Galleria Rinaldo Carnielo

The Rinaldo Carnielo Gallery preserves the sculptor's Liberty-style house and studio in Florence. More than three hundred works by Carnielo share the collection with paintings by artists including Silvestro Lega and Michele Gordigiani. The gallery is temporarily closed while a new display is prepared.

Why it matters

Carnielo's house-studio preserves a rare link between an artist's work and the place where he lived and created. The collection brings together sculpture from several phases of his career, from Renaissance-inspired reliefs to naturalistic plaster studies and small bronzes in the emerging Liberty style. Paintings by artists from the Macchiaioli circle extend the gallery's view of late nineteenth-century Florence.

What to notice

The sculpture shows Carnielo's range of subjects and materials. Some works draw on Renaissance forms, while others use strikingly naturalistic plaster or more sinuous lines associated with Art Nouveau. His interest in mortality appears in works such as Dio! non posso pregare (1883) and Tenax Vitae (1893). Paintings by Lega and Gordigiani reflect Carnielo's friendships with artists of the Macchiaioli circle.

Context and history

Rinaldo Carnielo was born near Biadene in 1853 and died in Florence in 1910. He trained at the Florentine academy under Aristodemo Costoli and opened his own studio in 1873. His Dying Mozart attracted international attention after it was acquired by the French state following the 1878 Paris Exposition. After Carnielo's death, his son Enzo preserved the studio and its contents. The City of Florence acquired the building and collection by bequest in 1957.