This year, the presentation of the 2021 Di Meo Calendar assumes particular significance after the months of anguished suspension and limitations we have all experienced.

The hope is to provide a small contribution to relaunching cultural activities which were, inevitably, sacrificed during this period.

In my opinion, the city best suited to giving a sign of “rebirth” could only be Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance which, under the intense gaze of Massimo Listri - a native Florentine and author of the photos which have always illustrated our calendars – was imbued with an unexpected source of light.

Various scholars have contributed to this project and, month after month, an account of the glories of Florence were accompanied by depictions of that "Napoli nobilissima" which Raffaele La Capria speaks of in

"Napolitan Graffiti" citing, in particular, Elena Croce’s family biographies and history.

All of the articles have attempted to illustrate a few “affiliations” between Naples and Florence which taken place over the course of centuries.

Consider, for example, the origins of works of music, poised between Naples and Florence, the commitment and accounts of Vasari - the brilliant architect - in Naples, or the adventures of Pasquale Villari, one of the founders of historicism, who was born in Naples in 1827, but died in 1917 in Florence where he had worked and spent many years of his life. Once again in Naples, there was Benedetto Croce, who was to be Italian historicism’s most famous interpreter, and to whom Elena Croce’s son, Piero Craveri, dedicated his interesting works.

The Florence we like to remember is not only that of Renaissance art but, more recently, also the Florence evoked by Alberto Arbasino in the opening chapter of "Ritratti e immagini".

This is the city which hosted foreign scholars, Englishmen and Americans, such as Bernard Berenson who, from his villa "I Tatti", disputed with Roberto Longhi, the leading Italian art critic who was active at his villa Tasso in via Fortini, where he lived with writer Anna Banti.

Apropos the Caffè Le Giubbe Rosse, not far from the Gabinetto G. P. Vieusseux, is where Montale, Gadda, Soffici, Rosai and many other personalities met.

Another figure certainly worthy of mention is, as am I, from Irpinia: Salvatore Ferragamo, an emigrant artisan, whose abilities allowed him to become the refined creator of fashion who dressed the stars. A Foundation-Museum has been established in via de' Tornabuoni in Florence tracing the course of the company’s history and celebrating, in an original manner, the city that welcomed its founder.

Among contemporary figures who tie the Campania region to Tuscany, I would like to cite Maestro Riccardo Muti, who studied piano with Maestro Vitale at the Naples Conservatory before embarking upon the adventure of being a very young director at Maggio Fiorentino where he continued to be musical director for a very long period, and who, perhaps more than others, represents the commitment and seriousness needed to begin again, without sacrificing or renouncing the quality of one’s manner of working.

I would very much like the spirit of this particular presentation of the Calendar to be animated by the inspiration of Giacomo Leopardi who, sojourning in Naples after a lengthy residence in Florence and influenced by "the dead Vesuvius, exterminator terrible", composed the verses of la Ginestra ("The Broom" also known as "The Flower of the Desert") which urged Italians to cast aside their fratricidal conflicts, to strive for greater solidarity and to unite in reacting against the ravages of stepmother Nature, with no illusions as concerns the "magnificent and progressive fate" in past and future human history.

Generoso di Meo

La Galleria Corsini affonda le sue radici nei primi anni del 1600, quando la famiglia, soprattutto con Bartolomeo Corsini (1622 - 1685), iniziò a collezionare opere d'arte, commissionando ed acquistando dipinti dei maggiori artisti dell'epoca.

Nei secoli la famiglia continuò a dedicarsi all'arte, aggiungendo opere alla loro già importante collezione, grazie al contributo di personaggi come il Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini (1685 - 1770), nipote di Papa Clemente XII Corsini, che destinò un ingente numero di dipinti al suo appartamento di Firenze nel Palazzo Corsini al Lungarno.

La nascita ufficiale della Galleria Corsini risale al 1765, data in cui Don Lorenzo Corsini (1730 - 1802), con l'aiuto del pittore Ignazio Hugford, decise di raccogliere tutti i dipinti fino a quel momento custoditi nell'appartamento del Cardinal Neri ed in altre stanze del Palazzo Corsini, in un nucleo di sei sale nell'ala destra del Palazzo, dove la collezione si trova ancora oggi.

La famiglia acquistò opere anche nei secoli successivi alla creazione della Galleria, portando avanti la tradizione di grandi collezionisti avviata dai loro antenati.

La collezione si arricchì ulteriormente nel 1883, quando, in occasione della vendita del Palazzo romano della famiglia, detto alla Lungara, il Principe Tommaso Corsini (1835 – 1919) portò alcune delle opere in esso contenute nella Galleria fiorentina.

La Collezione Corsini è riuscita a resistere al tempo e alle guerre grazie alla lungimiranza della famiglia e al decisivo intervento della Principessa Elena Corsini, che l'ha salvata dalla Guerra e dall'invasione tedesca.

E' grazie a lei se oggi possiamo continuare a godere di questo grande patrimonio, che custodisce una ricca selezione di dipinti del '600/'700, ma che contiene anche capolavori di artisti come Botticelli, Pontormo, Raffaello e Bellini.