Labirinto della Masone houses the art collection that Franco Maria Ricci has assembled in over fifty years of career: more than 400 artworks, dating from the 16th to the 20th century, are exposed to the public, revealing an eclectic, open-minded taste.
“I'm an unpredictable collector, I only pursue one aim: Beauty.”
Collecting is part of the human nature, an attitude that responds to the most disparate needs. For Franco Maria Ricci, it was a matter of passionately seeking beauty “wherever it appears, but especially wherever it is hidden”.
In the Ricci Collection, what we commonly call “museum pieces” and unusual objects, such as this “drinking automaton” of French manufacture, coexist. Beauty reveals itself in all its forms, even the most curious.
Scorcio della Sala del Novecento della Collezione Ricci (2011-2015)Labirinto della Masone
The layout is neither the casual one of a "Quadreria", nor the scientific one of a museum…
"Ligabue", from the series "The Signs of Man" (1967) by Franco Maria Ricci EditoreLabirinto della Masone
… and it underlines the parallels between the choices of the publisher and those of the collector.
The Seventeenth-Century Room of Ricci's collection (2011-2015)Labirinto della Masone
In each room, very different artworks, by date, genre or technique, dialogue with each other.
The variety of sculptures is particularly astonishing: lively plaster casts and terracottas stand side by side with minute ivory works, refined bronzes, but also disturbing waxes, without forgetting the noble marble.
Mademoiselle Jeannette Nini (1762) by Giovanni Battista NiniLabirinto della Masone
Portrait of Victor Amedeus III (XVIII secolo) by Francesco OrsoLabirinto della Masone
Portrait of a young lady (1765) by Marie-Anne CollotLabirinto della Masone
Franco Maria Ricci's predilection for three-dimensional artworks is made apparent by his “bustomania”: bust as type of representation, which, declined in its various forms, dominates his art collection…
Portrait of the cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni (1698) by Lorenzo MerliniLabirinto della Masone
...and testifies Ricci's passion for portraits, which, more than any other kinds of artworks, give him what he looks for: beauty, and its proximity.
Portrait of the cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni (XVII secolo) by Giovan Battista Gaulli (Baciccio)Labirinto della Masone
Therefore, the visitor should not be surprised if he feels observed during his promenade through the rooms of the collection: the pictorial portraits too are countless.
Portrait of Lucrezia Bentivoglio Leoni (1589) by Ludovico CarracciLabirinto della Masone
Portrait of the count Giambattista Serbelloni Sfondrati (1847) by Placido FabrisLabirinto della Masone
The parade of faces in the collection is interrupted by a room, where still lifes full of symbolical meanings suggest the inexorable flow of time.
Skulls, rotting faces and hourglasses evoke gloomy scenarios, but, at the same time, they remind us that life is bound to triumph, if it is lived with the awareness of our limits and with the wisdom of those who recognize the ephemeral character of every wealth.
Memento Mori (2001) by Maurizio BottoniLabirinto della Masone
These artworks are inscribed in a particular genre, named “Vanitas”. The collection also includes some contemporary interpretation of this theme.
The “Vanitas” room recalls, in terms of display and content, the Wunderkammern of the Renaissance: “cabinets of wonders” made for exhibiting both gaze and mind-intriguing objects.
There, the majority of wax portraits is preserved, so real and, perhaps for this reason, so disturbing.
Portrait of Voltaire dying (XVIII - XIX secolo) by Bernhard Caspar HardyLabirinto della Masone
Franco Maria Ricci's aesthetic predilections mainly converge onto Neoclassicism and its idea of beauty as an emanation of thought.
An example of his passion are the numerous Napoleonic Era portraits in the collection; a time when the taste for Classical-style marble bust was reborn.
Portrait of Marie Louise of Austria (XIX secolo) by Lorenzo BartoliniLabirinto della Masone
Franco Maria Ricci among some busts from his collection (XX secolo) by Emmanuel ScorcellettiLabirinto della Masone
