Patrician Patronage Project

26/11/2017

New blog post by PPP-intern Maartje Visser, who investigated the patronage of the Frescobaldi family!

02/10/2017

MEET OUR NEW INTERN, Sabine Tol!

"Buongiorno!
My name is Sabine Tol and one year ago I completed my Masters in Art History at the University of Amsterdam. After that I became a freelancer working on different kinds of projects for several museums. And now I hope to make a contribution as a researcher to the Patrician Patronage Project. The family that I am doing research on is the Torrigianifamily. Their origins go a long way back in history. From winemakers to traders in Russian fur, they eventually became a wealthy and important family in sixteenth-century Florence. And (just like me) they had a thing for mannerist art and gardens. Behind the walls of Via del Campaccio lies their secret garden, the Giardino Torrigiani, which is Europe’s largest privately owned garden within a historical city centre. I can’t wait to find out more about this family and their patronage. And finally, Florence is an amazing city to live in and to be here is a dream coming true."

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Do you want to know more about the PPP-internship and our project? Check our website: http://www.rug.nl/let/patrician-patronage-project and our blogposts: http://florentinepatricians.blogspot.nl/

29/08/2017

This spring PPP-intern Tessel Luitjens researched the patronage of the Rinuccini, a once wealthy Florentine patrician family. During her quest, she came across some very interesting information about one of the Rinuccini-villas. Want to know more? You can read her story here: http://bit.ly/2wF6Zqs.

This spring I have been a research intern at the Dutch Institute for Art History in Florence for the Patrician Patronage Project. The proje...

26/07/2017

ONDERZOEKSPLEKKEN BESCHIKBAAR IN FLORENCE

English below

Drie maanden naar Florence, daar gaaf kunsthistorisch onderzoek doen, én er ook nog eens 20 ECTS mee verdienen? Dat kan!

Het Patrician Patronage Project is weer op zoek naar masterstudenten Kunstgeschiedenis of recent afgestudeerde kunsthistorici. Tijdens je onderzoek verblijf je aan het Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut in Florence en dompel je je onder in de nog weinig onderzochte wondere wereld van het opdrachtgeverschap van Florentijnse patriciërs tussen 1530 en 1670. Meer informatie over de beschikbare periodes en voorwaarden vind je hier (http://bit.ly/2vHGKwh). Neem ook eens een kijkje op ons blog (http://bit.ly/2v7h3bw)!

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RESEARCH INTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE IN FLORENCE

Do you want to stay in Florence, conduct some awesome art historical research, and also earn no less than 20ECTS? You can!

The Patrician Patronage Project is looking for MA students Art History or recently graduated art historians. During your stay, you will be housed at the Dutch University Institute for Art History in Florence. There you will enter into the forgotten world of the Florentine patrician patronage between 1530 and 1670. More information on the available periods and conditions can be found here (http://bit.ly/2vHGKwh). Also take a look on our blog (http://bit.ly/2v7h3bw)!

11/07/2017

New blog post by PPP-INTERN Ellen Bakker, who discovered that the 16th-century villa which the Riccardi family called their home is now in use as an office of an industrial association - but not less beautiful!

It was a beautiful spring day when I walked down the Via di San Leonardo to the city centre of Florence. On my way I enjoyed the blooming w...

25/05/2017

MEET OUR NEW INTERN, Maartje Visser!

“Ciao tutti!
I am very excited to be an intern for the Patrician Patronage Project and to stay for three months in the beautiful city of Florence! My name is Maartje Visser and I am a masterstudent Art history at the University of Utrecht. I have always been very interested in Italian art. Already in my first year I knew I wanted to specialise in the art of the Italian renaissance. That was when I also found out that patronage was a very important part of this period. A closer look at the patrician families will give a better insight in the art that has been produced in this era. Therefore, I am very excited to research the Frescobaldi family. The origins of this family have been traced back as far as the end of the first millenium. It was a family of well known merchants and bankers. Furthermore, they were and still are prominent winemakers. One of their villa’s, the villa Montecastello, was built with the income from their wine. Palazzo Frescobaldi was one of the first palazzi of the time in Florence. With more than 700 years of experience in winemaking, the Frescobaldi are not only a very interesting, but also a very tasty topic!”

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Do you want to know more about the PPP-internship and our project? Check our website: http://www.rug.nl/let/patrician-patronage-project and our blogposts: http://florentinepatricians.blogspot.nl/

18/05/2017

PPP-INTERN Charley Ladee investigated the Gondi family. Curious what she discovered? Her paper is now online!

Gondi coat of arms (source: http://www.gondi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ storia_00.jpg) From January until March 2016, I stayed at...

22/04/2017

MEET OUR NEW INTERN, Tessel Luitjens!

“This spring I will be researching the RINUCCINI family in Florence for the Patrician Patronage Project. My name is Tessel Luitjens and I am a student of the Research Master Art History at the University of Groningen. In 2016 I finished my two Bachelors Art History and Italian Language & Culture. I have always been passionate about Italian art and culture in a broader sense, and this internship is a perfect combination of my interests. Except for Ottavio Rinuccini, the famous opera librettist who worked with Monteverdi, the Rinuccini family is quite unknown. This I find very exciting because I will be doing pioneering research. Spending three months in Florence will be an unforgettable and fantastic experience, not only because of the great art historical research, but also because of the many beautiful places and delicious dinners that are part of the job.”

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PPP-INTERNSHIP AND OUR PROJECT? CHECK OUR WEBSITE: http://www.rug.nl/let/patrician-patronage-project AND OUR BLOGPOSTS http://florentinepatricians.blogspot.nl/

31/03/2017

Na het succes van de eerste – uitverkochte – editie in 2016, presenteert het Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut Rome op zaterdag 20 mei in De Balie in Amsterdam de Nacht van Rome - Stad van Zeven Zonden. Tijdens deze Nacht van Rome worden de duistere kanten van de Eeuwige Stad belicht. Hoogmoed, hebzucht, lust, jaloezie, vraatzucht, woede en luiheid… Geen van deze zeven zonden is Rome vreemd. In een wervelend programma zoomen we in op ieder van deze zonden. Kunsthistorica Minou Schraven zal ons alles vertellen over hoogmoed in de grootse en rijkelijk gedecoreerde katafalken opgericht voor pausen en vorsten in de Renaissance. Benieuwd naar de rest van het programma? Kijk dan op: www.nachtvanrome.nl. Een kaartje koop je op: http://tickets.debalie.nl/ProgrammaDetail.aspx?id=11768708.

19/03/2017

Next in line in our rubric MEET THE PATRON is the illustrious Renaissance merchant-banker and patron of the arts: BINDO ALTOVITI (1491-1557). Although descendant of a prominent Florentine patrician family, Bindo spent most of his life in the Eternal City working as a very successful banker. Up until the late 1540s, Bindo regularly travelled to Florence, where his Florentine wife Fiammetta Soderini and his children permanently resided. These sojourns came to an end in the late 1540s, when Bindo openly joined the Florentine exiles (so-called 'fuorusciti') in their battle against Cosimo de’ Medici.

Bindo was an important Maecenas, who became friends with great Renaissance artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgio Vasari and Benvenuto Cellini. It seems he must have been a self-conscious (or vain) man, for he had his portrait made at least four times during his lifetime. One of these portraits was made by Raphael. This particular painting shows the banker as a young man with long blond hair, intriguingly looking over his shoulder towards his beholders. This portrait was probably made to celebrate Bindo’s marriage to Fiammetta in 1511. Interestingly, when it was sold by the Altoviti family in the 19th century, it was thought to be a self-portrait of Raphael. As such, it might have served as an exemplar for the nineteenth century Romantic painters (such as Ingres), poetically reflecting on the celebrated artists of the Renaissance. It was not until the late 20th century that Bindo Altoviti was recognized again as being the sitter of this lovely portrait.

Raphael, Portrait of Bindo Altoviti, c. 1515, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

02/03/2017

New blog post by one of our PPP-interns: Lara Fernandez Piqueras delved into the patronage of the Niccolini family!

In the Via dei Servi, leading from Brunelleschi’s Duomo to the more modest but equally impressive Piazza Santissima Annunziata, appears the...

18/02/2017

MEET THE INTERN

Ciao tutti!

My name is Ellen Bakker, student at the University of Groningen, and I am very pleased to be working on the Riccardi family as part of the Patrician Patronage Project for the next couple of months! I have almost finished my masters in curatorial studies, and besides other interesting activities, I was enrolled in an internship at the Groeningemuseum last year. Even though I worked in Bruges on Netherlandish painting which was very insightful, Italian art has also always been one of my fields of interest. I was very enthusiastic when I got the opportunity to do an internship at the Patrician Patronage Project, because I would really like to learn more about art and patronage in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Riccardi family who were founders of the now still existing Biblioteca Riccardiana and former inhabitants of the famous Palazzo Medici Riccardi, are especially interesting, for it is known that they had a love for fine arts and invested wealth and effort in their own collection. I very much look forward to find out everything there is about this subject, whilst enjoying some nice Italian coffee and maybe a gelato or two.