Art and wine have long been associated with one another for the way that they express human genius, manufacture, and sensory refinement; both also have historically been patronized by the same families. In Tuscany, the Frescobaldi family has been involved in the patronage of the arts for about eight hundred years: their coat of arms is on one of the facades of the Duomo, having contributed to its construction, they paid for the Santa Trinità bridge and donated the land on which the church of Santo Spirito was built. And you probably already associate the Frescobaldi name with wine as they’re one of Tuscany’s largest producers (some 12M bottles per year, 2021 data). The Artisti per Frescobaldi project located at the family’s CastelGiocondo estate in Montalcino is a logical extension of their patronage of the arts.
The project began in 2013 spurred by Tiziana Frescobaldi, who presented the latest works in the collection to a selection of journalists on a blustery fall day. Supported by curator and art critic Ludovico Pratesi, the first five years of Artisti per Frescobaldi were an art prize for three artists per year, while in the past two years they have opted for direct commissions of two artists per year for a site-specific project. Since the start, they’ve balanced their acquisitions between international and Italian artists with the desire to encourage local talent. The artists chosen have already received international recognition and are asked to create a work that “expresses the essence of CastelGiocondo”.
Art and wine in Tuscany led by curators
The Frescobaldi project is not the only one of its type in Tuscany; there are a few other curator-led collections supported by wineries that are open to the public. Of similar repute is the Antinori Art Project, which display’s the noble family’s historic collection along new site-specific commissions beginning in 2012-13 and can be visited as part of the winery tour at their Bargino estate. The Frescobaldi family is also behind Ornellaia’s Vendemmia d’Artista project – I wrote about the 2017 edition on this blog – which asks a chosen artist to create labels and an installation around the word that their winemaker associates with each vintage; the large format limited edition bottles are auctioned in support of the arts. Visits to this Bolgheri estate are granted upon request and some of the works can be seen around the main cellar. Castello di Ama, in Chianti Classico, collaborates with Galleria Continua (San Gimignano, Paris, Beijing) for their collection that counts works by names that were covered in my contemporary art classes in university (like Jenny Holzer) or who are ubiquitous in Italian museums, like Michelangelo Pistoletto. A guided tour of the art collection can be booked with their formal tasting experience.
Art and wine in Montalcino, a local outlook
Montalcino is the kind of place that, due to its distance from Florence, is off the main tourist path unless you’re really into wine. And the area’s exceptional wine does bring happy enotravelers who often choose to stay at a winery and get the full experience. Tiziana Frescobaldi observed that, when they began their Artisti, the area could benefit from a project of the sort to delight visitors and to support artists. Indeed, it’s the first major international art project in this wine region.
Montalcino isn’t without its artistic connections though, they just tend to focus on a more local scale. For example, there is the Casato Prime Donne prize, led since 1999 by Donatella Cinelli Colombini. A bit hard to summarize due to its numerous beneficiaries and variations, essentially it rewards female innovators, journalists and photographers and over the years also commissioned art installations. Its post-Covid manifestation gives an opportunity to local high school and university students.
On the family run estate Nostra Vita, one finds an eclectic collection of nature-inspired art of wood, iron and stone, products of artistic residences (with thanks to my friend Laura Gray, author of The Magpie’s Guide to Montalcino, for tipping me off to this).
And let’s not forget the way that the Consorzio del Vino Brunello wishes to make every vintage visual through the commission of a ceramic tile that honours each and indicates its quality (through an internal star rating). Tiles commissioned to notable figures from the world of art, sports, and entertainment – so not necessarily artists – are placed above a bench in the centre of town. I was there when Sting (The Police) revealed his in 2017.
A visit to Artisti per Frescobaldi in Montalcino
The unveiling of the 2025 commissions was an occasion to finally see the Frescobaldi collection of 20 works at the CastelGiocondo estate, a medieval village with a 19th-century castle and chapel. A modern wine cellar is built a few hundred metres away, and that’s where we began our tour. Modern white arches frame the installation of fourteen maiolica amphorae placed here by Patrizio Di Massimo with the 2016 edition of the art prize. We can recognise the chapel at CastelGiocondo in one of the vases, the start of a semi-mythological story about wine and drunkenness. In a keen connection with the concept of being “tipsy”, the vases are stacked precariously on top of each other and not attached with any glue.
Most of the works center around the castle, but there is one piece on the road between the cellar and the castle: Massimo Bartolini’s Rosa Sirena (2023), where the artist placed the wooden figurehead of a ship at the head of a vineyard, looking towards the sea.
As we approach the castle, guarding the walls there are the small bronze figures by Daniela De Lorenzo (2023) that represent the phases of maturation of wine; these have a monumental feeling so that, photographed up close you’d think they’re life-sized, while from a distance you realize they’re only as tall as your arm.
Outbuildings and an abandoned Liberty apartment house other works. In a rough agricultural space, a video piece by conceptual German artist Michael Sailstorfer (2014) records five art students sketching five nude models using a bottle of Brunello as a pen, exploring the relationship between artist and model. Nearby, the mould of a magnum spins on a tripod with a camera inside that shows the point of view of the wine (Eric Wesley, USA, 2016).
A crowd-pleaser is the immersive space inside the previously entirely abandoned apartment with Liberty designs on the walls. Gian Maria Tosatti (2021) was convinced that a bad child was locked up in these rooms, where light and breeze play with the creepy antique, abandoned look.
My personal favourite is by a young American woman, Erica Mahinay (2021), Test Site. Interested in the Rudolf Steiner approach to natural agriculture, she interprets the personal, human touch of wine through thousands of thumbprints in natural pigments on painted silk. Perhaps due to my own interest in sewing and manual work, I appreciate the texture, the seams and the human trace in this work.
Last but not least, a word on the two newest works in the collection that resulted from the two female artists’ – one Italian, one Korean – period of residence on the property to explore the relationship between humans and the environment. On the lawn in front of the castle you can find a piece by Giulia Cenci in her somewhat steampunk style of cast aluminium. A scrap iron pole is enveloped by vines, human bones and topped with the heads of wolves, intending to explore how the vine shapes to man’s will.
Sumin Park’s contribution is multimedia: for her video Pale Pink Universe, she collaborates with Serbian composer Bojan Vuletic to explore the material transformation of wine in reverse, from microscopic drops of wine back to the initial seed, through an explosion of flowers and colours. These flowers are also represented in a beautiful bronze sculpture.
How to visit
Further information about Artisti per Frescobaldi can be found on the official website www.artistiperfrescobaldi.it. Visits are free and granted upon request based on availability (there is a form on the website). If you’re headed all the way out there, I suggest staying for lunch or a wine tasting. The estate produces the CastelGiocondo Brunello di Montalcino and the superb Ripe al Convento Riserve.
