Winter 2023

Below, from left to right: Negar
Azhar Azari by Olga Makarova;
Kirstie Mathieson by Valentina
Bellini; Brenda Luize Roepke
by Carmen Cardellicchio, Ayako
Nakamori by Valentina Bellini.
All photos courtesy of Gruppo
Fotografico Il Cupolone and
Calliope Arts Archive
Grand Duchy. Before the cousins tied the knot,
Vittoria’s properties were swooped up by the Papal
powers, because a girl heir made manoeuvring of
this sort easy. But the young Vittoria did keep her
‘moveable properties’, which included pictures by
Titian and Rafael, now at the Pitti Palace. Perhaps
posterity is lucky that her marriage ended up being
unhappy, because the ‘separate life’ she led from
her paedophilic husband engendered one of the
earliest ‘colonies’ devoted to women’s creativity, up
at Poggio Imperiale. While there, Vittoria sought out
talented women in the fields of painting, literature,
embroidery, music and more. In a word, she
provided women painters, poets and composers
with training, as well as the commissions they
needed to build their own legacies.
Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, raised by her
grandmother Vittoria, was also a final heir – this
time of the Medici clan. The value of moveable
property and the need to carve out one’s place in
the future were two of her grandmother’s most
valuable lessons. As an adult, Anna Maria Luisa
conceived and signed the famous ‘Family Pact’,
which barred Medici property from ever leaving
Florence, independent of the ruling families that
took over the territory through the centuries.
For this genius gesture, locals and travellers are
eternally grateful. Florence is Florence thanks to
her foresight.
Considering how objects of cultural value were
paramount to these women’s stories, was it not
fitting to conceive grants for artisans using their
palazzi as a starting point? Three grants were
awarded to members of Florence’s international
artisans’ community for this purpose. The ‘Intreccio
Creativo’ collective combined wood, cord, fabric,
grès and watercolour woodblock prints to create
an installation called Tablescape, worthy of
Elizabeth Browning’s guests at Casa Guidi; Negar
Azhar Azari, a Florentine artist of Persian descent,
created a ring and pendant inspired by the many
windows of Poggio Imperiale’s façade. Brenda
Luize Roepke designed jewellery fit for Cristina di
Lorena, in white gold and diamonds. Our student
grant project, which funded hands-on workshops
at the Liceo Artistico Statale di Porta Romana e
Sesto Fiorentino, took inspiration from the figure
of Eleonora di Toledo, as students designed
‘wallpaper’ for the Grand Duchess’s chambers, reinventing
the pomegranate motif embroidered
on several of Eleonora’s most memorable gowns.
Another noteworthy part of the ‘Palace
Women’ programme involved a grant awarded
to the amateur photography association Gruppo
34 Restoration Conversations • Winter 2023