THE GALEAZZO CORA BEQUEST

During the last decades of his life Galeazzo Cora (Turin 1986- Florence 1983) had built up the most important private collection of majolicas in Europe, consisting primarily of Italian Renaissance pieces. Over the last few years the collection grew to number 960 items, and these were all bequeathed by Cora to the Faenza Museum in 1983.
Cora was both a classic example of a learned and sophisticated collector, interested in the discovery of rare and exquisitely beautiful pieces, and a passionate scholar and art historian specialized in ceramics, who dedicated his time to gathering pottery objects, even fragments of pieces, as long as they were related to each other in style, decoration, in fluence, derivation or could provide any specific documentation for his research.
The Cora Bequest consists of two groups, of almost the same size: the first includes for the most part Tuscan, Umbrian and Upper Latian items, with decorative and technical characteristics that date them to the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.
The second group contains material primarily from the Italian Renaissance or later, as well as a few precious examples of Middle and Far Eastern ware.