Curator-led visit: FROM ISABELLA DE’ MEDICI TO EMMA BARDINI AT CERRETO GUIDI

Exploring Villa Cerreto Guidi

October 24, 2023 at 10.30am (in Italian)

Hosted by Villa La Petraia curator Giulia Coco

Admission free

Reservations required: associazione@palmerino.it

Cerreto Guidi, ph. Cecilia Franchi, Gruppo Fotografico Il Cupolone

Once a Medici hunting lodge, the villa was designed by Buontalenti by order of Cosimo I. It hosts artworks by Lavinia Fontana and Angelica Kaufmann, but it is most famous for being gifted to Cosimo I’s favourite daughter Isabella de’ Medici… it would ultimately become the site of her murder, by husband Paolo Giordano I Orsini. Centuries later, in the 1900s, the villa became home to the paintings of Emma Bardini. This collection of portraiture and still-life works reveal a lesser known side of the woman who helped famed Oltrarno ‘antiques’ dealer Stefano Bardini make international connections in the ‘Oltrarno ed oltre’. This event forms part of the Palace Women: Oltrarno and Oltre Programme.

This programme organised by Calliope Arts, the British Institute of Florence and Cultural Association Il Palmerino, is made possible with the generous support of Alice Vogler, Donna Malin, Margie MacKinnon and Wayne McArdle.