Milan and Florence have joined forces for an art exhibition, presenting four masterpieces of Florentine and Tuscan art, made between the 1300s and 1400s, at the traditional Christmas exhibit at Palazzo Marino, Milan’s city hall.

The exhibition, titled ‘La Carità e la Bellezza’ (charity and beauty) opened on Friday, and will be available to the public until January 15, 2023.

It will showcase the ‘Madonna with Child’ by Sandro Botticelli, the ‘Adoration of the Magi’ by Fra’ Angelico, the ‘Madonna with Child’ by Filippo Lippi and ‘Charity’, a sculpture by Siena’s Tino di Camaino.

This appointment with art, free for all citizens, will this year include all other eight municipalities, where shows will be open as of December 13 in libraries of the area, with masterworks from several institutions of the city, also focusing on the theme of charity and beauty, including four paintings from the 1600s and four from the 1800s and 1900s.

The culture councillor of the city of Milan, Tommaso Sacchi, hailed the “cultural federalism” between Milan and Florence, “in the name of culture and art”.

He said the show “for the first time, multiplies into four exhibitions.”

The show in the Sala Alessi of Palazzo Marino, curated by Stefano Zuffi and Domenico Piraina, features a special set-up of lights and fabrics, all totally sustainable, and which can be recycled, recreating a contemporary version of a cathedral.

The splendid sculpture ‘Charity’ by Tino di Camaino greets the public. It remained, for about two centuries, at the entrance of the Baptistery of the Duomo in Florence, a symbolic monument of the Tuscan capital, and was subsequently displayed by the Opera del Duomo Museum.

At the centre of the room, amid draped silks, is the Madonna with Child painted in 1500 by Sandro Botticelli, typically on display at the Stibbert Museum.

Also on show is Filippo Lippi’s ‘Madonna with Child’ from Palazzo Medici Riccardi, one of the last and most complete masterworks of the painter.

The refined tabernacle frame by Fra’ Angelico, now on loan, will arrive in Milan on December 20.

The jewel of the Museum of San Marco in Florence dates back to approximately 1430.

‘Charity and Beauty’ was also made possible thanks to funding provided by Intesa Sanpaolo, and the support of Rinascente.