JACKIE KENNEDY’S HORSE ENTERS THE COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS OF THE UFFIZI
Sheet by Giovanni Battista Foggini, which had belonged to former First Lady of the United States, acquired by the Friends of the Uffizi Galleries together with other works by Foggini and Franceschini
Further additions to the collection of Drawings of the Uffizi Galleries.
In the week of Old Master auctions in New York, the Friends of the Uffizi Galleries, nonprofit organization that supports the Florentine museum, has acquired for the Uffizi 4 drawings, two by 17th century painter Baldassarre Franceschini and two by Baroque sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini: one of the latters, bought at Christie’s, represents a horse seen from the rear, formerly owned by First Lady Jackie Kennedy, passionate equestrian and art lover.
The other sheet by Foggini, bought at Sotheby’s, is “Neptune pursuing Coronis”. The two drawings by Baldassarre Franceschini (called il Volterrano), for which the Friends of the Uffizi Galleries were also winning bidders at Sotheby’s, are two studies of Kneeling Apostles, preparatory for his fresco in the church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence.
With hundreds of drawings by each of these masters, the Uffizi are the museum with the biggest collections in the world. Foggini, with some of his finest sculptures, has lately been one of the protagonists of “Forged in Fire”, the recently closed exhibition in Palazzo Pitti dedicated to Baroque bronze sculpture, visited by more than 206,000 people in five months.
The Uffizi Galleries’ Director Eike Schmidt: “We are happy to be able to enrich, thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Uffizi Galleries, our collections of these two great artists. The two sheets by Franceschini complement and complete a series of preparatory drawings for the fresco in Santissima Annunziata already in our collection. In his time, il Volterrano was appreciated as a draftsman as well as a painter, and these drawings have a great intrinsic artistic value, irrespective of their role as preparatory studies. In the same way Foggini, renowned as sculptor and architect, was also a celebrated draftsman, and these works are exemplary”.
The President of the Friends of the Uffizi Galleries Maria Vittoria Rimbotti: “With our American Friends we share the same love for a legacy belonging not to Florence or Italy, but to the world. We start this 2020 contributing to the enrichment of the collection of the museum we love most!”.
