Poetry and Putti: Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Florence. Part I.

 

I recently joined a small group of local artisans and artists in a small cooperative with the aim of looking for ways to bring our work out of our studios and into the public eye. This group was then invited to participate in a Florence initiative dedicated to exploring the work and influence of women artists and creatives in Florence from the past-- pairing contemporary artists with these influential historical figures.

Our group selected British poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning who lived with her husband Robert Browning in Florence from 1848 until her death in 1861, writing her epic poem of Florence, Casa Guidi Windows, and her semi-autobiographical, feminist, verse-novel Aurora Leigh during these years in Florence.
She is buried in the English Cemetery on the other side of the city,  and her grave there and the Casa Guidi where she lived and wrote, are pilgramage sites for those who fell in love with her Sonnets from the Portuguese or her remarkable life as an independent writer or who wish to pay homage to one of the most influential poets and early feminists of the 19th Century.

Casa Guidi is not far from where I live, but somehow,  although I've passed it hundreds of times in the 25 years I've lived in Florence,  but somehow, I had never gone inside,  despite often stopping to read the memorial placque on the facade and say, "I really should go visit".  Our project was vague in concept, but was meant to be to create something based on the life or work of the artist we had chosen, in some way related to the Villa and residence where they resided.

 

So with that idea in mind, to find something to work with would require that I would finally go past the plaque over the door and see the inside.  As it turns out, Casa Guidi is part of the English National Trust, a non-profit that maintains the property, and it is open to visitors M/W/F from 3pm-6pm.