etting . Thi liq uidation of obj ect wa further fueled by new inherita nc li mitatio n , the brea kdown of the ag ra ria n econo my o n which landown rs' pro perity was based , and t he rebu ild ing of Florence, spa rk d by it new if fl eting tatu as fir t city. Urba n r newa l included t he razing of ma ny build ing in th city cente r to widen treets a nd t he d islocated popu lati on al o fed the ma rket with a rtwo rks, ell ing off obj ect that we re no longer u efu l or fa hion able. James Jackson Ja rves, the writer, a rt historia n, and collector, describ d Florence a "t he wo rld' capita l o f Bric-a-bracdom" whose art ma rket wa a infi ni te as the coa l mines f Engla nd.7 Severa l of t he most
ign ifi ca nt am ng the
nex t generat ion of dea lers to benefic fro m uch liqu idat ions, and in turn fos ter the ma rket in obj
5. Pa lazzo Davanzati in Flore nce, after Elia Volpi's renovat ions, c~. r9 10. Photograph by Brog i
ts, were bas d in Florence: St fano Bard in i
(1836-1922 ), Herb rt Per y Ho rne (1 864- 1916), and, Elia Volpi (1858-1938 ).8 Like Spence, Ba r-
to Ho rne and Bardi ni - just a few blocks from one
d in i wa tra ined as a pa inter and expert copy-
anot her on either side of Pon te a lle Grazie - both
ist. A lthough his stud y of historica l techniques
passed to the city of Florence after their deat hs
of painting gave him the tools to und rsta nd
and opened to the public as t he Mu eo Horne
the proper context and appearance of a pa r-
and t h Mu eo Bard ini .
t icula r work of art, it a l o made it poss ible fo r him t
r to r w rk fo r the ma rket so that h is
interventio ns wo uld b
na issa nce fo r h im self and t he public , Elia Vo lpi
und tectabl . When he
d id so fo r commercia l ends. Li ke many others,
acqu ired the decon ecrated Florentine church
Vo lpi sta rt d a a painter. He then wo rked fo r
a nd convent of a n G regorio in 1881 to serve as
fifte n yea r a a re torer fo r Ba rd ini . His ta lent
hi art ga llery, he made ure to pla n a stud io fo r
were honed at a t ime when copies of original
7. Van Wyck Brooks, The Dream of Arcadia:
r storatio n a nd reproduct ion .9 W ilhelm Bode of
wo rks of art were req uested to replac the period
American Writers and Artists in Italy, 17601915 (New York, 195 ), pp. 79, 80-84, as c ite<l in Bern J Roeck, Florence 1900: The Quesi for Arcadia (New Haven, 2009 ), p. 151. 8. Among the man y publicatio ns o n their
the Kon iglich
o bjects fam ilies had sold off. U lti mately, he left
cl ient, wrote that, in add it ion to his ski lls as a
to become a dea ler himself. A
restorer, Bard ini ' "pa rticula r ta l nt lay in hi s
a nother importa n t dea ler of t he t ime wro te of
activ it ies, sec: Everett Fahy, Larchivio swrico
bra in ing access to the best Flo r n tine fa m ilies
restorers, "the best end up beco ming art dea lers ...
Mu en in Berl in, Bard ini 's best
Luigi Bell ini ,
fotografico di tefano Bardini: di/>inti, disegni, miniature, siam/>e (Flo rence, 2000), particu-
[such a the
la rl y pp. 5-22; Ferrazza 1994 ; S utton 1985; II Mt1 scw Horne a Firenze, c<l . Licia Bcrtard er al. (Flo ren ce, 1990); Secrest 2004.
pon i] - who were in urgent need of mon y - and
ter to resto re for one's own b nefi t than fo r that of
in ga in ing their tru t ." 10 P r picacious as well as
oth r ." 11
trozz i, To rrigian i, Mozz i, and
ap-
because t hey even tua lly under rand th at it's bet-
opportuni t ic and art ist ica lly ta l nted , Bardin i
Volpi was a pa rticula rl y ta len ted en t repreneur.
e<l rl y Itali an 'primit ives' dur ing the 20 th cen.-
was a lso the first dea ler to use photog rap hy a a
In 1904, he acq uired t he mid-fo urteenth-century
tu ry: Valuing art and its co nseq ue nces," )our..
resea rch and documenta ry tool (se cats. 77, 148).
9.
34
W here H orne reconst ructed the Ita li an Re-
athlccn J-loenigcr, "Th e rci-.torarion of th e
Pa lazzo Dav izz i,
ubsequentl y ca lled Davanzati,
nal of th e American lnstiwte for Conservation 38 (1 999), p. 148. 10. Wilhe lm Bode, " refo no Bardin1," I.:antiqu ariaw: Rivista indi/)endeme 10, nos. 1-2 (J an .-Fch. 1923), p. I. For the relat io nshp be-
art h istori an, a nd a nt iqua ri an who settled in
op ned to the public in 19rn as a "perfect re-
Florene late in li fe. H e a
mb led furn iture, ce-
const ruct ion of a fifteen th-century Florentine
tween Bode anJ Bar<lini, sec Niemeyer C h ini
ra mics, coins, a nd oth r objects to document the
ho use." 12 It was the first private museum in Ita ly
daily li fe of t h Renaissa nce,
to charge an en tra nce fee and it bril liantl y di s-
2009. 11. Lt1i gi Bellini, Ne/ mond o degli amiq11ari (Flore nce, 1950), pp. 40-41. 12. S imo ne Bargcllini, Antiq1wri di ieri (F lorence, 1950), p. 41. A Ith o ugh Wo rlJ War I reduced A merica n trave l to Europe, th e.! roman,
H rbert Ho rne wa an English poet, d igner,
adm ired fo r it
in t he cen ter of Florence, which he rebuilt a nd
ra tiona lism a nd culture. Beca use of hi s li mit d
semin ated and commercia lized the appea l of th
mea ns, Horne a lso worked a a con sulta nt fo r
Flor ntine Rena issa nce
(F IG .
5). There fo llowed
antique dea l rs, priva te co llecto rs, a nd mu eums
a series of auct i ns - the most imp rta nt ta king
t ic des ire rn surrmmd nnc:-idf with th e g rcm
to fund hi s own collecting z a l, and in 189
place in N w York - that created a collect ing
ohjcCt!'I of rhc exa lted past - a desire thm had
entered into an arra ngement with Berna rd Be-
fren zy fo r Ren aissance decora ti ve a rts. Volpi's
ren on to buy and sell work of art. T h pa lazzi
sa le, organ ized by t he A merica n A rt A ociation
and re-created Q uattrocento int riors belonging
in 1916, was mom n to us. Descri bed as "the first
been foJ by the \Xlnrld\ Columb ian Exposition in Chi ca~o. 1891- was o n the rise, at least un, ii i the collapse of the '1ock market in 1929.
he