Interview with Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda
Interview conducted by Paolo Pianigiani
A December day in Florence, in a coffee shop down by the river Arno, late morning, sipping espresso.
My intention had been to ask Friends of Florence President Simonetta Brandolini to tell us the story and the reasons behind this restoration which owes such a huge debt to the generosity of some of this splendid Foundation’s members. But when she appeared before me, smiling and more than happy to speak, I took the long approach and got her to tell me things she’d never told anyone else until now…
This is more or less how our conversation went…
Paolo Pianigiani:
You know, Simonetta, at this juncture everyone in Florence and Tuscany knows who the Friends of Florence are and what they do. We hear about them every time some magnificent work of art that was in danger of being lost forever, amid widespread indifference, is restored to its original splendour. Yet few people know you, who were responsible for setting up this nonprofit organisation, quite a few years ago now, and for building it up from scratch…
Simonetta Brandolini:
I’m happier for Friends of Florence to be known for what they achieve with the contribution of our members, of the organisations and of the people who help us to see our work through. But if you’re curious to know how it all began, I can start by telling you that I’m the daughter of an American – my father, Zane Kortum, was in the U.S. Army serving in Italy – and an Italian, my mother Emma Ruberti. They met just after the war, fell in love and got married in Rome in 1946.
I was born in Georgia but I started travelling around the world almost at once: five years in France, for example, then Verona where my father was a colonel with NATO. Then we went back to America in 1969.
At school I pursued a broad range of interests including medicine and biology, before turning to architecture and art history. I graduated from Tufts University in Massachusetts, but my heart was set on Italy, on Florence in particular, and my dream was to come back here.
Paolo:
Why Florence?
Simonetta:
You can’t understand Friends of Florence unless you know the value that Florence and its history have for Americans. Humanism, the Renaissance, thought driven by beauty and harmony are examples to aspire to and to keep alive, helping as far as possible to ensure that the works of art that are this city’s true symbol can continue to inspire the world. That is crucial!
Paolo:
… so then you came back to our city…
Simonetta:
Yes, I did. I chose Florence to complete my studies. I enrolled in the Smith Program, which had Italian lecturers of the calibre of Professor Ercoli and Professor Francovich. I had the privilege of attending a course on Caravaggio held by Mina Gregori.
I met my husband in Florence and we got married as soon as I obtained my degree. We began to work together in what was the as yet unexplored territory of luxury homes to rent out to top-of-the-range clients as an alternative to going to a hotel. It worked, and our guests included such well-known personalities as Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
We also worked in Venice where Save Venice, an association that helps to save works of art with donations in cash, was a very active force. That was where I and my sister Renèe got the idea of founding Friends of Florence. In the United States, as a non profit registered 501c3 foundation, donations for charitable purposes such as supporting the restoration of a work of art are 100% tax-deductible.
It was the early nineties, I’d just recovered from a very serious illness and I wanted to do something different and worthwhile. I recall the enthusiasm with which the first group of Friends got to grips with its very first restoration, the Loggia dei Lanzi with all its sculptures… with Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabines topping the list, of course!
That was followed by Michelangelo’s Tribune, the Tribune in the Uffizi and then all the other projects, visible for everyone to see, right up to the recent restoration of the Capponi Chapel with Pontormo’s Deposition in Santa Felicita. Today we can also talk about Rosso Fiorentino, whose splendid Deposition we’ve just begun to restore in Volterra.
But there’s a special place in our hearts for the Friends of Florence Prize for a restoration project that we organise with the Salone dell’Arte e Restauro in Florence every two years. The next competition has recently got under way.
The Friends of Florence have a very strong sense of their mission to deploy their efforts and their donations with a view to restoring to the community at least a part of what life has given them, and they do that by helping to defend works of art from the ravages of time, and occasionally of mankind too. We currently have 3,000 members and I would like to underscore the generosity of the many members of our Board of Directors who have stood by me from the outset.
Paolo:
Can you tell us about Michelangelo and his “Bandini” Pietà?
Simonetta:
Michelangelo is Florence, he is Italy, he is the world… we have contributed to virtually every single restoration involving his works. First there was his David, a highly complex operation that we hepled by funding a programme of analytical inspections and by producing a dedicated website and Dvd. Our cleaning and maintenance program then followed…
When I was asked to help with the restoration of the Florentine Pietà, which had never been properly cleaned, I was immediately ennthusiastic as this gave us an opportunity to rediscover and display the group’s sculpted surfaces and to fund new study and research. I immediately got in touch with some of my members and they entusiastically agreed to support the project.
Being able to see the marks of Michelangelo’s chisel from close up on the scaffolding erected in full view, in the company of restorers Paola Rosa and Emanuela Peiretti was an absolutely breathtaking experience. Now that restoration is complete, the Pietà has started to tell its myriad stories again, to reveal its unusually complex history. Michelangelo originally intended it for his own tomb but then he rejected it because the block of marble was flawed.
Tiberio Calcagni patiently put the pieces back together again, then it was bought by Cosimo III, but then it was rejected again because it was unfinished. Which brings us right up to the present day where it now stands in all its glory as one of the highlights of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence, in all its turbulent and troubled beauty that everyone can now admire once again..
So my meeting with the Friends of Florence and their President Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda ended on beauty, a quality that is very much part of the scenery here in Florence, while the Arno flowed lazily by, blissfully unaware of the troubles and joys of mankind. Or perhaps it is only too aware of them, which is why it is so silent, and indeed it may even have been smiling…