About three years after his death, the extraordinary collection of Carlo del Bravo, professor of art history at the University of Florence, became part of the Uffizi Galleries heritage.
Donation for the Uffizi Galleries
A treasure of 455 works of art including paintings, sculptures and drawings from the 16th to the 21st century. Masterpieces by Tribolo, Jacopo Vignali, Giovanni Battista Foggini, Ingres, Pio Fedi, Giuseppe Bezzuoli. Also, the extraordinary San Giovannino del Rosso Fiorentino, last picture of the mannerist genius to date in private hands.
The legacy is the result of the generosity and foresight of his pupil and universal heir Lorenzo Gnocchi. Also a professor at the Florentine university.
In 1982 Carlo Del Bravo was awarded the chair of History of Modern Art. He voluntarily worked at the university even further. In fact, he trained generations of students. In particular, these include the directors of the Modern Art Gallery, Ettore Spalletti, Carlo Sisi, Simonella Condemi, and Antonio Natali, former director of the Uffizi Gallery.
It is a great event, even for a museum so important as the Uffizi. In the first place, as the director Eike Schmidt explains, because the “bewildered, irreverent San Giovannino del Rosso Fiorentino becomes part of the public heritage and will be part of the new preparation of the early 16th-century painting at the Uffizi».
An incredible collection
All the works donated are of excellent value. Among these, there are two of the most poignant paintings by the Florentine Jacopo Vignali. The Young flutist and Jesus crowned with thorns will be on view at the Palatine Gallery. The other works in the collection will be on view in the coming months.
“Carlo Del Bravo put them together over the course of his life, is the result of an existence based on a passion for knowledge and a sense of beauty – explains Eike Schmidt -. Precisely these values inspired today the act of generosity carried out by his pupil and universal heir Lorenzo Gnocchi. He handed over his master’s most precious, personal and intimate treasures to the Italian people”.
“Just as in academic studies, the collection that Carlo Del Bravo put together over the course of his life – one of the most important donations to Florentine museums since the post-war period. It is the result of a life marked by a passion for knowledge and a sense of beauty.