54th edition of Forme nel Verde.
The 54th edition of Forme nel Verde, running until November 2nd , 2025, celebrates bronze, the eternal, age-old material that has always accompanied artists in creating marvelous works and great sculptural masterpieces. “Fondere il Tempo” (Casting Time) is the title of the exhibition promoted by the Municipality of San Quirico d’Orcia and curated by Artistic Director Carlo Pizzichini. For the 2025 edition of Forme nel Verde, the exhibition showcases the beauty and value of bronze sculpture through a privileged dialogue with one of the most important artistic foundries in Italy: the Leonardo Del Giudice Foundry in Greve in Chianti, which this year celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. This historic forge of art has always been a reference point for national and international artists and masters, who have produced and continue to produce their works here, finding in it the great Italian artistic tradition of bronze casting.
“Fondere il Tempo” tells the story of both the extraordinary skill of the founders, true masters of art whose secrets have been handed down through generations, and the passage of time and history. This edition of Forme nel Verde thus embraces both ancient and new forms, transforming into a privileged exhibition space where visitors can experience faithful reproductions of universal masterpieces of ancient bronze art, such as the Chimera of Arezzo, Verrocchio’s David, Donatello’s David, and Giambologna’s Mercury, displayed at Palazzo Chigi Zondadari. Meanwhile, in the Horti Leonini, the spotlight turns to 20th-century and contemporary sculpture, featuring works by artists who cast their bronzes at the renowned Del Giudice Foundry.
In these places, set within one of the world’s most beautiful landscapes and recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, bronze is part of history. Indeed, numerous votive bronze sculptures have been found in the thermal waters of San Casciano dei Bagni, whose very recent discovery further confirms the strong connection between the Etruscan people and sculpture in this marvelous material.
Forme nel Verde, created to showcase sculpture in open spaces, focuses in this edition on the age-old material of bronze, aiming to highlight and promote the craftsmanship and traditional know-how that celebrates sculptural art born from fire. Among the beauty of the hedges that define the Horti Leonini, an extraordinary example of a late-Renaissance Italian garden, the works of Fuad Aziz, Roberto Barni, Adriano Bimbi, Giuseppe Calonaci, Paola Crema, Antonio Crivelli, Giacomo Del Giudice, Sarah Del Giudice, Giulio Galgani, Alberto Inglesi, Sister Elena Manganelli OSA, Vittoria Marziari, Kurt Laurenz Metzler, Claudio Nicoli, Mario Pavesi, Carlo Pizzichini, Boris Stampfli, Willy Wimpfheimer are exhibited.
Through the sculptures on display, the exhibition aims to highlight all those phases of artistic creation that take place between the artist’s idea and the finished work. This includes the entire ancient and artisanal process that passes through the hands of the founders, who are themselves artists and, above all, translators of the sculptor’s aesthetic intentions and conceptual thought into molten metal.
Many exhibitions focus on the finished artwork, while very few explore the creative process behind it. Yet, understanding how a work comes to life is essential to fully appreciating its value. The foundry, with the skill of its artisans, is a treasure trove of knowledge and craftsmanship to be preserved, shared, and promoted. It stands as a tradition where certain gestures are repeated over time, and where molten material adapts even to the most imaginative forms of the contemporary. Founders stand exactly at the midpoint between the artist’s creativity and the finished work, celebrating a craft that is at risk of extinction due to its complexity and the preciousness of a material designed to endure for centuries. Indeed, over millennia, very little has changed in the bronze casting process; those gestures and steps have remained largely the same, from the Etruscans to the present day.
To provide a comprehensive insight into this process, Palazzo Chigi Zondadari hosts the exhibition “Scultura a Palazzo. Come nasce un bronzo” (Sculpture at the Palace. How a bronze sculpture is created), featuring works cast at the Del Giudice Foundry by Francesco Battaglini, Leonardo Bossio, Roberto Fallani, Lorenzo Galligani, Leonardo Del Giudice, Roberta Grigolon, Manuel Mancini, Paolo Morandi, Fulvio Pratesi, Alessandro Reggioli, Fulvio Ticciati, Reinhold Traxl, Helidon Xhixha. To complete this journey, some rooms are dedicated to a didactic-educational itinerary, designed to guide visitors through the process of creating a bronze sculpture: from the clay model, to the plaster mold, to the wax, and finally the casting process. This section is enriched with models, photographs, and explanatory videos featuring interviews with the artisans.
Between Siena and Florence, in Greve in Chianti, the Leonardo Del Giudice Foundry, led by Giacomo and Sarah Del Giudice, plays a central role in this edition of Forme nel Verde. A family, its tradition, its generations: the grandson following in his grandfather’s footsteps, having already passed on the secrets and passion for the craft to his own children, a passion that has extended to wives and mothers as well, making the entire family fully dedicated to the art of the foundry. This is a space brimming with knowledge, where a unique and extraordinary gallery emerges, showcasing classical sculptures, galleries of plaster casts, shelves of molds, and historic conversations between icons of Renaissance sculpture and the boldest contemporary experiments. All in bronze, all translated into the noble metal, shining and dark, graceful and colorful, personalized with shades of oxides and patinas.
As in previous editions, Forme nel Verde presents two additional exhibitions at Palazzo Chigi Zondadari. This year, in the rooms on the first floor, visitors can explore: “Scultura a Palazzo. Forme nel Verde Young 2025”, featuring a selection of works by students from the Academies of Fine Arts in Bologna, Carrara, Florence, Macerata, and Milan. On the second floor of Palazzo Chigi Zondadari, the exhibition “Ceramica a Palazzo. Raccolta di Ceramica Contemporanea della Nobile Contrada del Nicchio di Siena” (Ceramics at the Palace. Collection of Contemporary Ceramics from the Noble Contrada del Nicchio in Siena) is on display. Organized in collaboration with the Association of Potters of the Nobile Contrada del Nicchio, the exhibition aims to showcase the many applications of ceramics, its varied techniques and styles, and the boundless expressive potential of this ancient art form.
This exhibition continues the legacy of an ancient tradition that, for a significant historical period, was marked by a unique ceramic manufactory in San Quirico d’Orcia (the Chigi ceramics, 1693–1795). It also aims to commemorate the recent founding of the Museo delle Ceramiche Senesi and to revive a sincere interest in rediscovering this art form, once regarded as minor, yet capable of enchanting adults and children alike, as well as specialists and artists.
