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Studi Trentini. Arte a. 92 2013 n. 2 pagg. 267-288

Stefano Bardini: the Early Years

AnitA F. Moskowitz

Stefano Bardini, one of the most important Florentine dealers of the second half of the nineteenth century, built his business during the decades following the Risorgimento by acquiring discarded or undervalued monuments, objects and architectural fragments, and restoring or adapting them to marketable condition. Less widely known, however, is the fact that prior to becoming a dealer he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and began his professional life as a painter. Between c. 1855 and 1867 he produced a series of paintings, five of which have been traced but remain largely unknown to scholars. Among these are works in fresco as well as oil on canvas, including an altarpiece signed and dated 1867 in the parish church of Santi Fabiano e Sebastiano in the village of Bersone. Not a commission, this canvas was executed after Bardini returned to Florence from a stint in Garibaldi’s army during the Third War of Independence in the Trentino. During the heat of battle, Bardini had vowed that if he survived he would thank the Virgin Mary by painting an altarpiece. This was to be sent to the parish priest of Bersone, from whom the troops had received 15 days of welcome hospitality. His activity as an artist shows that he was capable of a variety of stylistic and technical modes. His experience in both fresco and oil would serve him well for his future success as a restorer and dealer. Stefano Bardini, uno dei più importanti antiquari fiorentini della seconda metà del XIX secolo, costruì la sua attività durante i decenni che seguirono il Risorgimento, acquisendo mo-numenti ignorati o sottovalutati, oggetti e frammenti architettonici, restaurandoli o adattan-doli a specifiche condizioni di mercato. Meno noto, tuttavia, è il percorso fatto da Bardini pri-ma di diventare un antiquario: egli studiò presso l’Accademia di Belle Arti a Firenze e iniziò la sua vita professionale come pittore. Tra il 1855 e 1867 circa, Bardini produsse una serie di quadri, cinque dei quali sono stati rintracciati, ma che rimangono in gran parte sconosciuti agli studiosi. Tra queste opere ci sono affreschi, così come alcuni dipinti ad olio su tela, tra cui una pala d’altare firmata e datata 1867 nella chiesa parrocchiale dei Santi Fabiano e Sebastiano a Bersone. Non una semplice commissione, questa tela venne eseguita dopo il rientro di Bardini a Firenze; il giovane infatti aveva combattuto per un breve periodo nell’esercito di Garibaldi durante la terza guerra d’indipendenza in Trentino. Nel cuore della battaglia, Bardini aveva promesso che se fosse sopravvissuto, avrebbe ringraziato la Vergine Maria dipingendo una pala d’altare. Questa doveva essere inviata al parroco di Bersone, da cui le truppe garibaldine avevano ricevuto per quindici giorni ospitalità. La sua attività come artista rivela una spiccata capacità nell’adattare la propria arte a una varietà di modalità stilistiche e tecniche. La sua esperienza ad affresco e ad olio sarà molto utile per il suo futuro successo come restauratore e antiquario.

A significant number of late medieval and Renaissance paintings and sculp-tures, as well as important examples of decorative arts, found in museums

today in Europe and the United States, passed through the hands of Stefano

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Bardini, arguably the most important Florentine dealer of the second half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries (fig. 1). Building upon and promot-ing the “myth of Florence” as a Golden Age fast disappearing under industri-alization and urban change during the years surrounding the Risorgimento, he exploited those changes by acquiring a vast quantity of discarded or undervalued monuments, objects and architectural fragments, and restored or adapted them to marketable condition. His clients included Wilhelm von Bode, who furnished his Renaissance museum in Berlin with numerous objects obtained through Bar-dini; the Gemäldegalerie also in Berlin, the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in London; and private individuals, such as the Princes of Liechtenstein (whose objects would later be acquired by American collector Samuel H. Kress), and Americans Quincy Adams Shaw, William Kis-sam Vanderbilt, and Isabella Stewart Gardner, among many others. He also sold architectural elements, including entire ceilings stripped from Italian palazzi to architects Stanford White and Charles McKim for the buildings they were de-signing for their clients, and in the case of White, for himself. For decades Bar-dini was respected as a connoisseur, restorer, and museum advisor1.

To date there exists no full biographical account of Stefano Bardini. The pub-lished literature includes a very useful specialized study of him and his relation-ship to Wilhelm von Bode, director of the Berlin Museum, and several essays in Italian in the context of museum catalogues, all based on limited primary sources2. This is due to the fact that the archives containing the largest number of documents pertaining to the antiquarian are all but inaccessible today. Stefano Bardini’s Testament, written two days before his death at the age of 86 on 12 September 1922, divided his assets between the Comune of Florence and his two children, Emma (1883-1962) and Ugo (1892-1965). Ugo continued in his father’s business and, in turn, left an extremely complicated Testament leading to drawn out legal issues, and as a result it was not until 30 years after Ugo’s death that the Italian State acquired the holdings3. The museum, which was Stefano’s legacy to Florence, underwent numerous changes, was closed for at least a decade, and re-sumed operation as a public institution in 2009 under the Comune, having been restored to the museological installation concepts of its original owner, Stefano Bardini, including as much natural light as possible, and the famous “Bardini

1 The literature on Stefano Bardini includes the following: von Bode, Stefano Bardini, pp. 1-2; Niemeyer Chini, Stefano Bardini; Il Museo Bardini a Firenze, I-II; Neri Lusanna, Museo Bardini; Scalia, Il carteggio inedito, pp. 199-208; Scalini, Acquisizioni sospette; Capecchi, L’Archivio Storico Fotografico; Fahy, L’Archivio Storico Fotografico; Museo Stefano Bardini. Guida. For Bardini’s export of crateloads of ceiling panels to Stanford White, see Craven, Gilded Mansions, pp. 262, 273, 267, 281f.

2 See note 1.3 On the complexities of fulfilling the requirements of the legacies see the relevant chapters in San

Niccolò Oltrarno, pp. 209-222.

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blue”4. The archives of the Museo Bardini, belonging to the Comune, include the antiquarian’s papers dated between 1905 and 1915, while all the rest of the Bardini family’s papers – occupying approximately 120 linear feet of shelf space and tens of thousands of documents – belong to the State. There is also a pho-tographic archive, which includes 6,449 glass negatives and many prints, some without corresponding negatives5. These too are split between the city of Flor-ence and the State. Finally, there are hundreds of casts, copies, replicas and a variety of dislocated objects in the Bardini complex. Indeed, the unavailability of archival material in Florence is a prime reason for the reluctance of scholars to attempt a full biographical account of the life and practices of Stefano Bardini, whose activities contributed so forcefully to our vision of the art production of the Italian Renaissance as we understand it today. Numerous articles comment in text or footnotes that the Bardini papers held in the State Archives are not open to the public because, it seems, the documents remain uncatalogued, not digitally processed, without any finding aid or index, and haphazardly stored in

4 Bardini’s installation and display concepts are discussed by Viale, Alcune considerazioni, pp. 301-320. His approach, especially the blue of the walls, was to influence the museum displays of Nélie Jacquemart (1841-1912) and Édouard André (1833-1894) in Paris, and Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) in Boston.

5 A selection of modern prints made from the original negatives has been published by Capecchi, L’Archivio Storico Fotografico and Fahy, L’Archivio Storico Fotografico.

1. Stefano Bardini, stampa fotografica, Stu-dio Bettini-Livorno, 1880-1890 ca. Firenze, So-printendenza per il Patrimonio Storico Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo museale del-la città di Firenze, Archivio fotografico dell’Ere-dità Bardini (AFEB)

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boxes6. What is needed is a major initiative by the State or a private institution, or both, to fund the development of a “Bardini archive project”, analogous in some ways to the flourishing and extremely useful Medici Archive Project7.

To summarize what we know about the life of Stefano Bardini, he was born on 13 May 1836 in Pieve Santo Stefano in the province of Arezzo. In c. 1854 he moved to Florence and is documented as a painting student at the Accademia di Belle Arti until c. 18608. Coming from a family of modest means, during his years at the Florentine Academy to at least 1859, he applied for and was awarded study scholarships9. At that time and immediately after, Bardini must have found himself surrounded by a variety of small-time antiquarians engaged in the buying and selling of bric-a-brac, which included household objects, decorative items, private devotional images, etc., and was gradually encouraged by his observa-tions of their activity to try his hand in the limited art market of his city. Thus, between his student years and even more so between 1867, after he served as a volunteer for Garibaldi10, and 1877, he probably acquired, in Scalia’s words,

una fittissima rete di piccoli antiquari, mediatori, rigattieri, cercatori, segnalatori di oggetti, tale da fornirgli continuamente un numero enorme di informazioni dalle quali trarre le occasioni più propizie per i migliori acquisti11.

Already by 1876 he had acquired sufficient wealth to purchase the Villa di Marignolle south of Florence from the Gino Capponi estate, as well as art works from the Capponi palace. In 1877 he moved his small restoration atelier on the Lungarno Torrigiani to presumably larger quarters in the Palazzo Canigiani on

6 For example, Scalia, Il Museo Bardini; pp. 73-80; Scalia, Il carteggio inedito, p. 200; and Niemeyer Chini, Stefano Bardini, p. 47, n. 30, who states that the Bardini archives are in the course of being inventoried and catalogued by the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze. However, there is no evidence that this project is ongoing or has progressed since 2009.

7 As mentioned, because of a complicated legacy, the Bardini papers are distributed between the Archive of the Comune of Florence housed in the Museo Bardini (which can be accessed), and a much larger volume of papers in possession of the Archivio di Stato; this latter hoard, however, is not housed in the State Archive building on Viale Giovine Italia, but rather in an office of the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze on Via della Ninna, which currently is not open to the scholarly public. Dr. Lynn Catterson, through a series of fortuitous and sought after contacts, has recently succeeded in gaining limited access to the room in which the papers are housed and has digitally captured a small percentage of the documents. She is currently seeking funding to develop a “Bardini archive project”.

8 Archivio Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (AABAFi); Scalia, Stefano Bardini antiquario, p. 84, note 17.

9 Scalia, Stefano Bardini antiquario, p. 12.10 See below and Ferrari, Due pittori garibaldini, in this journal.11 Scalia, Stefano Bardini antiquario, p. 16.

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Via dei Benci12. Only by assuming an (as yet not fully documented) expansion of his circle of acquaintances to a more cosmopolitan set can Bardini’s increasing wealth be explained, such as permitted him in 1880 to acquire the suppressed church and convent of San Gregorio in Florence, a complex which at some un-known point in history had been purchased by the Mozzi family, as well as that family’s furnishings and art objects (the Mozzi palace went at the time to another buyer and Bardini acquired it only much later). Bardini transformed the church and convent into a residence, restoration laboratory and exhibition space13. From the 1870s on Stefano Bardini became one of the most successful art dealers in Florence of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Bardini’s parents, Pietro Bardini and Assunta Cianchi, were modest landown-ers14. They had twelve children, only three of whom survived the parents’ deaths: the oldest was Francesco (1833-1905), with whom the adult Bardini frequently corresponded, and the youngest was his sister Margherita (1845-1927)15. Mar-gherita lived with her brother Stefano in Florence from 1878 and three years later, at the age of 36, married the sculptor Gioacchino Ferroni from Pietrasanta, who joined her in the Bardini family house and was introduced to the art market by Stefano. In 1898 Ferroni moved to Rome, where he opened an antiquarian shop and continued to work with his brother-in-law Stefano16.

Little is known about Bardini’s personal life. There are no records concerning a marriage and his death certificate identifies him as unmarried (celibe). His two (and possibly more17) children, then, were born out of wedlock, and only one of them has a surname on the birth certificate: Emma’s full name is Emma Giulia

12 Niemeyer Chini, Stefano Bardini, p. 46.13 On the history of the church and convent see Scalia, in San Niccolò Oltrarno, pp. 16-21. Bardini

continued to buy – and sell – properties through the early 20th century, including the Palazzo de’Mozzi with its extensive garden, and the Torre del Gallo.

14 In the Atti di Morte, parte I, serie A, located in the offices of the Comune di Firenze, Palazzo Pubblico, direzione Servizi Demografici, his parents’ names are mentioned: Pietro, his father, and Cianchi Assunta, his mother. See also n. 18 below. Thanks to Marta Crestini for assistance in locating this document. Information about his family is also mentioned in the following: http://www.bardinipeyron.it/bardini/storia/stefano_04.htm: “Giuseppe Bardini e sua moglie, Assunta Cianchi, ebbero dodici figli dei quali sopravvissero il primogenito Francesco (1833-1905), Margherita (1845-1927) e Stefano. Stefano fu padre attento e premuroso verso i due figli, che abitarono sempre con lui nel palazzo di via San Niccolò, e per i quali sua sorella Margherita fu più una madre che una zia”. No sources are given and to date I have been unable to make contact with whomever has prepared this website.

15 Atti di Morte, anno 1927, parte I, serie A, vol. 1, atto n. 298. See also the above-mentioned website.16 Catalogue de la vente. Thanks to Mauro Minardi for bringing this publication to my attention. See

also the following which reference works with a Ferroni provenance: Sammlung von Renaissance-Kunstwerken, p. 10, cat. 36. Another is noted in von Bode, Eine Apollostatuette, pp. 88-98.

17 Catterson has found a document indicating the birth of a third and possibly fourth child. Bardini apparently had a reputation for being “tenacemente celibe anche se non sempre solo”; see Bargellini, Antiquari di ieri, p. 26.

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Astriti; she was born on 6 November 188318. No further records concerning an Astriti have been located to date. This was not unusual during the nineteenth century when a child was born out of wedlock and the mother was a servant or the daughter of one. Over a decade after her birth, on 31 January 1894, Stefano Bardini processed a legal adoption of his daughter19. Ugo was born nine years after Emma on 17 March 1892. The father must have filed a similar adoption for Ugo because upon Stefano’s death he and Emma were both legitimate heirs. Although at first, it seems, Ugo was sent to military school, apparently being trained for a military profession, he eventually followed in his father’s profes-sional footsteps. Emma may have been educated from the beginning with an eye to how she might contribute to his business. Bardini made use of his daughter’s excellent linguistic skills in his international undertakings20. We may not learn more until the entire archival holdings have been perused and even then, little of the intimate facts of his life, as opposed to his business dealings, may be revealed.

Emma studied painting in her father’s studio, as well as English and German, which she learned from some women who worked for her father in the firm21. A large number of her paintings and drawings are in storage at the Museo della Cac-cia e del Territorio in Cerreto Guidi. She often accompanied Stefano on his trips abroad. Together with her aunt Margherita, she was involved in charitable works, especially in helping unfortunate children who attended school in the nearby Demidoff Institute on Via del Giardino Serristori off the Via San Niccolò22. Within

18 Emma’s birth is recorded in Atti di Nascita, n..1942; her marriage and death are recorded in, i.e., added to, a proceeding of 12 February 1923, n. 213, and mentioned also in the Atti di Morte, n. 1261, all held in the Fondo dello Stato Civile in The Palazzo Pubblico in Florence. The death certificates of Emma and Ugo, while naming their father, are silent on the name of their mother or mothers, although as mentioned above the communal record of Emma’s birth does cite a name and surname, Emma Giulia Astriti.

19 Added in a marginal column of the Atti di Nascita preserved in the Florence communal archives is the following:

In seguito ad atto ricevuto dal notario Francesco Bellocchi di Firenze addì 31 Genaio 1894 e trascritto il dì 2 Aprile successivo, nei registri di nascita di questo Comune, col. N. 142, V. 1, P. 2, Emma Giulia Astriti è stata riconosciuta per figlia naturale dal Stefano del fu Pietro Bardini, Celibe, Possidente, nato a Pieve S. Stefano e domicigliato in Firenze. Firenze 12 Aprile 1894.

20 Niemeyer Chini, Stefano Bardini, p. 46.21 This, according to the site http://www.bardinipeyron.it/bardini/storia/stefano_04.htm, which

does not offer the source of its information.22 The building, now owned by the Istituto Montedomini, currently houses an old age home but inside

the building still bears the following plaque: QUESTE SCUOLE DAL PRINCIPE ANATOLIO DEMIDOFF/ AMPLIATE, ABBELLITE, DOTATE / FONDAVA NEL 1828 IL PADRE SUO NICCOLÒ / INVOCANTE ALL’ OPERA EGREGIA I CONSIGLI DEL MARCHESE CARLO TORRIGIANI / CHE VISITATI GL’ ISTITUTI PIÙ FAMOSI / DI SVIZZERA DI GERMANIA D’INGHILTERRA / LE ORDINÒ E RESSE PER MODO / DA RIUSCIRE MODELLO A TUTTA TOSCANA / E AMMIRAZIONE AGLI STRANIERI.

On the outside of the building a sign reads: “ISTITUTO DEMIDOFF / SCUOLA ELEMENTARE PARIFICATA”.

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the months following her father’s death, Emma at the age of 39 married the painter Pietro Vito Tozzi, a native of Ruvo del Monte (Potenza)23. His painting, Mietitore di Basilicata (Reaper of Basilicata) was shown in the 1906 Exposition in Seattle; in the 1909 Pittsburgh Exposition, he was awarded second international prize and a silver medal. Tozzi also became a consultant on antiques for various museums and collectors24.

To return to Stefano Bardini, nothing is known of his childhood experiences, but when in 1854 he enrolled in the painting program at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence he first studied under Giuseppe Bezzuoli, chief exponent of Romanticismo Storico, who died shortly thereafter in September 1854. The po-sition of director of the painting class was taken up by Benedetto Servolini. In addition, Bardini studied with Antonio Puccinelli also at the Accademia25. In the school’s annual exhibition of 1855 he exhibited two oil sketches, Il ratto di Proserpina and Lucrezia visitata da Tarquinio and these won second prize. The following year he won first prize for an oil painting, Gesù in casa di Marta e Maria. All three are lost, and in fact, of the ten paintings or sketches cited in documents as by Bardini, I have been able to trace only five26. These include an academic nude oil painting (figs. 2, 3), signed and dated 1857 on the back of the stretcher, which was exhibited in the annual exhibition and is now housed in the Archivio dell’Accademia del Disegno in Florence27; and a lively bozzetto illustrating Lo-renzo de’ Medici che nella congiura dei Pazzi si salva nella sagrestia del Duomo, of 1858 (fig. 4), submitted to the competition for triennial prizes at the Accademia. He did not win a prize for this, but Antonio Ciseri, an academy professor on the prize selection committee, wrote in his memoires that a student, not in his own class but “un giovane del Puccinelli certo Bardini” aveva “fatto assai meglio dei premiati”. Ciseri added that Bardini’s essay was “più fedele interprete delle

23 On Tozzi see Ciampa, Ruvo del Monte, pp. 91-92. Ciampa cites the journal, “La Basilicata nel mondo. Rivista regionale illustrata”, which described Tozzi as an “artista di valore non comune che altamente onora la terra che lo vide nascere, nonchè la Patria italiana”; however, no volume or date is given and I have not yet succeeded in locating the quotation. Tozzi is mentioned also in http://www.bardinipeyron.it/bardini/storia/stefano_04.htm and in http://research.frick.org/directoryweb/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=7869.

24 Ciampa, Ruvo del Monte. Pietro Tozzi’s portraiture skills were evidently in demand on both sides of the Atlantic.

25 Scalia, Stefano Bardini antiquario, pp. 5, 84, n. 9. Cf. Niemeyer Chini, Stefano Bardini, p. 42, who mentions in addition to Bezzuoli, Benedetto Servolini and Enrico Pollastrini as directors of the painting class but omits reference to Puccinelli. This last is mentioned as his teacher by Torresi, Neo-medicei, p. 45, who also states that he was registered as a student in the Accademia from 1853 to 1859.

26 Some of the subjects Bardini treated while at the Accademia and perhaps later are listed by his daughter Emma in a manuscript in the Archivio dei musei comunali and transcribed by Scalia, Il carteggio inedito, pp. 199-206.

27 Torresi, Neo-medicei, p. 45 cites an old inventory in the archive of the Accademia listing a painted Nudo accademico. I thank dott. Luigi Zangheri for permission to examine the canvas, and dott. Enrico Sartoni for kindly facilitating the visit.

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nuove ricerche sul bozzetto storico”28. Bardini’s sketch, identified by Spalletti, is currently housed in the Museo della Caccia e del Territorio in the Villa Medicea in Cerreto Guidi29. Spalletti described the composition as being “tumultuosa” with brushwork that is “libera, caratterizzata dalla decisione con cui personaggi e costumi vengono definiti da rapide macchie di colore accostate le une alle altre in tonalità violente e molto reagenti”. In effect, this work indicates more than any other extant piece a responsiveness to the ideals of the Macchiaioli painters who gathered in the Caffé Michelangelo in the 1850s. Of course, had it been prepared for a commission, the final product would likely have recalled a work closer to Stefano Ussi’s La cacciata del Duca d’Atene, dated 1854-1860, far less spontane-ous in effect, but for which there exists a bozzetto of 1855-1856 in the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Florence, “eseguito”, in Spalletti’s words, “con colori chiari stesi a macchie che lo collegano alle contemporanee ricerche di Domenico Mo-relli”; in short, Ussi’s more free-wheeling bozzetto was the basis for a far more finished yet still dramatic work of art30.

In 1859 Bardini participated in the Concorso Ricasoli, a competition called by the Provisional Government of Tuscany under the Protectorate of Victor Eman-uel II, and presided over by interior minister Bettino Ricasoli, because

in Toscana le Arti belle furono sempre parte nobilissima della civiltà, e che il Go-verno Nazionale ha il dovere di proteggerle in quel solo modo che è degno di loro, chiamandole ad eternare i grandi fatti ed i grandi uomini31.

Bardini’s entry illustrated La fuga degli Arciduchi dopo la battaglia di Solferino, which was submitted together with a sketch entitled, Galoppa, galoppa, galoppa Ruel, a phrase that appears repeatedly in a poem by Giovanni Prati (1814-1884), a politically active poet from the Trentino; these, however, have not yet been traced32. Also in c. 1859 he received a commission for a ceiling painting for the Villa Nobili of Triboli in Impruneta, La Francia soccorre l’Italia nella Guerra del 1859, dated

28 Spalletti, Per Antonio Ciseri, esp. 605 (diary entry, doc. 241): 12 settembre, 1858: Riunione all’Accademia per l’assegnazione dei premi triennali; grandi discussioni al termine delle quali il premio viene assegnato a chi non lo meritava credendo con questo di rimettersi in credito (…). I sacrificati furono il mio scolare Sarri e un giovane del Puccinelli certo Bardini i quali avevano fatto assai meglio dei premiati Borrani e Fabbrini [the two winners].

The required subject of the competition was Lorenzo de’ Medici che si salva dalla congiura dei Pazzi.29 44.5 x 34.5 cm. Spalletti, Gli anni del caffè, fig. 228, pp. 152-154. The canvas is discussed and

illustrated in color in Riflessi di una Galleria, pp. 24-25. According to Torresi, Neo-medicei, p. 45, the Pazzi painting won the prize in the concorso d’emulazione in 1857, but this appears to be incorrect. My heartfelt thanks to dott.ssa Marilena Tamassia, director of the museum, and to dott.ssa Silvia Matteuzzi, curator, for permitting and enabling me to study this work, currently in deposito.

30 Spalletti, Gli anni del caffè, pp. 120-121; La Galleria d’Arte Moderna, pp. 100-101.31 Bon, Il Concorso Ricasoli, p. 4. 32 Bon, Il Concorso Ricasoli, esp. p. 28. Cf. Torresi, Neo-medicei, p. 45.

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2. Stefano Bardini, Nudo accade-mico, olio su tela, 1858. Firenze, Ar-chivio dell’Accademia di Disegno

3. Stefano Bardini, Nudo accade-mico, olio su tela, 1858, particolare. Firenze, Archivio dell’Accademia di Disegno

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1859-1860 (figs. 5, 6)33. Then in 1861 he exhibited at the Florentine Promotrice a canvas representing Clarice de’Medici. Another painting of these early years was a portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici. Although it has been claimed that other works of his are in the Stibbert Collection in Florence34, nothing in the collection or its pho-tographic database can be identified as by Bardini. Indeed, the only known links between Bardini and Stibbert are the facts that both served in the same regiment of the Garibaldi volunteers in 1866 (about which see below)35 and a signature in a visitors book of 1889 in the Stibbert archives, in which Stefano Bardini appears together with Arthur M. Acton and another antiquarian, Giuseppe Salvadori36. A fine composition illustrating Savonarola che predica nel chiostro di San Marco (fig. 7), undated, is also in the Museo della Caccia in Cerreto Guidi37. Finally, in 1867 Bardini executed an altarpiece of the Immacolata (fig. 8) which was sent to the par-ish church of Bersone dedicated to Santi Fabiano e Sebastiano38.

Bardini’s extant paintings show him to be, on the whole, a fine academic art-ist who attempted to respond to the demands of the particular competition or commission: his Nudo Accademico (figs. 2, 3) of 1857, clearly a school exercise, is competent if unexceptional, and were it anything but that, it would certainly have been unacceptable to his teachers. The illustration of an episode in the life of Lorenzo de’ Medici (fig. 4), dated 1858, since it is only a sketch, permitted him a freedom that the Nude did not, and so we see an apparently spontaneous patchwork of brushstrokes as expected from the Macchiaioli painters, employed to render a more or less historically accurate dramatic moment. Possibly dating from around the same time is a more finished work, Savonarola che predica nel chiostro di San Marco (fig. 7), clearly aligned with the same current of Roman-ticismo Storico seen in paintings by Pietro Benvenuti, Enrico Pollastrini and Stefano Ussi39. In Ussi’s La Cacciata del Duca d’Atene a recognizable setting pro-vides the stage for a dramatic event full of gravitas. As in the latter, the familiar architecture seen in Bardini’s Savonarola canvas anchors the composition with its figural groups, comprised of a variety of individuals (some undoubtedly based on portrait drawings of contemporaries) reacting to (and sometimes ignoring) the protagonist toward whom the attention of most is directed. At the same time,

33 Scalia, Stefano Bardini antiquario, pp. 11-12. Ferrari, Due pittori garibaldini, in this volume, where it is suggested that he came to the commission by way of his uncle Flaminio Bardini, “proposto della collegiata dell’Impruneta” and professor of moral theology at the University of Pisa. Cf. Annuario della Istruzione Pubblica, p. 73. My thanks to Simone Rucellai for permission to view and photograph the fresco.

34 Torresi, Neo-medicei, p. 45.35 Bartocci, The Italian Volunteer, pp. 14-19. Of course, once the Archives are opened one may find

further connections, since both were active contemporaneously in the Florentine art market.36 The page was kindly brought to my attention by Simona di Marco.37 56 x 83.5 cm.38 Bartocci, The Italian Volunteer, pp. 14-19. 39 See Caldini, I dipinti del Romanticismo. On the revival and rehabilitation of Savonarola as a

Risorgimento hero, see Una città e il suo profeta.

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Bardini appears to be exploring the effects of sunlight on architecture, faces and dress, which his more avant-garde comrades were engaged in during these years.

Having received an important commission for the ceiling painting in a salone of an aristocratic villa in Impruneta, the Villa Nobili di Triboli, Bardini painted a

4. Stefano Bardini, Lorenzo de’Medici che nella congiura dei Pazzi si salva nella sagrestia del Duomo, olio su tela, 1858. Cerreto Guidi, Museo della Caccia e del Territorio

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timely image, La Francia soccorre l’Italia nella Guerra del 1859 (figs. 5, 6), which must have been executed in 1859-1860. Here he employs appropriate allegorical content applied to classicizing figures and drapery – Italia holding the tricolored banner, France with fleurs-de-lis on her garment, Austria as an imperial power with the attribute of an eagle. The fresco is colorful yet harmonious and the painting, encased in a painted oval frame, provides an engaging decorative ele-ment to an otherwise monochrome space40. Moreover, it clearly shows the influ-ence of his first teacher at the Accademia, Giuseppe Bezzuoli, for the fresco is reminiscent of the latter’s oil on canvas, Follia che guida il carro di amore of 1848,

40 The date of the monochrome wall decoration is not known.

5. Stefano Bardini, La Francia soccorre l’Italia nella Guerra del 1859, affresco, 1859-1860. Triboli (Impruneta), Villa Nobili

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in the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Florence, with its dramatic gestures, partial nudity, and allegorical content41.

After ending his association with the Accademia, Bardini was given a prestigious commission: to design and paint the curtain for the newly built open air 6,000-seat amphitheater, the Teatro Politeama Fiorentino Vittorio Emanuele, designed by the architect-engineer Telemaco Bonaiuti. Giovanni Bastianini (1830-1868), the neo-Renaissance sculptor well-known for his busts of Benivieni and Savonarola, also received a commission for the theater at that time42. The building was inaugurated with great enthusiasm on 17 May 1862 but unfortunately a fire on the night of 24

41 On Bezzuoli’s canvas, with illustration, see Ottocento e Novecento, pp. 36-37.42 Moskowitz, Forging Authenticity, p. 38.

6. Stefano Bardini, La Fran-cia soccorre l’Italia nella Guer-ra del 1859, affresco, 1859-1860, particolare. Triboli (Im-pruneta), Villa Nobili

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7. Stefano Bardini, Savonarola che predica nel chiostro di San Marco,olio su tela, seconda metà del XIX secolo. Cerreto Guidi, Museo della Caccia e del Territorio

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June 1864 destroyed much of the structure, including the stage and its curtain. Although he may have received several other commissions during the mid-1860s, this event and, according to his daughter Emma, the fact that the demands both of his professors and of the market for contemporary art were unsympathetic to the more innovative ideals of the younger painters in his circle, contributed to a decisive change in the direction of Bardini’s aspirations. In 1866 he enrolled as a volunteer in Garibaldi’s forces in the Trentino43. One wonders, given his apparent lack of interest in politics throughout the remainder of his life – this one episode being the only exception – whether the impulses of youth, the disappointment of the Politeama experience, and a certain degree of peer pressure from his young friends among the contemporary painters who gathered in the Caffé Michelangelo to debate artistic and political issues, induced him to take this radical step.

Bardini, together with another painter by the name of Alessandro Trotti, en-rolled in the Italian corps of volunteers, instituted on 6 May 1866 by the King of Italy, Victor Emanuel II under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi. The two belonged to the 4th brigade, first regiment, and fought in several battles44. At one point this regiment, to which the Italo-British Frederick Stibbert also belonged, was housed in the village of Bersone, about 40 km southwest of Trento45. Ac-cording to a popular tradition, repeated by Danilo Mussi46, fearful of death dur-ing a battle against the Austrians in Cimego, Bardini vowed that if he survived he would thank the Virgin by executing an altarpiece for the newly enlarged parish church47; this he would send to the parish priest Pietro Galletti (1812-1884) in appreciation for having offered him and his comrades-in-arms hospitality for fifteen days. It is likely that Trotti, who executed a similarly sized altarpiece at around the same time, made a similar vow during the heat of battle48.

There exist four letters from Don Pietro Galletti, the aforementioned priest, addressed to Stefano Bardini regarding these paintings. The first, undated but among material pertaining to the year 1867, expresses some anxiety about the altarpieces. He informs Bardini that he had written to “signor marchese Ales-sandro Trotti”

per ricordargli la generosa offerta di far dono (…) di due palle [sic] per adornarne i due nuovi altari laterali, e così lasciare una memoria ai posteri di lor venuta in questi paesi per combattere la ultima patria guerra49.

43 See citations in Ferrari, Due pittori garibaldini.44 For what little information exists on Trotti, see Ferrari, Due pittori garibaldini in this volume.45 Zaniboni Ferino, Bezzecca 1866, 1966, p. 243, n. 196.46 Mussi, Bersone e Formino, p. 99.47 The church was built in the fifteenth century and slightly enlarged in 1860 by the addition of short

transept arms. Mussi, Bersone e Formino, p. 143. 48 The two paintings are first recorded by Marchetti, Fatti uomini e cose, p. 128. On these events see

Ferrari, Due pittori garibaldini.49 Firenze, Archivio di Stato, Archivio Bardini, see note 7.

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Galletti goes on to write that he had also tried to submit to Trotti, through a relative (signor marchese Arconati di Pisa) “le dimensioni ed il modo con cui acquistano i due quadri la luce”. The message was passed on and, in response (whether directly or by way of the intermediary is not known), Trotti asked him to also write to Bardini.

This caused don Galletti, as is made clear from a second letter, dated 27 May 1867, to realize, with considerable dismay, that he had mistakenly thought both altarpieces were to be executed by Trotti:

essendo sempre stato nella falsa persuasione che ambedue venissero fatte a Roma e dal medesimo signor Trotti (…) dimando perdono di sì grave mio sbaglio, acca-dutomi per disattenzione nel leggere la lettera del signor Trotti.

Galletti also notes that, having originally decided on a panel showing the Pre-sentation of the Virgin in the Temple (which would perhaps have been challeng-

8. Stefano Bardini, Madonna Immacolata, olio su tela, 1867, particolare della figura 3, pag. 293. Bersone, chiesa dei Santi Fa-biano e Sebastiano

9. Alessandro Trotti, Sant’An-tonio abate, olio su tela, 1867, par-ticolare della figura 4, pag. 295. Bersone, chiesa dei Santi Fabiano e Sebastiano

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ing, given the elongated vertical format of the altarpieces’dimensions), it was agreed that Bardini would instead execute the Immaculate Conception.

Within several months, the two painters had dutifully sent their altarpieces to Don Galletti, for a third letter to Bardini, dated 21 September 1867, states that the panels had arrived in Bersone:

I quadri sono ormai in mia Canonica. Oggi ho aperta la cassa, e quantunque poco intelligente in fatto di pittura, pure, secondo il debole mio parere sono ambidue bellissimi. A me insomma piacciono fuor di modo, ed i miei desiderj sono esube-rantemente appagati. Solo mi resta un vuoto, quello cioè di non saper come cor-rispondere a miei buoni, e carissimi donatori. Una gratitudine, una riconoscenza perenne, spero, supplirà a tutto il resto.

The final letter found in the Archive is dated 22 November 1867. Galletti states that while he had written earlier, apparently more than once, to express his gratitude to Bardini, he had also inquired about Alessandro Trotti’s present resi-dence so that he can likewise thank the painter. But he has received no response:

e questa cosa mi rende inquieto sulla supposizione o che le mie lettere siano an-date smarrite, e in questo caso porterei la faccia di sconoscente ed ineducato, ov-vero ch’io abbia mancato in qualche cosa, e che quindi mi creda immeritevole di riscontro, o finalmente che le sia avvenuto qualche sinistro accidente di malattia, od altro, il che mi sarebbe ancor più dispiacente.

The site for the paintings must have been decided upon before the two paint-ers left the Trentino: the eastern walls of the new transept arms. They must have agreed on the shape of their paintings, as both are composed of long rectangular fields arched at the tops. But Don Galletti required permission from the bishop and wrote to him on 29 November asking “il permesso di collocarle in Chiesa previa la richiesta benedizione”50. Don Galletti assured the prelate that “da intel-Don Galletti assured the prelate that “da intel-ligenti di pittura furono giudicate di molto pregio, da ogni classe di persone poi dichiarate molto divote”51. Indeed, it must have been considered an honor for the provincial village of Bersone to receive as gifts the work of painters coming from the most important centers of art and culture on the peninsula, Rome and Florence. Both paintings remain in situ52.

Each panel contains one figure, but the paintings differ in that the altarpiece on the northern transept with the image of Saint Anthony Abbot (fig. 4, p. 295)

50 Ferrari, Due pittori garibaldini.51 Ferrari, Due pittori garibaldini.52 I wish to express my deepest gratitude to don Artemio Uberti for permission to view and study the

image, and Signor Marco Bugna for accompanying me to the church and facilitating my study of the work. Also, initial contact with don Artemio was kindly arranged by dott.ssa Laura Dal Prà of the Soprintendenza per i Beni storico-artistici, librari e archivistici of Trento.

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is composed of warm muted tonalities, primarily of grays and browns; while the image of the Immaculate Virgin (fig. 3, p. 293) on the southern transept is bright and colorful, appropriate perhaps to the subject and conceived possibly in direct contrast to the other altarpiece53. Bardini’s panel is inscribed in cursive lettering: “S. Bardini Miles Garibaldinus / 1867” (fig. 8). Trotti chose to sign his work in Latin and, curiously, on a narrow winding ribbon such that the first few words are read in a normal manner, but as the ribbon folds over on itself, the letters are seen as though the ribbon were transparent, from the back (fig. 9). The rib-bon, however, is red and not transparent, yet we view the lettering as though it were. The Roman lettering reads as follows (except that the date is obscured by the frame and was not visible to me; however, it had been transcribed by Mar-chetti54): “ALEXANDER TROTIVS MILES / GARIBALDINVS FECIT ANNO / DOMINI [MCCCCCCCCLXVII.]”.

Bardini’s painting, with its sharp contours, bright colors, strong modeling, and earnest pietistic expressiveness, places the painter within the milieu of Romantic Purism, the movement that during the early to middle decades of the nineteenth century rejected the pagan subjects and artificial modes of representation of the classicists in favor of spiritually and morally uplifting themes and a simple linear style deemed appropriate for religious content55. Purist painters, such as Luigi Mussini, advocated a return to the simple expressiveness, by means of strong linear compositions and uncomplicated forms, that characterized the paintings of Fra Angelico and other painters prior to Raphael. Bardini’s altarpiece could be compared, for example, to Luigi Mussini’s La Musica Sacra in the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Florence, a single figure within an arched space, looking upward with an expression recalling the yearning faces seen in altarpieces by Perugino56. The Immacolata is the last known painting that Bardini executed for it seems that shortly after his return to Florence he devoted himself primarily to the restora-tion, and perhaps already to the sale, of paintings and objets d’art.

Training in the Accademia relied heavily on the acquisition of copying skills, and prizes were given to the best copyists. A painting student learned to imitate not only the style of Old Master works but the techniques as well57. Bardini evi-dently acquired great skill and exhibited noteworthy talent in such imitations

53 Saint Anthony Abbot: 147 x 61 cm; The Immaculate Conception: 146 x 60.5 cm.54 Marchetti, Fatti uomini e cose, p. 128.55 Among the most useful discussions of current artistic movements (Classicismo, Romanticismo,

Realismo, etc.) and the debates they entailed are the chapters on theory in the following: L’Ottocento in Italia: le arti sorelle. Il Neoclassicismo; L’Ottocento in Italia: le arti sorelle. Il Romanticismo; L’Ottocento in Italia: le arti sorelle. Il Realismo. Passages from original sources are found in Testimonianze e polemiche figurative; Barocchi, Storia moderna dell’arte in Italia; Lorenzo Bartolini; Scritti d’arte. A summary of the various movements is offered in Moskowitz, Forging Authenticity, pp. 40-51.

56 Mussini’s painting is illustrated in Storia delle arti, p. 100.57 Antonio Torresi has emphasized the importance of copying skills in the training of students at the

Accademia, where they copied not only Old Master works but also the paintings of their own elder contemporaries. See Torresi, Neo-medicei, pp. 16-20.

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and so, while we do not know the details of his development as a restorer, he seems gradually to have moved toward the profession of art restoration. Thus, based on what can be known of his practice as an artist, Bardini seems to have moved easily between a variety of modes, from classical academic painting (as in the Nudo Accademico) to the rapid sketchy brushstrokes that enliven the surface and contribute to the drama of the bozzetto for the Pazzi conspiracy, one that combines the spontaneity of the Macchiaioli painters with the roman-tic historicism of their more conservative peers and elders, this last seen in his Savonarola panel. He was equally able to construct a Romantic allegory, in the Triboli ceiling, and, finally, to create an austere yet colorful Purismo altarpiece in the Immacolata for the parrocchiale of Bersone. This variety of stylistic and executive modes, combined with his experience in both fresco and oil, would serve him well for his future success as a restorer and dealer. Bardini as re-storer, and his practice as collector, dealer and connoisseur will be the subject of future studies of this most important personality of the Florentine and in-ternational Ottocento.

Referenze fotografiche

Archivio fotografico dell’Eredità Bardini (AFEB) della Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze: fig. 1.

Cerreto Guidi, Museo della Caccia e del Territorio (Photo Lensini): fig. 7.Florence, Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologi-

co e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze, Gabinetto Fotografico: figs. 2, 4.New York, Anita Moskowitz, figs. 5, 6, 8, 9.New York, Photo Lynn Catterson: fig. 3.

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