Everything in Tuscany carries the sign of our past and reminds of events,
people and simple legends. The history of this Locanda has something special
which goes beyond any common suggestion.
There are several documents about the origins of this house which also
tell of many events related to the people who passed from here and linked
their life to this particular place.
Originally
this house was a watching tower to protect the town when San Gimignano
was a free Commune (twelfth century). In a strategic position a few metres
from the Via Francigena, the tower was guarded by a garrison of
soldiers. The original structure was later enlarged and converted to a
"pellegrinaio" (pilgrims' house), the ancient name for "locanda"
(inn) where the Olivetan friars of the near Abbey (Abbazia di Monte
Oliveto Minore) gave hospitality to the pilgrims who travelled along
the Via Francigena.
The
legend tells of some prodigious events happened here since the thirteenth
century: after a few-day stay, maybe thanks to the warm climate, to the
local delightful wine, to the oil obtained from century-old olive trees,
and to the charitable attentions of the friars, the pilgrims continued
their journey with renewed vigour, and in many cases they overcame illnesses
and infections.
The fame of this place spread among pilgrims and merchants. San Gimignano
"pilgrims' house" became a very well known place where people went to
recover and recuperate energy and health. There have been particular events,
which had inexplicable results and largely increased the myth of the
Locanda of San Gimignano. There is actually a story which began in
the early seventeenth century and had had its climax and conclusion in
recent times...
Among
the many famous people who stayed at the house, we know of a young Dutch
painter, Gerard (Gerrit) van Honthorst, later known as Gherardo delle
Notti (Gherardo of the Nights) for his night settings illuminated by a
sole light source. Grown at Araham Bloemaert's school, he left Utrecht
in 1609 to go to Rome and deep his knowledge of the Italian art of the
time - and especially the paintings of Michelangelo Merisi, better known
as "Caravaggio".
During his stay in Rome he got in touch with several prestigious clients,
among them the marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani, a famous Maecenas of the
time, who introduced him to the pontifical aristocracy; here he knew Piero
Guicciardini, Cosimo II de' Medicis's ambassador, who ordered him a large
painting for the chapel of Santa Felicita in Florence, of which the noble
family was patron.
In spite of his success, Gherardo was not living a happy life: together
with the obsession for the light which could not be animated in his paintings
and the grief for the distance which separated him from his family (at
that time he was only twenty years old) he also had to live a dreadful
experience which would torment his mind and feelings. He met a young woman,
a painter (something exceptional in that period when women were only allowed
to get married and have children) whose name was Artemisia. She was Orazio
Gentileschi's daughter - a famous Tuscan artist who had moved to Rome
and who was Caravaggio's friend and boasting mate.
The young girl, with her gift for art and her wild beauty, immediately
fascinated Gherardo. He had met her several time and he was actually starting
to feel something special for her. But unfortunately, very soon a dramatic
event ruined that tender friendship. In 1612 the painter Agostino Tassi,
who was painting with Gherardo the Casino delle Muse of Palazzo Rospigliosi-Pallavicini
in Rome was accused of the rape of a fifteen-year-old girl, Artemisia.
The clamour of angry voices for the tragic event, Tassi's refusal to marry
the girl and the trial which followed, made Orazio Gentileschi to isolate
her daughter and spare her from the scandal. During the trial Artemisia
confirmed her accusation even if this meant to confirm the loss of her
reputation - to be unmarried and no longer a virgin girl was something
that the society of that time largely condemned. Gherardo could not see
Artemisia anymore. He was upset and discouraged; his fragile common sense
was suffering. He spent vain days and nights tormented by dramatic visions
- he told of the apparition of the face of the Madonna dreadfully disfigured
with a contemplative silent expression above a pale light, almost a sick
one.
To escape from his torments he decided to go to Florence and visit the
place where the Guicciardini family wanted to place the work they had
ordered him, without actually knowing what he would accomplish later on.
While visiting the Chapel of Santa Felicita, he could admire the works
by Jacopo Carucci, better known as Pontormo, who had worked there for
almost three years with the help of the young Agnolo Bronzino. Coming
out of the church he met an old man sitting on the square and gave him
a small offering; the old man told him: "every work has its place and
every man has his own fate". Gherardo did not understand his words and
thought that was an odd sentence which he pronounced as an expression
of gratitude. But today we know that those words were to be prophetic.
After a short stay in Florence, on his way back to Rome, Gherardo stopped
at the Locanda of San Gimignano. He really hoped in a miracle which should
help his tormented soul to find rest and his inspiration to accomplish
his work. As in a written plot, the fate started to play its role here:
after a few days a coach from Rome arrived to the Locanda.
The Florentine painter Pierantonio Stiattesi and his young wife were on
it. They were going to Florence, where they would live; but they had to
stop because the woman fell ill during the journey and needed urgent cares.
No chronicles tell of Gherardo's feeling when he saw Artemisia getting
out of the coach in his husband's arms but we can imagine his wonder and
surprise. When he had left Rome to Florence he did not know of her wedding
to Stiattesi. It was a marriage of convenience to spare the young woman
from any further gossip. It was celebrated on November 29th 1612 (a week
after Tassi was found guilty of the rape) in the Church of Santo Spirito
in Sassia. Bride and groom left Rome after a few days to begin their
new life in Florence far from judgments and inferences.
When they stopped at the Locanda her health conditions were very serious;
so they had to stop here for a few more days. Artemisia, with her rich
store of sorrow and anger, abandoned herself to the loving cares and the
particular atmosphere of this place, quite managing to overcome her suffering
for the offended dignity; once her health conditions had improved, she
came back to life and felt like talking again.
She met Gherardo and told him about the latest happenings; they talked
about the sudden marriage she was forced to; the dreadful anxiety for
the uncertainty of her future and eventually, she declared something beautiful
and terrible as an unreal dream which left an unforgettable sign in Gherardo's
soul: she wanted a child son who could look like Gherardo so that she
could keep him with her for the rest of her life .
After
these days spent at the Locanda, Artemisia and her husband left
for Florence where they lived till 1621. She had a daughter, Prudenzia
(after her mother who had met an untimely death). She started a new artistic
path and expressed her love for life through the light of her paintings,
which made her famous as the unique woman compared to Michelangelo Merisi,
better known as "Caravaggio". She was quite known in Florence and
became the first woman to belong to Accademia del Disegno supported
by the Medici family. Her paintings are now part of the rich collection
of the Uffizi Gallery. After meeting Artemisia, Gherardo went back to
Rome with his heart full of sorrow; he was conscious that the artwork
he was going to accomplish would be his last present for Artemisia. Talking
to Giulio Mancini, the personal doctor of the Pope - who was also a great
art collector and a friend of many painters working in Rome at that time
- he told him of his meeting in San Gimignano and of his wish to paint
a great Nativity.
His visions were more definite then: the Holy Child was the light itself
which illuminated both the setting and the characters surrounding him;
the face of the Holy Virgin was no longer disfigured but had a familial
expression. One night that face raised her eyes and spoke:
"the vital light you are going to paint one day will be spoilt by a
man's hand but it will never fade away, it will be a moral warning and
a proof of the double nature of the human beings, a nature which can be
destructive and loving at the same time but which can also heal the wounds
caused by itself.
He painted his work with firm determination. The different phases are
described by Giulio Mancini in his book written about 1620. The famous
expert of the time tried to lead us around the mysteries of that work
step by step.
" Gherardo (…) adesso conduce una Natività di Nostro Signore che le
figure gli piglian il lume da Cristo nato…". (Gherardo is now painting
a Natività and his characters are illuminated by the Holy Child). While
describing the painting, Mancini lingered on the source of light:
"il bambino deposto sulla paglia illumina la notte in cui sono immersi
i personaggi, riflettendosi sui volti dei due angeli e della Madonna che
scosta il velo dal Bambino, sul quale si china con affetto e venerazione.
E' attraverso lo sguardo adorante della Madonna che offre Gesù alla vista
dell'universo, che noi, spettatori della scena, comprendiamo la potenza
e la bellezza dell'accaduto" (the child lying on the straw illuminates
darkness which surrounds the other characters; it reflects on the face
of the two angels and on the Holy Virgin who gently moves the veil from
the child while looking at him with love and veneration. The worshipping
eyes of the Madonna, who is offering Jesus to the sight of the universe,
reveal us the power and beauty of what is happening) Adorazione dei
pastori (Shepherd's Adoration) - this was the title of the painting
- was Gherardo's last Roman work before his sudden departure to Utrecht,
where he was born.
The letters written by Piero Guicciardini in 1620 where he orderd his
banker to pay the whole amount for the painting are the last certain element
which proves that Gherardo was in Rome.
Antonio Natali in his book " Gherardo delle Notti, lacerti lirici"
tried to describe the impressions of those who saw the painting set
in the chancel of the Chapel of Santa Felicita in Florence: " Adorazione
dei pastori a 'lume di notte', dunque; solo che qui a far 'lumè non è,
come nell'invenzione del Pontormo per il "priore" del Galluzzo, la lanterna
tenuta in mano da Giuseppe. Qui la luce è quella del Verbo incarnato.
La luce cantata nel Prologo del Vangelo di Giovanni. La luce ch'è scesa
in mezzo agli uomini: quella che gli uomini non capirono, preferendo rimanere
nelle tenebre. Ma i pastori, quantunque umilissimi e ignari, accolsero
senza indugio l'invito degli angeli a recarsi sul luogo della natività;
e con la sapienza del cuore, che solo la Grazia è capace d'infondere,
accolsero la novella d'un re nato nella povertà. Sui loro volti, difatti,
nell'Adorazione di Gherardo, si riflette decisa e netta la luce che promanava
proprio dal corpicino di Cristo: la Grazia li tocca; e loro, subito, credono.
Lo stesso, a maggior ragione, càpita nel quadro a Maria e Giuseppe, che
nella solitudine avevano accettato il peso d'un mistero, per entrambi,
ancor più ostico.
(in this painting there is the light of the Word - the same as we read
in the Prologue of St. John's Gospel. This is the light which men could
not understand preferring to remain in the dark. But the humble shepherds
welcomed the angel's request to go to the place where Jesus was born,
They welcomed and accepted the idea of a king who was born in poverty.
On their faces the clear light coming from Jesus body reflects: God's
Love touched them and they immediately believed. The same happened to
Mary and Josef who in their solitude had accepted the weight of a mystery
difficult to understand for both of them.
In 1836, two centuries after the work had been set in the chapel of Santa
Felicita, the director of the Uffizi Gallery, Ramirez di Montalvo, asked
for the Adorazione dei pastori by Gherardo delle Notti to place
it at the Uffizi. There are some documents which give evidence of the
different steps of the purchase held by the person in charge of the Amministrazione
Granducale from the Guicciardini Family.
From the second half of the nineteenth century the large painting became
property of the Uffizzi Gallery which paid a large amount of money to
purchase it. It remained there till 1993, just opposite the window which
opened on Via dei Georgofili, the street where an evil plan of the Mafia
brought destruction, pain and despair; the furious wind of an explosion
broke over the painting almost destroying it. It was the night of May
27th 1993.
On the following day, in the morning, the painting was laid as a mortal
remain and packed. The transparent panel revealed confused figures and
traces of colours which were to be restored. The restoration of the painting
seemed a moral duty to help keep the memory of those tragic events for
the future generations ("the vital light you are going to paint one
day will be spoilt by a man's hand but it will never fade away, it will
be a moral warning and a proof of the double nature of the human being,
which is destructive and loving at the same time, which can heal the wounds
caused by itself"
During the following months many restorers of different generations worked
together to recuperate the damaged painting. Once they established a restoration
was possible, even if a partial one, they unanimously decided that the
future location of the painting was to be the original place: the main
chapel of Santa Felicita ( "Every work has it place and every
man his fate"), where Piero Guicciardini wanted it to be placed, trusting
a young Dutch painter who made of his vision a prophetic master piece
and a thought of love.
This
is one of the many tales which belongs to the myth of the Locanda as it
was told to the Viani family on the day they bought this house in 1968.
The people who stayed in this house left here a piece of their hearts;
at the same time, this place often worked small miracles in the lives
of the persons who stayed here. This is the reason why we decided to run
the Locanda and continue the long-lasting tradition of this house,
which has welcomed and is still welcoming with devotion all the guests
who want to spend their holidays in this unspoilt peaceful paradise.
Today
the painter Roberto
Viani, his wife Paola and his son Cesare make their splendid Locanda
available to those people who wish to discover places and traditions of
their beloved Tuscany with the help of a good friend on the spot.
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