A major exhibition entitled The Style of the Zar. Art and Fashion in Russia and Italy between the XIV th and XVIII th  centuries opened in Prato (Tuscany) on the 19 th September 2009 in the Museo del Tessuto (Fabric Museum). 130 works of art illustrate three centuries of intense commerce in luxurious fabrics and vestments between imperial Russia and the city of Prato, leader in the production of the velvets and damask beloved by the Russian court. During the renaissance, the merchants of Venice and Florence travelled the Silk Road eastwards to Moscow to exchange their precious cloths for Russian furs, such as ermine, lynx and wolf.  

The exhibition contains curiosities such as the silk baptismal robe of Peter the Great from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, magnificent silver and gold-embroidered liturgical robes and vestments from the Kremlin and numerous paintings and portraits of nobles and royals arrayed in all their finery.

The city of Prato is especially happy to welcome back, for the duration of the exhibition, an exceptional work of art that once belonged to the Church of San Francesco in Prato but which has been in Russias Hermitage Museum since 1825. An enormous altar-piece entitled The Circumcision by Ludovico Cardi, known as Il Cigoli (1559-1613), it measures over three metres in height and two metres wide and dazzles viewers with the crimson damask robe worn by the High Priest in the foreground.

The exhibition also illustrates the correspondence and dealings between Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible with the de Medici family in Tuscany.

The exhibition will run until the 10 th January 2010.

For information: Tel (0039) 8007 14049  www.lostiledellozar.it