Gabrielle Morolli - Gondi, a Florentine dynasty and its Palazzo

A historian, full professor of the history of architecture and member of the Board of the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze, he edited with the architect Paolo Fiumi the book “Gondi una dinastia fiorentina ed il suo Palazzo”, Edizioni Polistampa.

He also wrote the chapter “L'Ostrica e la perla”, on the rustication and carvings of Giuliano da Sangallo in relation to the work of Giuseppe Poggi, who oversaw the restoration and completion of the part of the palazzo on Via dei Gondi as it appears today. For forty years this Florentine and, above all, Tuscan scholar devoted himself to historical and architectural research on the Tuscan Renaissance and nineteenth century; he curated 50 exhibitions, both as a member of the scientific committee and as curator, on Medici patronage and, for example, on the great architect Leon Battista Alberti.

He published more than 350 monographs and essays on Arnolfo di Cambio, “Brunelleschi e Masaccio”, “Ghiberti architetto”, Donatello, “Firenze del Quattrocento e Cinquecento”, Michelozzo, “Piero della Francesca e Alberti”, Bartolomeo Ammannati, “Bernini e la Piazza del Duomo di Siena”, “Michelangelo e la facciata di San Lorenzo”, “Giuliano da Sangallo e l'Età di Lorenzo il Magnifico” and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, as well as in-depth studies such as “Lingua delle colonne, morfologia, proporzioni e semantica degli ordini architettonici”. Morolli worked tirelessly because, as he used to say, “all that remains of us is what we write”. Sadly our book was left fatherless: he passed away after a long illness, and the presentation took place without this distinguished scholar who made Italian, and above all Tuscan, art and artists known, loved and admired throughout the world.