Address: Via de' Benci, 6
The Horne Museum takes its name from the English collector
Herbert P. Horne (1864-1916) who left his palace and his
collections of a lifetime to the Italian State. This palace had
belonged to the Albertis and then the Corsis who gave it its
present appearance at the end ofthe fifteenth century. With its
balanced and elegant exterior and its restrained courtyard.
The museum reflects its owner's taste in layout; Horne was a man
of letters, an architect and a critic of some standing who came
to Florence at the end of the last century to study the Italian
Renaissance. He particularly favoured works of art, furniture,
ornamental and useful household objects, the contents in fact of
the type of Florentine home which he wished to recreate for
himself. The result was a large and rich collection, which has
been recently rearranged after the damage of the flood of 1966
and which preserves the character of an inhabited home.
Of particular interest are the superb domestic objects from
cutlery in silver and ivory, needles, morro-holders, leather
boxes and firedogs, all documenting a rich and varied taste. The
pictures are interesting too, including an impressive group of
fourteenth century Florentine and Sienese works and some notable
fifteenth and sixteenth century ones. Giotto's St. Stephen is
outstandingly rare and the highlight of the collection, while the
sculptures include works by Desiderio da Settignano and
Giambologna and the Angels in Glory by Bernini. The fine ceramics
include Italian pieces of the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries
from Orvieto, Florence, Cafaggiolo and Urbino.
