Behind the Fagade

Behind the Facade

From the days of the Medici, Florence has been a city of treasures that every eye could see. In one direction was a chapel by Michelangelo, in another a dome by Brunelleschi; here was a bronze door by Ghiberti, there a statue by Donatello. But these were only a part of Florence's great legacy.

After 20 years of interviewing the city's rich and noble families for La Nazione Italiana, Journalist Giorgio Batini, 37, became haunted by the splendor of the private collections that ordinary people were never allowed to see. One day he approached the Contessa Bianca Cavazza, president of the women's committee of the Florentine Red Cross, with a plan: Why not stage a huge public exhibition for the benefit of the Red Cross? The journalist and the contessa started making the rounds, and one by one the Corsini, the Ginori, the Serristori, the Antinori, the Pucci and the rest agreed that for a few days they would do without the precious possessions so long hidden behind the thick grey walls of their palazzi.

Last week, in 16 rooms and the art gallery of the Borghese Palace, some 600 of the "Secret Treasures of the Houses of Florence" went on display. It was, said Batini, "Florence behind the fagade," and it turned out to be a spilled cornucopia of ancient masterpieces and oddments. There was everything from brilliant primitive paintings to snuff boxes shaped like glass slippers, 14th century Tuscan ceramics and the red-fringed picnic basket that an 18th century Corsini cardinal once took into the Vatican conclave from which he emerged, basket on arm, as Pope Clement XII. The Serristori loaned their priceless illuminated manuscripts, as well as two elaborately decorated Renaissance trays once used to carry water to noblewomen in labor. A plate bearing the arms of Roberto Strozzi and Maddalena de Medici marked one of the great weddings of the 16th century. A delicately inlaid table had been the gift of Clement VII to his Governor of Bologna, Francesco Guicciardini.

Of all the treasures, those of the land owning Corsini family were the most spectacular. On display was a magnificent triptych by Puccio di Simone and,a crucified Christ by Francesco D'Antonio di Bartolomeo. Probably the finest single work in the show was the Corsini Ma donna and Child with Angels, painted in the 1480s by Filippino Lippi. As far as Prince Tommaso Corsini knows, the Madonna has always belonged to his family, but last week, for a while at least, it belonged to all Florence.

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