Visitation in Absentia

exhibition catalogue: Poggio a Caiano, Villa Medicea, 9 July-27 September 2026
edited by Artis

At the Villa Medicea in Poggio a Caiano, Marco Bagnoli’s work meets that of Pontormo in a dialogue suspended between eras, united by a shared sense of place and a common striving towards the aspect of art which transcends the visible dimension.
“Visitazione in Assenza” stems from the temporary absence of Pontormo’s “Visitation”, currently away from its home in Carmignano but due to return shortly.
It is precisely this absence that creates a new space, within which Bagnoli’s three works can establish a relationship with the sixteenth-century master, one made up of echoes, silence and questions.
The works do not interpret Pontormo, but capture his tension, allowing for a meaning deeper than the merely stylistic to emerge: a shared unease in the gaze, a quest directed towards what the forms hold within but do not fully reveal.
The Villa Medicea thus becomes part of the project: not merely a repository of memory, but a living place, capable of connecting past and present, and of generating new ways of interpreting the works.
Within the journey that Bagnoli has developed over the years through the Medici Villas, “Visitazione in Assenza” represents a new stage in the subtle tapestry linking art, territory and memory.
A temporary encounter, yet one capable of leaving a mark that endures beyond the duration of the exhibition.