XXY DE' MEDICI

From June 16 to July 20, 2025, the Museo de’ Medici in Florence hosts XXY – de’ Medici, a bold new solo exhibition by Swiss artist Saul Zanolari. This powerful and radical project reinterprets the visual and cultural legacy of the Medici dynasty through a contemporary, essential, and immediate visual language.

The XXY – de’ Medici series stems from a deep reflection on contemporary obsessions with identity, power, and self-representation. Zanolari deliberately strips the portrait of its traditional narrative function, giving it new life through synthesis, symbolism, and tension. His figures are deprived of eyes—replaced with pairs of sex chromosomes (XX for female subjects, XY for male)—signifying the loss of individuality in favor of a fundamental categorization.

Instead of expressive gazes or detailed features, Zanolari uses minimal graphic elements such as stylized red nipples (a dot in the center for XX, an X for XY), often placed at the sides of the face. The color palette is extremely limited: no more than four colors per panel, applied with surgical precision to build striking visual compositions.

The exhibition consists of 30 hand-painted and engraved wooden panels (50×50 cm each). Three panels form the visible sides of each open-top and open-bottom cube, while the fourth side is left blank or engraved with symbolic motifs. These cubes are stacked into five vertical totems, creating an immersive installation that transforms the exhibition space into a sort of visual temple of memory.

In addition to the main works on wood, Zanolari will draw directly onto the museum’s greenhouse walls in black marker, depicting additional figures connected to the Medici era. These include Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Marsilio Ficino, Galileo Galilei, and the famous “Porcellino” of Florence—all rendered in the same stylized, monochromatic aesthetic.

Zanolari’s selection spans the entire historical arc of Medici influence, from patriarch Giovanni di Bicci to the last heir, Anna Maria Luisa. Key figures include Lorenzo the Magnificent, Cosimo the Elder, Cosimo I, Catherine de’ Medici, Pope Leo X, and Clement VII—along with lesser-known or related individuals like Niccolò Machiavelli, Vittoria della Rovere, and Eleonora Gonzaga.

Altogether, the exhibition showcases 33 primary characters on wood panels and an additional 12–14 wall-drawn figures, bringing the total to more than 45 visual presences. Each figure is reduced to its essence—devoid of mimetic likeness—yet remains instantly recognizable. The result is a gallery of historical ghosts that impose themselves on the present with archetypal strength.

XXY – de’ Medici is far more than a celebratory show. It’s a conceptual operation that challenges the very idea of portraiture, power, and identity. Drawing from the Medici—icons of the Renaissance and the birth of modernity—Zanolari reflects on our own time, dominated by a new cult of the image, inflated egos, and the constant performance of self.

In this sense, Zanolari’s work critiques the branding of identity: while portraits once served to establish memory and authority, today they exist to attract attention. The Medici, masters of constructing power through art, are thus symbolically presented as the “grandparents” of today’s digital culture.

The exhibition’s non-didactic setup invites the public to engage actively with the visual experience, exploring connections, interpretations, and emotional responses. Each portrait is, in Zanolari’s words, a “game of the ego,” and its value lies in the reaction it provokes in the viewer. There is no single “truth” to uncover—only a relationship to be activated.

With XXY – de’ Medici, Saul Zanolari presents one of his most mature and radical projects—one that fuses theoretical depth, visual experimentation, and emotional impact. It re-reads the past to speak powerfully to the present, using an iconic visual force that’s impossible to ignore.

Saul Zanolari is a Swiss artist, born in Mendrisio on September 18, 1977. His artistic research revolves around figurative expression, marked by a continuous evolution toward visual minimalism and a strong focus on identity—both individual and collective.

Initially known for his digital works, which were exhibited internationally in cities such as New York, Beijing, Milan, Shanghai, London, Paris, Valencia etc., Zanolari progressively shifted away from visual complexity, embracing a highly distilled and symbolic aesthetic. His recent works explore the simplification of form as a means of direct, immediate communication—responding to the increasingly image-saturated and fast-paced nature of contemporary visual culture.

In 2025, he presents the solo exhibition “XXY – de’ Medici” at the Museo de’ Medici in Florence. The project comprises a series of stylized portraits depicting members of the Medici family and key figures of the Renaissance. Executed on painted and engraved wooden panels, the portraits are assembled into sculptural modular cubes. These works reflect on themes of power, patronage, and legacy, creating a visual and conceptual bridge between historical and contemporary modes of representation. The exhibition also features site-specific wall drawings designed in continuity with the portrait series.

In parallel, Zanolari develops the “XXY PORTRAITS 2025” series, pushing visual reduction to its extreme. In these works, subjects are stripped of facial features such as eyes, replaced instead by chromosomal markers (XX or XY) and stylized nipples (red circles with a dot or an X), becoming universal identifiers rather than individual traits. Through this symbolic system, Zanolari explores the loss of individuality in favor of essential categorization, offering a sharp commentary on identity and representation in the digital era.

Zanolari views art as a relational and communicative tool. The value of an artwork, in his perspective, lies not in technical execution but in the emotional or psychological reaction it provokes. His portraits are conceived as catalysts for response—highly recognizable, impactful images that bypass narrative in favor of direct engagement.

His most recent work also expands into the realms of design and textile production, applying his visual language to items such as wallpapers, garments, accessories, and furniture fabrics, thereby extending the artwork’s reach into daily life and emphasizing art as a lived, wearable, and immersive experience.