The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies VILLA I TATTI Via di Vincigliata 26, 50135 Florence, Italy Volume 31 E-mail: [email protected] / Web: itatti.harvard.edu Tel: +39 055 603 251 / Fax: +39 055 603 383 Autumn 2011 t seems only yesterday that Anna Letter from Florence of implementing them. Following the Iand I arrived here, and yet so much indefatigable Lou Waldman (VIT’06), has happened since that day of Jonathan had big shoes to fill, but August 2010. Our transition from he learned quickly, he worked hard Eliot House at Harvard to Villa and achieved more than I can say I Tatti was made much smoother in this brief report. My heartfelt by the help of Joe and Françoise thanks to him for a truly magnificent Connors. We couldn’t have wished contribution in his new role. for more understanding, cooperative, It’s always difficult to balance and gracious predecessors. They allowing Appointees enough time thoroughly prepared us in advance to follow their own research while and, when the time came, they left offering them opportunities to I Tatti absolutely ready for us; when enjoy the rich culture of Italy, but we arrived the entire estate was in everyone seemed to appreciate splendid shape. We only had to step our visit to Rome in November in and carry on. Anna and I are with the unique chance we had to grateful to all our predecessors but visit the Pauline Chapel, guided by we owe a special debt of gratitude to Drew Gilpin Faust, Lino Pertile & Debby Brice Antonio Paolucci, the Director of Joe and Françoise for their eight years of in front of the new Deborah Loeb Brice Loggiato. the Vatican Museums. In the event, we careful and inspired stewardship. also saw Fra Angelico’s Nicholas Chapel One of our first pleasures upon Costanza to Elisabetta Cunsolo (library) and later spent over an hour on our arriving at I Tatti was getting to know and Giacomo Di Domizio. own in the Sistine Chapel. The sight of the staff. We anticipated enjoying Our first “crop” of Fellows has twenty or so Fellows, somewhat tired working with them but we have been already come and gone - back to after eight hours in the Vatican, reviving overwhelmed by the warmth, generosity California, England, Australia, Calabria, and sighing with pleasure as they looked of spirit, and loyalty that we have Pennsylvania - wonderful Fellows all of up at the frescoes from various prone encountered everywhere – whether in them. Their enthusiasm and intellectual positions around the Chapel, will remain one of the offices tucked away at the top curiosity made a team of them from the one of our happiest memories of this of the Villa, the stacks of the Berenson first day they met. At lunch and tea, in the year. In the spring we had a wonderful Library, the always bustling kitchen, gardens, the Sassetta room or the Geier trip to Parma and to several charming, the building site of the Loggiato or in Granaio, they analyzed, discussed and little-known castles in the Parma region. the new greenhouses and vineyards. At exchanged ideas and projects, they shared Equally memorable was a trip to the the end of our first year, as we left for a discoveries, and made plans for common Melozzo exhibition in Forlì, and many trip back home to the US, we felt as if initiatives. It was always invigorating to privileged visits to Florentine museums we were saying goodbye to family. As see them in action, whether they were and exhibitions on days when they were in any family, there have been sorrows discussing Agnolo Bronzino in the closed to the public. as well as joys in the last year. We were Big Library, playing table-tennis in the After a rather cool and wet summer, all saddened by the loss of Lina Ciullini Myron and Sheila Gilmore Limonaia, September 2010 was dry and lovely, and Alfredo Papi, both of whom worked or soccer with the household staff. We though perhaps not warm and dry at I Tatti for many decades, going back provided the setting, they filled it with enough for the grapes. Nevertheless, to the time of Bernard Berenson. But their vitality and charm. In the planning we held our vendemmia towards the during the year there was great happiness and organizing of events, at the Villa end of the month. Fellows and Visiting at the birth of four lovely I Tatti babies: and further afield, Jonathan Nelson Professors took part in the annual event, Duccio to Carlo Fei (security) and (VIT’02), the new Assistant Director for competing with each other in enthusiasm Barbara Prioreschi, Elena to Cheti Academic Programs and Publications, if not in skill, and the grapes were soon Benvenuti (household) and Sergio provided essential help in both suggesting picked! At a blind tasting in the Gabriele Galeotti (security), Christian to Emiliano new ideas and finding appropriate ways Geier Granaio one winter evening, our (household) and Angela Pernice, and Continued on page 26 Cambridge Office: Villa I Tatti, Harvard University, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-5762 Tel: +1 617 496 8724 or +1 617 495 8042 / Fax: +1 617 495 8041 / Web: http://www.itatti.harvard.edu Pier Mattia Tommasino, Francesco VILLA I TATTI COMMUNITY 2010-2011 De Dombrowski Fellow, Scuola zzz DEBORAH LOEB BRICE LOGGIATO zzz Normale Superiore di Pisa, Literature. “Un martire domenicano tra Firenze e Fellows “Sanctified in Water, Sealed in Stone: Tunisi: Antonio Neyrot da Rivoli O.P. alter Kaiser’s dream of “a building in which all fifteen and greenhouse below are discreetly located to the side of Déborah Blocker, Florence Gould The Italian Baptistery, 1000-1500.” (c. 1426-1460).” WFellows could have well-appointed, comfortable, the new entrance to the Berenson gardens, at the foot of the Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, Marcella Marongiu, Hanna Kiel luminous rooms in which to work, a building which would be monumental staircase. Literature. “Art, Scholarship and Politics Fellow, Casa Buonarroti, Firenze, Art Readers in Renaissance Studies near the library yet serenely removed from all the distracting Many people are to be thanked including Debby Brice, in the Accademia degli Alterati (Florence History. “Per una biografia di Tommaso Goretti Gonzalez (2nd sem), Harvard quotidian activity within the library and the villa” came true outgoing chairman of the I Tatti Council, and the Florence and Pisa ca. 1570-1620).” de' Cavalieri.” University, Literature. last June when the Deborah Loeb Brice Loggiato was finally Gould Foundation for whom the conference hall is named. A Ingrid Ciulisova (2nd sem), I Tatti Timothy McCall, Robert Lehman Eva Helfenstein (2nd sem), Harvard inaugurated. Though long in maturing, the result, designed number of people gave generously to name the new studies in Research Fellow, Slovak Academy of Fellow, Villanova University, Art History. University, Art History. by Baltimore architect Charles Brickbauer and Ziger/Snead, this building and in the Gioffredi House including Victor K. Sciences-Institute of Art History, Art "Brilliant Bodies: Men at Court in Early Nadia Marx (1st sem), Harvard really is a dream come true. The beautiful building across the Atkins, Jr., Suzanne and David Booth, Jean Bonna, Jim Cherry History. “Veit Stoss and Taste for Gothic Renaissance Italy." University, Art History. and the Billy Rose Foundation, Gabriele Geier, Walter and in Renaissance Florence.” Elizabeth Mellyn, Francesco De Cara Rachele (1st sem), Harvard Virgilia Klein, Fred Koontz, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Seth Coluzzi, Ahmanson Fellow, Dombrowski Fellow, University of New University, Art History. Mary Landor, Arthur Loeb, Guillaume Malle, Edna and 3 2 Brandeis University, Musicology. “Il Hampshire, History. “Madness, Medicine, Mandy Moross, Melvin R. Seiden, Bill and Julie Thompson, the d c pastor fido and the Italian Madrigal.” and the Law in Italy, 1350-1700.” Visiting Professors Dorothy Wagner Wallis Charitable Trust, Rosemary Weaver, Eva Del Soldato, Melville J. Kahn Simona Mercuri, Lila Wallace - Frances Andrews (2nd sem), Lila Fellow, Scuola Normale Superiore di Reader's Digest Fellow, Università della Wallace - Reader's Digest Visiting Pisa, History. “Reinventing Platonism: Calabria, Literature. “Il Commento Professor, University of St. Andrews, Bessarion's In calumniatorem Platonis.” sopra una canzona d'amore di Giovanni History. “Religion and Public Life in Pico della Mirandola. Storia della Late Medieval Italy.” tradizione, edizione e analisi del testo.” Louise Bourdua (2nd sem) Lila Wallace Peta Motture (2nd sem), Craig Hugh - Reader's Digest Visiting Professor, Smyth Visiting Fellow, Victoria and University of Warwick, Art History. Albert Museum, Art History. “Bronze “Giotto's Legacy? Painting in Padua in and Bronzes: Making and Meaning.” the Long Fourteenth Century.” Daniela Parenti (2nd sem), Craig Simona Cohen (1st sem), Lila Wallace - Hugh Smyth Visiting Fellow, Galleria Reader's Digest Visiting Professor, Tel Aviv dell'Accademia, Firenze, Art History. University, Art History. “The Iconography and Margaret and Price “Antonio Veneziano.” of Time in Renaissance Art.” new Pellegrino garden from the entrance to Zimmermann. We are Andrea Rizzi, Deborah Loeb Brice Diana Sorensen (1st sem), Harvard the Biblioteca Berenson is the culmination grateful, too, to Joseph P. Pellegrino Fellow, University of Melbourne, Visiting Professor, Harvard University, of much thought and research on the part and the Lila Acheson Wallace – Gerardo de Simone, Rush H. Kress History. “The Dynamics of Vernacular Literature. “Space, Mobility and of Charles Brickbauer whose design nods to Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund Fellow, Università di Pisa, Art History. Translation in Renaissance Italian Materiality in the Renaissance.” the work of Cecil Pinsent and Geoffrey Scott for the landscaping. The third phase “Painting and Patronage in Rome and Courts (1420s-1480s).” Marica Tacconi (2nd sem), Robert at I Tatti as well as “Vasari, for the system of the Scholars’ Court project, the Latium between Calixtus III and Paul II Janet Robson, Deborah Loeb Brice Lehman Visiting Professor, Pennsylvania of harmonic proportion, Philip Johnson, Fototeca building, remains to be (1455-1471).” Fellow, Birkbeck, University of London, State University, Musicology.