Palazzo de'Rossi. Una storia pistoiese

81. La Notte, dopo l’ultimo restauro.
82. Particolare della parte superiore della figura del La
Notte, dopo l’ultimo restauro.
83. Particolare de La Notte, parte inferiore della figura,
sostenuta da putti in volo, dopo l’ultimo re stauro.
Un Luigi Cheli peraltro individuabile, in palazzo de’ Rossi, per una stesura pittorica forse
meno netta, più dolce e sfumata – non vorrei dire più debole rispetto al maestro – in cui la
limpidezza formale dell’incipiente neoclassicismo si stempera in un cromatismo elegante e
accuratamente accordato.
Particolarmente intrigante si rivela la questione attributiva de La Notte, dipinta sul soffitto
del boudoir. Per le riscontrabili differenze artistiche sia di linguaggio che di tecnica pittorica
rispetto all’autore de La Fedeltà coniugale, avevo formulato l’ipotesi che si trattasse di un altro
pittore, proponendo Nicola Monti 218 .
Ulteriori ricerche in proposito mi consentono ora di confermare l’attribuzione e di collocare
l’esecuzione dell’opera presubillmente intorno all’inizio del secondo decennio dell’Ottocento.
Allora il giovane Monti, ancor fresco di studi compiuti all’Accademia fiorentina sotto la
guida di Pietro Benvenuti (1769-1844), iniziava a farsi apprezzare in patria.
La datazione de La Notte (figg. 80, 81) è da collocare comunque, a mio avviso, in data anteriore
al 1814. Buona parte dello stesso anno fu trascorsa da Monti a Roma; più tardi fu assorbito da
altri impegni per poi partire nel 1818 per la Polonia e San Pietroburgo, ritornando a Firenze
solo nel 1822 219 . Tuttavia il diverso clima artistico di quel tempo e il prestigioso incarico di
professore all’Accademia fiorentina, ottenuto l’anno seguente 220 , non rendono probabile l’assegnazione
de La Notte a quel periodo: anche perché allora lo stile dell’artista era cambiato.
La commissione di questo incarico in palazzo de’ Rossi non dovrebbe essere troppo lontana
da una sua opera, assai apprezzata, quale il perduto Ritratto di Napoleone dipinto nel 1813 per
la Comunità Civica di Pistoia durante il governo granducale di Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi
(1809-1814), realizzato dopo i festeggiamenti per le nuove nozze di Napoleone con Maria
Luisa d’Austria, celebrate il 2 aprile 1810: quello stesso quadro che venne dato alle fiamme
durante la sommossa anti-francese scoppiata a Pistoia fra il 2 e il 3 febbraio 1814 221 .
In seguito ai successi conseguiti a Firenze, il pittore aveva chiesto, il 3 dicembre 1812, di essere
iscritto al più importante consesso cittadino di intellettuali, l’Accademia pistoiese di Scienze,
However, the two paintings, of notable refinement, are differentiated from one another not just
by the fact that they appear to be the work of two different artists, but also because the second
displays clear references to the contemporary Roman milieu, characterized by antiquarianism and
Raphaelism, its components assimilated both directly and through the new contacts established
with the return of French artists from Rome to the capital of the Grand Duchy in 1793.
The expressive and stylistic language used by the painter of Conjugal Fidelity moved is typical
of the latter part of Luigi Catani’s early activity. Its figurative, compositional and chromatic
features still refer to paintings by Catani like The Triumph of the Church on the ceiling of the
Chapterhouse of the cathedral of Santo Stefano in Prato (1790-92) (fig. 76) 211 and to figures
of his repertoire repeated, with few variations, in the first fifteen years of the 19th century. 212
The elegant, evanescent female figure on the ceiling of Palazzo de’ Rossi’s nuptial chamber,
holding a laurel wreath in her right hand and pointing above her at the shining temple
hovering in the sky, a symbol of the Church, stems from the same conceptual source (perhaps
in this case with a bit less definition and pictorial force) as the one that shaped similar figures
painted by Luigi Catani: such as the—somewhat later—images of Spring, on the ceiling of the
gallery of Palazzo Ramirez Montalvo in Florence (1815-20) (fig. 77) 213 or the Winged Victories
painted in monochrome on the splays of a ceiling in the Villa di Poggio Imperiale (1816). 214
Luigi Catani had established a reputation in the circles that counted at the time in Pistoia.
Francesco dei Rossi himself had seen him at work, along with other up-and-coming painters
appreciated by Tommaso Puccini and the group of intellectuals and artists who gravitated
around him, in 1796, when the Teatro dei Risvegliati was renovated to a design by Cosimo
Rossi Melocchi. 215 But he had certainly also been able to see what Catani had done, a short
time before, in the new Bishop’s Palace. 216
So I think it is possible to hypothesize that the painter of Conjugal Fidelity made use, with the
client’s approval, of a drawing by Catani himself (busy somewhere else at the time), to adorn
the ceiling of the new bedroom in Palazzo de’ Rossi. In this case the author of the fresco, as a
trusted assistant of the master, may have been Luigi Cheli, who was moreover at work in the
same building in 1799. An unusual Luigi Cheli it has to be said, no longer indistinguishable from
Catani, as in the monochromes and other decorations of the cycle painted, between 1805 and
1810, in the Villa di Scornio at the behest of Tommaso Puccini and his brother Giuseppe. 217
A Luigi Cheli who can on the other hand be identified, in Palazzo de’ Rossi, by a handling of
the paint that is perhaps less clear-cut, softer and more blurred—I don’t want to say weaker
than his master—in which the limpidity of form of the incipient neoclassical style is toned
down in an emphasis on elegant and carefully harmonized coloring.
The question of the attribution of The Night, painted on the ceiling of the boudoir is a
particularly intriguing one. Owing to the noticeable differences in both style and technique
with respect to the Conjugal Fidelity, I had put forward the suggestion that it was the work of
another painter, Nicola Monti. 218
Further research into the subject now allows me to confirm the attribution and date the
execution of the work presumably to some time around the beginning of the second decade
of the 19th century. At that time the young Monti, still fresh from his studies at the Florentine
Accademia delle Belle Arti under the guidance of Pietro Benvenuti (1769-1844), had started
to earn a reputation for himself at home.
In any case The Night (figs. 80, 81) must in my view be dated to some time before 1814. Monti
spent much of that year in Rome; later he was occupied by other commitments, before
leaving in 1818 for Poland and St. Petersburg and not returning to Florence until 1822. 219 Yet
the different artistic climate of that time and the prestigious post of professor at the academy
in Florence, obtained the following year, 220 make it unlikely that The Night was painted in that
period; even more so because the artist’s style had changed at that time.
The commission for this painting in Palazzo de’ Rossi could not have been too distant from
that of a much admired work like the lost Portrait of Napoleon painted in 1813 for the Civic
Community of Pistoia during Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi’s reign as grand duchess (1809-14).
90 91