Palazzo Cini, the Gallery. Tuscan and Ferrarese Masterpieces from the Vittorio Cini Collection

Thanks to a partnership with Assicurazioni Generali, already a patron of the Giorgio Cini Foundation, from May to November visitors will be able to admire the palace with its marvellous collection of Tuscan and Ferrarese paintings, including works by Giotto, Guariento, Botticelli, Filippo Lippi, Piero di Cosimo and Dosso Dossi. 

In the sixtieth anniversary year of the creation of the Institute of Art History, directed by Luca Massimo Barbero, the Giorgio Cini Foundation has decided to open up the exhibition rooms in the Palazzo Cini from 24 May to 2 November 2014 as part of a renewed cultural policy. The main partner in the initiative is Assicurazioni Generali.

“For the reopening of the Palazzo Cini” – comments the Director of the Institute of Art History  – “the Cini Foundation has begun a series of renovation works to improve the lighting and conservation conditions for the paintings as well as making the exhibition itinerary smoother while maintaining the unique, intimate domestic dimension of the museum house. Moreover, to further knowledge about these masterpieces and to give the works housed in the Palazzo Cini their full historical significance, in keeping with the art history statute, the Institute has set up a study programme devoted to the paintings and art objects involving a new generation of art historians; the results will be published in 2015.”

“Generali is an international group with a powerful identity and deep cultural roots” – explains Simone Bemporad, the Generali Group’s Director of Communications and External Relations. “The lion of St Mark represents an inextricable symbolical link with Venice and its history. For us working alongside the Cini Foundation in a project to showcase and develop part of its remarkable artistic heritage is a reason to be proud and at the same time means paying homage to our tradition and reaffirms our century-old mission to take care of valuable things.”

The idea is to provide the city with the opportunity – for at least six months a year – of seeing the marvellous Tuscan and Ferrarese masterpieces kept in the splendid gallery. At the same time, the Institute of Art History has begun an important new study programme on the Palazzo Cini works, which will again be available for scrutiny by the international scholarly community.

Palazzo Cini, the extraordinary museum house in which Vittorio Cini once resided was presented to the Foundation by his heirs exactly thirty years ago. Situated in the Venetian “Museums Mile”, between the Accademia, the Peggy Guggenheim collection and the Punta della Dogana, the palace houses some remarkable works by Giotto, Guariento, Botticelli, Filippo Lippi, Piero di Cosimo and Dosso Dossi.

The rooms on the piano nobile are fitted out with period furniture and art objects reflecting the original character of the residence and personal taste of the great collector. The around thirty Tuscan paintings exhibited in these rooms were presented to the Giorgio Cini Foundation in 1984  by Yana Cini, along with with the part of the palazzo accommodating them. Beside this group, with outstanding works such as the Judgement of Paris by Sandro Botticelli and theMadonna and Child with Two Angels by  Piero di Cosimo, there are also paintings from the Renaissance School of Ferrara (including Saint George by Cosmè Tura), which were loaned permanently in 1989 by Ylda Cini Guglielmi di Vulci. The gallery also boasts significant examples of applied arts, such as the complete porcelain table service made by the 18th-century Venetian manufactory of Cozzi, ivory plaques and caskets by the Workshop of the Embriachi, Renaissance enamels, jewellery, terracotta sculptures, sideboards, an 18th-century sedan chair and some precious cassoni, including a rare mid-14th-century Sienese dowry chest.

One of the Tuscan Renaissance masterpieces in the Palazzo Cini collection, the Portrait of Two Friends by Pontormo, will be on show in a major exhibition: Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino. Diverging Paths of Mannerism (Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 8 March – 20 July 2014). The loan is part of a significant collaboration between the Giorgio Cini Foundation, the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi involving exchanging works between institutions and thus creating a cultural bridge between the two great art cities of Venice and Florence.

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