Pour la ‘réhabilitation’ des Primitifs Flamands en Italie. L’exposition de Florence de 1947 et le projet Ragghianti

A fundamental step in the history of critical approach to Flemish Primitives, which led to their ‘rehabilitation’ in Europe during the 19th and the 20th centuries, is well represented in Italy by the activities of the art historian Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti (1910-1987) and his wife Licia Collobi (1914-1989). The beating heart of this activities was the “Mostra d’arte fiamminga e olandese dei secoli XV e XVI”, set up at Palazzo Strozzi between May and October 1947, in a Florence arose from the ashes of the Second World War animated by a great cultural momentum. The exhibition meets the publics and the critic’s favor, emerging as a manifestation of considerable interest, in Italy and abroad. Ragghianti correspondence integrated with other letters from Belgian Archives give us back part of the interest that the exhibition aroused, especially at the Belgian cultural and diplomatic institutions of the time, as evidenced by the letters of Paul Coremans (1908-1965) and his collaborators. The 1947 exhibition establishes for the first time the key role of Florence in cultural and artistic relations with the ancient Low Countries and offered the best conditions for the start of another major project: i.e., the tracing of Netherlandish paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries in Italian collections, completed by Licia only forty years later, with her catalogue Dipinti fiamminghi in Italia (1420-1570). This volume, not free of errors, represents not only Licia’s last touching homage to her beloving husband, but, above all, the first effort for the most completed survey of the Netherlandish works of art still preserved in Italy.