The Collection

THE ACTON COLLECTION comprises more than 3,500 objects ranging in date from the Etruscan period (a cinerary urn from Chiusi) to the 20th Century (a collection of etchings and drawings donated to Harold), as well as a remarkable library with first editions from the earlier 20th Century, letters, manuscripts, and photographs. These are all preserved in the ideal setting of the house itself, where the Actons lived throughout their lives. They collected not with a scholar’s eye, but with an appreciation for the aesthetic quality of the piece. For them each object was important not necessarily for its intrinsic value, or for the name of the artist who made it, but for its history and the atmosphere it created when placed with other objects in this setting. And so it is that in each room of the house we see very precious works of art side by side with household objects, souvenirs from travels, books, textiles, furniture, and garden statues and fountains bought on the antiquarian market or from the palaces of noble families in Tuscany, Veneto, Umbria, Lazio and Campania.

The Actons did collect a few works by famous masters (Holy Family by Giorgio Vasari and Madonna and Child by Bernardo Daddi), but above all they were interested in the color, form, material, style, and subject matter of all their possessions. This was true for the much-praised Old Masters as well as for the many "bibelots", such as crêche figures, Neapolitan ex-votos, mannequins for hats, biscuit statuettes, and objets d’art. They reconstructed past fashions through these objects and at the same time enjoyed arranging them with subtle wit in their own personal way, often at odds with the established canons of interior decoration of their day. Thus we see, among the paintings, all sorts of objects such as rocks, semi-precious stones, shells and coral which sometimes also appear in the works of art themselves.

The visitor will have the pleasure of discovering that the house today still combines the atmosphere of a home and a setting for a remarkable collection of works of art. A four-year restoration program of this listed building has resulted in the reopening of the thirty historic rooms, as well as all the service rooms and offices, and the physical plant of the villa (climate control, electrical wiring and security system) has been totally renewed and brought up to present-day standards. Each room has been redisplayed exactly as it was at the time of the Actons, documented by precious photographic records. To underline the austere effect of some of the large vaulted Renaissance rooms on the ground floor (the Sala da Pranzo, the Sala Rossa, and the Sala del Crocifisso), they chose to display certain objects together here such as the religious works of the 13th and 14th Century (Maestro della Maddalena, Maestro del Bigallo, Lippo di Dalmasio, Domenico di Niccolò dei Cori).

As Harold pointed out, the Actons were particularly interested in these masters at a time when they were little appreciated. Also here we find the important collection of Renaissance pharmacy jars (Montelupo, Faenza) as well as inlaid wooden furniture (cassoni and cupboards). The grand master bedroom (Camera dei Genitori) on the first floor also contains an interesting cartapesta relief of the Madonna and Child by Jacopo da Sansovino, and a beautiful panel painting by Sano di Pietro.

In contrast the Actons preserved the light and graceful 17th and 18th Century decorations in the Salone, with its stuccoes, and in the small parlours with neoclassical landscapes, in the bathrooms, in Sir Harold’s bedroom, and in the Sala Studio and Sala da Ballo. They furnished these rooms with Venetian blackamoors, Chinese watercolours, screens, lacquered cabinets, console tables, candelabra, porcelain, table clocks and carpets revealing their fascination with Venice, Rome and Naples, as well as the Far East. Thus Villa La Pietra survives as a rare living testimony to the Actons’ cosmopolitan taste which has been carefully preserved to this day.