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| Fig. 1 Villa Torre a Cona |
This spring
I have been a research intern at the Dutch Institute for Art History in
Florence for the Patrician Patronage Project. The project aims to research the
artistic activities undertaken by Florentine patrician families between 1530
and 1670. Allocated to me were the Rinuccini, a family I had never heard of
before, but of whom I now speak as “my family”. The Rinuccini came from Cona, a
small village in the heart of the Chianti, just ten kilometres south of Florence.
Their Villa Torre a Cona is surrounded by a breath-taking scenery of vineyards
and olive groves (fig. 1). Today, it houses a wine estate, where we can experience all
the good of the Rinuccini in liquid form (although it is no longer in their
possession; the last male Rinuccini died in 1848).
