After over 100 years, Villa La Pietra is presenting to the public two theatrical costumes designed by renowned illustrator Umberto Brunelleschi for Un po’ di colore, a grand revue performance held in Florence in 1915. We will exhibit a painting from the Acton Collection by Arthur Acton depicting Florentine noblewoman and style icon Cora Antinori dressed as “La Moda”, fashion personified, and for the first time on public view the only surviving costume from the performance Un po’ di colore worn by Hortense Acton herself: “The Chinese Mannequin”. As part of the student co-curated exhibition Behind the Mask: Performance and Identity within the Acton Mitchell Family, these works offer a deeper glimpse into the fascination of the mask, and the escape it offers from the darkness of modern wartime through the theatrical imagination of other times, places, and cultures.
PROGRAM
18:00 – 18:30 — Presentation of the exhibition
18:30 – 19:45 — Attendees will be divided into groups to follow the itinerary:
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- Presentation of the exhibition’s website
- ‘Hortense’s Fashion Behind the Mask’ (Tour of the bathroom and wardrobe)
- ‘A Conservator’s Perspective on Hortense’s Dresses and Shoes’
- Tour of the exhibition in the Salone
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19:45 – 20:15 — Light refreshments
As part of the Museum Meetings program