Behind the Mask: Performance and Identity within the Acton Mitchell Family

Join us for an evening of discovery as we pull back the curtain on the theatrical world of Villa La Pietra. From the avant-garde movements of Isadora Duncan and the Ballets Russes to the stylized beauty of the Deco Movement and the Peking Opera, we invite you to explore the many “masks” of the Acton Mitchell family and their cosmopolitan circle.

Program

• 6:00 PM Exhibition Presentation
• 6:30 PM Guided Visit led by the NYU student curators
• 7:30 PM Refreshments

Curated by: Francesca Baldry, Celia Donoso Clemente, Lisa Cesarani, and NYU Florence Professional Develpment Opportunity students Ivy Chan, Anna Detke, and Jeremy Lees.

“In the beginning of 1914 the Russian Ballet was at its zenith […]. The great galas of colour organized by Diaghileff were being imitated even in private entertainments: fancy-dress balls and tableaux vivants became sumptuous and spectacular to a degree unrealized since. […]. It was a gaudy compound of Baghdad and Ispahan […] a straggling continent of infinite poetic licence, a gorgeous Near East that got nearer every day.” (Harold Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948, p. 37)

In his memoirs, Harold evokes a golden age between 1900 and 1929 — a period where the boundaries between life and art dissolved. It was an era when “Old Europe” looked toward the Far and Middle East for a new, universal aesthetic language. Despite the fractured shadow of the Great War, this was a vibrant season for the avant-garde, defined by a revolutionary approach to the art of performance.

Behind the Mask explores the Acton Mitchell family’s profound fascination with the stage. Drawing from the Villa La Pietra sources and the city archives, the exhibition traces their involvement in theatrical life—from the intimate, private performances held within the walls of their villas to the grand, public spectacles that defined Florentine society.

*Image by Ivy Chan, reinterpreteting William Acton’s bookplate by Umberto Brunelleschi (1911-15).