Anghiari si racconta

I was born in 1964 in Scotland, and, when I was 3 years old, my family emigrated to Canada, where I grew up. I went to the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, and, for my 5th year, I came to the Florence campus of the college. During that year in Florence, I started looking… I was really taken by the city because, at that time, every second doorway on the Oltrarno was an artisan workshop doing really high quality crafts, and I was just blown away, loved it. I was in my early 20s.

I really thought it would be cool to work in one of those workshops. So, I made these little samples of painted decorative motifs and I carried them around. I was doing painting, not decorative painting, but I adapted to make it decorative – it is all the same principles, the lights and shadows, composition. I went to these workshops and asked if they could take somebody on. Mostly no … and then one place said ‘down the road they sometimes take passing strangers’. I went, they said ‘ah, ok come back tomorrow’. I did. They actually threw me into painting some pieces of furniture. They were crazy and really fun and kept saying ‘come back domani, domani’. I didn’t speak much Italian but I understood ‘tomorrow, tomorrow’. By the end of the week, it had become a job and I was getting paid!

I stayed there for quite a while and learned the artisan techniques which are the staple of what I do now, gilding, decorative painting as opposed to fine art painting. I went back to Canada but, within a year, I had come back. I worked in Florence for friends of my previous employer …. I was there for about 10 years and it was while I was at that studio that I started doing harpsichords. A client from Switzerland asked if we could decorate one, and from there I came to know the harpsichord maker, who was French. I still do work for him, and I work for Bruce Kennedy who is quite well known and is located in Tuscany, and for Andrea Restelli in Milan, and for various other musicians who commission harpsichords. I probably know most of them, it is niche, but it is worldwide niche.

At a certain point, I decided that I wanted to be out on my own, so I started my own workshop. It was right in the centre of town, in via della Scala on one of the upper floors of a palazzo. It was nice being in the centre of Florence, but over the years it had become very crowded, very noisy, and it was difficult to bring in pieces, particularly harpsicords.

My move to Anghiari wasn’t associated with this project on Renaissance instruments – that was a synchronicity. I decided I wanted to move out of the city after the pandemic – people had time to think, revaluate… getting older, my kids are grown up. My daughter is an artist, she is doing well, my son is studying in Milan, informatica musicale that has that creative musical bit. They are wonderful kids, I love them.

Anyway, I was looking for a place where I could have a workshop and a house in the same building… and it had to be beautiful. The church of Carmine came up – there was an apartment with a workshop underneath available in the cloister. It is an old apartment that used to be cells – one of the bedrooms is quite lovely. It is beautiful there, so inspiring … the nature. Then a beautiful discovery: the people here are lovely. I came into town the day of moving in, it was during the artisans’ fair in April 2/3 years ago, and I thought ‘this is really nice!’

I met Fabrizio quite by chance. His mum figured out I could paint harpsichords – she is involved with the social events in Carmine and they were putting on a concert for the inauguration of the new organ. ‘You two should talk, you are in the same area of work – his field is Baroque music, he is a very accomplished viola da gamba player, and the harpsichord is a Baroque instrument.’ And so we met, and he invited me to participate in this project on antique instruments.

By the way, it’s always a pleasure hearing Fabrizio play, along with Teresa Peruzzi, who plays the viola da gamba with him in the same ensemble. And it was exciting when they invited Philippe Pierlot, a well-known Belgian viola da gamba player, for a master class in Anghiari.

Back to the project – it is being funded by a European grant received by Gradara, a city on the coast where the city council is very active in promoting a deeper understanding of the arts. They support concerts, for example, and Fabrizio goes there to teach early music – they are cultivating a type of public interested in this kind of thing. The grant entails money to build workshops in the antique part of the city, but since this work hadn’t been completed, Fabrizio proposed the use of the workshops here in the meantime. So, we are very thankful to them.

The project was quite specific: the fresco in Santa Maria della Consolazione in Ferrara depicting angels playing late Renaissance musical instruments was to be the model for the reconstruction of these instruments. Fabrizio and Martina drew up the plans for these – from the fresco and with their knowledge of musical theory (the length of the cord, how it has to resonate and so on) they are constructing an amazing thing because we will hear the sound of instruments that have not existed for centuries. They will be brought back to life.

In terms of people working on the project: Martina comes from Ravenna; Luigi comes from Treviso and he has moved here temporarily. For my decoration part, I have students coming from all over, including South Africa, America, Malta, Netherlands. There is one harpsichord to be made as part of the project, and Fabrizio is going to bring in some experts like Tony Chinnery from the Mugello region to help.

Decorazione del legno is a whole world, a wonderful world of materials, and processes. There’s very beautiful burnished gold leaf, and pigment colours that are rich, more beautiful than what we are used to seeing in the acrylic paint in modern art supplies. We source this from specialized supply places which are dwindling – there was one on every street corner in Florence, now only 1 or 2 remain. If you gild a wooden surface the wood is important, the gesso layer is made of natural animal glue, chalk, there is clay and then the gold leaf, the whole system of layers works together … this whole process is an artisan process. The process teaches you: rather than imposing yourself, you have to respect things – timing, humidity and so on. You have to be patient, steady, you have to respond to the material it is. A wonderful thing to engage in.

Artisan work is, yes, mind but a lot of body – it is a bit of a dance because, of course, you start with an idea of what you want it to look like and your expertise grows over the years, with colours and paint and materials, but you are physically interacting in this world, where you are now, in this moment. It grounds you, it’s a meditative process … we are very much up in our heads in these days.

People here in Anghiari are more relaxed than in Florence where most people were quite tense. Even from simple interactions in shops, I’ve found that people are more friendly, they have more time to talk. When I came here, I was starting a new period in my life and so I was more interested in making social connections, and I think it is easier to do that in this place. Not that I spend a lot of time in the town – I have the mentality of a hermit, I tend to be quiet, spend a lot of time working. But I do like social connection – I really treasure the connection with this workshop, but also with other social groups and friends I have met here… a mix of Italians, people from Netherlands, England…. There is this wonderful cultural life here, which has drawn people from all over. It is a unique place. The best of Tuscany.

Just as we were finishing the interview, we were drawn to the windows by sounds in the street below where we saw that a play rehearsal was underway.