| The origins of the Pratese collection
date back to the Renaissance. These collections have
helped the history of art a great deal. Numerous artworks
are currently kept in the churches of Prato; in the
monasteries, the buildings owned by noble families,
the buildings of the municipality, and in the "Hospitals"
(Spedale della Misericordia; Pia Casa dei Ceppi) . However
we cannot consider these, proper "collections" and so
the first collection in Prato, would have to be the
one of the Knight Buonamico Buonamici, who lived in
the 16th century. This noble Pratese, collected in his
palace, a number of coins, antiques, and many historic
and geographical , rare books. In the second half of
the 18th century, his descendant Innocenzo Buonamici
continued his work and founded the "Museo Buonamiciano".
Innocenzo left a description of his museum (dedicated
to his grandchildren) and it is from this, that we know,
that in the collection there were numerous archaeological
items from the subsoil of Prato: sculptures, bronze,
glass, silver, gems of Greek, Etruscan and Roman art.
Together with a conspicuous collection (of Greek, Roman
and Medieval coins) there were paintings, prints, engravings,
miniature chorales, and manuscripts (amongst which we
can mention the letters by Galileo Galilei, several
of which he had written to the Buonamici family). In
Prato, during the 18th century, the other archaeological
collectors were Count Cassotti and Don Giuseppe Bianchini.
At the end of the century the Public Art Gallery was
founded: the gallery kept many paintings and with the
work of the religious corporate body, it was suppressed
by Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena in 1788. Many collections
were constituted above all, by the work of local contemporary
artists. The most important seemed to be the one by
the painter Cristiano Banti (1824-1904), who after the
early Classical inspiration, was a known name, in the
realm of "Macchiaioli". In his beautiful Villa del Barone,
near Montemurlo, he hosted some of the main painters
of that period: Boldini, De Nittis, Fattori, Signorini,
De Tivoli. During the first years of the 20th century
the main collectors of artworks by contemporary artists,
were Giuliano Lombardi, the lawyer Cipriano Cipriani
and Giovanni Querci: Fattori, Lega, Signorini, Bartolena,
Puccini, Cabianca, Cannicci, Spadini, Michetti, Palizzi,
Panerai, Mancini, Abbati, Ciardi, Ciani, Ulvi Liegi,
Borrani and Irolli. Giovanni Querci was a peculiar collector.
His collection, anticipated as the most important collections
of our day, it was attained as a result of his personal
relationship with the painters: he used to host them
in his Villa "Il Quercetino". Between 1930 and 1940,
the passion for art was kept by a group of connoisseurs:
Nesto Nesti, Silvio Silvestri, Corrado Bettarini, Nello
Gori, Giuseppe Mazzoni and others. They would reunite
at the "Caffè Bacchino" to discuss, and confide their
impressions on this or that painter, and they would
acquire or exchange cloths and painted tablets. It was
here that Ottavio Banti (Cristiano's brother) placed
many of his 19th century paintings. After the World
War the interest for art was kept alive by the Association
"La Crosta" and by the short activity of the "Il Pergamo"
Gallery. "La Crosta" (that was located in the Nello
Ballerini's Art Gallery), together with the painter
and journalist Rinaldo Burattin, contributed to the
creation of the most important Pratese collection. Members
of the association were Luigi Lombardi, Prof. Aurelio
Angeli, Silvio Silvestri, the lawyer Edoardo Fischer,
Marcello Tozzi, Mario Ciabatti, Cipriano Cipriani, Pietro
and Vincenzo Bigagli, Nesto Nesti, Giovanni and Giuseppe
Mazzoni. The "Il Pergamo" Gallery was opened in 1946
by Corrado Bettarini, Luigi Lombardi and Alessandro
Gatti, and was situated on the ground floor of a building
in via Mazzini. The Gallery held interesting exhibitions
such as the one showing artworks by Lorenzo Viani, from
Viareggio. Corrado Bettarini, had already organised
exhibitions before the war (at the Metastasio Theatre,
at the Politeama Banchini, at the Stella d'Italia, and
in his hall "Circolo dei Risorti"), and encouraged the
love for paintings. With the evolution of taste, many
of the collections of 19th century Italian paintings
were lost or changed. One of the most representative
collections of Italian art in the 19th century is the
one of Silvio Silvestri, which includes paintings by
Fattori, Lega, De Tivoli, D'Ancona, Milesi, Puccini,
Borrani, Manaresi, Tito, Nomellini, Sernesi, Banti,
Ludovico Tommasi, Tosi. This brief outline of the Pratese
collection during the century, is the basis for the
contemporary collection. One of the protagonist is Giuliano
Gori; his collection (started in his house in Saint
Agostino; then in his farm on the hills between Prato
and Pistoia) of "Land Art" is well know all over the
world. |
The
City | Famous
People | I Buonamici and the
origins of the Pratese collection
