florence played an important role in the unfurling of the Renaissance and Baroque movements, the collection represents a deep fascination with a particular style of Baroque art that is more restrained, more poetic, and less well-known.

Beyond the Medici: The Haukohl Collection hopes to demonstrate that the Florentine artists of this time influenced European art history to a far greater extent than art historical research and the general public have previously perceived.

“Opening new doors onto the consequential role of art in society and history is at the core of our mission,” says Ena Heller, Bruce A. Beal Director of RMA. “The Haukohl collection offers an amazing opportunity for a college art museum like ours to shine a spotlight onto a period that often receives only cursory attention.”

Comprising six sculptures, 24 paintings (many in their original 17th-century frames), one drawing, and one textile, Beyond the Medici is sure to spark conversation around these richly varied, sensuous, and mystical works.