The House Of Medici

by Christopher Hibbert

  8. The monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli has now been absorbed by the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. The octagonal chapel known as the ROTONDA DI SANTA MARIA ANGELI in the Via degli Alfani was started in 1434 to designs by Brunelleschi.

  9. Tournaments were traditionally held in the PIAZZA SANTA CROCE where chariot races and the football game known as calcio were also played. A plaque dated 10 February 1565 marks the centre of the calcio field.

  10. It was Palla Strozzi who commissioned Gentile da Fabriano to paint the altarpiece, the Adoration of the Magi, for the chapel of Palla’s father, the CHAPEL OF ONOFRIO STROZZI in the church of Santa Trinità. The altarpiece, which contains portraits of various members of the Strozzi family, is now in the Uffizi. The STROZZI CHAPEL in the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella has an altarpiece by Andrea Orcagna and murals by Nardo di Cione. The Strozzi family villa of Poggio a Caiano was later acquired by Lorenzo il Magnifico.

  11. The VIA DE’ BARDI was almost entirely redeveloped by the Bardi family. Before they built their palace (which no longer exists) the street was a slum known as the Borgo Pigiglioso (the Fleapit). The fourteenth-century BARDI CHAPEL in the church of Santa Croce contains murals by Giotto and his assistants.

  12. Carlo di Cosimo de’ Medici was also a collector in a modest way. Roger van der Weyden’s Entombment, now in the Uffizi, was one of his pictures.

  CHAPTER III

  1. The medieval tower house of the ALBIZZI is in the Borgo degli Albizzi. The palazzo built by Rinaldo degli Albizzi no longer exists. PALAZZO ALTOVITI stands on its site at no. 88.

  2. Domenico Veneziano’s Saints Francis and John the Baptist from the Cavalcanti chapel is in the MUSEO DELL’ OPERA DI SANTA CROCE. The Cavalcanti Annunciation by Donatello is in the church of Santa Croce.

  3. The Studio Fiorentino has developed into the UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI. The present building near the Piazza San Marco was converted from the stables of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. The botanical gardens to the north, the GIARDINO DEI SEMPLICI, which face onto the Via Lamarmora, were laid out on Cosimo I’s instructions in the middle of the sixteenth century.

  4. IL TREBBIO stands at the top of a hill about a mile from Cafaggiolo where the Medici had owned property for generations. According to Vasari the original medieval fortress was altered for Cosimo by Michelozzo who made it less bleak by rebuilding the courtyard, adding the loggia and the covered passage round the ramparts and tower. It was sold by the Medici to Giuliano Serragli in 1644. In 1864 it passed into the hands of Prince Marcantonio Borghese and was later bought by Dott. Enrico Scaretti who restored it in the 1930s. His widow, Lord Gladwyn’s sister, is still living there at the time of writing.

  5. The PALAZZO GUADAGNI in Piazza Santo Spirito (nos. 7–9) was built for the Dei family in the early sixteenth century. Donato Guadagni bought it in 1684.

  6. The sixteenth-century PALAZZO PUCCI is in Via de’Pucci (nos. 2–4). The coat of-arms on the corner of Via de’ Servi is that of Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Pope Leo X. The Pucci paid for the loggia in Santissima Annunziata which was designed by Caccini and finished in 1601. The Pucci Chapel flanks the eastern wall of the Chiostrino dei Voti in Santissima Annunziata where Verrocchio’s now lost effigy of Lorenzo il Magnifico was displayed after his escape from assassination by the Pazzi. According to Vasari, Botticelli’s tondo, the Adoration of the Magi, now in the National Gallery, London, was commissioned by the Pucci.

  CHAPTER IV

  1. The library at San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice has been destroyed; but the dormitory may have been begun by Michelozzo whose influence is apparent in the design.

  2. The Acciaiuoli had several houses in the Borgo Santi Apostoli, including the PALAZZO DEGLI ACCIAIUOLI (nos. 3–10). Their palace on the Arno was destroyed in 1944 when the retreating Germans blew up the nearby bridge.

  3. The PALAZZO GUICCIARDINI is in the Via Guicciardini. Francesco Guicciardini wrote his History of Italy in the Villa Ravia in the Via di Santa Margherita a Montici (no. 75).

  4. The houses and palaces of the Peruzzi family were in the PIAZZA PERUZZI where several buildings bear the family emblem – pears. The PERUZZI CHAPEL in Santa Croce contains murals by Giotto and his assistants.

  5. The CAPPONI CHAPEL in the church of Santa Felicità was built for the Barbadori who made over their rights in it to the Capponi in 1525.

  6. The church of San Pier Scheraggio was pulled down to make way for the Uffizi.

  7. The MARTELLI CHAPEL is in the Basilica of San Lorenzo. It has an altarpiece by Fra Filippo Lippi.

  8. The VILLA OF CAREGGI was purchased in 1417 by Cosimo de’ Medici’s brother, Lorenzo. Michelozzo enlarged it for Cosimo, and Giuliano da Sangallo added the loggias on the south side for Lorenzo il Magnifico. It was looted and damaged by fire after the flight from Florence of Lorenzo’s son, Piero. Verrocchio’s David, his terracotta Resurrection (both now at the Bargello) and his fountain of a little boy holding a spouting fish (now at the Palazzo della Signoria) were all commissioned by the Medici for this villa. Restored by the Grand Duke Cosimo I, it subsequently fell into disrepair and was sold by the Medici’s successors to Count Vincenzo Orsi. It is now a hostel for staff of the Ospedale di Careggi.

  CHAPTER V

  1. Ficino’s villa is now known as LE FONTANELLE.

  2. Cosimo kept the MEDICI LIBRARY first at Careggi and later at the Medici Palace. Confiscated by the Signoria in 1494, when fines of as much as fifty florins were imposed on borrowers who did not return books immediately, it was transferred to San Marco at the suggestion of Savonarola. The library was bought back in 1508 by Pope Leo X who removed it to Rome. Returned to Florence by Clement VII, it was – in 1532 – placed in the building in the cloisters of San Lorenzo where it remains.

  3. Long supposed to have once been a Roman temple, the octagonal black-and-white BAPTISTERY OF ST JOHN was probably built in the twelfth century. The portal surround to Pisano’s bronze doors on the southern front are by Vittorio Ghiberti, Lorenzo’s son.

  4. Lorenzo Ghilberti’s BRONZE DOORS on the northern front show scenes from the life of Christ with the four Evangelists and four Church Fathers.

  5. The HOSPITAL OF SANTA MARIA NUOVA was founded in 1286 by Folco Portinari, the father of Dante’s Beatrice.

  6. Lorenzo Ghiberti’s GILDED BRONZE DOORS on the eastern front contain a self-portrait of the artist whose bald head can be seen poking out of a round aperture.

  7. The TOMB OF POPE JOHN XXIII in the Baptistery was designed by Donatello and, apart from the bronze effigy, made by Michelozzo.

  8. In the building of the OSPEDALE DEGLI INNOCENTI, which faces onto the Piazza Santissima Annunziata, Brunelleschi was helped by his assistant Francesco della Luna. The middle nine arches are theirs; the others were added in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The medallions of swaddled babies were made by Andrea della Robbia.

  9. The fourth-century basilica of SAN LORENZO had been replaced by another in the eleventh century. Brunelleschi’s early Renaissance masterpiece was begun in 1421. The old sacristy, where Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici was buried, was completed in 1429. Brunelleschi did not live to finish the work; and his death in 1446 led to outbursts of violent quarrelling between various Florentine craftsmen who wanted to take over its direction and who appealed to Cosimo to support their conflicting claims. Giovanni di Domenico and Antonio Manetti, under Cosimo’s personal direction, seem to have been largely responsible for finishing it.

  10. Brunelleschi’s carefully guarded secret was to provide a double cupola for the DOME OF SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE, the biggest in Europe, one dome inside another, each resting on a drum and bound together, the stones carefully dovetailing one into the next so that they were almost self-supporting.

  11. Ghiberti’s ST MATTHEW at Orsanmichele, which was made between 1419 and 1422, occupies the most northerly niche in the western wall. The bronze St John the Baptist and St Stephen are also by Ghiberti.

  12. The NOVICES’ CHAPEL was built about 14
45 by Michelozzo. The glazed terracotta altarpiece is from Andrea della Robbia’s studio. The Grand Duke Ferdinando II arranged for Galileo to be buried here in 1642.

  13. Also know as the Rotonda, the CHOIR OF SANTISSIMA ANNUNZIATA was started by Michelozzo in 1451 and finished by Alberti in the 1470s.

  14. The BADIA FIESOLANA at San Domenico di Fiesole was the cathedral of Fiesole until 1018. Rebuilding continued between 1456 and 1469 at Medici expense.

  15. Michelozzo was working at SAN MARCO for Cosimo from 1437 to 1444 when his library was finished. The double-chambered cell at the end of the corridor by the library is the one used by Cosimo. Savonarola’s cell is at the end of the western corridor.

  16. The Via Larga is now known as the Via Cavour. The church of SAN GIOVANNINO DEGLI SCOLOPI was rebuilt in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Bartolommeo Ammanati and by Giulio and Alfonso Parigi.

  17. The MEDICIPALACE was built between 1444 and 1460. The ‘kneeling windows’ on the Via de’ Gori front were subsequently replaced by flat, square bars of a more austere design. The iron rungs to be found on either side of these windows were intended for holding the staffs of banners or flambeaux and for tying up horses. The stone benches beneath them were provided not only for servants of visitors to the palace, but also for the convenience of any passers-by who might care to accept this modest offer of Medicean hospitality. According to the unreliable evidence of Giovanni Avogrado, the original palace had a polychrome façade of red, white and green. The building narrowly escaped destruction in 1527 when the Medici were forced to flee from Florence after the sack of Rome. Michelangelo, an enthusiastic republican, proposed that it should be razed and that a piazza, known as the Square of the Mules in allusion to the illegitimate birth of the Medici Pope, Clement VII, should be built on the site. It survived, however, to be taken over by the State for the Trustees of Minors until reverting to Medici possession on their return to Florence in 1550. It remained in the possession of the Medici until 1659 when the Grand Duke Ferdinando II sold it to Marchese Gabrielle Riccardi. (The palace was much enlarged by the Riccardi who added another seven to the ten windows of the upper floors.) Purchased by the government of the Grand Duchy in 1814, it is now known as the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi and serves as the Prefecture.

  18. Permission to attach these large spiked lamps to the walls of a palace had to be obtained from the government. Niccolò Grosso was given his nickname because he always insisted on payment in advance. Caparra means pledge.

  19. CAFAGGIOLO was more like a fortress than a villa. Vasari described it as having ‘all the requisites of a distinguished country house’ with a pleasant garden, groves and fountains. But its high towers and battlemented arches were surrounded by a moat crossed by a drawbridge. It was bought, together with Il Trebbio, by Prince Borghese who had the central tower pulled down and the moat filled in. It now presents a rather desolate appearance and the garden has been taken over by dandelions and chickens.

  20. The VILLA MEDICI – formerly BELCANTO – originally belonged to the Bardi. The reconstruction carried out for Giovanni de’ Medici was finished in 1461. Sold by the Grand Duke Cosimo III in 1671, it was renovated in the 1770s for Horace Walpole’s sister-in-law, the Countess of Orford; and in the nineteenth century was bought by the English painter and collector, William Blundell Spence, when it became known as the Villa Spence. More recently it belonged to Lady Sybil Cutting whose daughter, Marchesa Iris Origo, was brought up there.

  CHAPTER VII

  1. DONATELLO’S David (c. 1430) is now in the Bargello. On its confiscation by the Grand Council after the expulsion of Piero de Medici in 1494 orders were given for it to be erected on a column in the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria.

  2. DONATELLO’S Judith Slaying Holofernes (c. 1460) was removed from the Medici Palace by order of the Signoria after the flight of the Medici in 1494. It was set up on the ringhiera at the Palazzo della Signoria – it now stands in front of the Palazzo – with an inscription on its base to the effect that it had been placed there as a warning to all tyrants: ‘Exemplum.Sal[utis].Pub[licae].Cives.Pos[uere]. MCCCCXCV’. The original inscription read: ‘Kingdoms fall through luxury. Cities rise through virtue. Behold the head of pride severed by humility. Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici dedicates the statue of this woman to the liberty and fortitude bestowed on the Republic by the invincible and constant spirit of its citizens.’

  3. Most of SANTA MARIA DEL CARMINE was destroyed by fire in the eighteenth century when it was rebuilt by Giuseppe Ruggieri and Giulio Mannaioni. The Brancacci chapel was, however, spared by the fire. The cycle of murals by Masaccio and Masolino was completed by Fra Filippo Lippi’s son, Filippino Lippi.

  4. FILIPPO LIPPI’s Coronation of the Virgins is now in the Museo dell’ Accademia (Via Ricasoli, 52).

  5. FRA ANGELICO’s Crucifixion is in the Chapter Room at San Marco on the opposite side of the cloister from the San Marco Museum which contains the high alter of San Marco with Cosimo’s patron saints, Cosmas and Damian, shown kneeling on a carpet.

  6. All the CELLS AT SAN MARCO are decorated by Fra Angelico and his assistants. Fra Angelico’s Annunciation is at the top of the stairs to the dormitory corridor.

  7. Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici’s sarcophagus in the OLD SACRISTY AT SAN LORENZO is by Andrea Cavalcanti Buggiano. It is placed beneath a marble table on which are the seven red balls of the Medici emblem.

  8. COSIMO’S MARBLE MEMORIAL in the chancel at San Lorenzo, the only memorial ever to be placed here, was designed by Verrocchio. The inscription reads:

  Cosmus Medices

  Hic situs est

  Decreto Publico

  Pater Patriae

  Vixit

  Annos LXXV Menses III Dies XX

  CHAPTER VIII

  1. In GHIRLANDAIO’S MURALS in the Cappella Maggiore at Santa Maria Novella, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, sister of the donor, Giovanni Tornabuoni, is represented as the third female figure on the right in the Birth of the Baptist.

  2. The TABERNACLE OF THE CRUCIFIX in San Miniato al Monte was built for the crucifix of San Giovanni Gualberto, whose chapel, designed by Caccini, is in Santa Trinità. The Guild of the Calimala, which was responsible for the maintenance and ornamentation of San Miniato al Monte, gave permission for the tabernacle to be built provided that the guild’s coat-of-arms was the only one displayed on it. Piero de’ Medici, however, insisted that his own arms – a falcon holding the Medici diamond ring with the motto ‘semper’ and three feathers – should also be displayed; and so they were.

  3. The TABERNACLE OF SANTISSIMA ANNUNZIATA was made in about 1450. Like the tabernacle in San Miniato al Monte it was designed for Piero de’ Medici, probably by Michelozzo.

  4. LUCA DELLA ROBBIA’S SINGING-GALLERY is now in the Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo (Piazza del Duomo, 9). Donatello’s gallery is also here. They were both removed from the Cathedral in 1688 to make room for more singers at the wedding of Prince Ferdinand to Princess Violante Beatrice.

  5. Work on the CAMPANILE began in the 1330s when Giotto was Capomaestro of the Cathedral works. Luca della Robbia’s reliefs were done in the 1430s.

  6. Part of LUCA DELLA ROBBIA’S GLAZED TERRACOTTA decorations made for Piero de’ Medici’s study are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

  7. The three panels of UCCELLO’S Rout of San Romano have been dispersed. One is in the Uffizi, another in the Louvre, the third in the National Gallery, London. The Florentine commander pictured in the National Gallery panel is Niccolò da Tolentino, the subject of the marvellous cenotaph memorial by Andrea del Castagno in the Duomo. The cenotaph next to it in the Duomo, a memorial to the English condottiere, John Hawkwood, is by Uccello.

  8. POLLAIUOLO’s Labours of Hercules are in the Uffizi. His Hercules and Antaeus is in the Bargello.

  9. BOTTICELLI’s Madonna of the Magnificat is in the Uffizi.

  10. BOTTICELI’s Adoration of the Magi was painted as an altarpiece for Santa Maria Novella and is now in
the Uffizi. According to Giorgio Vasari, the King holding out his hands towards the Holy Child’s feet is Cosimo; the kneeling figure in the white robe is Giuliano, Lorenzo’s brother; and the man behind him, ‘shown gratefully adoring the child’, is Cosimo’s second son, Giovanni. The man on his knees in the centre foreground has been identified as Piero de’ Medici; and the man on the extreme right in the saffron gown as Botticelli himself. The figure in the black gown with a red stripe down the shoulder may be an idealized portrait of Lorenzo il Magnifico.

  11. BOTTICELLI’s Fortitude is in the Uffizi.

  12. FILIPPO LIPPI’s The Virgin Adoring the Child was removed from the Medici Chapel in 1814 and is now in Berlin. The painting at present in the chapel is a copy by Neri di Bicci.

  13. GENTILE DA FABRIANO’s Adoration of the Magi is now in the Uffizi.

  14. The pretty young man in blue near the front of the procession riding a prancing horse on which also sits a leopard is usually identified as Giuliano de’ Medici, though it has been suggested that Gozzoli may have intended by way of a pleasant joke to represent the fearsome and cruel Castruccio Castracani degli Antelminelli, lord of Lucca, Florence’s most powerful enemy in the fourteenth century. The leopard was the symbol of the Castracani. In accordance with the custom of his time Gozzoli, of course, made little attempt to portray accurate likenesses being content to represent the people in his pictures by symbols and details immediately recognizable by their contemporaries.

  15. VERROCCHIO’S TOMB FOR PIERO AND GIOVANNI in the old sacristy at San Lorenzo, a magnificent structure of serpentine, bronze, porphyry and marble, was finished in 1473.

  CHAPTER IX

  1. The RIDOLFI were shortly to build the palazzo on the corner of Via Maggio – now known as the Via Maggiore – and Via Mazzetta. It is now known as the Casa Guidi. This is where Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in 1861.