This paper addresses the reception of Florentine Renaissance furnishing among American collectors between the end of the Nineteenth Century and WW1, from the great success to the decline during the Twenties. Studies of History and Art History, travels and sojourns in Tuscany combined with the action of collectors, scholars and art dealers contributed to shaping the myth of Florence in the United States. Starting from key-figures who acted as cultural links between the Florentine and the American worlds, from Bernard Berenson to Elia Volpi, a series of mansions rich in Renaissance art and furniture is illustrated. Many are no longer extant, but some are open to the public: the Gardner Museum, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Ringling Museum of Art or the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. Through the presentation of the display of the Renaissance pieces in such collections, the role played by the culture of the Italian Renaissance in building American cultural identity is also discussed.

The paper addresses the reception of Florentine Renaissance furnishing among American collectors between the end of the nineteenth century and the 1920s. Studies of History and Art History, travels and sojourns in Tuscany combined with the action of collectors, scholars and art dealers contributed to shaping the myth of Florence in the United States. As a consequence Italian pieces were present not only in important collections and homes were the Renaissance was the main period of interest but also in those focused on different styles or even of eclectic taste. If this trend started in wealthy and exclusive mansions of the Golden Age it later spread in upper-middle class interiors or offices, thanks to the actions of sophisticated designers and furniture shops. At large scale production level, pieces of furniture in Italian style were made by a few of the numerous manufacturers of Grand Rapids in Michigan, the ‘Furniture City’. Last, the Italian Renaissance style was adopted also in architectural and display solutions; most noticeably in the Italian villas and gardens designed by Charles Platt, in the settings of some early classic movies and in the display of rooms and temporary exhibitions in public museums of cities as Chicago, New York or Philadelphia.

Bases on Giorgio Vasari and on a certain amount of documentary evidence, we can confidently state that Niccolò Tribolo was the artist responsible for designing and starting to erect the grotto. Devised to celebrate Cosimo I and Eleonora, with an allusion to the myth of Egeria and Numa Pompilius, Tribolo's design may well have already included the presence of animals, possibly to accompany an Orpheus. A statue of Orpheus was certainly seen in it in the 17th century, and I propose identifying it here with a late 16th century marble work now in the Boboli Garden. After Tribolo's death, building work largely continued to comply with his design thanks to his assistants led by Davide Fortini, with the addition of Vasari and of Bartolomeo Ammannati. In 1565, however, the iconographical programme changed, with the introduction of bronze birds by Giambologna and Ammannati assisted, according to hitherto unpublished documentary evidence, by Giovan Battista Del Tadda; while the stone animals, carved chiefly by experts who trained with Tribolo such as Francesco Ferrucci Del Tadda and Antonio Lorenzi, did not appear on the scene until 1580–95.