Address: Piazza Pitti, Meridiana Pavilion
The Contini Bonacossi Donation consists of thirty-five
paintings, twelve sculptures, forty-eight pieces of Maiolica,
eleven large ceramic coats of arms and thirty-eight pieces of
furniture. In all, 144 objects of great value were given to the
State in 1969 after long and complex negotiations by Count
Alessandro Contini Bonacossi from his superb collection in his villa of Pratello Orsini in
Florence. This was unquestionably one of the most important gifts
of recent years as much for the quality as for the uniqueness of
the pieces. These include a Madonna and Saint attributed to
Cimabue (recorded 1272-1302), another by Duccio (recorded
1278-1318) or his workshop, and an exceptional fifteenth century
alterpiece showing the Madonna of the Snow by Sassetta (1400-c.
1450) which reveals the quality of the Sienese school in a way
attained by few other works. Also of importance is Cima da
Conegliano's (c. 1459-c. 1517) St. Jerome and from the sixteenth
century the portrait of Count Giuseppe da Porto and his son by
Paolo Veronese (1528-1588).
The portrait of a Torero by Goya
(1746-1828) is a striking companion to "El Aguador de
Sevilla" by Velasquez (15991-1660) and the powerful
Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, a youthful sculpture by Bernini
(1598-1680) and possibly the major sculpture in the collection.
The so-called minor arts contain some outstanding objects, above
all a group of Renaissance maiolica, chests and furniture ranging
from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. The terms of this
gift stated that the objects had to be kept united in a way which
would preserve their original grouping and the present layout
maintains the harmony created among different types of object by
the collector.
The collection belongs to the
Uffizi,
but because of lack of space it has been temporarily housed in
the Neoclassical Meridiana pavilion in the Boboli Gardens,
reached from the
Gallery of Modern
Art.
