Chambers Architects in Florence: the Handcrafted Furniture Botique of Bartolozzi and Maioli
We’re among the travelers who’ve toured Europe’s ancient cities in the last decade and lamented the rapid gentrification of all the central city squares. Increasing property values attracted real estate developers, who acquired the most valuable properties in each city core. Wealthy fashion giants and corporations were lured to plazas and square, squeezing out quaint boutiques and artists’ studios. Our visit to Florence this year proved that even the small and lovely birthplace of the Renaissance was not immune to this structural shift in culture.
But a chance meeting on LinkedIn with Fiorenza Bartolozzi restored our faith in the tenacity of the arts to thrive in times of seismic economic change. Senora Bartolozzi invited us to visit her atelier, Bartolozzi and Maioli, in Florence. Her shop is tucked in a neighborhood just a few blocks from the Pitti Palace, on the southern edge of the Ponte Vecchio. This neighborhood is one of Florence’s best-kept secrets: a warren of ateliers and workshops whose handcrafted arts make you feel as though the city never changed. As thousands trek through the Florence’s famous religious, artistic and commercial buildings, where we did our share of walking, there are smaller, but just as attractive treasures, to be found tucked in other neighborhoods of the city.
Florence’s historic New Town was brought to life in the 12th century when the old Roman settlement outgrew its borders. This southern outpost at the time, Oltr’arno, “the other side of the Arno,” spilled into land that had once been home to vineyards, olive groves, and market gardens. Smaller merchants, choked out of their old quarters near the main thoroughfares north of the Duomo, found plenty of space in Oltr’arno. The district was soon populated by them and the people whose livelihood depended on their patronage: servants, laborers, shopkeepers, and most importantly, skilled artisans.
Bottega d’Arte Bartolozzi e Maioli is led today by Fiorenza, the daughter of Fiorenzo Bartolozzi. She maintains a continuation of the typical Renaissance workshop in Florence, where her atelier is one of the most famous woodworking studios. Its restoration of monuments like the Monastery at Montecassino badly damaged in WWI, The Quirinale in Rome and the Kremlin in Moscow allowed its two founders to amass a staggering collection of carved wooden elements from dismantled churches throughout Italy. The reference collection allowed them to understand and follow traditional Italian woodcraft and plaster arts, methods they employed in countless restorations. The remains are scattered throughout this showroom off the Via Maggio.
Walking through the rooms of collections is a bit like walking through Florence’s historical artistic periods. Carved madonnas share the space with Moors and elephants. Monkeys and swine hold up candlesticks and signs. A tangle of fanciful chandeliers hugs the ceiling. It’s hard to tell what is truly old and what is their faithful reproduction. Fiorenza has done numerous projects in the United States. We were proud to learn that she has a Texas connection as well. A number of years ago, she collaborated with well-known San Antonio architect, Roger Rasbach, on furniture for a modern home.
In the darker back rooms religious statues and reliquaries are stacked in between the workbenches that are still occupied by aging colleagues of the original masters, Bartolozzi and Maioli. Today a second generation oversees the business side of things, but the scary part is that there are few young apprentices eagerly learning the arts of carving, design, and restoration. We’re thrilled to have been invited to Florence by Fiorenza and hope that Bartolozzi e Maioli may continue to pass on the traditional handicrafts of Italy’s early tradition. We don’t want it to go the way of fantastic places that exist only in our memory, giving way to an Italy that has no time for making things by hand.
One of the many corners of the atelier where handcrafted furniture, chandeliers and accessories wait to be finished