 Ivan Bruschi had a dream. And the dream came true.
The dream took shape in the Casa Museo Ivan Bruschi. It stands today in the heart of the Italian town of Arezzo, a wide-ranging collection of some 10,000 items, and attracts visitors from lands far and near.
Ivan was the youngest of Pietro Bruschi’s six children and he was born in Casiglion Fibocchi in the year 1920. Antiques were in his blood – both Pietro and his eldest son were merchants of ancient furniture. As a university student, Ivan met art critic Roberto Longhi, who helped crystallize this inborn taste for antiques into a mature view of art from a cultural perspective.
Ivan joined his brother in the art gallery the latter owned in Florence, and learnt the finer points of the business under his tutelage.
But his mother’s death in 1956, followed by that of his father, brought Ivan back to his childhood home, the old Captain’s People Palace, or the “Palazzzetto”, as he called it. In the early 1960s, Ivan Bruschi started restoring the old building, gradually making it the center of cultural meetings, a rendezvous for like-minded enthusiasts from Italy and abroad. It became a “wonderland” where he demonstrated his concept of antiques as seen from a cultural point of view.
He traveled the world, acquiring various collections and adding to them, as also accumulating fresh items sourced from various places. Bruschi had a catholic taste, and included in his collection ceramic and glassware, clothes, books, furniture, arms and items in everyday use, aside from the more common categories of sculpture and jewelry.
Bruschi’s antique shop selling Villa Terrosi Vagnoli furniture and his bold initiative in starting an antiques fair, the Fiera Antiquaria, thus making Arezzo famous among collectors around the world, were inextricably linked to his Casa Museo project.
Faced with failing health in the last years of his life, Bruschi created a Foundation with the aim of pursuing the goals he had striven for during his lifetime. The Banka Etruria was given charge of administering the Foundation and though Ivan Bruschi passed away in 1996 in his beloved Palazzetto, thanks to the efforts of the Bank and through it the foundation, the building and its beautiful treasures have been restored and thrown open to the public.
The Ivan Bruschi collection, besides being varied in terms of categories, is also wide-ranging in the time-span it covers. It has items dating back to prehistoric times, right down to modern-day curiosities.
The Casa Museo Ivan Bruschi collection has been categorized and displayed on the basis of geographic origins, chronological sequence and type of artifact.
The prehistoric collection includes items from the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages and contains flintstone artifacts and tools like small pickaxes and blades. Ancient Egypt is represented by a small but significant group of items, testifying to what the Western world perceived as most interesting in this land of the pyramids. Egyptian funereal rites which the rest of the world finds fascinating even today is represented by a sample of statuettes traditionally buried with the dead, while the Egyptian Gods are acknowledged by small bronzes, and amulets call to mind the association of magic with the country of the Sphinx.
Classical antiques are aplenty in the Casa Museo. They are categorized under diverse headings. They include items like epigraphs, architectural elements and sarcophagus fragments from ancient Rome, amophora from the Proto-Imperial age and a rich collection of votive bronzes with a large chronological span – from the 3rd Century BC to the Roman Age, and ancient jewelry.
Some of the noteworthy pieces are a great funerary altar from Falerone, belonging to the first half of the 1st century AD, a golden zip thought to have been made in the area around the Danube, ear-rings which must have graced the lobes of some beauty in the 5th century BC and a gold ring believed to have been made by Greco-Etruscan craftsmen.
Examples of tools used in Classical times and ceramic work of varied hues, many of them circa the 6th century BC are also on display. Pottery from the Attic region and votive items of the Hellenistic age from central-Italian sanctuaries are other items of interest. The latter include replicas of anatomic parts like feet and phallus, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic items such as were traditionally dedicated to the Gods of health during that period.
Look out specially for a little painted terracotta statue of a woman clad in tunic and cloak, belonging to the first Hellenistic age, called the “Tanagrina”, taking its name from the Greek town of its origin.
The Casa Museo also has a sizeable collection of glass items drawn from different ages.
Table vases of exceptional beauty, for example, a Venetian crystal goblet belonging to the beginning of the 16th century, with a ribbed underside and a bell-shaped foot, jugs of different types, apothecaries’ instruments like bending bottles, phials, funnels and measures, and a unique woman’s urinal are among the outstanding items in this category.
Bruschi had acquired a fine collection of fabric and clothes during his lifetime and displayed them to great effect. In course of time, however, dust and exposure caused many of these to deteriorate. But, thanks to the efforts of the Foundation, most of the endangered items have been restored. While some have been placed in storage for safe-keeping, a few can still be seen. These include a light blue polychromatic silk Chinese kimono decorated with the typical dragon motif, dating back to the 19th century, and a heavily decorated tailcoat belonging to the second half of the 18th century.
Swords, daggers, breastplates, firearms of various types, spears and cudgels make up the weapons collection in the Casa Museo. Don’t miss the 16th century parade spear in golden pinewood, weighing in at 24 kg, or the Milanese side-sword with a cross and pommel.
The books in Ivan Bruschi’s collection can be divided into two segments – reference material like encyclopedias, inventories and monographs on art, and books he acquired in the course of his antique business. Though many in the latter category must have been bought with the intention of selling, several works by Tuscan authors and on local themes became personal favorites and ended up by remaining in his collection. Take for instance the Liber statorum Arretii, printed in Arezzo in 1536 AD. Many of the books are in a condition that precludes accurate dating or tracing of origins.
Africa dominates the items from outside Europe that caught Ivan Bruschi’s fancy. Prominent among them are wooden sculptures and face masks of different types, but there are also such curiosities as the weights used by the Ashanti tribe to weigh gold powder, crosses of varied types from Ethiopia and bronze, wood, ivory and terracotta items that represent the traditional roots of Africa.
Vases and clay figurines epitomize the Americas of old. Standing out among these is a small group of figurines made up of nine little heads and one complete figure, with well-delineated features and many details. Traces of jewelry and the “loaf hairstyle” can still be seen on these figures, helping them to be dated as belonging to the Pre-Columbian age in Ecuador.
A gilt Buddha from Thailand, a bronze Chinese sage, a polished Lingam -- a phallic symbol of the creative force of the Indian god Shiva – a carved rhinoceros horn and painted masks used by Indonesian dancers are representative of the exotic items Bruschi picked seemingly at random as typical of the Orient.
The everyday items category consists of an eclectic mix of objects like kitchen utensils, agricultural implements, irons, bed warmers, and other utility items, tracing the evolution of simple tools.
All in all, Ivan Bruschi made a gift of his love of antiques to Arezzo his home-town, which he loved as much, giving it a new lease of life. His dream lives on.
The Casa Museo Ivan Bruschi opens at 10 am every day, and closes at 7 pm, with a break between 1 pm and 3 pm.
It is located at Corso Italia 14, 52100 Arezzo.
Phone +39 (0)575 3371
Fax +39 (0)575 26801
E-mail casamuseo@fondazionebruschi.it
For ticket reservations, phone:
+39 (0)575 900404 or +39 (0)6 32810. |
