Florence Circa 1600: Patrician Families and the Financing of Culture

Studies about the cultural life of Florence at the turn of the seventeenth century usually concentrate on the Medici court, the various academies, or the confraternities, and less on the role of patrician families who had sustained both the economy and the society since late medieval times. These élite families participated in the academies and in court life but also had many more focused particular interests; they were a vital to the creation of new forms of art and music.

In this conference, we hope to shine a light on the economic activities of such families and how their economic successes permitted avant-garde culture—in literature, art, music, theatre, etc.—to flourish. We are interested in each family’s patronage of artists and artisans but also how this patronage influenced other families with whom they had contact through informal gatherings as well as established institutions. There are many families which could be studied in this regard, for example the Bardi (especially Giovanni), Corsi (Jacopo and Bardo), Davanzati (Bernardo), Del Bene (Giulio), Del Nero, Gaddi (Niccolò), Guicciardini (Piero), Rinuccini (Ottavio and Alessandro), Strozzi (Piero and Giovanni Battista the Younger/ ‘il poeta’), but also others. We focus on individual patrons in these critical decades, but also on more general issues raised by our theme.

We will hold the conference 11-12 April 2019, the 450th anniversary of the foundation of the Accademia degli Alterati. It is supported by the Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici (M.A. in Museum Studies) and the University of Florence (SAGAS Department).

Associated with the conference is an exhibition on Michelangelo the Younger and the Birth of Opera at the Casa Buonarroti and a production of the recently discovered first rendition of Dafne — the first such production ever attempted.

The conference is organized by Tim Carter, Francesca Fantappiè, Maia Wellington Gahtan, and Donatella Pegazzano.

The conference is free, open to the public and no pre-registration is required. There is limited capacity in both venues.
For information: +39 055 287360
serena.bottilorenzodemedici.it


PROGRAM

CHAIR: Maia Wellington Gahtan

9.00 Welcome and Opening Remarks
Maia Wellington Gahtan (Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, Firenze)
Alessandro Cecchi (Fondazione Casa Buonarroti, Firenze)

9.30 Alessandro Cecchi (Fondazione Casa Buonarroti, Firenze)
Baroque Splendors of the Pitti Granducal Palace and the Boboli Gardens under the Reign of Cosimo II

10.00 Donatella Pegazzano (Università degli Studi di Firenze)
The Accademici degli Alterati and the Figurative Arts: Some Questions of Taste

Coffee break

11.00 Elina Adam (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)
A Place for Gathering: The Meeting Places of the Accademia degli Alterati

11.30 Francesca Baldassari (Università degli Studi di Padova; Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”)
The Artistic Patronage of Niccolò and Ludovico Arrighetti

12.00 Francesca Fantappiè (Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, Firenze)
Beyond the Camerata: Music, Theatre and Academies at the Palazzo Rinaldi—From Domenico Belli to Marco da Gagliano (1616–1623)

12.30 Visit to the Exhibition with Francesca Fantappiè and the Students of Marist – LdM Master of Arts in Museum Studies

Lunch break

Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici – San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini, Via Faenza 43, Firenze

CHAIR: Kate Bolton-Porciatti

15.00 Valentina Catalucci (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e del Turismo, Roma)
“Nero, ch’al nome tuo contrario chiudi candido spirto”: The Multifaced Personality of Tommaso del Nero in the Accademia degli Alterati.

15.30 Maddalena Bonechi (Università degli Studi di Firenze)
On Alessandro Del Nero’s Musical Patronage

16.00 Valerio Morucci (University of Nevada, Reno)
Patricians in the Orsini Network and the Circulation of Poetry and Music Between Florence and Rome

Coffee break

CHAIR: Anna Bisceglia

17.00 Sanne Roefs (Heritage and Art Department of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, The Hague)
The Life of the Florentine Patrician Agnolo Guicciardini (1525-1581): An Independent Cultural Administrator in the Medici Duchy

17.30 Stefano Calonaci (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna)
Ricasoli, Bardi, Vitelli, Ramirez: Four Families and their Investments in the Cultural World

18.00 Antonella D’Ovidio (Università degli Studi di Firenze)
“Somma dilettazione nella musica ed ottimo gusto”: Marquis Filippo Niccolini as Musical Patron in Seventeenth-Century Florence.


Friday 12 April
Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici – San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini, Via Faenza 43, Firenze

CHAIR: Nicola Badolato

9.00 Elisa Goudriaan (RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague)
Patricians, Artists and the Playful and Burlesque Style in Literature, Art and Theatre (1600–1650)

9.30 Klazina Dieuwke Botke (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam; Klassieke Academie, Groningen)
The Salviati in the Seventeenth-Century: Art, Religion and Family Honour

10.00 Sara Paci Piccolo (Fashion Institute of Technology, Firenze/New York)
Machiavelli, Dei, Minerbetti, Speziali: Four Clergymen for One Church

Coffee break

CHAIR: Francesco Guidi Bruscoli

11.00 Francesca Fiorelli Malesci, Daniela Cini (Museo di Casa Martelli, Firenze)
The Martelli Family Between Wealth and Culture

11.30 Costantino Ceccanti (Musei del Bargello, Firenze)
“Peregrinus et Alexander de Brunaccinis Cives Florentini”: From Rich to Noble

12.00 Tim Carter (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Fit for a Queen: The “Festa” in the Riccardi Gardens, 8 October 1600

12.30 Richard Goldthwaite (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore), Allen Grieco (Villa I Tatti, Firenze)
Culture in the Riccardi Vegetable Garden at Gualfonda

Buffet lunch

15.00 Ensemble “Musica Ricercata” (Director Michael Stüve)
Concert: Dafne (1597 circa, Corsi-Peri-Rinuccini)