The Montici Society

THE MONTICI SOCIETY.org

A not-for-profit, educational organization dedicated to the enjoyment, preservation, and promotion of the artistic legacy of Richard A Blow and his Montici workshop.

HISTORY OF THE MONTICI SOCIETY ​​

by John Schmuecker

To the world, Richard Allmand Blow was a dashing character straight out of a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, a Great Gatsby figure – wealthy and sophisticated, Ivy League educated,  famous artist,  World War II pilot,  husband successively to two, celebrated Manhattan socialites, and the 20th century re-inventor of the ancient Medici-founded Italian industry of “painting in stone” (pietra dura).

To us, Richard was simply a family friend. ​

Our mother Rayanna was a successful arts and antiques dealer in Fairfield County, Connecticut, specializing in rare Oriental and English prints, as well as Audubon and Gould bird prints. Her interest in antiques started just after our family bought and moved into a large, partly restored 1760 Georgian colonial tavern with a cottage and large barn.  It was set in the small, quaint, New England town of Bethel, Connecticut, 50 miles northeast of New York City. There was a lot of unused space in the barn and our father Leo convinced my mother Rayanna to open an antiques business in it.

​​This was in the early 1960s. and antiques were hot. New England was filled with inexpensive Colonial antiques, and Victorian oak and walnut furniture which they bought and restored.  While serving as an executive for Sperry Rail Service, after hours our father learned to replace cane and rush seats and did woodworking repairs. Her company, Farnam Hill Antiques, soon branched out into acquiring estates, and buying and selling their contents.

In the summer of 1968, Muriel King, a famous American fashion designer and artist, moved out of New York City and into a house next door to our parent’s property. Muriel had a fashion salon in NYC, and dressed some of the best in New York. She was featured in Fortune Magazine as one of America’s top women’s fashion designers. She had previously worked in Hollywood designing costumes for movie stars like Katharine Hepburn. Muriel enjoyed a wide circle of literary and artistic friends who regularly visited her from New York City. Her weekend parties were gala events. My parents and I became part of Muriel’s circle of friends, which included Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Mark Connelly and other luminaries of the famous Algonquin Round Table; up-and-coming regional American artists like Peggy Bacon and Anne Rector; and one summer weekend a tall, erudite, charming, Italian-speaking painter and mosaic artist by the name of Richard Allmand Blow.

Muriel and Richard went way back together. In the late 1950s, she had owned a boutique art gallery, the “Four Corners.” in Bethlehem, Connecticut with her second husband, the famous Paris photographer Francois Tuefferd. It was open only on weekends, from 1-5 PM, and weekdays by appointment only. Her little gallery was the first in New England to show Richard’s Montici mosaics. Muriel and Richard subsequently started exhibiting their art works together at area art shows, including at the Washington Art Gallery (CT), and the Country Art Gallery in Westbury, Long Island (NY). Blow eventually recruited Muriel to be Publicity Director for his Montici gallery, Villa Piazza Calda, at 880 Lexington Ave. in New York City.

Knowing that my mother was an art dealer, Muriel brought Richard up to meet her.

My mother was fascinated by Richard’s life, loved his brilliant mosaics, and began to sell his art through her Farnam Hill Antiques.

Richard Blow watercolor of Italian countryside. (Click on image to view full size)

From 1968 to 1975, my mom worked with Muriel to promote and sell Richard’s art. I lived across the street from Muriel’s house for seven years during this period, and became their assistant. As Richard’s publicist, Muriel wrote descriptions of his work, assisted at shows, and handled much of the business correspondence for his Manhattan gallery. My mother Rayanna, meanwhile, worked through Farnam Hill Antiques to market and promote Richard’s pietra dura artworks. . She sold Montici mosaics from her shop, and also arranged shows and exhibits of Richard’s work throughout suburban Fairfield County, a vibrant art and antiques market thronged by collectors from New York City in the Summer and Fall. All three of them lived within an hour’s drive. My mom and Muriel were literally next door neighbors in Bethel; and Richard had a pretty Colonial house in Millbrook, just across the state line in New York. He regularly showed up in Bethel, fresh from Italy, bringing the latest Montici works, the three of them discussing art and Italian politics over lunch and a bottle of wine.

A close friendship also developed. between our family and Richard’s second son, David.

Richard and his second wife, Marya Mannes, had divorced in 1943, when David was 5 years old. A bit of a lost soul, David showed up frequently, becoming a part of our family – we were six children, with several close to Richard’s age – and he eventually moved to Bethel into a second house my family owned in town. He worked free-lance with computers, and would spend many mornings sitting at the chestnut dining table in our kitchen with my mom, talking politics, art and life – his own, his father’s, and the famous Blow family.

Our family’s connection to Richard Blow deepened after our sister Rosemary moved to Italy in 1965 after high school to study art and Italian. She fell deeply in love with Italy and never came back, marrying a handsome Italian named Giuliano from Perugia, Italy in 1967. Perugia was just a few hours’ drive from Richard’s villa.

At that time, Richard was living part-time in his villa at Montici, just outside of Florence, Italy. He had bought the property in 1927; lovingly restored it with the help of a famous English architect; fled the villa when the Italian dictator, Il Duce, Mussolini joined Hitler in unleashing World War II; and had finally returned after WWII to both reclaim and restore his beloved Vila Piazza Calda, and help Italy resurrect their ancient pietra dura craft tradition originally founded by the Medici Grand Duke  Ferdinando I in 1588.  This complex art form, requiring years of apprenticeship, costly materials, and a true artist to supervise the designs and production, had almost been lost by the end of WWII.  Richard teamed up with Lando Bartoli, who headed the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the original Florence workshop started by the Medici which  eventually became part of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage when Italy became a Republic. Together, they worked to revive this art form. Richard opened his Montici workshop and studio gallery at his villa, and devoted the rest of his life to producing some of the greatest modern Florentine mosaics. His work is also exhibited at the Museum of Pietre Dure in Florence, the only American to receive this great honor.

Our mother and sister Rosemary were his dinner guests at his villa in 1969. Dinner was served by Richard’s long-time personal butler, Dante Viviani, dressed in black bow tie and white gloves (Dante’s mother had been a lady-in-waiting for Italian Princess Corsini, descendent of an ancient Florentine family tracing its roots back to the 14th century). After dinner, Richard hosted a grand tour of the Montici workshop for them. It was a heady experience for my sister. As an art student, Rosemary was particularly smitten by Richard’s art and, speaking Italian, could talk with the artisans who worked in his shop. She eventually became an artist herself, producing botanical paintings that now hang in several European museums, as well as the Rose Museum in Beijing, China)  Several of her photos from that visit show Bruno Lastrucci, a young artisan at the workshop. Bruno was Richard Blow’s favorite student; became his most trusted master stone-worker; and eventually the last living link to those years.

​In 1976, towards the close of his life, Richard bequeathed to Oregon State University a collection of his works. Art expert Matila Simon wrote a short but wonderful biography of Richard for the catalogue, entitled “Florentine Mosaics and Richard Allmand Blow.” In the Preface, the Blow family thanks our mother and Muriel King for helping them with preparation of the collection.  We’re honored to be associated with that effort.

Muriel King (left) and Rayanna Schmuecker at Muriel King’s house, discussing art on a summer New England afternoon. We lived next door.

My mother and Muriel remained close friends the rest of their lives. When Muriel eventually fell ill with cancer, she bequeathed to my mother several trunks filled with personal mementoes of her life. She died in 1977, and the trunks ended up in the attic of our family barn. For the most part, they remained unopened and unexamined until recently. The notes, drawings, books, photographs, letters and correspondence include material related to her personal relationship with Richard, providing us with a unique window into the life and work of Richard Blow.

​​After Richard’s death in 1983, his art continued to pop up occasionally at auction, but recently he has been rediscovered by a new generation of collectors who highly value his mid-century modern, abstract and surrealistic designs.

In April 2019, fifty years after first meeting, Rosemary celebrated a joyful reunion with Bruno, exchanging photographs and memories; and catching up on their lives. In October 2019,  I and my brother Michael joined Rosemary to visit Bruno again, this time to interview him about how Richard ran his Montici workshop. Rosemary was invaluable to our research done in Italy. She devoted countless hours to translating the Italian-language books and catalogues we researched; and interviewing  both Bruno and the staff at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. 

To honor Richard, in 2020 we decided to create the Montici Society -- a free, non-profit, international online community of art lovers dedicated  to the enjoyment, preservation, and promotion of the pietra dura artistic legacy of Richard A Blow and his Montici workshop. We also have a fun "Sherlock Holmes" mission -- find and catalogue for our Image Bank all of the estimated 1,500 works of art Richard produced in his career. We've found about 350 to date -- only 1, 150 to go!

The Society launched its public website in January 2021, and it attracted a global following of Montici art lovers. In its inaugural year, we hosted over 2,700 visitors from 35 U.S. states, and 23 foreign countries. We also recorded over 6,600 page views. We expected visitors from North America and Europe, and they understandably led this online, international parade –the top six countries in terms of visitors in 2021 included the U.S, Canada, Italy, France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, in that order. But to our surprise, we also attracted visitors from Asia and Africa, including China, Taiwan, Australia; Russia and the Ukraine; Turkey and the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East; and Uganda and the Cameroon in Africa. Richard Blow exported and sold most of his Florentine mosaic artworks to the United States, but Italians also collected his works. We were pleased to host site visitors from 17 different Italian cities in 2021, led by Ancona, Roma, and Firenze. Within the U.S, the click brigade was led by Montici appassionati from Texas, Ohio, Virginia, New York, Connecticut, and California, in that order.

 On January 1, 2024, the Society transitioned to a privae organization. Membership is now closed, but all materials published on this website up until Jan 1, 2024 reamain available to the general public.