The cemetery of San Piero a Sieve preserves significant interventions by the San Lorenzo Furnaces, recognizable in the remarkable tombstone of Giulia Cavicchi, a woman who died at the age of 23 in 1910.
The beautiful slab, certainly made according to the design of Galileo Chini, reproduces a traditional type of earthy tomb, of late medieval origin, which envisaged the depiction of the deceased in full figure in the sleep of death, often surrounded by an inscription. In this case, however, the image is not that of the girl but of Saint Giulia, the martyr after whom she was named. A symbolic shift is thus made whereby the image of the saint refers to the deceased who bore her name. The extremely high quality of the sandstone slab is evident in the representation on a completely two-dimensional plane, in the beauty of the design and the serpentine and dynamic lines, of pure Liberty taste.
At least two family chapels bear testimony to the work of the Chini family: the Alberti chapel is closed by a two-leaf door fitted with glass panes made with geometric tiles, inspired by the Viennese Secession style, and bands with a stylized vegetal motif. The style of the doors still recalls Galileo’s conception.
The Bartoloni chapel, on the other hand, features a beautiful lunette in polychrome maiolica with golden lustres depicting Christ in Piety on the door, a subject repeatedly executed by the Chini factory for religious purposes. This case, attributable to Galileo Chini, can be dated to around 1905, the readable date on the lintel of the door, and constitutes a precedent, albeit more simplified, of the lunette of the Mercy chapel in Borgo San Lorenzo, dated 1908. The secessionist-style frame of small lozenges surrounds the gentle figure of Christ, executed with extreme painterly delicacy and sharply delineated contours, in accordance with the Liberty taste.
Scheda di Marco Pinelli, foto di Francesco Noferini
© Il Filo – Idee e Notizie dal Mugello
Progetto Itinerario Liberty Mugello – Unione montana dei Comuni del Mugello
