Florence

by Christopher Hibbert

  From the Quartiere di Leone X, a staircase leads to the second floor. The rooms of the Quartiere degli Elementi in the south-eastern corner of the palace on this floor are decorated with representations of the elements. In the Terrazzo di Giunone is displayed Verrocchio's Putto with Dolphin.

  Across the other side of the palace, on the south flank, are the QUARTIERE DI ELEONORA DI TOLEDO.

  The Sala d'Udienza also has a fine ceiling by Giuliano da Maiano. Salviati painted the frescoes with scenes from the life of the Roman Marcus Camillus. Above the door is Benedetto and Giuliano da Maiano's statue of Justice. On the other side of the wooden door are the intarsia figures of Dante and Petrarch, crowned by the marble St John the Baptist, all by Benedetto da Maiano. The door leads to the Sala degli Gigli, called after the predominant lily motif on the ceiling by Benedetto and Giuliano da Maiano. Domenico Ghirlandaio frescoed St Zenobius Enthroned with Saints Stephen and Lawrence. On either side of the triumphal arch are figures of Roman heroes. Here also is the original of Donatello's JUDITH SLAYING HOLOFERNES.

  In the Cancelleria, which was Machiavelli's office, is a portrait of Machiavelli by Santi di Tito, and a bust of him by an unknown sculptor.

  In the Sala delle Carte Geographiche, maps by Cosimo I's astronomer, Fra Ignazio Danti, are displayed. He painted the entire known world, and also constructed the globe.Outside the Sala degli Gigli are steps to the Quartiere del Mezzanino. This contains the collection, left to Florence by the art historian Charles Loeser, of works by Pontormo, Giovanni Rustici, Pietro Lorenzetti, Tino da Camaino, Piero di Cosimo, amongst others, and the portrait of Bartolommeo Ammannati's wife, Laura Battiferri, by Bronzino.

  12. The Loggia dei Lanzi on the south side of the PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA was built between 1376 and 1382, and was then known as the Loggia della Signoria. Its architects were Benci di Cione and Simone Talenti. The Virtues in the spandrels were designed (1384–9) by Agnolo Gaddi and the best, which were executed by Giovanni d'Ambrogio, are some of the finest of the late fourteenth century. It has been suggested that the head of Faith was taken from Donatello's Dovizia, formerly in the MERCATO VECCHIO. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the loggia became a sculpture gallery. Here are exhibited, amongst others, Cellini's outstanding Perseus Trampling Medusa (he was forced to melt down his household pans and plates for the

  Loggia dei Lanzi

  casting), and Giambologna's masterpiece, the Rape of the Sabine Woman (which the sculptor was as happy to identify as ‘Phineas and Andromeda’, or ‘Pluto and Proserpine’, or ‘Paris and Helen’), as well as Ferdinando I's Roman statues. The loggia was being restored in 1993.

  13. The façade of the church of Ognissanti over-looks the Piazza Ognissanti. The Umiliati, a Benedictine order, founded the church in 1256, having moved into the adjacent convent. Expert in manufacturing woollen cloth, they introduced important techniques from their native Lombardy, and built workshops by the Arno. This area of the city became the centre of the cloth trade. Ognissanti was turned over to the Franciscan order in the sixteenth century after the Medici expelled the Umiliati; and in the following century the church was rebuilt with a façade by Matteo Nigetti. The campanile survived the reconstruction, as did the columns in the cloisters. The church was, and is, rich in decoration. (Giotto's magnificent Ognissanti Madonna panel, now in the UFFIZI, came from here.) Ghirlandaio's altarpiece, the Madonna della Misericordia, was painted for the Vespucci family, the artist's patrons. They lived near by in Borgo Ognissanti, and their tombstone, dated 1471, is to the left of the second altar on the right. They also commissioned the St Augustine from Botticelli, who is buried here in a chapel in the south transept. Opposite St Augustine, on the north side, is Ghirlandaio's St Jerome.

  In the refectory of the convent is another Ghirlandaio fresco, The Last Supper; little, apart from a patient cat in the foreground, distinguishes it from his Last Supper in SAN MARCO. The frescoes in the sacristy are by Taddeo Gaddi. The Resurrection here has been attributed to Agnolo Gaddi.

  14. The first church of Santissima Annunziata, overlooking what is now the PIAZZA SAN-TISSIMA ANNUNZIATA, was a mid-thirteenth-century Gothic building, dedicated by the Servites to the Virgin of the Annunciation. It became an important shrine after 1314, when a fresco of the Annunciation, started by a monk, was said to have been completed by an angel. Pilgrims would hang wax effigies, or voti, of themselves from rafters.

  Piero de' Medici commissioned Michelozzo, whose brother was prior, to rebuild the church. Work began in 1444. Michelozzo planned a circular tribune, serving as a choir, at the east end of the nave, influenced no doubt by Brunelleschi's then unfinished Santa Maria degli Angeli, and by the philosophy of the humanists, who considered the circle to be the perfect geometric form, as it represented the universe and eternity.

  The loggia, designed by Caccini in 1600, is animitation of the loggias on the east and west sides of the piazza. The portal leads into the Chiostrino dei Voti, notable for its frescoes by many of the most renowned painters of the early sixteenth century, including Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, Alesso Baldovinetti and Cosimo Rosselli.

  In the second chapel on the south side is a wooden crucifix by Antonio da Sangallo; in the fifth is Bernardo Rossellino's monument to Orlando de' Medici. In the east transept chapel is a Pietà. The sculptor, Baccio Bandinelli, who is buried here, carved his own portrait in the face of Nicodemus, who supports Christ; and Bandinelli and his wife are portrayed in the relief behind the group.

  In the tribune, Volterrano painted the dome with a Coronation of the Virgin. The high altar frontal is by Giovanni Battista Foggini, and the ciborium by Alfonso Parigi. Andrea del Sarto is buried at the left of the entrance to the triumphal arch, just outside which is Francesco da Sangallo's tomb of Bishop Angelo Marzi Medici. There are nine chapels radiating from the tribune. The ninth, at the east end, contains Giambologna's tomb and was designed by him. His pupils, Francavilla and Tacca, carved the statues. Tacca is also buried here. In other chapels in the tribune there are works by Allori, Bronzino and Perugino.

  The sacristy is also by Michelozzo. Beyond the large chapel in the north transept, which contains a terracotta St John the Baptist by him, is the Chiostro dei Morti. Over the portal is Andrea del Sarto's Flight into Egypt, known as the Madonna del Sacco after the sack which Joseph leans on.

  At the east end of the cloister is the Chapel of St Luke, the patron saint of artists. This appropriately belongs to the ACCADEMIA DEL DISEGNO. Many artists are buried here, including Francabigio, Cellini and Pontormo. The altar-piece of St Luke Painting the Virgin is by Vasari and is a self-portrait.

  In the north side, from east to west, the first chapel has an Assumption by Perugino; the third, a Trinity with St Jerome; the fourth a Christ with St Julian, both by Andrea del Castagno.

  At the west end is the Shrine of the Virgin, housed in a vast tabernacle by Michelozzo, which Piero de' Medici commissioned. The OPIFICIO DELLE PIETRE DURE executed the panels for the adjoining Medici chapel.

  15. The façade of Santa Maria del Carmine over-looks the Piazza del Carmine in the Oltrarno. The present Baroque church, built at the end of the eighteenth century, replaced the original church of 1268, which, except for the sacristy and chapels, was destroyed by fire.

  One of Florence's most precious treasures is the recently restored fresco cycle of scenes from the life of St Peter in the Brancacci Chapel in the south transept. They were commissioned by the Brancacci family in the early 1420s from Masolino, but it is the work of the young Masaccio, who collaborated with him on the frescoes, which so influenced the history of Western art. It has been suggested that The Tribute Money, an unusual subject, was a comment on the recently introduced tax, the catasto. Sixty or so years later, Filippino Lippi completed the cycle, skilfully adapting his style to suit the earlier work.

  In the north transept is the Chapel of Sant' Andrea Corsini, Bishop of Fiesole, who died in 1373. This was designed by Pier Francesco Silvani, with a frescoed ceiling by Giordano. I
n the sacristy, built in 1394, are early-fifteenth-century frescoes of scenes from the life of St Cecilia.

  16. The bronze South Doors of the BAPTISTERY facing the LOGGIA DI BIGALLO were cast from wax models made by Andrea Pisano and erected in 1336; they were moved to their present position in 1424, having originally been on the east side. The twenty-eight gilt-bronze reliefs, set in quadrilobe frames, include scenes from the life of St John the Baptist. The portal surrounds are by Vittorio Ghiberti, the bronze figures over the doorway (1570–71) by Vincenzo Danti.

  17. The gates which have survived at least in part are: Porta al Prato, at the junction of Viale Fratelli Rosselli and Il Prato, completed in 1284. The Palazzo Corsini sul Prato near by to the south was designed by Buontalenti and begun in the 1590s. It was finished in the 1620s by Gherardo Silvani for Filippo di Lorenzo Corsini, who bought it in 1621. The Young Pretender stayed here in 1774–7.

  Porta San Gallo, the old city's northern gate, now stands isolated in the busy Piazza della Libertà. The Via del Ponte Rosso leads north out of the piazza to the Ponte Rosso, spanning the Mugnone, and the Via Bolognese, the old road to Bologna, the GIARDINO DELL'ORTICOLTURA, the horticultural garden opened in 1859, and to Sir Harold Acton's villa, LA PIETRA.

  Porta San Niccolò, built in the first half of the fourteenth century and restored in 1979, stands below the PIAZZALE MICHELANGELO. A steep road leads up to the fourteenth-century Porta San Miniato and, by way of the Via di Belvedere, to the Porta San Giorgio of 1260, the city's oldest surviving gate. The stone relief of St George is a copy of an original of 1284, now in the PALAZZO DELLA SIGNORIA.

  Porta Romana, at the west end of the BOBOLI GARDENS, was built in 1327 to a design by Andrea Orcagna.

  Porta San Frediano, also known as the Porta Pisano, may have been designed by Andrea Pisano. Its tall tower was built in the first half of the fourteenth century. The church of San Frediano in Cestello to the east, its large dome dominating this part of the Oltrarno, was reconstructed by the Roman architect, Cerruti, known as Il Colonnello, in the 1680s and 1690s. The cupola and bell tower were added by Antonio Maria Ferri in 1698. The Granaio di Cosimo III in the adjacent Piazza Cestello, now a barracks, was built in 1695 to the designs of Giovanni Battista Foggini.

  VIA PORTA ROSSA and VIA POR SANTA MARIA commemorate gates which have disappeared. The site of the Porta di Giustizia, where gallows once stood, is now the Piazza Piave.

  18. Palazzo Davanzati, Via Porta Rossa, is also known as the Museo della Casa Fiorentina Antica.

  Palazzo Davanzati, interior courtyard

  19. The Mercato Vecchio was not only the geographical centre of Florence, it was also, by the Middle Ages, the commercial centre of the whole region. All kinds of comestibles were sold here, and there was a lively trade in wool as well as in the wares of the local artisans.

  Before their execution, criminals passed through the market, being compelled to pray before one of the largest tabernacles in the city, that of Santa Maria della Tromba, which was moved later to the ORSANMICHELE. In the early 1430s, the Commune commissioned Donatello to sculpt the market's symbol: Dovizia, or Abundance. Holding a cornucopia and a basket of fruit, she stood on an ancient Roman columnwhich towered over the market. A fresco from Vasari's workshop in the Salone della Gualdrada, in the PALAZZO DELLA SIGNORIA, shows her in situ.

  The Mercato Vecchio, the church of San Tommaso, and the neighbouring GHETTO were all demolished in the nineteenth century to make way for the PIAZZA DELLA REPUBBLICA. Architectural fragments salvaged can be seen in the museum of SAN MARCO.

  20. The figure on the top of the Colonna dell'Abbondanza, which replaced Donatello's, is a copy of a statue by Giovanni Battista Foggini. There is another column of Abundance in the BOBOLI GARDENS above the Neptune Pond. It was intended that this should be erected in the Piazza San Marco with a statue of the Grand Duchess Giovanna of Austria on the top. The column broke and the statue, which had been started by Giambologna, was transformed into Dovizia by Pietro Tacca.

  CHAPTER 6 (pages 61–73)

  1. The equestrian mural of Sir John Hawkwood in the DUOMO is by Paolo Uccello (1436).

  2. The number of palle on the Medici emblem was never fixed. Originally there were twelve; but there were usually seven in Cosimo il Vecchio's time, though there are only six at the corners of Verrocchio's roundel in the chancel of SAN LORENZO. There are eight on the ceiling of the Old Sacristy at San Lorenzo, five on Duke Cosimo's tomb in the CAPPELLA DEI PRINCIPI and six on the Grand Duke Ferdinando's arms on the entrance to the FORTE DI BELVEDERE.

  3. The palace now known as Palazzo Capponi delle Rovinate, No. 36 Via de' Bardi, was built for Niccolò da Uzzano about 1420. It was afterwards acquired by the Capponi family, still its owners. It houses their private art collection, which includes works by Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto and Sustermans. Palazzo Capponi, No. 26 Via Gino Capponi, was the home of the nineteenth-century statesman after whom the street in which it stands was named. This palazzo was built in 1698–1713 by Carlo Fontana. Palazzo Capponi, No. 1 Lungarno Guicciardini, has a salone frescoed by Bernardino Poccetti in 1583. Neri Capponi's sarcophagus in SANTA SPIRITO is by Bernardo Rossellino.

  The Capponi family chapel, attributed to Bru-nelleschi, is in SANTA FELICITA.

  4. Borgo degli Albizzi extends from VIA DEL PROCONSOLO to Piazza San Pier Maggiore. The graffiti on Palazzo Matteucci Ramirez di Mon-talvo (No. 26), few bits of which now remain, have been attributed to Bernardino Poccetti. The fifteenth-century Palazzo Altoviti (dei Visacci) at No. 18 was enlarged towards the end of the next century. The fifteen figures of famous Florentines on the façade are by Giambattista Caccini. Canova had his studio at Palazzo degli Alessandri, No. 15. PALAZZO NONFINITO is on the corner of Via del Proconsolo opposite PALAZZO PAZZI-QUARATESI. PALAZZO DEGLI ALBIZZI is at No. 12.

  CHAPTER 7 (pages 74–91)

  1. The North Doors of the BAPTISTERY, with scenes from the life of Christ, the Four Evangelists and Four Fathers of the Church, have twenty-eight panels, like the South Doors. A self-portrait of the artist, with a turban-like cloth wrapped round his, can be seen on the left

  San Lorenzo

  door, the fifth head from the top in the middle band. The bronze figures over the doorway are by Giovan Francesco Rustici, who may have been assisted by Leonardo da Vinci.

  2. The panels of the East Doors of the BAPISTERY are copies erected here in 1990. Four of the originals, having been restored, are now in the MUSEO DELL'OPERA. The surround is also by Ghiberti. The Paradise referred to by Michelangelo was probably not the place of Dante's Divina Commedia but the name of the courtyard which once led from the Baptistery to SANTA REPARATA. Ghiberti's self-portrait is on the left door, the fourth from the top in the second row from the left. The porphyry columns on either side of the east doors commemorate Florence's former friendship with Pisa. They were presented to the Florentines by the Pisans in 1117 in acknowledgement of help given against piratical raiders from the Balearic Islands.

  3. The Old Sacristy at SAN LORENZO was built by Brunelleschi in 1421–9. The roundels in the pendentives of the cupola, the bronze doors on either side of the chapel and the stucco reliefs over the doors are all by Donatello. The astrological mural in the cupola depicts the stellar configuration on 6 July 1439, the day upon which the successful outcome of the Council of Florence was announced in the DUOMO.

  In the middle of the sacristy is the table-like tomb slab of Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici and his wife. For the tomb of his grandsons, Piero and Giovanni, Verrocchio conceived a monu-ent that would also be visible from the transept by placing a bronze grille in the form of rope-work over the marble tomb inlaid with porphyry and serpentine. At the time of writing the chapel was closed ‘per atti vandilici’.

  4. The church of San Lorenzo overlooks the Piazza San Lorenzo with its busy street market and Baccio Bandinelli's seated statue of Giovanni delle Bande Nere. It was rebuilt in the second half of the eleventh century, and the present church was one of the very first to be
built in the new Renaissance style. Its harmony derives from Brunelleschi's use of simple geometric forms.

  The OLD SACRISTY was the first part of the church to be completed. After Brunelleschi's death in 1446 the rest of the church was finished by his biographer, Antonio Manetti, and Michelozzo. The NEW SACRISTY was added by Michelangelo to Brunelleschi's designs; while the CAPPELLA DEI PRINCIPI was begun in 1604 by Matteo Nigetti. The rough brick façade remains unfinished: Pope Leo X's invitation to Michelangelo to decorate it did not bear fruit, but his model survives in the CASA BUONARROTI. The first chapel in the south transept contains a Roman sarcophagus and a wooden crucifix by Antonio Pollaiuolo. The high altar is in pietre dure of the late eighteenth century. Under the dome Cosimo de' Medici's grave is marked by his family's emblem.

  The first chapel of the left transept contains a mid-fourteenth-century statue of the Virgin and Child, possibly by Alberto Arnoldi. In the chapel next to it is an altarpiece of Saints Anthony Abbot, Leonard and Julian by a follower of Domenico Ghirlandaio. In the second chapel in the right aisle is an altarpiece of the Marriage of the Virgin by Rosso Fiorentino. Just before the right transept is an outstanding marble tabernacle carved perspectively to give an illusion of deep recession by Desiderio da Settignano. Opposite are DONATELLO'S BRONZE PULPITS. The last chapel in the left transept is the Martelli Chapel with an Annunciation altarpiece by Fra Filippo Lippi. The predella depicts scenes from the life of St Nicholas of Bari, the name-saint of the donor, Niccolò Martelli, whose sarcophagus is here. There is also a monument to Donatello. In the left aisle, opposite Desiderio's tabernacle, is a fresco by Bronzino of the Martyrdom of St Lawrence. In the first chapel beyond this is a painting of Christ as a child in the carpenter's shop by Pietro Annigoni.