Art and Culture

Born in Castelfiorentino in 1452.
He was a famous miniaturist in Florence, a pupil of Andrea del Verrocchio, although some art critics hypothesized Domenico Ghirlandaio as his master. His codices are kept in the Vatican Library and in various libraries in Europe, including the Codici corviniani, requested by Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, the Missals of the Vatican Library and of Brussels, and the Marcianus Capella, kept in Venice.

Born in Castelfiorentino in 1695.
He was an architect known especially in the Florentine area where he worked for some important families of the time. In 1738 he completed the project of Palazzo Martelli in Florence. Also on commission of Archbishop Giuseppe Maria Martelli, he intervened in the courtyard of the Archiepiscopal Palace in Florence, redesigning its colonnade. In the years from 1723 to 1740, he designed and built the extension of the Villa of Murlo in Val di Pesa. In 1745 he designed the monumental staircase with double ramp on the facade of the Palazzo Comunale in Livorno.

Born in San Colombano, a hamlet of Scandicci, in 1420, he left works of inestimable value in the territory of Castelfiorentino, today preserved in the Be.Go Museum dedicated to him.
His works were received in the Vatican, in the palace of the Medici in Florence, in the Cemetery of Pisa, where he realized the most monumental pictorial cycle; in Montefalco, in Orvieto, Volterra, Viterbo and Terni. Other works of Benozzo can be found today preserved in the greater museums of Italy and the world. As was customary, Benozzo did not paint only large cycles of frescoes, but made use of the various artistic techniques still practiced in the most important workshops of the fifteenth century. In 1497, he left his last work in Pistoia, a Majesty in the state of sinopia, unfinished due to his death. The artist also established a special bond with Valdelsa, this territory between the provinces of Siena and Florence, crossed by the Elsa River. When Benozzo Gozzoli arrived in Valdelsa, he was already an established painter. Thanks to the prestigious cycle of frescoes he painted in San Gimignano he had the opportunity to make a name for himself and, in a relatively short period of time, he created prestigious works throughout the territory: from San Gimignano to Certaldo, Legoli in Valdera and, finally, Castelfiorentino. Here he frescoed two majestic roadside tabernacles: in 1484 the one of the Madonna della Tosse, located near Castelnuovo d’Elsa, and in 1491 the one conventionally called of the Visitazione, located at the entrance of the town, near the Elsa river.

Terino da Castelfiorentino was born in Castelfiorentino between 1230 and 1240. He was a merchant and was considered a good lyric poet of the 13th century close to the form of the “dolce stil novo”. Around 1883 Gaetano Milanesi found an interesting document in the Central State Archive of Florence, a book on vellum entitled “Ricordanze dal 1264 al 1334” published by Orazio Bacci. We only have six poems belonging to him: three sonnets and three songs, and in all of them there is a celebration of Love. Terino probably had a house near the Porta al Vento in Castelfiorentino where he was born and died.
His son Gherardo da Castelfiorentino was judge and ambassador of Florence in charge of peace between the city and Pistoia.

He is an Italian writer, author of mystery books. Born in Florence in 1957, he lived the years of his childhood and youth in Castelfiorentino (his father was a well-known pharmacist in the city center), publishing in 2000 his debut novel in the field of “Historical mystery”: “Nero di maggio”, set in Florence in 1938. Later he published “I delitti del mondo nuovo” (2002), “Il passaggio” (2002), “La finale” (2003), “Lo specchio nero” and “Il fiore d’oro” (with Franco Cardini, 2004 and 2006) and “L’angelo del fango” (Rizzoli, 2005), with which in 2005 he won the prestigious Scerbanenco Prize at the Noir in Festival in Courmayeur. He has been working for many years on graphic fiction and related expressive forms (illustration, cinema, animated drawing). He has always combined the activity of research and study of comics with that of collector, with particular attention to the period of production between the end of the nineteenth century and 1950.
He has collaborated with the major magazines of history and criticism of the medium, such as “Il Fumetto”, “Exploit Comics”, “Comic Art”, “Fumo di China”, “Fumetti d’Italia”, “Dime Press”, “Nostalgia”, “Les cahiers de la Bande Dessinée”, etc., and has made sporadic incursions in prestigious publications such as “Capital”, the American Disney series, “Zio Paperone”; for a short period he also collaborated to the cultural pages of the newspapers “La Nazione” – “Il Resto del Carlino” and “Il Giornale della Toscana”. In the 80′s he participated in the writing of some fundamental texts on the history and criticism of Comics. He has collaborated very actively with the Epierre of Gianni Bono, for various productions, among which is still preeminent the magazine of criticism “IF, Immagini & Fumetti”, of which is Editorial Director. He has been a member of “Immagine”, and has been part of the staff of Expocartoon, the main Italian Comics Exhibition, but has also collaborated with Lucca Comics.

Born in Castelfiorentino in 1951.
He has been professor of Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Florence. He deals with twentieth-century and contemporary literature. His debut essay dates back to 1978, with the volume Sul primo Montale. He has edited many editions for Mondadori. It is president of the Center Studies and Researches Carlo Betocchi and it is part of various scientific committees and Associations. He is president of the Literary Prize of Castelfiorentino, of the Prize Firenze per Mario Luzi and of the Prize Carlo Betocchi-Città di Firenze and scientific coordinator of the Literary Prize Firenze per le culture di pace. He contributes to many magazines and to the Florence newspaper “La Nazione”.

After graduating from the Scuola d’Arte Drammatica Paolo Grassi in Milan, he worked as a prose actor until 1999, the year in which he chose sculpture as the main language of his poetics. His theatrical path, the studies he has done, the shows he has participated in, the directors, the playwrights he has met, the whole theatrical experience has formed him in his artistic expression. His sculptures are often told by him with references to scripts, to characters of comedies or tragedies of ancient or contemporary prose. References to poems or poets, to theatrical theories enter his installations that Dall’Osso himself always defines through a dramaturgical path, as if each installation were a real theatrical performance with its characters, at the end of which the sculptor aims at catharsis for the public who will enjoy it. In 2007 Davide Dall’Osso meets Maria Vittoria Gozio (his wife in life), who joins him in the curatorship of his works and in the collaboration of the atelier’s creations. Together with her in 2014 they founded Atelier Dall’Osso. Today, they sign all of the artist’s installations and exhibitions with four hands. The sculptures are made both in polycarbonate castings and by mixing materials such as iron, copper, bronze, resin, wire, and wire mesh. The artist works with 80% industrial waste polycarbonate. His Atelier is located in Castelfiorentino in Via I. Newton, 5 / L.

Born in Naples in 1980 and then moved to Castelfiorentino at an early age.
After attending the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences in Bonn, Germany, he collaborates from 2006 to 2009 with the sculptor Marco Di Piazza and in 2010 he exhibits his personal exhibition “La maschera dell’eroe” at the L.u.C.A. Lounge Undergorund. In 2012 he wins the AP Art UP-Creative Youth competition. In 2013 he realizes a traveling exhibition in Tuscany entitled “L’immagine riflessa”, which lasts three years and reaches about 38 thousand visitors, becoming part of the Permanent Collection of the Tuscany Region. Shortly after he is contacted by the Health Media Award to make the Health Angel, he creates the steel sculpture Health Angel that in 2018 becomes the official oscar for the Health Media Awards event that rewards the best national companies in the field of health. In 2017, Bramandi participates in the international contemporary art kermesse Arte Salerno, with his work Gli Invisibili, and is subsequently an exceptional guest at the 57th Venice Biennale, where he will be awarded the Winged Lion of Venice prize. From here, Bramandi begins an intense collaboration with Prof. Vittorio Sgarbi, who will curate his works, and the Prince Art Gallery auction house.