Liberty Itinerary/Chini – Villa Pecori Giraldi

The villa of Rimorelli, known as Villa Pecori Giraldi, from the name of the noble Florentine family who owned it for a long time, was donated in 1979 to the municipality of Borgo San Lorenzo.

The large building is originally medieval and was built as a fortress of the Giraldi family, originally from Borgo San Lorenzo. In 1748, it became the property of Count Antonio Pecori, adding from that moment onwards ‘Giraldi’ to his surname. The building was restored thanks to the intervention of the General Guglielmo Pecori Giraldi in 1902. The villa has two floors, with a Renaissance-style facade and crowned by a crenellated tower, inspired by the one designed by Michelozzo for the Villa in Cafaggiolo.

The villa’s broad interior, which develops around two square courtyards, has its own architectonic hub in the large entrance hall on the ground floor. This is characterised by the presence of important pictorial decorations consisting predominantly of numerous coat-of-arms and heraldic companies related to the Pecori Giraldi family as well as to the others related to it. Much of the pictorial decoration is due to the various components of the Chini family: the first was Pietro Alessio from the middle of the 19th century, (1854), who, with the collaboration of his young son Pio, carried out some works: some could be the vegetal decorations and the grotesques polychrome at the ground floor of the villa.

Leto Chini was probably responsible for the the coat of arms in neo-medieval style, dating back to 1902, while Galileo Chini’s nurse dates back to the years immediately following, with some splendid coat of arms characterized by ‘elegant liberty linearity’ (for example the very refined coats of arms of Camilla Sebregondi and Iacopo Neri and Francesco Giraldi, as well as those of Francesco Guglielmo Pecori Giraldi and Piera Altoviti). Decorations are also made by Tito, whose intervention dates back to the years following the earthquake of 1919: elements include the heraldic symbol of the second wife of the General Pecori Giraldi, Lavinia Morosini, dated 1920-1921.

But it is mainly the great wall panel with Saint George that kills the dragon which attracts the attention of the spectator. This is painted with extraordinary Pre-Raphaelite taste by Galileo Chini before 1914. The painting shows the perfect graphic and chromatic elegance of the liberty style with imagery inspired by fairy-tales and medieval chivalry atmosphere. Inside other rooms of the villa there are decorations of the Chini manufactory: fireplaces, paintings and pottery decorations.

It is possible that also the coat of arms of Francesco Guglielmo Pecori Giraldi is attributable to Galileo: with a stylized and abstract two-tone garland, the painter inserts a plant decoration with ears of wheat and a shield with a neo-Renaissance frame, crowned by two splendid cherubs holding a basket of fruit decorated with delicate colors. Above the architrave of the door of the west wall, which leads into the room below the tower, there is a majolica on a blue background depicting the Face of Christ crowned with thorns in relief. The artefact is of remarkable quality for the beautiful chromatic contrast and for the experienced design, especially of the blond hair: this can be attributable to Galileo as well (twentieth century).

Inside other rooms of the villa there are many other decorations of the Chini manufacture: fireplaces, painted decorations and ceramics are still preserved.

For many years, the villa has housed the Museum of the Chini Manufacture, now the Chini Museum, inside which, in addition to the aforementioned decorations typical of the building, numerous objects (e.g. majolica, stoneware, painted glass, paintings) of the Borgo San Lorenzo manufacturing history are exhibited and of its main exponents, focusing mainly on the work of Galileo Chini.

© Il Filo – Idee e Notizie dal Mugello