BIAF. Masterpieces at the XXXIII International Antiques Biennial of Florence – Carlo Franza’s blog

The 33rd edition of the Biannual THEinternationalTOantiques of Firenze (open until 6 October 2024) welcomes you to Palazzo Corsini 80 galleries with 14 new prestigious international participations. 780 will be the guests who will come from all over the world for the exclusive Gala dinner – already sold-out – on 26 September at Palazzo Corsini whose “direction” is entrusted to Gucci Osteria by Massimo Botturaequally exclusive will be the dinner scheduled for September 27th which will be held in the Salone dei Cinquecento of Palazzo Vecchio for the charity event in favor of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation. A unique evening for those who want to attend maestro Bocelli’s singing performance and participate in the charity auction in support of the national and international projects of the Foundation itself. Alongside BIAF for the 2024 edition, as main sponsor, there is GUCCI.
Galleries of ancient tradition such as Colnaghi, founded even in the eighteenth century, Agnews, a Londoner dating back to 1817, the Enrico Frascione gallery – whose family has been dealing with ancient paintings since the end of the 19th century and boasts participation in the Florence Biennale since the first edition in 1959 – and again Botticelli Antichità, inaugurated in 1959, Bacarelli and Longari. Most of the galleries that will exhibit at BIAF, has assets on average come on 30 to 50 years of experience as Sarti, Tornabuoni, Lampronti, Piva, Sperone & Westwater, Dickinson whose founder Simon Dickinson in the past discovered works by Botticelli, Titian and Rubens, among many. All these galleries, whether small or large, have contributed to shaping the taste of international collectors and have sold – and still sell – masterpieces to the most important museums in the world.
Behind every piece on display there are, almost always, years of new studies and research, restorations and expertise to offer the market unpublished, rare works in optimal conservation conditions, a fundamental criterion especially in the antique sector, of course. They are no exception to these high standards the galleries recently founded or directed by young gallery ownerswhich pthey will bring new discoveries and rarities to Palazzo Corsini. Caretto & Occhinegro and Romano Fine Arts return to Florence and Flavio Gianassi, based in London, enters for the first time. which will exhibit a careful selection of Italian paintings and sculptures from the 14th to the 17th century, including a large painted cross by Giovanni da Rimini and three small tondos by Bicci di Lorenzo. First participation also for two other very prestigious foreign galleries: Lullo Pampoulides (London) and Rob Smeets (Geneva).
Over all of them, whether they deal with the ancient or the contemporary, the Vetting Committee made up of 55 experts from various sectors (paintings, sculptures, ceramics, furniture, drawings, silver). A pool of scholars called upon to verify every single object before the doors of Palazzo Corsini officially open.
A first look at the works that will be proposed in the next edition confirms that, once again, the BIAF will be the “most important exhibition of Italian art in the world”as stated by Fabrizio Moretti, General Secretary of the event. Botticelli Antichità will propose a head of bishop Andrea de’ Mozzi (ca. 1296-1300), attributed to a collaborator of Arnolfo di Cambiofragment of the funerary monument preserved in the now destroyed church of San Gregorio della Pace, now incorporated into the Ba Museumorders. This work, in addition to having been part of the Bardini collection for decades, depicts an important figure for the artistic development of thirteenth-century Florence. Bishop Andrea de’ Mozzi signed the contract with Arnolfo di Cambio for the façade of the Cathedral and promoted the construction of Santa Croce and the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. Maurizio Canesso, which is celebrating 30 years of activity, offers the Italian market a Madonna and Child by Bronzino (1525-1526), a panel by one of the major protagonists of Florentine painting, a very rare author and always loved by great collectors. The panel is an extraordinary testimony to a crucial moment in Bronzino’s career: Pontormo’s lesson is still vivid but we can already glimpse the characteristics of the crystalline and pure painting so typical of the painter’s maturity. Among the protagonists of Carlo Orsi’s stand there will be one Madonna and Child with Saint Mary Magdalene by Tiziano Vecellio. This oil on canvas, dating back to between 1555 and 1560, has been recognized as an authentic masterpiece of the Venetian master by illustrious art experts, including Federico Zeri. The mastery of execution and the excellent state of conservation makes it qualitatively superior even to the versions with the same subject preserved in some of the most prestigious museums in the world (Capodimonte Museum, Uffizi Gallery, Hermitage in St. Petersburg).
Altomani & Sons reports a recent discovery: a Portrait of Grand Duchess Vittoria Della Roverepainting by the Marche artist Camilla Guerrieri (Fossombrone, 1628 – Pesaro, 1690). This masterpiece, within its original frame, celebrates early female emancipation, uniting a female portrait, a female artist and a prominent patron.
The Caretto & Occhinegro Gallery will present a rare “Night Landscape with Stories of Ceres” Of Jan Brueghel I, known as the Velvets. The artist spent a fundamental period of travel and study in the Peninsula, from Milan to Rome, where his fame made him one of the most celebrated Flemish painters. In the work the figures are the protagonists of a classical myth centered on Ceres and are created by the important painter Frans Francken II, while the landscape is by Brueghel.
Colnaghi chose a work by the artist Giovanna Garzoni (Ascoli Piceno, 1600 – Rome, 1670) Still life with flowers in a glass vase, 1640-1650 approximately (tempera on parchment with traces of black pencil). The beautiful miniature, originally mounted on a copper plate, recently restored and in excellent condition. Giovanna Garzoni can probably be considered the greatest miniaturist of 17th century Italy. Born in the Marche region to a family of Venetian artists and artisans, she trained in Venice with Palma Il Giovane and Tiberio Tinelli, who became her husband.
From Orsini Arte e Libri, a unique work of its kind, on parchment, considered the noble ancestor of paper, closely linked to the history of the family that owns the splendid residence that has hosted the Biennale since 1997, represents the most curious and unusual element of the stands. It’s one pair of miniatures by the Venetian artist Antonio David depicting the portraits of Pope Clement XII (Lorenzo Corsini, 1652-1740) and his nephew Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini (1685-1770), both drawn on a large sheet of finely and densely carved parchment.
The proposals of Alessandra di Castro’s Gallery introduce us to the Florence of Cosimo III de’ Medici and Giovanni Battista Foggini: a very rare set of eight gilt bronze candlesticks – shiny and opaque – with ingenious design and shapes, created in the early eighteenth century, and a canvas by Volterrano which, masterfully painted with a compendium technique, exploits all the expressive potential of the unfinished to evoke the figure of Omphale, heroine of the myth that managed to subdue Hercules by making him a slave.
From Robilant+Voena, an exceptional work: a majestic painting by Andrea Appianithe Portrait of Achille Fontanelli (1813). This painting is probably the artist’s last portrait masterpiece, since in April of the same year Appiani suffered a stroke which left him unable to paint for the last years of his life. The protagonist, Achille Fontanelli (1775-1838), was a military commander of Napoleon’s forces in Italy and in 1802 he was Napoleon’s aide-de-camp.
The Tettamanti Gallery will bring, of Eliseo Sala a Portrait of Rustem Bey, Giovanni Timoteo Calossooil on canvas, 1854. Known as Rustem Bey, title received during his service at the Sublime Porte under the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Mahmud II (1785- 1839), Calosso is celebrated for being the author of the “Mémoires d’un vieux soldat”, considered among the most reliable and authoritative testimonies on the Napoleonic campaigns in Europe.
From the Society of Fine Arts a work by will be highlighted Vittorio Corcos from 1900, it is a fascinating portrait of Anna Belimbau, wife of her friend Adolfo Belimbau. At the center of an extremely scenographic interior, identifiable in one of the rooms of their Florentine home, we can see her slender figure, wrapped in an elegant frock coat. The wax and plaster bust is also dated 1900 Antiochus by Medardo Rosso, which will be possible to admire at the Gomiero Gallery. Antonacci Lapiccirella bets on a pointillist pastel by Umberto Boccioni (Portrait of a young man, circa 1905). This rare pointillist pastel is a window into the artist’s pre-futurist period, a dive into the creative mind of Boccioni, a young genius in turmoil who was about to revolutionize the art world with his innovative spirit.
The Richard Saltoun Gallery presents itself for the first time at BIAF and will do so with a stand dedicated to three Italian artists: the innovative minimalist Bice Lazzari (1900-1981), the pioneering ceramist Franca Marano (1920-2015) and the renowned sculptor and painter Antoinette Raphaël (1895-1975). All three artists played a decisive role in the formation of post-war Italian art and, in recent years, have been the protagonists of important institutional solo exhibitions. Works by are also announced for the twentieth century Le Corbusier from Tornabuoni Arte, Alberto Savinio by Sperone Westwater with a “Nocturne” from 1950, a De Chirico of 1933 by Farsetti entitled The daughters of Minos (Ancient scene in pink and blue II).

The International Antiques Biennial of Florence is one of the most important events dedicated to Italian art on the international scene, with over 25,000 visitors for the 2022 edition and a rich cultural and awards program involving the entire city, fueling a huge activities which benefit numerous local businesses.

Carlo Franza