The Fratelli Alinari Drawing Library donated to Capodimonte

“We are grateful to Claudio de Polo Saibanti for the important donation, an act of patronage which once again underlines the historical and cultural relationship between the great Italian museums and Alinari, born and grown for over a century and a half on a private initiative and today a public body of the Tuscany Region – declares the director of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Eike Schmidt – The Cabinet of Drawings and Prints, curator Vincenzo Stanziola, is open to scholars upon reservation and it is our intention to increasingly enhance its heritage with special events”

Claudio de Polo – Saibanti, Commander of Merit of the Republic, entrepreneur who has always been committed to the valorization of the Italian artistic heritage in the world, was President of Fratelli Alinari from 1984 to 2022 and founder of the National Museum of the History of Photography in Florence. The donation was presented to the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte by the director Eike Schmidt on the occasion of the event ‘The Power of Images – A legacy for future generations’, which is also the title of the autobiography written by de Polo-Saibanti for the Ship of Theseus.

Conceived, desired and completed by Vittorio Cini, the donated work is considered of great importance for scientific research in the global panorama of art history studies: 40% of the drawings changed attribution.

The collection of the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of Capodimonte includes more than 2900 drawings and watercolors and approximately 24000 prints. To it belong the famous preparatory cartoons for frescoes, referable to Michelangelo, Raphael and their schools, as well as the drawings of the most important Italian artists of the 16th and 16th centuries, up to funds from more recent donations with works from Giacinto Gigante to Vincenzo Gemito.