Not far from the convent of the Capuchins, beyond the provincial road, there is the “St. Francis” Rest Home, built from 1929 onwards and decorated in the course of the years with numerous furnishings in ceramic produced by the San Lorenzo Furnaces and with mural paintings which are very probably to be attributed to one of the decorators of the Chini family. On the inside, in front of the entrance, a relief in polychromatic ceramic portraying St. Francis and signed by Augusto Chini and dated “year VI” of the fascist era, thus 1928, which means it goes back to the period of the construction of the old people’s home. On entering, to the right, another San Francesco is hanging, almost standing out, glazed in white and blue, modelled by Guido Calori in the 40’s and given by Chino Chini to the Prior Massimo da Porretta. In the Board Room, a Crucifix in polychromatic ceramic, disfigured in the lower parts, is another example of the neo-Renaissance production of the Furnaces; in this case the donatellian inspiration may have been taken from the Crucifix of Santa Croce in Florence or from that of the nearby convent of Bosco ai Frati. In the two refectories of the Rest Home, the most important pieces are preserved.
In the female part, two panels composed of ceramic tiles, one with puttos who bear the inscription “Hail”, the other with three Cherubs, may go back to the 30’s, but they reutilize the sketches of Galileo Chini of the early years of the century . In the male refectory, on the other hand, there are two lunettes, again of Renaissance inspiration. The first is an Annunciation, Augusto Chini version, which varies only in the addition of the yellow colour from the one seen in the convent of the Capuchins, realized in 1957 in memory of his father Chino. The other is a St. Martyr in polychromatic terracotta. The latter bears the factory mark in use in manufacturing in the later phase, that is starting from 1939. In the stairwell which leads to the upper floor, a funeral stone in Grès portraying the Saviour is hanging, which reproduces the one in the municipal cemetery of Scarperia, where Leto Chini is buried; another image of Christ in the popular iconography of the Sacred Heart conceived by Pompeo Batoni in the eighteenth century, is realized with ceramic tiles with beautiful geometrical designs in blue and gold and is hanging a little higher up. The pictorial decorations of the walls leading to the Chapel of the Masses, inaugurated in 1940, are simple geometrical designs united to the symbol of the Third Franciscan Order.
There are not sufficient stylistic elements to attribute one or the other to the Chinis, although the relatively recent date and the modern simplicity of the decorations may make one think of Tito, or better of one of his collaborators, for example Pietro. At the sides of the entrance two tondos in polychromatic terracotta are hanging, with impressions of the Archangel Gabriel of the Annunciation of Andrea della Robbia, already reproduced in the two lunettes already seen. In the mortuary Chapel, on the rear wall, painted so as to seem a carpet, there is a ceramic lunette with Christ in Compassion. Not far away, a Madonna with Child and St. Giovannino in the same model as those present in the oratory of the Misericordia and in the convent of the Capuchin monks, in terracotta painted in white so as to seem marble, has a blue background and the decorations highlighted in gold. Lastly, on the outside, at the back, another lunette in ceramic portraying Christ, draped in black on a background of a copper colour and flanked by symbols of the Passion, is realized by the Furnaces from sketches of Galileo Chini.
Itinerario Liberty - Planning and Realization - Stefano Pelosi - www.stefanopelosi.it
