Vistas and Views Inside and Outside Villa La Pietra

Francesca Baldry

COLLECTION MANAGER FOR THE ACTON COLLECTION AT VILLA LA PIETRA, NYU FLORENCE

Before joining NYU Florence, Francesca Baldry has taught for many Study Abroad programs, worked in English museums (Dulwich Picture Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum in London) and collaborated extensively with the Italian State Soprintendenza, for exhibitions and catalogue entries. Her scholarly research and publications covers 19th and 20th c. Anglo-American collecting, art and conservation; Renaissance art media; Tapestries; History of photography; Preventive conservation in museums and House museum’ management. Currently Francesca’s focus is the use of the Acton Collection as a didactic open laboratory for NYU undergraduate students; she is also coordinating the digitization and cataloguing of The Acton Photograph Archive and for ICOM is organizing a 3 session workshop on House Museums and the Effects of the Pandemic.

Linda Cioni

GRADUATE STUDENT, SCHOOL OF CULTURAL HERITAGE, UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE

Linda Cioni completed her M.A. at the University of Florence in 2018 with a thesis on “Carlo Maratti as a restorer”. She is currently enrolled in the postgraduate School of Cultural Heritage at the same University.  She contributed to the Exhibition “Storie di Pagine dipinte – Miniature recuperate dai Carabinieri” (curated by Sonia Chiodo – Florence, Gallerie Degli Uffizi, 24 June – 4 October 2020). In 2020 she carried out a one year internship at Villa La Pietra NYU Florence with the Collection Manager Francesca Baldry. She was inspired by the Acton Collection and the Villa in choosing her thesis project which focused on the wall-painted cycle representing the Capponi family’s villa properties.

Nick Dakin-Elliot

HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIATE

Nick Dakin-Elliot, as Horticultural Associate, is responsible for the gardens and grounds of Villa La Pietra and, as Garden Manager, the garden of Villa Torre di Sopra, both in Florence, Italy. Previously, he was senior lecturer in horticulture at Pershore College of Horticulture in England. He has written for a wide range of publications on horticultural issues and was a contributor to the Royal Horticultural Society’s Dictionary of Gardening. He has also given classes for the Society as well as organizations as diverse as the Seychelles government, New York Botanical Gardens and the Landscape Museum of Verbania, Piemonte.

He studied ornamental horticulture at Askham Bryan College, York and the University Botanic Gardens, Cambridge and studied education at the Universities of Wolverhampton and Worcester in England.

Bruce Edelstein

COORDINATOR FOR GRADUATE PROGRAMS AND ADVANCED RESEARCH, NYU FLORENCE

Bruce Edelstein is Coordinator for Graduate Programs and Advanced Research at NYU Florence. He has held fellowships at Villa I Tatti and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. In 2014, he was named Honorary Member of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno di Firenze. His publications include: articles on Eleonora di Toledo’s biography, iconography and artistic patronage; studies on sixteenth-century Medici gardens; and essays on works by Medici court painters and sculptors, such as Bronzino, Cellini, Pontormo, and Tribolo. He is currently completing a book on the early history of the Boboli Gardens under the patronage of Eleonora di Toledo.

Cristiano Giometti

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY OF MODERN ART, SAGAS DEPARTMENT

Cristiano Giometti is Associate Professor of History of Modern Art at SAGAS Department. He received his PhD in History of Art from the University of Pisa (2004) with a study on the Baroque sculptor Domenico Guidi (1625-1701). He extensively published on the Roman Baroque sculpture and its diffusion in Europe and on the restoration of ancient sculptures in the 18th century. He is also interested in the history of old masters collecting exhibition between Italy and United States in the 1930s and 1940s. He is currently director of the School of Specialization in Historic-Artistic Heritage and member of the scientific board of the PhD Program in Visual and Performing Arts of the University of Florence. His publications include Domenico Guidi (1625-1701). Uno scultore barocco di fama europea (Roma 2010); Il Museo del Palazzo di Venezia. Le sculture in terracotta (Roma 2011, a research project financed by the Getty Foundation, in collaboration with Grazia Maria Fachechi); Raffaello on the road. Rinascimento e propaganda fascista in America (1938-1940), Roma 2016 (co-author Lorenzo Carletti), and Per diletto e per profitto. I Rondinini, le arti e l’Europa, Milano 2019 (co-author Loredana Lorizzo).

Sam Woodward

JUNIOR YEAR STUDENT, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

Sam is a current Junior at NYU New York studying Urban Design and Architecture Studies, and minoring in Art History. He has spent the last year in Florence and has been working in Villa La Pietra this semester, contributing to the collection’s digital database, planning and executing student outreach initiatives and creating content for the Villa’s Instagram account.  Sam has also undertaken an Independent Study Project, researching the Vistas of Villa La Pietra through an analysis of photographic archives, research and in-person explorations of the Villa.