Giambologna’s Fata Morgana Finds a New Home in Cleveland

Bagno a Ripoli, a town just outside Florence, will see one of its most celebrated artworks enter the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art this September. The piece is the Fata Morgana, a rare sculpture by the Flemish-born Mannerist master Giambologna (Jean de Boulogne, 1529–1608), originally created around 1570 for the garden of Villa Il Riposo in Grassina, near Florence.

Commissioned by the Medici banker and patron Bernardo Vecchietti, the sculpture was designed for a small garden structure known as the Fonte della Fata Morgana. This unique Renaissance grotto-nymphaeum combined playful architectural decoration with mythological symbolism. The enchanting figure of Morgana was meant to preside over the fountain, which, according to legend, had waters with rejuvenating powers.

The statue left Italy in 1768 when it was sold and taken to England. It resurfaced at a Christie’s auction in 1989 and, after centuries in private collections, has now been acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. Starting on September 2, it will join the museum’s renowned holdings of Renaissance sculpture.

The unveiling of the sculpture will take place on September 2 at the Cleveland Museum of Art, in the presence of museum director William Griswold and the curatorial team. The event will formally introduce Fata Morgana to the public as part of the museum’s Renaissance galleries, where it will be presented alongside masterpieces of Italian art from the same period.

Giambologna, active mainly in Florence, is considered one of the leading sculptors of the late Renaissance, celebrated for works such as the Rape of the Sabines in Piazza della Signoria. The Fata Morgana is a particularly intriguing example of his work, both for its subject and for its original context in the Ripoli countryside.

According to local tradition, later echoed in cultural guides such as Toscana Ovunque Bella, the Fonte della Fata Morgana has long been surrounded by an aura of mystery. The Renaissance garden pavilion, designed for the Vecchietti family, was not only an architectural gem but also a place where myth and imagination intertwined. Legends told that the fairy Morgana, through the waters of her fountain, could restore youth and beauty to those who drank from it. This blending of art, landscape, and folklore transformed the Bagno a Ripoli countryside into a stage where reality and enchantment overlapped, leaving visitors with the impression of having stepped into a dream.

The Cleveland display will also feature photographic documentation of the Fonte della Fata Morgana in Bagno a Ripoli, allowing visitors to understand the original setting of the piece. The garden structure itself, though stripped of many of its decorations over time, remains one of the most atmospheric examples of Renaissance garden architecture in Tuscany.

With this acquisition, the Cleveland Museum of Art not only enriches its collection but also shines international attention on a little-known corner of Florentine heritage.

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