Rediscovering and promoting women artists from the last century through the research, restoration and exhibition of their works found in public and private Florentine collections is the aim of the biennial project 'Women Artists of the 1900s'. The 2016 programme included exhibitions, restorations, the organisation of lectures and guided tours. A sampling of the calendar is included below for archival purposes.
Artist Couples: Passion, Complicity and Competition
Marilena Mosco, art historian and critic, presents her book spotlighting artist couples united by art and the pursuit of parallel paths such as Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel, Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar or Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. This emotional and artistic relationship was also fundamental to the lives of Eloisa Pacini and the architect Giovanni Michelucci, and Adriana Pincherle and the painter Onofrio Martinelli.
Portraits as Recognition: Three Writers through the Eyes of Adriana Pincherle
This literary journey guided by Beatrice Manetti, Docent of Contemporary Italian Literature, University of Torino, centers around Adriana Pincherle’s portraits of women writers—personal friends who became the subject of study and observation. Pincherle’s sitters, Elsa Morante, Anna Banti and Gianna Manzini, were all key players on the Florentine and Italian intellectual scene.
Eloisa Pacini and Vamba’s Giornalino della Domenica (1911-1925)
Andrea Greco, journalist and writer with the Archivio Fotografico Toscano, looks at the most important weekly publication for children in Italy in the early 1930s, written and produced by up-and-coming protagonists of Italian literature and art. In her youth, Eloisa was an avid contributor to the journal. Research on her family archive reveals the artist’s passion and commitment, thanks to the correspondence she shared with Vamba and other renowned individuals.
Amelia Pincherle Rosselli:
Theatre and civil committment
Maria Alberti, Professor of the History of Performance Arts, and essayist Sandra Landi introduce audiences to the extraordinary Amelia Pincherle Rosselli, Adriana Pincherle’s aunt and mother to Carlo and Nello Rosselli. She is also the grandmother of the famous poetess, her namesake. Amalia was the first woman playwright to debut in top Italian theaters. She always actively participated in public life, flanking her sons in the fight against the fascist dictatorship and waging her own battle for women’s rights.
Discovering the Gabinetto G.P. Vieusseux
Archive and Library director Gloria Manghetti hosts a guided tour through the Gabinetto G.P. Vieusseux, located in the fourteenth-century Palazzo Corsini Suarez. Home to the Archivio A. Bonsanti, it’s a treasure trove of 150 personal archives including photographic, literary and artistic documents gifted by some of the twentieth century’s luminaries. Visitors will appreciate the center’s Reading Room featuring a collection of portraits by painter Adriana Pincherle as well as a tour of other areas not generally open to the public. Palazzo Corsini Suarez.
A Studio with a View, the Giovanni Michelucci Foundation
A guided tour with director Corrado Marcetti. Today, the villa in Fiesole that once belonged to the architect Giovanni Michelucci and his wife, painter Eloisa Pacini, is home to a Foundation that bears the architect’s name. Visitors are sure to appreciate the building itself, in addition to the library’s volumes, drawings and the architect’s models. The Foundation also hosts the majority of Pacini’s oeuvre, exhibited a family-style environment and in harmony with her husband’s works. Villa il Roseto (via Beato Angelico 15, Fiesole).