Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gold Gilt: Going for Baroque
With his astrologers on hand, the pope might have seen Italy's foreign domination coming.
Far from cementing the Church's authority, the Inquisition created a power vacuum on the
ground while papal authorities were otherwise occupied with lofty theological matters.
While local Italian nobles and successful capitalists vied among themselves for influence as
usual, the Austrian Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa took charge of the situation in
1737, and set up her husband Francis as the grand duke of Tuscany.
Napoleon Bonaparte conquered swathes of Tuscany in 1799. So appreciative was Napo-
leon of the area's cultural heritage, in fact, that he decided to take as much as possible
home with him. What he couldn't take he gave as gifts to various relatives - never mind
that all those Tuscan villas and church altarpieces were not technically his to give. When
Habsburg Ferdinando III took over the title of grand duke of Tuscany in 1814, Napoleon's
sister Elisa Bonaparte and various other relations refused to budge from the luxe Lucchesi
villas they had usurped, and concessions had to be made to accommodate them all.
Still more upmarket expats arrived in Tuscany with the inauguration of Italy's cross-
country train lines in 1840. Soon no finishing-school education would be complete without
a Grand Tour of Italy, and the landmarks and museums of Tuscany were required reading.
Train-loads of debutantes, dour chaperones and career bachelors arrived, setting the stage
for EM Forster novels, Tuscan time-share investors and George Clooney wannabes.
GENEROUS TO A FAULT
Austrian Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa (1717-80; mother of 16 children - including the now-
notorious Marie Antoinette) was generous to a fault. A self-taught military strategist, she held local po-
tentates in check and pushed through reforms that curbed witch burning, outlawed torture, established
mandatory education and allowed Italian peasants to keep a modest share of their crops. She also
brought the Habsburgs' signature flashy style to Tuscany, and kicked off a frenzy of redecoration that
included flamboyant frescoes packed with cherubs, ornate architectural details that were surely a night-
mare to dust, and gilding whenever and wherever possible.
Perhaps fearing that her family's priceless art collection might factor into Maria Theresa's redecorat-
ing plans, Medici heiress Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici willed everything to the city of Florence upon
her death in 1743, on the condition that the entire inheritance must remain in the city. Generous to a
fault.
