San Gimignano is enriching its cultural heritage with thepermanent entry of seven paintings and some working tools that belonged to Raffaele De Grada, a Milanese painter who died in 1957 and who chose the Tuscan city as his chosen home after his marriage to Magda Ceccarelli, a native of San Gimignano. The donation, promoted byMariaLuisa Simone De Grada, wife of his namesake son and art historian, will be presented Friday, Oct. 31, at 6 p.m. at the Santa Chiara Museum Complex, home of the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art named after him. The gallery is part of the Fondazione Musei Senesi and is managed by Opera Laboratori, with the aim of preserving and enhancing the artistic heritage of the area.
The presentation ceremony will include speeches by Andrea Marrucci and Niccolò Guicciardini, respectively mayor and deputy mayor with responsibility for enhancing the cultural heritage of the municipality. This will be followed by the words of Isacco Cecconi, official of the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the provinces of Siena, Arezzo and Grosseto, and those of the donor Maria Luisa Simone De Grada, together with Carolina Taddei, coordinator of the Fondazione Musei Senesi, and Valerio Bartoloni, director of the Musei Civici di San Gimignano. The event represents an official moment of recognition and enhancement of the artistic legacy of De Grada, whose relationship with the city began more than a century ago and who left an indelible mark on the local cultural scene. The seven paintings included in the donation offer a heterogeneous picture of De Grada’s activity, from portraits to landscape views, and testify to the bond between the artist and the city of San Gimignano.
“The donation we receive from Maria Luisa Simone De Grada, whom I sincerely thank on behalf of the entire community,” says the mayor of San Gimignano, Andrea Marrucci, “goes to enrich the artistic and cultural heritage of our city and adds a very important piece to enhance the figure and work of Raffaele De Grada and his exceptional connection with San Gimignano. De Grada intertwined his personal and artistic history with that of our town, making it the protagonist of his works and his vision of the Tuscan landscape. The donation of his daughter-in-law represents, in this framework, a gesture that unites memory, affection and gratitude, renewing and strengthening the dialogue between art, culture, territory and community.”
Prominent among the works are Portrait of a Peasant from 1930 and Young Peasant Girl from 1935, both made in oil on canvas, which reveal De Grada’s attention to figures of the countryside and the daily life of the territory. Landscapes are represented by works such as Strada di Volterra of 1920, oil on canvas backed on panel, and theStudy of Horses from the frescoes of the Collegiate Church of San Gimignano, dated 1921. Of particular interest are the self-portraits from 1916 and 1948, done in oil on canvas and oil on panel, respectively, which allow us to observe the painter’s stylistic and technical evolution over the course of his career. The figure of Magda De Grada, his wife and main source of inspiration, is depicted in Hermann Barrenscheen, Portrait of Magda De Grada of 1915, a work that marks the beginning of the relationship between the city and the artist.
In addition to the paintings, the donation includes the working tools that De Grada used in his studio, including a painting easel, a color palette, a palette knife, three nibs, and a straw hat, items that testify to the painter’s method and everyday life. The presence of these tools offers a more complete perspective on De Grada’s creative process, making the gallery not only an exhibition space, but also a place of study and insight into modern Italian art. The link between the artist and San Gimignano dates back to 1915, the year of his marriage to Magda Ceccarelli, a moment from which De Grada found the city and its surrounding area a constant source of inspiration. Landscape painting, with its depiction of hills, streets and city views, became one of the hallmarks of his production, helping to consolidate his fame. In 1964, the establishment of the “Raffaele De Grada” Painting Prize, dedicated to landscape, further strengthened this link by requiring winners to donate a work to the municipality. This practice allowed the creation of a public collection, which today forms the nucleus of the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, officially recognized since 1999 as a space dedicated to De Grada.
The donation represents an important step in preserving local artistic memory and expanding the municipal cultural heritage. The permanent admission of the paintings and working tools allows not only to preserve the artist’s works, but also to make them accessible to the public and scholars, promoting a greater understanding of the figure of De Grada and his contribution to twentieth-century painting. The Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea ’Raffaele De Grada’ thus confirms itself as an identity place of the city, capable of preserving the historical and cultural memory of San Gimignano through the artistic production of one of its most relevant protagonists.
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| San Gimignano welcomes donation of Raffaele De Grada's paintings and tools |
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