Roberto Papini papers

Roberto Papini, architect, art historian, critic and teacher, was born in 1883 in Pistoia. He studied drawing and architecture at the Politecnico in Milan; he then completed coursework in mathematics and physics at the University of Pisa. From 1908-1910 he studied art history with Adolfo Venturi at the University of Rome.

He held a number of important appointments throughout his life, including the secretaryship of the “Associazione per l’arte in Pisa” (1907-1908), the directorships of the Galleria Comunale di Prato (1912), the Pinacoteca di Brera (1920), the Galleria Nazionale d’arte Moderna in Rome (1933), and the Museum of Arts and Industry (1928) in Rome. He also worked for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the superintendent responsible for the furnishing of embassies, consulates, and legations abroad from 1921-1926.

He was a founder of the magazine Architettura e arti decorative, as well as the author of numerous journal and magazine articles on contemporary art and urbanism. He wrote for a variety of periodicals including newspapers such as Conciliatore, Corriere della Sera, and Il Mondo, and the magazines, Rassegna italiana, Dedalo, and Emporium. He was the author of many art history publications, including Catalogo delle cose d’arte e di antichità d’Italia: Pisa (2 volumes; Rome, Calzone, 1912-1914); Catalogo della Galleria Comunale di Prato (1912); Le arti a Monza nel MCMXXIII (1923), and a three-volume monograph on Francesco di Giorgio Martini published in 1946.

After the Second World War, Papini was appointed to the commission to reconstruct Florence’s historic center. He also taught art history at various universities, first at the Museo Artistico Industriale di Roma, then at the University for Foreigners in Perugia. In 1934 he was appointed Professor of Florentine Art at the Istituto Superiore d'Architettura. In 1941 he became Professor of Architectural History in the Architecture department, and in 1943 he initiated a course on the style and construction of monuments.

His second wife was the Hungarian sculptor Livia de Kuzmik (1898-1976). Livia was born in Budapest, Hungary on December 10, 1898, and it was there that she studied with the sculptor Ede Telcs. Livia also studied in London with Professor Whiting of the Royal Academy and the Heatherely School of Art, in Rome with sculpture Arturo Dazzi of the Royal Academy, and with Roberto Papini at the University of Florence, whom she ultimately married.

Roberto died in Modena on November 10, 1957.

In the decade following her husband's death Livia went to the U.S. as a visiting professor at Northwood University in Michigan. Her works were exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and at international exhibitions in Paris, Copenhagen, Budapest, Madrid, Washington, Venice, Rio de Janiero, Milan and Florence.

There are three works by LP at Villa I Tatti. Two of them are small porcelain statuettes of Adam and Eve wich both have Livia’s signature in pen on the bottom. They also bear cast stamps: “HERDEN” on Adam, “HERDEN / HUNGARIA / 1941” on Eve. The third work is a life-size bronze bust of Bernard Berenson (1958) signed “L. Papini.”

Livia died in Florence on December 20, 1976.