Mei 3 : Casa Buonarrotti - Communita di Sant'Egidio (Chiesa di Sta Margherita dei Ricci)

mei 03, 2017

Woensdag 3 Mei: een koude, regenachtige dag (12°C)

Ik ga eerst langs de Machiavelli school om afscheid te nemen van Helen, de sympathieke secretaresse.

Daarna gaat de wandeling, zoals dikwijls, langs de Borgo San Jacopo en de Via Bardi, over de Ponte alle Grazie naar het Museo Horne, een palazzo, dat helaas gesloten blijkt.

Herbert Horne was een architect en dichter uit Londen, die al jong geïnteresseerd was in kunst en literatuur. Hij vertrok naar Florence en kocht daar in 1911 een Renaissance-palazzo in de Via dei Benci. Marina: ‘Hij restaureerde het, bracht het helemaal terug in stijl, vulde het met een enorme collectie kunst en antieke objecten en liet het geheel bij zijn dood na aan de Italiaanse staat. Het Museo Horne, zoals het nu heet, is klein, rustig en volledig de moeite waard.

Ik ga ontbijten in een kleine cafetaria in de Via Benzi, en vervolg dan de Via Giuseppe Verdi

neem rechts de Via Ghibellina tot aan het Casa Buonarroti, een museum gewijd aan Michelangelo, en de familie Buonarroti.

On display in this room are several portraits, on loan from the Florentine Galleries, which, though executed in different periods, ranging from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, all derive from the prototype of the famous portrait painted in Rome around 1535 by the Florentine Jacopino del Conte (1510-98). The finest example is the panel located above the showcase. This painting was donated to the Uffizi by the Strozzi family in 1771, when it was considered a self-portrait by Michelangelo. Immediately afterward, however, the authorship of Michelangelo was rejected.

Archeological Room

Among the collections of Casa Buonarroti there is one of great value, but which is still much less well-known than the others owing to its complex history: the archaeological collection. It is made up of around a hundred and fifty pieces, of very different origins, ages, types, techniques and dimensions.

The credit for having assembled such a varied and important collection must go chiefly to two members of the Buonarroti family who used to live in the house, Michelangelo the Younger and Filippo.

The direct descendants of Michelangelo, who lived in the building for centuries, collected works of art of different genres and from differ- ent periods. The main additions to the collections can be ascribed to Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger (1568-1647). This room houses those pieces that cannot be moved for reasons of conservation (the fine collection of della Robbias) and the ones whose exact location in the seventeenth century is not known (paintings and china).

The sculpture by Emilio Zocchi (1835–1913), on loan from the Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank, is the best-known portrayal of the subject of the young Michelangelo sculpting a faun’s head, which the author repeated several times.

Camera della notte e del dì

The decoration of this room, which dragged out for years, was commenced in 1624.

The following year Jacopo Vignali frescoed the ceiling with the Eternal Father separating Light from Darkness and personifications of Night and Day, which give the “chamber” its name, and the upper part of the walls with a frieze in which pairs of putti hold coats of arms of families related to that of the Buonarroti.

Camera degli Angioli

This room was used as a chapel from 1677 onward.

The frescoes on the walls, painted by Jacopo Vignali between 1622 and 1623, represent the saints and the blessed of the city and territory of Florence advancing in procession, with John the Baptist at their head, from the church militant to the church triumphant.

Studio

The decoration of this room, also conceived by Michelangelo the Younger, dates from the years 1633-1637.
On the ceiling, Cecco Bravo painted the personification of Fame.
On the walls, Cecco Bravo again, Matteo Rosselli and Domenico Pugliani painted effigies of illustrious Tuscans,

Vasari tells us that, prior to his death at Rome in 1564 Michelangelo had burned “a large number of his own drawings, sketches and cartoons so that no one should see the labors he endured and the ways he tested his genius, and lest he should appear less than perfect.” It is partly because of the artist’s desire for perfection that his graphic work is so rare and valuable: even Leonardo, his nephew and heir, was obliged to pay a high price for a group of his drawings that came onto the Roman market after Michelangelo’s death. These were probably the ones that Leonardo would donate to Cosimo I dei Medici around 1566, together with the Madonna della scala.