Address: Via Porta Rossa, 13
The Davanzati Palace, built by the Davizzi around the
mid-fourteenth century, passed to the Davanzati at the beginning
of the sixteenth century, and remained in their hands until 1838
when it was divided up into flats and suffered severe damage.
Early in this century it was bought and restored first by the
antique dealer Elia Volpi and then by Leopold Bengujat who tried
to restore something of its original flavour with theatrical
gusto. The most important feature of the building is its
architecture, a unique example of a domestic building of the
fourteenth century which reveals the transition from the medieval
tower house to the Renaissance palace. Its facade consists of
three arches, originally open for use as a shop,
and a sixteenth century open loggia in place of the usual
medieval machicolations at the top of the building. The interior
is on three similarly planned floors, with an enormous saloon for
receptions, dining rooms, nuptial chambers and
"agiamenti" or lavatories, a rarity in elegant houses
of the period. The interiors all have terracotta floors and
wooden ceilings, some of them painted and original, while the
walls are either frescoed in typical fourteenth century domestic
fashion or fitted with hooks to hang cloth or animal skins.
The recent restoration of the museum takes account of the house's
excellent preservation and emphasizes its domestic nature in an
attempt to reconstruct the appearance of a Florentine house of
the past with furniture and household utensils from the
fourteenth to nineteenth centuries. The bedrooms for example have
their chests full of linen and in the reception saloon a rare
cabinet painted by a Sienese artist of the sixteenth century.
Inside the cupboards of the dining rooms are Cataggiolo plates
and a fine collection of old ceramics and eighteenth century hand
warmers.
Much space is devoted to household activities, notably those of
the women. In the kitchen for example are displayed not only the
utensils in daily use but also working instruments like the loom,
warping machine, and the spinning wheel, all of which reveal
aspects of life in the house. Also with this end in view a
section devoted to lacework has recently been added.
Apart from sheltering beautiful furnishings of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, certain rooms of the museum such as the old
cellars have been set aside for the display of archaeological
remains of all kinds such as the 1966 exhibition of flood-damaged
objects or recently, the exhibition of Cafaggiolo ceramics
brought to light by excavation all of which make the museum a
centre of lively cultural activity.
