[stag_toggle style=”normal” title=”Piece details” state=”closed”]BIANCA CAPPELLO,
Torelli Workshop, Florence,
Faenza type[/stag_toggle]
Patronized by the powerful Medici family, the Florentine majolica workshops contributed with specific means to their consecration as patrons of the arts. Known for their inclination towards culture in general, the Medici proved to be revolutionary in this field as well, promoting an art that was about to conquer the refined world of the Tuscan aristocracy, since the beginning of the 15th century. The Torelli manufactory is no exception: artists often draw inspiration from the major arts, especially painting. In the 19th century, Torelli artifacts become models for historical artists in Italy, who make successful copies of the consecrated pieces.
The decorative plate, type "bella donna" is an eloquent example of the artistic principles promoted by historicism: it masterfully reproduces an original piece from the 16th century, whose protagonist is the beautiful Venetian noblewoman, Bianca Cappello (1548 – 1587), the second wife of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco I Medici (1541 – 1587), who disappeared at only 44 years old, under mysterious circumstances. The anonymous author was undoubtedly inspired by an oil on canvas, executed in 1572, by the Florentine portraitist, Agnolo Bronzino (1503 -1572), the official painter of Cosimo I Medici (1519 – 1574) and Francesco I Medici (1541 – 1587).
Agnolo (or Angelo) di Cosimo di Mariano Tori, also known as Bronzino, one of the most important representatives of Mannerism, began as a student of Pontormo, with whom he produced important works in Florence at the beginning of the 16th century. Among them, the frescoes at the monastery of the Certosa Galluzzo monks and those in the Capponi chapel at Santa Felicita. In 1530, he came into the sights of the famous Della Rovere family, from Marche, where he executed portraits. Gradually, Bronzino perfected his technique, becoming not only the most sought-after portraitist, but also one of the most original. His figures, apparently rigid and very protocol, immortalized in apparatus costumes, excel through the extraordinary sharpness of the drawing and through the very fine chromatic palette, stretched with smooth and compact strokes. Towards 1540, Bronzino became the favorite painter of the Florentine aristocracy and the official artist of the Medici family. His intellectual affinities with Cosimo I Medici, his thorough knowledge of literature, brought him closer to the humanist personalities of the era, gathered in Florence, under the patronage of the Medici. The area of Bronzino's preoccupations went beyond painting, embracing the art of tapestry. Bronzino worked on cartoons, after which wonderful pieces were executed for the Palazzo Vecchio. After 1560, towards the end of the Council of Trento (1545 – 1563), Bronzino's painting invaded holy places, becoming increasingly ideological. In 1572, Bronzino received one of his last orders, namely the portrait of Bianca Cappello. The canvas has withstood the onslaught of time to this day and can be admired with the same pleasure as it was more than four centuries ago at the Galleria Palatina at the Pitti Palace in Florence.
Born in Venice in 1543, into an old aristocratic family, Bianca seemed like the embodiment of the women from Giorgione or Titian's canvases: she had the typical features of a blond-reddish beauty, with rosy and appetizing forms, a languid look on an innocent face and an adventurous temperament: at the age of 17 she fell madly in love with Pietro Bonaventura, a mediocre Florentine clerk at the Venetian branch of the Salviati Bank. Taking refuge in Florence, where she gave birth to a child, Bianca Cappello or Capello, according to the Venetian spelling of the name, engaged in a misalliance to the despair of her family. Thus began a life of tribulations, from which she found salvation with Duke Francesco, who supported her financially and protected her reputation.
Married to Joanna of Austria, sister of the powerful Emperor Maximilian II and daughter of Ferdinand I, Francesco Medici feels unhappy with an arrogant wife, lacking charm and diplomacy. Joanna wastes no opportunity to humiliate her husband, for whom she shows undisguised contempt. Bianca Cappello quickly lets herself be seduced by the prospect of a life lived in pampering and opulence and becomes – as expected – the duke’s mistress. The love triangle in which she is involved does not seem to scandalize anyone: champions of the arts, patrons, daring soldiers, talented architects, glorious popes, the Medici possess all the gifts except morality. In turn, Pietro Bonaventura prefers his family to card games and debauchery. Drowned in drink and colossal debts, which the Duke generously does not hesitate to cover, Pietro lets himself be carried away by the whirlwind of an existence spent in the tavern.
Ambitious and still very young, Bianca Cappello plots for a life of luxury. In love like a teenager, the Duke buys her a luxurious house on Via Maggio, opposite the Ducal Palace, where he visits her under the resigned eyes of her husband, who barely cares about the scandal in which his name is being dragged. Annoyed by Pietro's increasing debts, Francesco makes the long-delayed decision: in 1572, he annihilates his rival and becomes the sole possessor of Bianca's much-coveted treasures. Joanna of Austria's inability to provide him with an heir leads her to stage a farce for the Duke: with the complicity of her maids, she pretends to be pregnant, but the plot is foiled. Despite the evidence, after the death of his wife, the great leader forgave her and married her in secret, on June 2, 1578. A few months later, on October 12, Francesco abandoned the usual precautions for the sake of his young wife and organized a second ceremony with great pomp, where he invited the cream of Florentine society.
Permissive with her mistress, the Medici family members are merciless with their wife. His mortal enemy, Cardinal Ferdinando, Francesco's younger brother, does not forgive Bianca for her audacity. Her impeccable attitude after marriage, her perfect manners and her reputation as a patron of the arts, together with a husband more interested in chemistry and natural sciences than in the affairs of the Signoria, fail to persuade him. He will hate her to death and will not allow her to be buried in the Medici family chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo. Legend has it that, exasperated by the cardinal's intrigues, Bianca plots to poison him, but Fortune plays a trick on her: she accidentally poisons her husband, after which she commits suicide. A vaudeville ending.
Represented bust, with a veil on her head and a crown of pearls, with a wide collar and opulent garments in the spirit of the era in tones of purple and yellow, Bianca appears in full beauty, on the verge of the age of 30, against the immaculate background of the central field of the plate, which highlights the fineness of her features. The elaborate border, in the style of the à grotesque decoration, Faenza type, brings together in a deliberately dramatic composition, dominated by dark tones of cobalt blue and ochre, vegetal volutes, grotesque figures and three cartouches with the inscriptions: BIANCA, CAPPELLO and the year MDLXXVII (1577), most likely the date of manufacture of the original plate by the artists of the Torelli workshop.