3-078-067 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Beatrice Exhibition at Florence, 1890. '1. The Piazza del Duomo in Dante's Time; 2. Ancient Florentine Shops; 3. Tuscan Peasants Dancing the "Trescone"; 4. A Corner of the Needlework Section...[Cultural event organised by Count de Gubernatis celebrating] the fifth centenary of Dante's Beatrice...[It] is proving a grand success...The embroidery is profuse and exquisite as regards execution and richness...The coloured embroidery...leaves much to be desired as an exponent of purity of taste, for the colours are often crude and clashing, while the work is technically marvellous and painstaking...In the lower gallery the boxes round the plateau have been very artistically utilised by a transformation into ancient Florentine shops. Indeed, the whole centre of the theatre has been changed into Florence in the time of Dante; the stage forming the Piazza del Duomo, all the speakers and singers being dressed in tre-cento costumes. Here were antique stalls and shops, occupied by workwomen in old costumes...peasants in their respective costumes came to dance the national dances of each Province. The mad Neapolitan Tarantella, the arch-Trescone of the Tuscans, and the merry Salterello of the Romans were all illustrated'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.