Palazzo de'Rossi. Una storia pistoiese

Al terzo piano prosegue la rassegna di Novecento pistoiese, con lavori di Marino Marini, Pietro
Bugiani, Achille Lega (fig. 21), Giulio Innocenti, Luigi Bruno Bartolini, Renato Bolcioni
e Alberto Caligiani. Tutte queste opere rappresentano, senza particolari velleità o disegni,
una vetrina di parte della collezione e della sua natura. Rimangono invece due locali dove
l’allestimento continua ad avere prevalente funzione di arredo, ma per motivi di spazio risulta
maggiormente pensato e costruito: il mezzanino del terzo piano e l’altana (fig. 22).
Il mezzanino è una sala assai ampia ma con copertura spiovente, piuttosto bassa nella parete terminale.
Le sue dimensioni e l’assenza totale di decori hanno fatto sì che fosse possibile raggruppare
un nucleo abbastanza consistente di opere, un ulteriore spaccato sul Novecento: ancora
Nativi, Barni e Cappellini, ancora Zanzotto e Caligiani, ma anche Egle Marini, Sigfrido Bartolini,
Plinio Nomellini 37 nonché due testimonianze del lavoro ottocentesco di Giuseppe Magni.
Sull’altana, caratterizzata dalla grande luce che proviene dalle amplissime vetrate e arredata unicamente
con un lungo tavolo di cristallo, si è del tutto messo da parte il figurativo e selezionato cinque
opere di dimensione media e grande di taglio decisamente moderno. Accanto al Grande tondo
graficista di Massimo Biagi e Eternal Sunshine di Federico Gori, due contemporanei in piena attività,
si sono disposti tre lavori astratti di autori ormai scomparsi: Mario Nigro, Agenore Fabbri e
Aldo Frosini. Tre nomi che ritroveremo presto nell’affrontare la disposizione delle sale espositive.
21. Achille Lega, Paesaggio
Il vero nucleo della collezione è raggruppato nelle sale a piano terra, ed è questo il motivo per cui
gli è stata riservata la parte finale di questo scritto. La destinazione a spazio espositivo ha natura
progettuale: fin dal primo momento, pensando al restauro del palazzo, si è ipotizzato che queste
sale fossero destinate alla collezione, e così è stato. I tempi per il progetto di allestimento sono
stati molto brevi 38 , ma il disegno era già chiaro perché era il medesimo che aveva improntato la
costruzione della collezione, e quindi i problemi da affrontare sono stati principalmente quelli di
natura logistica, di rapporto con gli spazi a disposizione per la collocazione delle opere 39 .
Già nel nome della collezione, Arte pistoiese attraverso i secoli, sta racchiuso il motivo conusually
furnished with a long glass table, the figurative part is completely put aside in favour of
five medium and large works with a decidedly modern spin. Next to the Grande tondo graficista
by Massimo Biagi and Eternal Sunshine by Federico Gori, two contemporaries at their height,
are three abstract works by the now late artists Mario Nigro, Agenore Fabbri and Aldo Frosini.
Three names we will soon come back to when we deal with the layout of the exhibition rooms.
The real nucleus of the collection is brought together in the rooms on the ground floor, which is
why they have been reserved the final part of this piece. Their use as exhibition space was planned:
right from the start, when considering the restoration of the palazzo, it was imagined that these
rooms would be destined for the collection, and that is indeed how it was. The timeframe for the
exhibition design was very short 38 , but the plan was already clear since it was the same that had
characterised the construction of the collection, and therefore the problems faced were mainly
logistical, regarding the relationship with the spaces available for displaying the works 39 .
Within the name of the collection itself, Arte pistoiese attraverso i secoli (Art in Pistoia through
the centuries) lies the leitmotif of the selection, which refers to the local area and to the
documented time span. The criteria adopted was thus to use the five available rooms and
the long corridor to build a chronologically organised layout. In that way it was possible to
display a large part of the collection, while at the same time offering the chance to transform
the visit into a journey through the last seven centuries of art production in the area. A journey
by selection, by no means exhaustive yet with no particularly serious gaps, being able to
count on large spaces and a sizeable number of works to choose from 40 .
The division into four sections is rather unbalanced, and this derives from the fact that most
of the collection is devoted to the last century. The clear reasons for this have already been
mentioned, going way beyond the belief in the major importance of local twentieth century art:
later works are easier to acquire and generally cost a lot less than art works from the less recent
past. That is why the first section brings together works from the fourteenth to the sixteenth
centuries; the second, those from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries; the third is
devoted to the early twentieth century, and the last section to the second half of the twentieth
century 41 . The disproportion in favour of the most recent century is already quite clear.
The first section is situated in the first two rooms, the smallest ones 42 ; the oldest works are fourteenth
century, since there is nothing from the previous period. Moreover, thirteenth century
art in Pistoia is linked to the Coppo Crucifix by Marcovaldo and Salerno di Coppo, preserved
in the Cathedral and recently restored by Alfio Del Serra at the behest of the Foundation. The
production in that period, furthermore, is mainly in stone, and it is thus no coincidence that the
century concludes with the most important creation, the pulpit in the church of Sant’Andrea.
It is undoubtedly the weakest section: the local area in fact offers so much more than what can
be found in these two rooms. The highly notable heritage of the Civic Museum, the Diocesan
Museum, the churches, the oratories and the convents together document that long and fervid
period 43 in much more detail. However, points of interest and quality works are still here;
though small, the glimpse offered by these two rooms presents essential documentation for
whoever wishes to study that time. First, it photographs one aspect that has become, for the
fourteenth century in Pistoia, a definitive historical fact: the concurrence of a local and highly
characteristic “school”, and contributions which the city received from artists coming from
other places 44 .In fact, the collection presents works undoubtedly produced by local artists,
but also works executed in and for Pistoia by Florentine artists. Another element to be underlined
is the documentation of painters who left even widespread traces in the area. Just think,
limiting ourselves to two fourteenth century examples, of the artist known as the “Master of
the Bracciolini Chapel”, author of large, important cycles such as those in San Francesco 45 and
in the Oratorio di Serravalle 46 ; or of Niccolò di Tommaso, the Florentine painter of the cycle
in the church of Tau 47 , who had also worked in SS Annunziata. Here both are present, respectively
with a large lunette and a tabernacle , and with a highly valuable wood panel.
These general considerations aside, the first two rooms do offer many points of interest. In the
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22. Altana