master-of-tavarnelleThe museum is on the first floor of the rectory, and contains works of art, displayed according to their parish of provenance. The first room is dedicated to the parish of San Pietro in Bossolo. To the left of the door is a Madonna and Child attributed to the 13th century painter Meliore di Jacopo. The panel, originally in San Michele a Casaglia, is one of the few surviving works by this Romanesque artist, a painter tied to a fine Byzantine tradition. Next to it is the venerated Virgin by Rossello di Jacopo Franchi, from the Oratory of Petroio, an elegant example of a late Gothic taste still prevalent in the 15th century. Three walls are dedicated to panels by Neri di Bicci, commissioned by Niccolò Sernigi in 1473 for the church of Morrocco. They are typical of this minor Florentine painter’s masterly combination of Renaissance innovations, such as the inclusion of Classical architecture and of foreshortening, with a late Gothic tradition evident in gilded backgrounds and in the details of the decoration. Beside the door which leads to the next room, is the panel which gave name to the anonymous artist, probably French, who worked in Chianti: the Maestro di Tavarnelle. The Madonna and Child with Saints Martin and Sebastian, dated 1510, from the Church of San Martino a Cozzi, unites French elements, such as the iconography of Saint Martin as a bishop and almoner, with Florentine characteristics, in a style similar to Filippino Lippi. The glass display cases in the center of the hall contain several relics, crosses, monstrances, and gold ecclesiastical objects dating between the 13th and 19th centuries. The display cases against the wall house examples of embroidery in a stitch unique to Tavarnelle. The technique is explained in a series of photographs displayed in the entrance hall. A large reliquary cabinet occupies an entire wall: a peculiar mix of styles, it was commissioned in the 19th century by the parish priest of the church in Olena. Next to it is a remarkable painting from the church of Cortine depicting a Madonna and Child by the anonymous painter known as Maestro di Marradi, showing his knowledge of late 15th century Florentine artistic innovations. In the last room,and continuing into the corridor, is a collection of ex-voto offerings, jewelery, small paintings, an 18th century Infant Jesus in polychrome stucco, maybe once part of a crib, and various chasubles made of precious fabrics. The Madonna and Child with Saints Rocco and Albert of Sicily, from the Oratory of the Assunzione, annexed to the Church of Morrocco, is attributed to a painter of the 1530s, close to Antonio del Ceraiolo.

A Note on Tavarnelle’s Nidlepoint Lace

“Tavarnelle Stitch” embroidery originated in the early 20th century at the embroidery school of the Serve di Maria Addolorata nuns, who also ran the local kindergarten and elementary school. In 1906 Sister Arcangela Bacchelli arrived in Tavarnelle: a skilled lace maker, she began to impart her knowledge to her pupils, choosing patterns from a book she had brought with her. The base of the embroidery consists of a drawing on grease-paper, padded with various layers of brown paper and held together by basting the outer edges. A basting is also sewn inside the motif to hold down the stitches that trace the drawing. These are sewn with vary strong thread and are the backbone of the embroidery. They are covered by a cordon stitch, or buttonhole stitch, dotted here and there by decorative bobbles; the filled-in shapes are embroidered in full stitch. Once completed, the embroidery is detached from the paper, resulting in a delicate open-work. This technique soon came to be known in Florence, and by the 1910s shops and business that sold laces and trousseaux, like the luxurious “Navone” in via Tornabuoni, were commissioning embroideries in Tavarnelie, sending their orders through the “fattorine”, the middle-women between clients and embroiderers. In the years before the Second World War, with the ban on foreign goods, even Salvatore Ferragamo turned to the Tavarnelle embroiderers to make the uppers for his shoes. The women worked in winter during the hours of “veglia”, the long dark hours of early nightfall, and in the summer in front of their door-steps, in gardens, in piazza Vecchia, and along the river Pesa. Their expert hands produced laces for table-cloths, sheets, baby trousseaux and church furnishings.

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