When you say love, indeed, an irrepressible passion for art. There is a person in the world who has donated 4.8 million dollars (the largest payment from a private person ever made to a Florentine museum) to the Uffizi Gallery. “This immense act” of sponsorship, as the director Eike Schmidt defined it, was carried out by the American patron Veronika Atkins and will make it possible to fully restore the Amphitheater of the Boboli Gardens, as part of the extensive program to relaunch the Medici greenery Boboli 2030.
The facelift will begin in the coming months and will last between two and three years. Double objective, that of protection, that is to restore the many and various architectural, sculptural and plant components of this suggestive but very delicate space to the best conditions; and that of valorisation: at the same time guaranteeing the recovery of its original vocation for hosting shows, and in particular opera music. “Soon we will see again the most famous singers performing in the basin surrounded by the Medici greenery, in front of the grandiose backdrop of Palazzo Pitti” commented Schmidt.
Who is the patron
Veronica Atkins is one of the best-known sponsors and patrons in the world in the field of music and art, given that in recent years her support activity for the Uffizi Galleries has grown. Through the “Friends of the Uffizi Galleries” and working with their executive director, Lisa Marie Conte Brown, Atkins funded the restoration of the “Terrace of Geographical Maps” at the Uffizi, the Florentine museum’s “Valois tapestries” series, and the Sala of Bona at Palazzo Pitti. Last October, however, you gave away one of the best pianos in the world for concerts in the Sala Bianca of the former Medici palace. On that occasion she was awarded the Keys to the City of Florence by the Deputy Mayor Alessia Bettini, in the presence of the Consul General of the United States, Ragini Gupta, the President of the Amici degli Uffizi and the Friends of the Uffizi Galleries, Maria Vittoria Rimbotti Colonna, and the director of the Uffizi Galleries, Eike Schmidt. Among many other honors and responsibilities, Veronica Atkins serves as Managing Director on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, is president of the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation, and supports many other prestigious cultural organizations. It was one of the main donors for the production of Boris Godunov at La Scala last December, which was attended by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, together with other authority. Philanthropist Veronica Atkins commented on the new donation as follows: «The Boboli Amphitheater project unites my three greatest loves: nature, art and music. I can’t wait to attend the premiere of the opera that will resound in this magical and unique place in the world at the end of the restorations».
Schmidt’s comment
The director of the Uffizi Galleries, Eike Schmidt, observed: «Thanks to the generosity of Veronica Atkins, one of the key projects of the “Boboli 2030” initiative will see the light: the Boboli Amphitheater – which in its architectural form recalls the glories of ‘ancient Rome – will recover its function as an open-air theater, right in the city where melodrama and opera itself were born. Soon we will see again the best singers performing in the vast basin surrounded by greenery, in front of the grandiose background of the Imperial and Royal Pitti Palace, to collect the applause not of a select few, but of all the large audience who will join in the stalls and on the stairways for a unique and unrepeatable experience».
History
The Boboli Amphitheater was originally conceived in purely vegetal forms by Eleonora da Toledo, who commissioned the sculptor, architect and set designer Niccolò Tribolo with its construction. From 1621 to 1634 architectural elements were gradually added, while the first theatrical use was on the occasion of the wedding party of Margherita de’ Medici with Odoardo Farnese in 1628. In the following centuries, the amphitheater became the venue par excellence for the grand ducal festivities – up to the last one, commissioned by Leopold II in 1839 (two decades before the end of the grand duchy). A first recovery of the Amphitheater took place in the 1930s, when it was also used to revive opera. In fact, it was in this very space that in June 1937 – for the first time in modern times – Claudio Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea was staged, with the scenography designed by Giovanni Michelucci: the architect of the Santa Maria Novella station, but also the one who after the Second World War (together with Carlo Scarpa and Ignazio Gardella) designed and set up the Sala del Trecento in the Uffizi. In 1960 and again in July 1965, Franco Zeffirelli chose the Boboli Amphitheater to stage Jacopo Peri’s Euridice. At the time, the New York Times especially praised the perfect acoustics of this space.