Un’amicizia (poco) disinteressata: il rapporto tra Vittorio Cini e Bernard Berenson

Vittorio Cini (1885-1977) was one of the most voracious collectors of the Italian twentieth century. When he died, his collection, divided mainly between the rooms of the Monselice castle and the Venetian house in Campo San Vio, had passed through thousands of different objects from different periods. Weapons and ivories, miniatures, books, sculptures, but above all old paintings, only partially still preserved under the label of the Cini collection. Paintings almost always of the highest level, chosen with the guidance of the expert eye of connoisseurs – from Nino Barbantini to Federico Zeri – with whom the Count of Ferrara has maintained constant relations. Among these, to Bernard Berenson is always recognized a primary role, given the long years of acquaintance and friendship. But they never investigated properly the start dates and the dynamics of a relationship, first of all staff, which had the necessary and predictable effects on the orientation of the tastes of the collector and its buying and selling opportunities. This study offers an opening in this regard. The comparison between the materials preserved in the archive of Cini heirs, the Giorgio Cini Foundation and the Library of I Tatti, allowed to carry out an initial picture of the true extent and duration of a friendship never too disinterested and suspicious traits, but sincere, which linked Berenson to the entire Vittorio Cini family, and to illustrate with some concrete examples when and how the scholar could intervene with his always sought-after judgment on the purchases made for the collection.