The hype of the Neo-Renaissance in Florence at the beginning of the 20th century The studio of Federigo Angeli, a forgotten Florentine story

Translated in March 2025 from Dutch in English (British) with DeepL.com

A few years ago in Florence, I visited the Palazzo Medici Riccardi on Via Cavour no. 3 (fig.1). Unsuspectingly, I entered the Cappella dei Magi (Chapel of the Magi, fig.2) there on the first floor and was struck dumb: a small intimate place with a room-half-high and -wide narrative fresco over three walls depicting the journey of the three wise men from the East to the Christ Child in Bethlehem, beautifully stylised and in bright colours. Like a picture story, each wall always shows the journey of one of the three kings. The style is early Renaissance. It looks a bit primitive and the perspective is not quite right yet. But an attempt has certainly been made to depict things realistically, such as the many faces with their various expressions. Once you have seen this work, you will never forget it.

Afb. 1. Palazzo Medici Riccardi at the Via Cavour in Florence

Fig. 2. Part of the interior of the Cappella dei Magi in Palazzo Medici Riccardi

Cosimo de' Medici il Vecchio (the Elder, 1389-1464) commissions the architect and sculptor Michelozzo (1396-1472) to build the palazzo in 1444. In 1459, his son Piero di Cosimo de'Medici, nicknamed il Gottoso (the Jichtige, 1416-1469), asks goldsmith and painter Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497) to decorate the private chapel of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi with the story of the three kings on their way to Bethlehem (figs 3, 4 and 5). It is easy to see that Gozzoli was inspired in style by the famous The Adoration of the Magi, i.e. the same subject, by the Italian painter Gentile da Fabriano (1370-1427) from 1423, which he was able to see as an altarpiece in one of the chapels of the Chiesa di Santa Trinitia in Florence (fig. 6). In terms of style, this work has been described as one of the best works of international Gothic - a style that develops from the end of the Middle Ages towards the Renaissance. Unlike Da Fabriano's, Gozzoli spreads the story over three walls. The palazzo remained in the hands of the Medici for a century and was then sold to the Riccardi-family, hence the double name.

Fig. 3. Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Cappella dei Magi: procession of the youngest king (east wall)

Fig. 4. Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Cappella dei Magi: procession of the middle king (south wall)

Fig. 5. Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Cappella dei Magi: procession of the elder king (west wall) with the king below left

Fig. 6. Gentile da Fabriano, The Adoration by the Magi, 1429, tempera on wood, 300 x 282 cm, Florence, now in the Gallerie degli Uffizi

A chapel of the Medici naturally includes portraits of the most important Medici. They are on the part about the youngest king. Piero de Cosimo de' Medici rides a grey horse directly behind the youngest king. To his right, his father, Cosimo the Elder, sits on a brown donkey. A few rows behind and looking straight at the viewer, the painter Gozzoli portrays himself (figs. 7, 8).        

Fig. 7. Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, commissioner of the Cappella dei Magi

Fig. 8. The painter Benozzo Gozzoli himself, see the signature on the brim of his hat

Why this extended introduction to this work by Gozzoli? Because in 2024 I was confronted with a twentieth-century work in Gozzoli's fifteenth-century style in an unexpected place.

Last autumn, I was allowed to spend two months babysitting a house on Via del Palmerino in Florence (Fig. 9): a narrow uphill road in northern Florence under the smoke of upper Fiesole. A lovely green and quiet place, away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Afb. 9. Via del Palmerino, Florence

Whenever I walked to the bus stop, or back to ‘home’, I always passed a house with the sign Associazione Il Palmerino. A little further on, a gate belonging to this outside was open and announcing an exhibition with work by a certain Lola Costa. So close to ‘home’ I decided one afternoon to go and visit the exhibition. I walked through the gate, up a path through a lovely large garden - not many flowers left, it was now late October - and arrived at a place with two buildings and a covered terrace. There I found a trio of women with whom I became acquainted, and the eldest of the three took me to the exhibition room. Lola Costa (1903-2004), born in England, turned out to have lived at Il Palmerino from 1935. She had mastered painting without training and was part of Florence's international cultural life in her time (fig. 10).        

Fig. 10. Lola Costa, Tulips and a card game, c. 1937, oil on canvas, 60 x 49 cm

For the technical tricks of the trade, she appeared to have been helped by her husband Federigo Angeli, trained as a painter, who painted the portrait of her below (figs 11, 12). Together they had four children. Together they had four children.     

Afb. 11. Federigo Angeli, Lola Costa, 1940, tempera grassa op karton, 100 x 69 cm

Fig. 12. Lola Costa and Federigo Angeli with their four children, 1940

And now it comes: on a stand I saw a booklet that intrigued me a lot. Because the work on the cover looked strikingly similar to that of the 15th-century Benozzo Gozzoli in the Cappella dei Magi in the palazzo Medici Riccardi (fig. 13). So what was it doing here?

I turned out to be acquainted with the granddaughter of Federigo Angeli and Lola Costa. Her grandparents had bought the outside in 1935 from an English writer, Vernon Lee, pseudonym for Violet Paget (1856-1935). The work on the cover of the booklet on the stand had been painted by her grandfather Federigo in the style of the 15th century in the 1920s, commissioned by a wealthy American to decorate his holiday home on the Cote d'Azur. For a long time, the family thought this work had been lost.

An extraordinary story and I became curious. I bought the booklet and a fascinating story revealed itself about an interesting art historical practice at the beginning of the 20th century in Florence and Federigo Angeli's role in it. A story that has fallen into oblivion and is long overdue to be brought back into the light.

Fig. 13. Cover of a booklet published on the occasion of the exhibition on two lost works by Federigo Angeli at Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, from October 7, 2023 - January 7, 2024

First, some context. A veritable cult of Renaissance art is emerging in Florence around 1900 thanks to the arrival of numerous English and American tourists to the city. Angiolo Angeli, the father of Federigo Angeli (1891-1952), has a studio in the San Frediano district. There, copies of famous works are made and paintings restored for art dealers. Father Angeli teaches Federigo the techniques of the old masters, from Giotto to Botticelli, and also teaches him to observe and draw.

During these years, from 1908 to 1910, the frescoes in the Palazzo Davanzati in Via Porta Rossa are also being restored (fig. 14) at the behest of Italian antiquarian and painter Elia Volpi (1858-1938). Volpi bought the palazzo in neglected condition in 1904, had it restored and opened it to the public in 1910. The Angeli studio collaborates on the restoration of the palazzo. Among other things, they restore the fresco decorations on the walls of the Sala Pappagalli (figs. 15, 16). With the opening of his palazzo as a model of an old Florentine house and his first auction of antique and period furniture in 1910, Volpi gave the antiques trade in Florence an international boost. En-passant, he introduces the ‘gusto Davanzati’ (Davanzati style or taste): a decorative, courteous and chivalrous style that becomes highly appreciated and appeals to international patrons.    

Fig. 14. Palazzo Davanzati, owned by the Davanzati family in 1578 until around 1900

Afb. 15. Sala Pappagalli in the Palazzo Davanzati before renovation

Fig. 16. Sala Pappagalli in Palazzo Davanzati now, with decoration on the walls with a parrot motif

IMeanwhile, the Cappella dei Magi in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi with Benozzo Gozzoli's frescoes, to which I refer at the beginning of this article, is also open to the public again after a restoration in 1919 (Fig. 17). Through both restored palazzi, the atmosphere of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, in addition to of course the many works of art in the museums and churches, takes on an even more tangible face.      

Fig. 17. Impression of the Cappella dei Magi

In this environment, Federigo starts a workshop on Via Alamanni 17 in Florence after World War I in 1920, together with his brothers Albert (born 1887) and Achille (born 1899). They design folding screens and paint chests in the Renaissance style - popular objects for the cultural elite - and the workshop also enters into fruitful collaboration with important Florentine antique dealers and art dealers (figs 18, 19, 20).   

Fig. 18. Angeli and workshop, Screen with decorative motifs of the walls of the Salla dei Pappagalli in the palazzo Davanzati, 1920-1930. Egg tempera on canvas, 174 x 184 cm, Florence, private collection

Fig. 19. Angeli and workshop, Screen with man and a horse, inspired by the frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli in the chapel of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, tempera on canvas, 177 x 176 cm, Florence, private collection

Fig. 20. Angeli and workshop, Chest with Saint George and the dragon on the frontal panel, c. 1920, wood, tempera on panel on a kind of gesso ground, 44.5 x 88 x 36 cm, Florence, private collection

From 1922, commissions for the US market increased, so much so that the following year Federigo went to Palm Beach, Florida, to be commissioned by Paris (1867-1932) and Franklin Singer (1870-1939) - the 22nd and 23rd sons of the founder of the sewing-machine empire Isaac Merrit Singer - to embellish his Villa La Guardiola with frescoes (figs 21, 22). Father Singer had as many as 24 children by five wives. The Singers became a major client for the Angeli studio. This will do the Angelis no favours. For Federigo, this will mean that in 1935 he and his wife Lola Costa buy the country house Il Palmerino.

Afb. 21. Villa La Guardiola in Palm Beach, Florida

Fig. 22. Workshop of the Angelis, Sketch of 1394 Florence with two figures on the sides holding two coats of arms of the Comune, egg tempera on black cardboard, 1923, 27 x 57 cm, Florence, private collection

Back in Florence, the studio became too small and the Angelis moved to the Palazzo Capponi on Via Giucciardini. Commissions kept coming in and between 1929 and 1930, two of the three brothers, Federico and Alberto, were active on the Riviera, in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. There, they apply neo-Renaissance-style decorations to Paris Singer's new Villa Mes Rochers (fig. 23). The studio is also asked to decorate the Villa Casa Mia in Monte Carlo, which brother Franklin Singer has built there.

Fig. 23. Photograph by Federigo Angeli for a Renaissance-style mural for the Villa Mes Rochers in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, 1929 (Il Palmerino archive)

Villa Casa Mia in Monte Carlo is a large mansion, Renaissance-style and built in 1930 in red brick with a loggia (figs. 24, 25). The house still exists and is now the site of an international dance school: the Académie de Danse Princesse Grace. For the decorative programme, Franklin Singer, who had already gained experience with Federigo Angeli in the United States when decorating Villa Guardiola in Florida, asked him to create a fresco cycle in neo-Renaissance style for this holiday home of his in Monte Carlo around 1930-1931 (figs 26, 27).

Fig. 24. Villa Casa Mia the holiday home of Franklin Singer in Monte Carlo

Fig. 24. Villa Casa Mia the holiday home of Franklin Singer in Monte Carlo

Fig. 26. Photographs of a fresco cycle of - as will be seen later probably - a wedding banquet designed for the Villa Casa Mia in Monte Carlo (archive Il Palmerino).Fig. 24. Villa Casa Mia the holiday home of Franklin Singer in Monte Carlo 

Fig. 27. Photograph of two Angelis in the workshop, working on the fresco cycle for the Villa Casa Mia, 1930. On the left Federigo, in the middle Alberto and on the right their collaborator Mario Baratti. The work is their own design in clear neo-Renaissance style (archive Il Palmerino)

And then a miracle happens. For that, we now step forward in time. In the late 1990s, in the Milan offices of Sella SGR, a major Italian bank, two large oil canvases in distinctly neo-Renaissance style are on display. They show a procession of ladies, gentlemen and knights (figs. 28, 29). The canvases then disappear again for years in a vault of the bank, in the city in Biella, northeast of Turin, albeit subject to another inspection and restoration in 2006.

Fig. 28. Federigo Angeli, Lord on a horse with a procession of knights, 1931, temperia grassa on canvas, 208 x 235 cm, Biella, Collezione Sella SGR    

Fig. 29. Federigo Angeli, Lady on a horse with a procession of knights, 1931, tempera grassa on canvas, 208 x 235 cm, Biella, Collezione Sella SGR

Clearly, the two canvases of the Sella bench are an explicit homage to Benozzo Gozzoli's masterpiece in the Cappella dei Magi: the horse in stride and the dashing horse, the knights, the rocky background on which towns with turrets, the manner of depicting the landscape, etc. But the work is not an exact copy. It has its own touch and the canvases are signed: ‘Angeli fecit Firenze’ (Angeli made this in Florence). 

One initially has no idea from which time the canvases date and initially the work is attributed to Marianna Pascoli Angeli, born in 1790 in Monfalcone in the Veneto, who has both a mother with the surname Angeli and is married to an Angeli. The works are displayed in an office space of the bank.

Again later, in 2020, as their condition has deteriorated, the canvases are presented to a restorer for inspection. While cleaning the panels and taking a closer look at what is depicted, the pink villa on the cliff on The Lady on a Horse catches the eye. This building differs in architecture from the other buildings in the landscape and does not resemble Gozzoli's late Gothic buildings in the Cappella dei Magi. Meanwhile, it has already become clear that the work cannot be by the painter from Monfalcone: its technique and iconography are clearly different from other works by her hand. The investigation moves towards Florence because of the signature, and among Federigo Angeli's descendants at Il Palmerino, who manage their grandparents' artistic estate, the phone rings in corona time.

And then much becomes clear. In the archive at Il Palmerino is a signed sketch that refers directly to the two Sella canvases (fig. 30). The pink house is the Villa Casa Mia. On the sketch the villa is added to the Lord on a Horse with a procession of knights, on the Sella canvases it is added to the work with the Lady on a Horse with a procession of knights (figs 31, 32).  

Fig. 30. Federico and Alberto Angeli, Preparatory sketch for a mural for the loggia of the Villa Casa Mia in Monte Carlo, 1930, pencil and tempera grassa on black cardboard, 68.4 x 95.7 cm, Florence, private collection

Fig. 31. Strongly enlarged left part of sketch (Fig. 30) for Lord on a horse with a procession of knights with the Villa Casa Mia above on the right

Fig. 32. Enlargement of fig. 29 Lady on a horse with a procession of knights with the Villa Casa Mia at top left

Then suspicions also began to take hold that the two Sella canvases were part of the fresco cycle for Villa Casa Mia commissioned by Franklin Singer from Federigo Angeli around 1930. The family does have photographs of these in the archive, but also always thought the works were lost. This suspicion is further strengthened when you compare the faces of the man and woman on the two Sella canvases with the faces of the two youngsters on the cycle's middle panel, seen in its photograph. These bear a great resemblance. On top of that, studying the cycle's photographs further, the subject looks like a wedding banquet, as it was often depicted in this way in 15th- and 16th-century paintings.

Searching the Monegasque newspapers of the 1930s, one can find an announcement of a proposed marriage of Franklin Singer and his wife Emilie Maigret's daughter, Yvonne, to Baron Patrick Surcouf. The marriage takes place in the autumn of 1932. Looking at the year of Franklin Singer's commissioning Federigo Angeli to create a cycle consisting of several canvases, 1930, and the year of the marriage, 1932, wouldn't this marriage have prompted the cycle? And would the faces in the two Sella paintings as well as those of the two people in the middle panel have borne a resemblance to those of the bride and groom-to-be?

The granddaughters at Il Palmerino have now recovered from the resurrection of two of their grandfather's works in corona time. The development has also led to an exhibition at Palazzo Medici Riccardi in 2023/2024: the very place of Benozzo Gozzoli to which the two Sella works are surely indebted. And from which the booklet on the stand in Il Palmerino, the trigger for this story, originated. Nobody knows where the rest of the cycle is, but what is not can still come, as is evident here. Granddaughter Federica Paretti and her sister hold out hope on Il Palmerino.

www.ilpalmerino.org

Mille grazie to Federica Parretti, Bert van Rangelrooij and Heino van Rijnberk

NB. Mélanie Struik, the writer of this article is a Dutch art historian, graduated in 2018 at the University of Amsterdam. In 2020 she started with the website Melaniekijktkunst.nl, writing in Dutch about art with a focus on Early modern Italian art and the position of women as artists and patrons in the past. On that part there is a world to discover. She started to publish an AI-translated English version of her articles on her website, which can be found in the menu under English versions. There are more to come.

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Sources:
Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, Mostra nel palazzo Medici Riccardi, Firenze, 7 ottobre 2023 - 7 gennaio 2024 (tentoonstellingscatalogus), Moncalieri-Turin, edition Palazzo Bricherasio Banca Patrimonio Sella&C, 2023

Chaplin and Costa, rediscovering expat women painters in Tuscany, ed. by L. Falcone, Florence, AWA/The Florentine Press, 2014

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Medici-Riccardi
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benozzo_Gozzoli
https://www.florenceholidays.com/vacanza-firenze-musei-palazzo-davanzati.html
www.trecanni.it
https://www.consiglio.regione.toscana.it/upload/COCCOINA/documenti/bio_Angeli.pdf
Alle sites visited between 3 and 12 maart 2025

Talk with Federica Paretti, granddaughter of Federigo Angeli, autumn 2024.

Photograph’s
Afb. 1. https://www.palazzomediciriccardi.it/en/the-palace/palazzo davanzati
Afb. 2. https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html
Afb. 3, 4, 5. https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html
Afb. 6. https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/adoration-of-the-magi#gallery
Afb. 7, 8. https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html
Afb. 9. Foto auteur
Afb. 10. Chaplin and Costa, rediscovering ezxpat women painters in Tuscany, p. 49
Afb. 11. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 81
Afb. 12. Chaplin and Costa, rediscovering ezxpat women painters in Tuscany, p. 48
Afb. 13. Photograph Author
Afb. 14. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/palazzo-davanzati-firenze/fQHk05klVul2Og?hl=it&ms=%7B%22x%22%3A0.5%2C%22y%22%3A0.5%2C%22z%22%3A9.458732894551403%2C%22size%22%A%7B%22width%22%3A3.0199389360819793%2C%22height%22%3A1.2375244479543734%7D%7Dvo
Afb. 15. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 26
Afb. 16. Photograpg author
Afb. 17. https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html
Afb. 18. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 25
Afb. 19. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 24
Afb. 20. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 25
Afb. 21. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 29
Afb. 22. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 30
Afb. 23. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, cover achterkant
Afb. 24. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 29
Afb. 25. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 28
Afb. 26. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 32
Afb. 27. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 27
Afb. 28. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 20
Afb. 29. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 21
Afb. 30. Federigo Angeli, Il Rinascimento fiorentino nel XX secolo, p. 31
Afb. 31. See afb. 29
Afb. 32. See afb. 30