Exhibition looks at the different roles and functions of art in domestic spaces

LONDON.- For the Digital edition of London Art Week 2020, Trinity Fine Art presents an exhibition looking at the different roles and functions of art in domestic spaces of the past which will guide the modern viewer on a journey through the courtly home of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, retracing the steps of these objects, the families that commissioned them and the villas and palazzi in which they are recorded, and in doing so discover the ways in which art merged with the everyday life of these courtly homes. We have collectively been obliged to consider carefully the different spaces and uses of space within the home, and perhaps we can be guided in this by looking to the examples of the past.

From the Renaissance onwards perhaps no other space was more intriguing and complex than that of the household interior in which a wide range of objects served key functions in the fashioning of familial, local and collective identities. One of the most important functions of art in the domestic space was that of works commissioned to exalt the standing of the family who lived therein. We are fortunate to have in our collection a wonderful example of this type of dynastic artwork in the form of three portraits, two marble busts by Alessandro Rondoni and a painting by Mario Balassi, which come from the collection of the noble Florentine Corsi family. This series which was prominently displayed in the grand gallery at the Corsi villa in Sesto Fiorentino, was commissioned by Domenico Maria Corsi , and was designed to extol the nobility, standing and cultivation of his family, culminating with the portrait of Domenico Maria and celebrating his elevation to the rank of cardinal.