Palazzo de'Rossi. Una storia pistoiese

del suo appartamento al terzo piano dal lato di levante, commissionato nel 1790 a Giuseppe
Brizzi e da costui interrotto; di nuovo era venuto nel 1799, su richiesta dello stesso Tommaso,
per decorare una stanzetta nella “casa vecchia” e a dipingere infissi e un piccolo ambiente nel
medesimo appartamento di Tommaso al terzo piano del palazzo 176 .
Tommaso riferisce anche che nello stesso anno 1799 Luigi Cheli era stato incaricato dal canonico
Giulio di dipingere nel “quartiere” che allora stava ristrutturando, al primo piano
verso ponente. Qui il committente aveva fatto togliere le precedenti decorazioni in stucco,
“cosicché nella fine di maggio 1799 si vidde liscio in tutte le muraglie, che poi fece dipingere
da Luigi Cheli detto Marzocco di Pistoia [...]” 177 .
Attualmente nella prima stanza, originariamente d’ingresso, di questo “quartiere” si vedono
sulle pareti finti quadri con paesaggi toscani, fittamente distribuiti (figg. 63-68). Rinvenuti,
sotto forma di pallide tracce pittoriche, sotto l’intonaco durante i saggi compiuti in occasione
dell’ultimo restauro, i dipinti risultano integrati, tanto che non è possibile accertare se la
loro non eccelsa e discontinua qualità sia dovuta soltanto all’originario artista. In ogni caso,
quelle pitture (che oggi interferiscono troppo pesantemente e con effetto di disturbo visivo
sulla qualità ambientale della stanza, nobilitata nel 1828 dal dipinto di Nicola Monti sul soffitto
e dai vistosi decori d’incorniciatura realizzati allora da Ferdinando Marini) 178 sono diverse
da quelle che conosciamo di Luigi Cheli, dal linguaggio artistico colto e ‘antiquario’ attestato
sia nella villa pucciniana di Scornio, sia – a quanto credo – nei più tardi monocromi lasciati
nel palazzo Rossi-Cassigoli di Pistoia 179 .
Costituisce un problema ulteriore il rinvenimento, nei saggi esplorativi compiuti sulla parete
est della stessa stanza, a sinistra entrando dal salone, di un ampio “quadro” con paesaggio la
cui parte inferiore risultava interrotta dal profilo di una porta tamponata: dove attualmente
è stato posto il portellone di sicurezza anti-panico che immette sul pianerottolo del primo
piano dello scalone. Ciò indica con chiarezza che quando fu realizzata la decorazione a finti
quadri l’originaria porta di accesso al “quartiere” dal medesimo pianerottolo fu murata e
63. Veduta della stanza attigua al salone sul lato sinistro
guardando alla controfacciata, decorata con finti quadri
campestri e montani, al primo piano ovest (attuale foyer in
occasione di concerti musi cali); durante l’ultimo restauro.
64. Ivi, particolare con finto quadro con Paesaggio toscano;
dopo il restauro.
represented the city of Ancyra “in Galatia,” “embellished with works of Greek architecture
with columns, statues and obelisks.” 173 He had taught Cosimo Rossi Melocchi drawing and
ornamentation during the early stages of his training in Pistoia and in 1796 had come forward
with his ideas for new scenery and the decoration of interiors of the Teatro dei Risvegliati,
renovated to a design supplied to the architect Cosimo Rossi Melocchi by a commission of
members of the academy that also included Francesco dei Rossi, Canon Tommaso’s brother. 174
Luigi Cheli, a painter favored by the circle of the Puccini family and later an assistant of
Luigi Catani, 175 had been already been hired by Tommaso dei Rossi in 1794 to finish the
ornamentation of two rooms in his apartment on the eastern side of the fourth floor,
commissioned from Giuseppe Brizzi in 1790 and left incomplete; he was back in 1799, at the
request of Tommaso again, to decorate a small room in the “old house” and paint fixtures and
another small room in that apartment of Tommaso’s on the fourth floor of the building. 176
Tommaso also states that in the same year of 1799 Luigi Cheli had been commissioned by Canon
Giulio to paint in the “quarters” that he was renovating on the western side of the second floor. Here
the client had had the previous stucco decorations removed, “so that at the end of May 1799 all the
walls were smooth, and he then had them painted by Luigi Cheli called Marzocco of Pistoia [...].” 177
At present in the first room, originally the entrance, of this quartiere the walls are thickly
covered with mock pictures of Tuscan landscapes (figs. 63-68). Found in the form of faint
traces of paint under the plaster when samples were taken during the most recent restoration,
the pictures seem to have been retouched, so that it is not possible to tell whether their not
particularly high and uneven quality is due solely to the original artist. In any case, those
paintings (which today clash too heavily with the décor of the room, ennobled in 1828 by
Nicola Monti’s painting on the ceiling and the conspicuous ornamental framing created at
the time by Ferdinando Marini) 178 are different from the ones by Luigi Cheli, in a cultured
and “antiquarian” style, that we know of from the Puccini’s Villa di Scornio, as well—in my
view—as from the later monochromes in Palazzo Rossi-Cassigoli in Pistoia. 179
A further problem arises from the discovery, in the exploratory samples taken in the east wall of
the same room, on the left as you enter from the hall, of a large “picture” of a landscape whose
lower part had been cut off by the profile of a door that has been walled up: in the place where the
emergency exit with a panic bar leading onto the second-floor landing of the staircase has been
located. This indicates clearly that when the decoration with mock pictures was executed the
original door providing access to the apartment from the same landing had already been walled
up and the plaster of that wall had been painted over; but it also indicates that there must have
been another entrance on the second floor; and finally it tells us that the old door must have been
reopened later, cutting into the painted surface, and then walled up yet again, at an unknown date.
However, it was not possible to have had a different entrance to the apartment on the second
floor from the west side until the main hall had been completed, between 1793 and 1794; and it
must have been Luigi Rafanelli who decorated it in a sober antiquarian style, also making use
of panels at the center of the walls, where landscapes were painted. In 1793 there were six doors
providing access to the large space, arranged symmetrically: two on the south side, two on the
east side and two on the north side (the latter connecting it with the “old house” where the
services and servants’ quarters were located). Of the two doors on the southern side, the one on
the left, looking from the inside, served as the entrance from the staircase; the one on the right
led directly, just as it does today, into the first of the two rooms that once formed the lodgings
of Girolamo Alessandro and then, from 1799, of Canon Giulio. So it is possible that the latter
preferred (we do not know for how long) to have the entrance to his small apartment located
in the hall, eliminating the original one: as if he wished to take advantage of the splendid
impression created by the imposing setting to dignify his own home. This could have been a
plausible motive for his decision to fresco the entranceway with “pictures” of landscapes like
the ones that decorated the walls of the hall. However, in this way Canon Giulio established a
right of passage and use that the other members of the family had to take into account.
This may have been a good reason for the reinstatement, later on, without giving up
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