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The Museum of Casa Martelli, a museum that is, if you like, a relatively new addition
to the Polo Museale Fiorentino, since it was acquired
in 1997 during the resolution of what was known as the Bardini inheritance case.
Then, for over ten years and more it was restored, rearranged
and finally opened to the public upon booking.
There's a great deal to see in this museum, hidden behind an austere,
almost excessively discreet façade in Via Zannetti,
a road formerly known as Via della Forca, just a stone's throw from the Duomo.
In fact the museum is what has come down to us of the Martelli family residences.
The Martellis were an ancient family, very close to the Medici,
- in fact, in the 15th century, Roberto Martelli was Piero il Gottoso's right-hand man -
that maintained its connections with the Medici family up to the end,
and with the extremely important Basilica of San Lorenzo.
The palazzo in fact occupies a large portion of the same block as the basilica itself,
with the cloisters and museums of San Lorenzo.
What can we find in what is one of the last Florentine picture galleries to have remained intact over the centuries?
We find a number of outstanding masterpieces, as well as genre paintings,
but one in particular arouses our curiosity because it is a scene
of everyday life set inside that very palazzo, portraying that very family:
the Martelli family taking chocolate.
The picture is by Giovanni Battista Benigni, a not particularly famous 18th-century artist from Lucca
who in 1777 created this sort of snapshot of their home life.
It portrays the family being served chocolate – as was the fashion at the time -
in small cups of the finest porcelain.
And the interesting thing is that we know the names of the people in the painting.
We know that they are Niccolò Martelli, the head of the family, with his wife Maddalena Tempi,
their son Marco and their other son the abbot Giuseppe,
their daughter-in-law Teresa Cucci, and the waiter whose name we also know.
He was evidently from a family devoted to a great Florentine saint, because they called him Filippo Neri.
He was christened Filippo Neri, and Baldini was his surname.
And then there's an illustrious guest, the Marquis Andrea Gerini,
who has already been served the first cup of chocolate.
In 1783 Benigni added two more figures:
the little girl Maria Maddalena and the boy Niccolino with a greyhound.
There are other figures in the picture, but we don't know their names.
They are probably two guests and art-lovers since they are admiring the masterpiece displayed in that room.
That is, the Saint John the Baptist attributed to Donatello,
which is now one of the marble masterpieces displayed in the Bargello National Museum.
So we have a scene from everyday family life, with its customs and fashions,
which also conceals a little mystery: there's one cup too few… who's not going to get any chocolate?