The protagonists of Italian art between the 19th and 20th centuries, from Fattori to Boldini, on display in Lucca

Silvestro Lega’s intimate daily scenes, Plinio Nomellini ’s landscapes and works by Giovanni Fattori, Galileo Chini, Giovanni Boldini, Oscar Ghiglia and other protagonists ofItalian art between the 19th and 20th centuries are the focus of the exhibition Arte tra due secoli. Works from the Vincenzo Giustiniani | 1875-1920 Collection, set up in the Fresco Room of the Complesso di San Micheletto in Lucca, open from Nov. 16, 2024 to Jan. 6, 2025, under the scientific direction of Paolo Bolpagni, director of the Ragghianti Foundation. The works on display come from the valuable and extensive Vincenzo Giustiniani Collection, recently donated to the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca by Baroness Diamantina Scola Camerini, niece of the collector.

Among the most significant pieces on display is Leopolda Banti at the spinet, an oil on panel portrait applied to cardboard that immortalizes the wife of painter Cristiano Banti while playing an antique chamber keyboard instrument, the spinet. The woman is depicted with a vigorous, fluid brushstroke typical of Giovanni Boldini, a Ferrara artist with strong ties to the Parisian milieu. Also by Boldini is The Sifting of Wheat, a small canvas that enhances the crystalline precision of his stroke.

Also deserving of attention are a series of landscapes by Plinio Nomellini, acquired at auction in 1919, and vibrant views by Silvestro Lega, along with paintings by Vincenzo Giustiniani himself, a self-taught painter capable of depicting rural life with authenticity. Among his works is Contadina che rimesta l’uva nel vino, an oil on paper that restores the genuine and spontaneous atmosphere of the grape harvest.

The exhibition also includes a selection of ceramic vases produced by the Florentine manufacturer Arte della Ceramica Fontebuoni, founded by Galileo Chini in 1886 and active until 1910. From 1902 Count Giustiniani became a financing partner in the firm, helping to promote the new Art Nouveau aesthetic and modernist style then in vogue in Italy. In Ferrara, on the Art Nouveau facade of Villa Amalia in Viale Cavour, it is still possible to admire outdoor ceramics with floral motifs - in shades of green, blue and yellow - designed by Chini and branded Fontebuoni.

Giustiniani moved to Tuscany from Ferrara in 1917, when he bought the 14th-century Tenuta di Forci in the hills of Lucca. A patron of the arts, collector and amateur painter, he turned the villa into an art coterie, and gathered about 180 paintings there over more than 30 years. His collection ranges from works by Filippo Palizzi, a leading figure in Neapolitan realism, to 20th-century works by Nomellini, Chini and Ghiglia. The exhibition, in a never-before-seen itinerary curated by Lucia Maffei, presents a selection of about sixty pieces including small masterpieces and larger works, many of them previously unseen.

A large section is devoted to the Macchiaioli, a movement Giustiniani deeply appreciated, forming personal friendships with many of its exponents. Among the most significant works are Fishing Boats at anchor by Giovanni Fattori, which captures the essence of the sea and sky through a delicate range of grays and blues, and Boat on the Arno by Telemaco Signorini. Also of note are two oils on panel paintings by Fattori, Il tiro al campo - Manovre di bersaglieri and Cavalleggero ferito, in which the artist depicts soldiers on horseback and on foot with sobriety and authenticity, avoiding any rhetoric and making full use of the “macchia” technique.

The exhibition is open to the public Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with free admission.

Image: Giovanni Boldini, Leopolda Banti at the spinet (oil on board applied to cardboard)

The protagonists of Italian art between the 19th and 20th centuries, from Fattori to Boldini, on display in Lucca

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