The burnt-yellow nineteenth-century villa, where Imelde Siviero (Pisa, 1918?99) lived, was designed by Giuseppe Poggi, the urban architect who broadened Florence?s constricted medieval structures to create avenues befitting the capital of a newly born Italy. Casa Siviero stands on lungarno Serristori, just steps from Torre San Niccol?, which marks the start of a winding, uphill walk to the city?s premier vantage point, piazzale Michelangelo.
It was originally home to art historian Giorgio Castelfranco?before Mussolini?s racial laws forced the energetic Jewish gentleman to seek refuge abroad. His villa served as a makeshift base for a group of highbrow partisan revolutionaries, led by Rodolfo Siviero (1911?83), a gruff but highly cultured man, known by posterity as ?the Italian James Bond of the art world.? An art historian, intellectual and secret agent turned minister of the Italian Republic after World War II, he worked from Castelfranco?s house to retrieve scores of paintings and sculptures plundered by the Nazis. Casa Siviero is now a museum whose eclectic collection features several of Italy?s twentieth-century greats like Giorgio De Chirico, Giacomo Manz? and Pietro Annigoni, all friends of Rodolfo.
He was also the director of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in the 1970s. While Rodolfo?s life is the stuff legends are made of, little is known about Siviero?s fiercely loyal older sister, Imelde, a minor Florentine artist.
Elected to the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno at the age of 71, Imelde Siviero favored watercolors and was inspired by the Maremma countryside of her childhood. Her love for capturing everyday scenes was similar to that of her close friend, Giacomo Manz?, a genius figurative artist whose sculptural works explore grand themes but whose paintings often depict ordinary objects.
In an interview at Rome?s famed contemporary art gallery Galleria D?Ascanio, the gallery?s owner and Imelde’s dear friend Dr. Anna D?Ascanio shared personal reflections about the artist: ?She loved Manz?, as a painter and a person and emulated his painting.? Dr. Ascanio remembered, ?Imelde was a woman of striking contradictions, whose upright character was not devoid of an almost child-like self-indulgence. Whether showering you with peasant-girl sweetness or awing you with her ?stride of a grand duchess,? Imelde, in her own way, was no less novelesque than her far more adventuresome brother. After their parents died, Rodolfo both supported and repressed Imelde. On one hand, he treated her as one would treat a ward, protected but inferior?he thought her incapable of leaving the house unaccompanied! On the other hand, he nurtured great affection for her and wanted to promote her art.?
After Rodolfo?s death in 1983, Imelde Siviero gained renown in political circuits for her multiple legal appeals against the Ministry of Cultural Heritage?s resolution to force Florence into renouncing 30 masterpieces that Rodolfo had recovered from Nazi hands. According to a 1988 ruling, 106 of these 141 works would remain in Florence while the others (including paintings by Rubens, Titian and Veronese) would be transferred to the other cities laying claim to them: Rome, Naples, Milan and Genoa. ?They have not understood my brother?s spirit,? Imelde Siviero had protested to the press. ?He loved Florence and he recuperated almost all of these works stolen from the Uffizi. He wanted a museum to remember the Nazis’ barbarism. You?ve got to be as bold as brass to even think of moving these works.?
The Casa Siviero collection holds several portraits of this gumption-filled blonde beauty, Imelde Siviero, including Italo Griselli?s gesso portrait (1955), varnished to look like red terracotta during a restoration commissioned by the sitter herself. Similarly, Tuscan sculptor and medalist Mario Moschi fashioned various bronze medals of Imelde?s regal profile (1957); her high-browed, well-proportioned countenance proved especially interesting at a time when myriad Italian sculptors, like Moschi, sought to create prototypes for the Republic?s newly established currency.
Casa Siviero?s collection also includes several watercolors by the artist. ?Imelde created non-academic figurative works, initially, developing her own technique using bitumen and tar on panel. Imelde Siviero loved genuine things and real people, and that?s how her paintings are. She painted simple figures without worldly flair, spotlighting peasants, children, natural scenes and horses,? Dr. D?Ascanio explains.
Imelde Siviero?s horse lithographs can be viewed at Il Bisonte, a Florentine gallery specializing in graphic art founded by Maria Luigia Guaita and Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti in 1959. (Il Bisonte also houses a noteworthy series of author prints and etchings by renowned artists like Picasso, Renato Gouts, Sarai Sherman and Henry Moore.) Despite appreciation of her work in intellectual circles, Imelde Siviero stopped painting professionally in 1958 after a show at Galleria d?Arte Spinetti. ?A critic called her works ?trivial,? which hurt her enough to never want to exhibit again,? D?Ascanio recalls.
Nonetheless, she did want her artistic legacy to live beyond her lifetime. Imelde Siviero donated her painting Piazza Santo Spirito to Florence?s Civic Museum Collection following an initiative launched by Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti to create an ?Uffizi of Modern Art,? following the losses Florence suffered after the 1966 flood (see theflr.net/museonovecento).
