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Villa Corsini -
history and art
The origin of the site are quite old: it used to belong to the Buondelmonte
family around the year 1000. The original structure was that of a fortified
farm. The
current
structure of the villa goes back to the XIV century. It was built over
layers of “pietra forte” – a local stone – in the middle of the hill (or “mezzo monte”), around a central courtyard, as per the typical renaissance architecture
During the XVI century it was owned by the Barducci Ottavanti, Lorenzo de’
Medici the Magnificent bought it in 1480, and sold it in 1482 to Mr Bernardo del
Nero - an eminent Florentine citizen who was three times chosen Gonfalonier of
Justice, and that fought Savonarola in favour of the Medicis. Lately, the villa
was inherited by the Ridolfi, who sold it to the Panciatichi, to whom we owe the
major structural works to the villa.
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The Prince and future Cardinal Giovan Carlo de’ Medici (second son of Cosimo
II and Maria Magdalena of Austria), brother to the Grand Duke Ferdinando II,
bought the villa in 1629, when he was 18 years old. The majority of the
frescoes, the gallery, part of the building and the eastern Italianate
garden are the result of the action of the young Prince, helped on his
effort by his personal assistant, Marquis Filippo Niccolini. The building
was modified by adding the gallery, the small wing that faces west, and a
private chapel at the first floor (abandoned when a future owner, Prince
Bartolomeo Corsini, had a ground floor chapel built next to the entrance).
Gifted craftsmen built and carved some of the wood ceilings still present.
All these structural works ended in 1632, when the villa became ready to be
frescoed with a set of decorations that has been recently judged, after
detailed studies, as not only beautiful, but quite noteworthy.
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On the “Mezzomonte workshop” Giovan Carlo summoned some of the best artists
that were in central Italy at that time.
Giovanni Mannozzi, known as Giovanni da San Giovanni, and Francesco Albani,
frescoed the same mythological theme on the ceilings of two rooms adjacent
to the entrance hall. The them was “The Expulsion of Hebe and the Accession
of Ganymede as Cup-bearer of Zeus”.
Domenico Cresti, known as the Passignano painted, on the centre of the large
Gallery, the “God Cronos” and other allegories of delightful beauty.
Pandolfo Sacchi frescoed the rest of the decorations of the Gallery named
after himself: within an overwhelming structure of architectural illusionism
(known as “trompe l’oeil”), characterised by arcs, balusters, railings,
vineyards, animals and people of the everyday country life, he designed a
complex iconography hailing to the country gods, to the seasons passing by
and to the beautifulness of the country life. Pandolfo Sacchi himself
painted the story of Psyche and Love in a close by room.
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Cecco Bravo, helped by some minor scholars, embellished the southern rooms
with a sequence of frescoes that is today – after long studies – thought to
be the biggest single sequence of literary frescoes in the area of Florence.
He pictured scene from the Orlando Furioso, from the Gerusalemme Liberata,
and from local country games. Furthermore, some minor artists painted
additional scenes of game hunting with techniques that, because of the deep
representation of the sights, remember the Flemish school, which was very
fashionable at the time.
Michele Colonna and Baccio del Bianco, among the best frame makers of the
time, completed the frames of the frescoes of San Giovanni and Albani.
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In 1644, the Cardinal Giovan Carlo de Medici sold the villa to the Marquis
Bartolomeo Corsini, son of Senator Neri and of Maddalena Machiavelli
(descendant of Nicolò Machiavelli), married with Elisabetta Strozzi.
The villa, after eleven generations, is still within the family.
The villa became a daily residence only few years ago, when architect don
Giovanni Corsini and his wife donna Inès d’Ormesson moved in, unifying the
property, and starting a long and
difficult
work of restoration and safeguard of the frescoed rooms, of the gardens, and
of all the other historical areas of the villa.
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