Portrait of Bia de' Medici
Painting by Bronzino
The Portrait of Bia de' Medici is a tempera on wood painting by the Italian Mannerist painter Agnolo Bronzino, dating to around 1542 and now in the Uffizi in Florence. For a long time it was displayed in the Tribuna at the heart of the museum, but since 2012 it has been moved to the "sale rosse" of the Nuovi Uffizi. A second portrait, by Pontormo, has also been argued to show Bia de' Medici, but this identification is disputed.
Description.
After her death, many art historians believe her father commissioned a posthumous painting of his illegitimate daughter by Agnolo Bronzino, which often is regarded as one of his finest works. The work is and was painted in tempera on wood. The painting is on display in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.
Bronzino shows the child half-length and sitting on a chair, similar to the pose in his "Portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi" – a rigid official pose offset by some hints of hand movement, as if the character was about to get up, along with an intense but emotionless gaze straight at the viewer. The face is lit and highlighted by the blue background, whilst the cold light and absence of any strong chiaroscuro effect accentuates the smoothness of the subject's complexion and idealises her features.
Bia has her hair parted in the middle of her forehead and a falling bob, with two carefully tied braids framing the face. She wears pearl earrings, a gold chain with a pendant or medallion with her father's profile on it, emphasizing her bond with her father. The medallions portrait of her father is modeled after a portrait of Cosimo by Pontormo and then made into a medallion by Domenico di Poli. The appearance of the medallion in the portrait helped to identify the subject as a daughter of Cosimo.
She also wears a sumptuous dress, made of blue satin with puffy sleeves, produced in the silk factories Cosimo was setting up in Florence at the time. With her right hand she is fiddling with the end or tassel of a golden chain or belt around her waist.
The portrait would have hung in the family's private rooms as a reminder to them of the dead child and an inspiration and guide on the path to salvation. As art historian Gabrielle Langdon argues, Bronzino painted the child with a halo effect, in "light-emitting white satin and pearls" as a metaphor for both her purported name "Bianca," which means "white" and her childish innocence. "Like (Petrarch's) 'Laura,' the posthumous "Bia" is a riveting emanation from Heaven who bestows purifying grace on the beholder," Langdon wrote in the 2004 collection "The Cultural World of Eleanora Di Toledo".
Identification.
Until 1893 it was thought to represent Maria de' Medici, the younger legitimate sister of Bia and that the name "Bia" was a contraction or nickname of Maria. This was until the Italian painter, restorer and art historian Cosimo Conti found archival evidence for the existence for a daughter of Cosimos by the name of Bia.
Some other researchers like Maike Vogt-Lüerssen however argues the viewpoint held previously that the portrait actually depicts Bia's younger, legitimate half sister, Maria de' Medici. Vogt-Lüerssen says in an article in "Medicea – Rivista interdisciplinare di studi medicei" that the subject of the portrait was identified as Maria until the 1950s and the pearls depicted in the portrait were a common symbol of the Medicis, often worn by legitimate female members of the house. Such pearl necklaces were a common fashionable accessory for women of the Italian nobility.
Vogt-Lüerssen believes that the child depicted in a famous portrait by Pontormo with Maria Salviati is actually Bia, her eldest granddaughter, because group portraits in that era depicted family members with close blood relationships and Salviati's two younger granddaughters, Maria and Isabella, were too young at Salviati's death to be the 5- or 6-year-old girl in the portrait.
Other equally credible identifications for the child in the Pontormo painting have also been put forth, such as Giulia de' Medici, the daughter of Cosimo de Medicis predecessor. After her father Alessandro de' Medicis assassination his daughter was put in the care of Maria Salviati.
Influence.
Regardless of which Medici daughter it depicts, the painting has continued to inspire modern artists. American sculptor Joseph Cornell's 1948 sculpture "Medici Princess" incorporates Bronzino's portrait of the girl. The sculpture, one of a series depicting members of the Medici family, shows an enameled reproduction of Bronzino's portrait in a dark wooden box, behind a blurred, deep blue glass pane. On either side of the main portrait are smaller vignette reproductions of the same portrait, behind glass as well. Below the girl's image, in a pull-out drawer, are a feather and a floor plan of the palace in Florence that was once her home. The sculpture, which is owned by a private collector, was on display during a recent retrospective of Cornell's work originating with the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Isabella de Borchgrave recreated Bia de Medici in paper.
The portrait of Bia has also been recreated (wearing a scuba diving mask) by the street artist Blub in Lerici and Ravenna.
Bia de' Medici.
Bia de' Medici, (c. 1536 – 1 March 1542) was the illegitimate daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, born before his first marriage.
The identity of Bia's mother is not known, but Cosimo I was likely no older than sixteen when he fathered her. According to Edgcumbe Staley's "The Tragedies of the Medici", some stories said the girl's mother was a village girl from Trebbio, where the Medicis had built one of their first villas, while others said she was a gentlewoman from Florence. Only Cosimo I and the girl's paternal grandmother, Maria Salviati, knew the identity of the girl's mother, but Salviati refused to reveal it, though she did acknowledge Bia was the daughter of Cosimo.
Staley wrote that the little girl was called La Bia, short for "Bambina" ("little girl" or "baby"). The name might also have been short for Bianca or perhaps a classical name, deriving from Pallas' daughter. Staley wrote that her father's new wife, Eleonora di Toledo, refused to tolerate her presence in the palace after their marriage, so Cosimo sent her off to the Villa di Castello, her paternal grandmother's chief residence north of Florence. However, other more reliable reports indicate that her stepmother "brought her up very lovingly." Her paternal grandmother supervised the nurseries for all of the children of Cosimo I. All of them, not only Cosimo's illegitimate daughter, spent most of their time at the Villa di Castello and were raised by nurses, with minimal day-to-day contact with their parents, though both Cosimo and Eleonora heard reports of their progress and offered directions for their education, their living arrangements, and the clothing they wore. Bia shared her nursery with Giulia de' Medici, the illegitimate daughter of Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, who was close to her in age. She grew into a high-spirited, loving little girl who kept her grandmother and nurses entertained with her antics. Bia's father adored his first-born child, and her paternal grandmother, Maria Salviati, said the little girl "was the comfort of our court, being so very affectionate."
Both Bia and her cousin Giulia contracted a fast-moving fever in February 1542, from which Giulia recovered but Bia did not. Cosimo I received almost daily reports of Bia's worsening condition from his mother, Maria Salviati. The child grew weaker between 25 February and 28 February and finally died on 1 March 1542. She was buried in the Medici family crypt in San Lorenzo.
When her legitimate half-sister Isabella de' Medici was born six months after her death, her father rejoiced to have another daughter. Contemporaries who might normally have consoled him on his wife's failure to present him with a second son instead congratulated him on her birth, knowing how he had grieved for the loss of Bia. "(I) congratulate you on the beautiful baby girl God has conceded to you in recompense for the one he has taken to join him in paradise," wrote Paolo Giovio after the birth of Isabella. A comparison of portraits of Bia and Isabella reveal that, had she lived past early childhood, Bia likely would have closely resembled her half-sister Isabella, who shared her reddish-blonde hair, brown eyes, and dainty features.
Pontormo painting.
In a portrait by Pontormo, the child's identification, according to the Walters Art Museum and scholarship sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities is likely to be Giulia de' Medici. However, Maike Vogt-Lüerssen argues in an article in "Medicea – Rivista interdisciplinare di studi medicei" that the child in the portrait with Maria Salviati is actually Salviati's granddaughter Bia de' Medici. She believes that the child does not resemble the known portrait of an adult Giulia de' Medici and that the relationship between Maria Salviati and Giulia was not close enough to have warranted a portrait. Most group portraits were of family members with close blood ties.
Some art historians once identified the child as a young Cosimo I de' Medici, but it is now generally accepted to be Giulia. The child in the portrait appears to be a little girl, rather than a boy, and her expression is anxious. Maria Salviati, who is dressed soberly as befitted a widow, is seen sheltering the vulnerable child against her side. Art historian Gabrielle Langdon argues that the girl's demeanor in the portrait is different than would have been expected for the child Cosimo, whose family anticipated his role as a strong leader from his earliest days. It would have been to Cosimo I's advantage to commission a portrait depicting his mother as an exemplary widow, affectionately bringing up the orphaned daughter of Cosimo I's predecessor. The child's full lips, round nose, and curly reddish hair also bear little resemblance to known portraits of Cosimo as a child, though they do to portraits of the young Alessandro. Other girls of about the right age who were at court during this period also do not resemble the child in the portrait. The portrait might be one of the first in Renaissance-era Europe of a girl of presumed African and European ancestry. This painting is in the permanent collection of The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
The portrait has also been identified with other women, such as Isabella or Maria.

Uffizi
Art museum in Florence, Italy
The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
After the ruling House of Medici died out, their art collections were given to the city of Florence under the famous "Patto di famiglia" negotiated by Anna Maria Luisa, the last Medici heiress. The Uffizi is one of the first modern museums. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1769 it was officially opened to the public, formally becoming a museum in 1865.
History.
The building of the Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de' Medici as a means to consolidate his administrative control of the various committees, agencies, and guilds established in Florence's Republican past so as to accommodate them all in one place, hence the name , "offices". The construction was later continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti; it was completed in 1581. The top floor was made into a gallery for the family and their guests and included their collection of Roman sculptures.
The "cortile" (internal courtyard) is so long, narrow, and open to the Arno at its far end through a Doric screen that articulates the space without blocking it, that architectural historians treat it as the first regularized streetscape of Europe. Vasari, a painter, and architect as well, emphasized its perspective length by adorning it with the matching facades' continuous roof cornices, and unbroken cornices between storeys, as well as the three continuous steps on which the museum fronts stand. The niches in the piers that alternate with columns of the Loggiato are filled with sculptures of famous artists in the 19th century.
The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive. The project was intended to display prime artworks of the Medici collections on the piano nobile; the plan was carried out by his son, Grand Duke Francesco I. He commissioned the architect Buontalenti to design the Tribuna degli Uffizi that would display a series of masterpieces in one room, including jewels; it became a highly influential attraction of a Grand Tour. The octagonal room was completed in 1584.
Over the years, more sections of the building were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculptures collected or commissioned by the Medici. For many years, 45 to 50 rooms were used to display paintings from the 13th to 18th century.
Modern times.
Because of its vast collection, some of the Uffizi's works have in the past been transferred to other museums in Florence—for example, some famous statues to the Bargello. A project was finished in 2006 to expand the museum's exhibition space some 6,000 metres2 (64,000 ft2) to almost 13,000 metres2 (139,000 ft2), allowing public viewing of many artworks that had usually been in storage.
The Nuovi Uffizi (New Uffizi) renovation project which started in 1989 was progressing well from 2015 to 2017. It was intended to modernize all of the halls and more than double the display space. A new exit was also planned and the lighting, air conditioning and security systems were updated. During construction, the museum remained open, although rooms were closed as necessary with the artwork temporarily moved to another location. For example, the Botticelli rooms and two others with early Renaissance paintings were closed for 15 months but reopened in October 2016.
Over two million visitors visited the Uffizi in 2016, making it the most visited art gallery in Italy. At peak periods (particularly in July), waiting times for entry can be up to five hours. Advance tickets can be bought online, to significantly reduce the waiting time. In 2018 a revised ticketing system was introduced to reduce queuing times to just minutes.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum was closed for 150 days in 2020, and attendance plunged by 72 percent to 659,043. Nonetheless, the Uffizi was twenty-seventh in the list of most-visited art museums in the world in 2020. Works from the Uffizi gallery collection are now available for remote viewing on Google Arts and Culture. The museum reopened in May 2021 following a renovation that included an addition of 14 new rooms and a display of additional 129 artworks, with the museum attempting to give more voice to historically under-represented groups including women and people of color.
Incidents.
On 27 May 1993, the Sicilian Mafia carried out a car bomb explosion in Via dei Georgofili which damaged parts of the palace and killed five people. The blast destroyed five pieces of art and damaged another 30. Some of the paintings were fully protected by bulletproof glass. The most severe damage was to the Niobe room and classical sculptures and neoclassical interior, which have since been restored, although its frescoes were damaged beyond repair.
On 22 July 2022, members of the climate activist group Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) glued themselves to the glass protecting Sandro Botticelli's "Primavera" demanding an end to fossil fuel usage. The painting was undamaged.
On 13 February 2024, members of Ultima Generazione glued images of flooding in Tuscany in 2023 to the glass protecting Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" in protest over the Italian government's inaction on climate change. The painting was undamaged and the images were removed.
Key works.
The collection also contains some ancient sculptures, such as the "Arrotino", the "Two Wrestlers", "Venus de' Medici", and the "Bust of Severus Giovanni".
References.
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Portrait of Carlo de' Medici
Painting by Andrea Mantegna
The Portrait of Carlo de' Medici is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna, executed in 1466. It is now housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence.
History.
Little is known about the painting's origins, and currently the most credited hypothesis is that it would portray Carlo de' Medici, an illegitimate son of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder and a Circassian concubine, as hinted by the subject's intense blue eyes. In 1912 a copy of the portrait was included in a genealogy of the House of Medici. This is however in contrast with the identification of Carlo as a character in Filippino Lippi's "Stories of St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist" in the Cathedral of Prato. Also the attribution to Mantegna was not immediate, as for a long time the painting was thought to be by Domenico Veneziano.
The work has been dated from 1459–1460, when Mantegna arrived in Mantua and was commissioned numerous official portraits (the subject has been also identified as Ludovico Gonzaga, bishop of Mantua), and 1466, when the painter perhaps travelled to Florence.
Description.
The painting shows the subject from a three-quarter view, an innovation brought in Italy through Flemish masters in the late 15th century; previously profiles, in the ancient Roman tradition, were preferred.
The subject is tan-skinned with intense blue eyes and wears the garments of a protonotary apostolic, a position which Carlo held from 1463. The official nature of the painting explains the absence of any psychological element and the attention to details such as the dress and the hat.
Sources.
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Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici (Botticelli, Berlin)
Painting by Sandro Botticelli
The Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici is a painting of Giuliano de' Medici (1453–1478) by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, probably painted soon before Giuliano was assassinated in the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478. It belongs to the Berlin State Museums, and is in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.
It is believed to be the earliest of a number of versions by Botticelli.
Giuliano de' Medici was murdered in 1478 at the age of 25 during the Pazzi conspiracy in the Florence Cathedral or Duomo di Firenze. The Pazzi were rivals to the Medici. Giuliano de' Medici was the younger brother of Lorenzo il Magnifico. Other versions of this Sandro Botticelli portrait are in the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Italy and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
References.
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Palazzo Malvezzi de' Medici
The Palazzo Malvezzi de' Medici is a Renaissance-style palace located on Via Zamboni #13 in central Bologna, Italy. The palace now houses the offices of the Provincial Administration.
History.
Construction of the palace was commissioned in 1560 by the widow of Giovanni di Bartolomeo Malvezzi, Paola di Antonio Maria Campeggi; the design was by Bartolomeo Triachini. The facade rises on the narrow street of San Donato.
In 1725 the Marquis Giuseppe Maria Malvezzi de' Medici (1670–1736) commissioned the design of the scenic staircase from Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena and construction completed by Alfonso Torreggiani. In the mid-nineteenth century, Giovanni Malvezzi (1819–1892), refurbished the palace under the direction of Francesco Cocchi. In 1931 the building was sold by Aldobrandino Malvezzi (1881–1961), professor at the University of Florence, to the Province of Bologna.
Interiors.
The rooms of the main floor maintain much of Cocchi's 19th-century wall decor.
The "Sala dello Zodiaco" has ceiling frescoes of the zodiac. The room also exhibits the "Martyrdom of Saint Eufemia" by Gabriele Ferrantini, a "Martyrdom of St Ursula" by Giacinto Campana, and a "St Peter" and a "St Paul", both 19th-century copies by Andrea Bèsteghi of 17th-century originals by Bartolomeo Cesi.
The "Anticamera della sala Consiglio" has ceilings frescoed with Minerva and Apollo with the Muses. The Sala di Giunta has ceilings frescoed by Cocchi and two wall canvases respectively depicting Marco Minghetti and Andrea Costa.
The "Sala Rosa" or "degli Amori" has a ceiling frescoed by Girolamo Dalpane with scenes from the "Decameron". Four images depict images of famous writers and their respective muses: Tasso and Eleonora; Boccaccio and Fiammetta; Dante and Beatrice; and Petrarch and Laura. In eight ovals are depicted with famous women from Italian history: Giulia Gonzaga, Violante Giustiniani, Ginevra Bentivoglio, Beatrice degli Obizzi, Vittoria Colonna, Maria di Monferrato, Bianca Sforza, and Maria d'Aragona.
The "Sala Verde" has a ceiling depicting "Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne". The walls have two portraits by Carlo Berti Pichat and a copy of Guido Reni's "Joseph and the Wife of Potiphar".
References.
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Portrait of Ippolito de' Medici
Painting by Titian
The Portrait of Ippolito de' Medici is an oil on canvas portrait of Ippolito de' Medici by Titian, from 1532–1533. It is held now in the Palazzo Pitti, in Florence. He appears dressed in a Hungarian outfit.
History and description.
Ippolito de' Medici, son of Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, and nephew of Pope Clement VII, was appointed a cardinal at the age of 18, but as he matured he realized that he was more inclined to war than to Church affairs. This is evident in the current portrait that Titian painted of him in 1533, possibly in Bologna, as reported by Giorgio Vasari, or in Venice, as a source found in 2000 would testify.
The protagonist appears dressed as a Hungarian horseman, in memory of his exploits in Vienna during the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529 and during the liberation of Hungary, when he was in command of four thousand musketeers. From Vasari it is also known that Ippolito had a second and smaller portrait of himself made by Titian, in armor, which didn't survive.
Against a dark background, the extraordinary accords of dark reds, purples and amaranths highlight the perfectly illuminated face, where the expression of Ippolito seems to have something of confidence and cruelty, suitable for a young leader. With a warlike attitude, he holds the baton of command, while his left hand rests on the hilt of his sword.
The portrait was used as a model for various printed reproductions. Since 1716 it has been registered at Pitti, where it passed through various rooms before arriving at the Mars room, where it still hangs.
References.
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Villa di Poggio a Caiano
The Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano, also called Ambra, is one of the most famous Medici villas and is located in Poggio a Caiano (Prato). Today it is state owned and it houses two museums: one of the historic apartments (ground floor and first floor) and the Museum of Still Life (second floor).
The villa is perhaps the best example of architecture commissioned by Lorenzo il Magnifico, in this case to Giuliano da Sangallo towards 1480. It is no coincidence that this is a private building, where there are elements that later modeled for the future developments of the type of villas: internal and external penetration through filters such as loggias, symmetrical distribution of environments around a central salon ("Centrifugal" space), dominant position in the landscape, conscious recovery of classical architectural elements (such as the barrel vault and the ionic temple façade).
History.
Fifteenth Century.
The villa is located in the middle of a hilltop, the last offshoot of the Montalbano mountains, in a strategic position, lying on the promontory towards the Ombrone river and the plain and dominating the road between Florence and Pistoia, which overwhelms the small heights here.
It was built by Lorenzo de' Medici after buying a rustic farm from Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, who in turn had bought what was then a simple fortress from Palla Strozzi, built by the [Cancellieri family of Pistoia at the beginning of the fifteenth century.
After a period of intensive land acquisition by the Medici family, in the area of Poggio a Caiano and also on the other bank of the Ombrone river, at Tavola, between 1470 and 1474, Lorenzo commissioned Giuliano da Sangallo to build a villa that became the prototype of the country's noble residences in the following centuries. In fact, Lorenzo, through his favorite architect, was among the first to conceive of an agrarian space in which the territory was ordered and shaped according to the requirements of harmony. At that time it began to set the idea of the villa-fortress (like the Villa Medici at Careggi, more like a castle made only thirty years ago by Michelozzo for Cosimo the Elder, the grandfather of Lorenzo). This new aptitude was due to political issues, thanks to the period of peace and stability reached by Lorenzo's politics, and philosophical, according to the humanists.
Among the innovations of the era, the porch was placed on the ground floor (almost an interconnected area between the surrounding landscape and the villa), the classic porch and pediment on the piano nobile and the lack of a central courtyard. Gradually the villa was enriched with works in a 'continuum' between architecture, painting and sculpture. The fresco of Filippino Lippi dates back to the period under the loggia on the first floor and perhaps the glazed majolica pediment attributed to Andrea Sansovino (some historians refer to a second phase of construction).
Giuliano da Sangallo designed another building within the estate: It is a square and bastioned structure at the central court, called "Cascine" located on the other shore of the Umbrella and which, as a center of agricultural activity, built before the villa, was its ideal counterweight in the overall territorial design.
At the death of Lorenzo in 1492 the work at the villa was still largely unfinished and was halted between 1495 and 1513 because of the exile of the Medici from Florence. The villa was complete only for a third, the base (Ttura) with the already complete porch and the floor planks on the first floor of the vault covering the central salon.
Sixteenth Century.
Between 1513 and 1520, after the return of the Medici, the works were completed on the initiative of the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Giovanni, who had in the meantime became Pope Leo X. Giuliano da Sangallo, now an old man, was able to follow the work only occasionally and until 1516, the year of his death. However, the works continued according to his plan, probably also documented by a wooden model. The vault of the central hall on the first floor was made with the papal coat of arms (which was then referred to as "Leo X's Lion"), under the direction of Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini and Franciabigio. From the beginning, the large barrel vault had caused concern to the buyers, who feared a collapse. This fear was allayed by Sebastiano Ximenes because of the work on his own Palazzo Ximenes da Sangallo in Florence.
Already in Leo X's day, the frescoes of the salon were started by the greatest Florentine masters of the time: Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto and Franciabigio himself. The paintings were completed some fifty years later by Alessandro Allori, with a rethinking of the original project in a more monumental key, giving more space to the figures than to painted architectures.
The villa was the place where foreign brides of the family members in Florence were welcomed. Here, among other events, were the weddings of Alessandro de' Medici and Margaret of Austria (1536), between Cosimo I and Eleanor of Toledo (1539), Francesco I and Bianca Cappello, already his lover (1579). Bianca and Francesco also found death in this villa, for causes not fully clarified and suspected of poisoning.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century.
In 1661 Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, cousin of Louis XIV and wife of Cosimo III came to Florence. The princess, profoundly different from Cosimo's dark and ultra-religious character, and at odds with the Grand Duke's mother Vittoria della Rovere, was never happy in her marriage or in Tuscany. She wanted to return to France, and after years of strife went to live at Poggio a Caiano in 1672 or 1673, under guard to prevent her leaving for France. In order to alleviate the "captivity", in addition to the follow-up of some 150 people, Cosimo III built the theater on the ground floor. Marguerite Louise lived at the villa before returning permanently to France in 1675.
There were often comedies in the theatrical theater and here he had assembled a unique collection called the "Cabinet of Works in Small of All The Most Famous Painters". It was a picture gallery set in a single room of the villa, which contained 174 paintings of as many different painters, the largest of which measured 100x75 cm, and which included works by some of the most important artists, Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Rubens and so on. Today it is no longer present, because it was dispersed in 1773 by Leopold I. The Cabinet Room was frescoed by Sebastiano Ricci with an "Allegory of the Arts", but this work has also been lost in subsequent renovations. The monumental organ of the Roman Lorenzo Testa (1703), already in Palazzo Pitti and today in the theater, is the result of Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany's deep interest in music.
The necessary maintenance work and periodic restoration were carried out, though, according to their economic strategy, they intended to resize their landholdings: they began to no longer use some villas (such as the Ambrogiana and Lappeggi), bringing the furnishings into Palazzo Pitti and the surviving residences. Poggio a Caiano did not suffer this fate, and only a few furnishings testify to that period, such as the small wooden chest of drawers with inlays depicting views and landscapes. The architectsGiuseppe and Giovan Battista Ruggeri cared for a general restoration, with the renovation of the theater and the affixing of a clock on the façade.
At the time of Ferdinand III of Tuscany, the park in front of the villa was equipped with some fun facilities: a "flying arcana", a swing, a "donkey rider" and a "carousel of horses", which are still stored today by the museum.
Nineteenth Century.
Concerts held at the theater of the villa included Giovanni Paisello, Etienne Nicolas Méhul and Gaspare Spontini. The frescoes of neoclassical Luigi Catani are in this hallway in the entrance hall on the first floor and in seventeen rooms of the villa, to which various guided artists collaborated Always from Catani.
Commissioned by Elisa Bonaparte in 1811, Giuseppe Manetti designed new English Gardens, featuring irregular avenues, a pond, and small neoclassical pavilions, such as a conical glacier and a temple of Diana. The project was only completed later and partially.
With the restoration (1819) repairs and restoration work continued (especially in the garden where the lemonaia was built, solemn work by Pasquale Poccianti, and English park was completed.
In the 1828 the sundials were arranged on the sides of the building. While following the unification of Italy the interior of the villa was updated with fine furnishings from the royal palaces of Modena, Piacenza, Parma, Turin, Lucca and Bologna and used as a residence by the House of Savoy.
20th Century and Contemporary Era.
During the Second World War, the villa was used as a haven from bombing for important works of art from all over Tuscany, such as the statues of Michelangelo or Monument of the Four Moors of Livorno, etc. In addition, during the Allied invasion of Italy, the villa was used as a shelter for the displaced population, who took refuge in the large underground basements and tunnels.
In 1984 it became a national museum and since then has begun an important restoration cycle, where thanks to a precious inventory dated 1911, the interior of the villa was re-constructed as much as possible, recovering all the objects, furniture and artwork scattered among the various museums and state depots.
In the villa and in the gardens were filmed scenes of the movie Darling (1965) directed by John Schlesinger.
The restoration was concluded in 2007 with the opening to the public of the second floor, where the Museum of Still Life was housed, in which the great paintings of Bartolomeo Bimbi As well as other works from the Medici villas of Castello, Topaia, Ambrogiana and others.
On the night of 6 March 2017, about 30 meters of the wall surrounding the villa grounds collapsed. Heavy rainfall had undermined its foundation.
Proposals for the future.
The activity of researchers and restorers has now focused on restoration to make available to the public other parts of the villa. Among them are the 17th-century "Cucinone" and the underground "Criptoportico" that links it to the villa. This environment is one of the best preserved examples of architecture tailored to the home needs of a court: it includes several rooms for laundry use and also a vegetable garden with aromatic herbs for use in kitchens. Along with the 'Ballroom Hall', once a playground, these rooms could be used for the exhibition of the eighteenth-century rides.
Description.
Exterior.
The roof was modified when in 1575 Alfonso Parigi the Elder replaced the gutter, where there was a walkway and a crowning with a railing with fires, with a sloping roof, also obtaining an elevation of the prospect that altered significantly the proportions of Sangallo's initial project. The windows that were initially crossed, that is, divided into four parts with a kind of central stone cross, were modified, according to a late-fifteenth century model invented by Baccio d'Agnolo. In the seventeenth century, however, the clock tower was added in axis with the central pediment.
Frieze.
The triangle (white, blue and green) frieze that today is seen on the tympanum mantel on the main façade of the villa is a copy made in 1986 by the manufacturer Richard Ginori, while the original is in a room on the first floor of the villa. This work is 14 meters long and 22 feet long, 58 centimeters long, of uncertain attribution and dating. It is principally attributed to Andrea Sansovino regarding the construction phase of Lorenzo il Magnifico, as It refers to the theme of the return to the "Age of gold", or performed by Giuliano da Sangallo or Bertoldo. Two phases, the second of which ended at the time of Leo X.
The refined and emblematic theme could also represent the choice of souls according to Platonic myth. In any case, it is clear the nature of the expression of the complex initiatory climate, relating to the philosophical circle of Lorenzo, through a series of allegorical allegories, of evocative classicism.
Interior.
The interior of the villa has undergone several transformations that have changed its original appearance over the years.
Ground floor.
Behind the staircase, under the loggia surrounding the villa, where there are four Roman sarcophagi, you enter the apartments on the ground floor. This floor in the sixteenth century was considered still secondary to the piano nobile, so the upgrading of these environments dates back mostly to the following centuries, with the exception of Bianca Cappello's apartments.
The entrance hall is plastered in A light yellow color and contains some inscriptions on Victor Emmanuel II and the plebiscite that united the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to the nascent Kingdom of Italy.
The "Teatro delle Commedie" was first created by 1675 Marguerite Louise d'Orléans the little-known wife of Cosimo III. It was in fact relegated to Poggio a Caiano, and to alleviate his reclusive life he thought to make a theater, of which we have the first mention in 1697. The use of the theater became more frequent with Prince Ferdinand.
The "Billiard Hall" is in the Savoyard style, with a frescoed ceiling as a pergola from which overlook cherubs and cupids while a cloth painting displays real signs of the House of Savoy.
Bianca Cappello Apartment.
To the right there is access to the Bianca Cappello apartments, where it is possible to perceive more clearly than elsewhere the Renaissance aspect of the villa. Bianca Cappello was a well-educated and sophisticated Venetian noblewoman who had a relationship with Grand Duke Francesco I. This secret relationship involving the ruler of the city, already married to Joanna of Austria, and a newly married woman, was one of the greatest scandals of the Renaissance and one of the most romantic pages of the Medici saga: even though the two lovers did everything to be secret, their story was a topic of rumors from the beginning.
They lived some of their most important moments at Poggio a Caiano. Bianca was relegated to the villa, hated by the family and the Medici court, who sided with the legitimate wife, strategically removed from Florence. At first she was confined to a secondary villa on the heights of Poggio a Caiano called "Il Cerretino", and on that occasion some popular fantasies arose, such as the existence of an underground corridor between the two villas that would allow the two lovers to meet secretly. With the death of Bianca's husband and Joanna, the two lovers could finally marry and spend at Poggio a Caiano some of the most beautiful moments of their married life. The Bianca Cappello apartments on the ground floor still testify to this connection with the villa. In the villa, the two of them also died in October 1587, one day away from the other: a 2004–2006 study speaks of arsenic intoxication in the tissues of the two, although it is not possible to understand whether it is a post-mortem treatment on some symbolic organs buried together in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta at Bonistalloh. (The official chronicles speak of tertian fever.)
In the first hall of these apartments, a simple anteroom, there are three paintings on a biblical subject attributed to Paolo Veronese: "Moses and the Burning Bush", The "Passage of the Red Sea" and the "Resurrection of Lazarus"; Here after the restoration was also the "Pietà" of Giorgio Vasari, coming from the chapel of the villa that today belongs to the local mercy mission.
Following is the "room of the Camino" of the apartments of Bianca Cappello. The room, although eclectically restored in the 19th century, still retains the beautiful white marble fireplace, with the floor supported by two telamons carved with remarkable plastic strength. The paternity of the work has not yet been clarified, but the scope of creation is surely close to Bernardo Buontalenti, as evidenced by the elusiveness of the torso and the imaginatively corrugated heads. Perhaps they are attributable to Alfonso Parigi the Elder's work in the villa 1575, who was engaged by Cerreto Guidi at the Medici villa with Buontalenti during the same period.
A door at the same level leads to Bedroom of the Grand Duchess Bianca, covered with pressed papermaking, imitating the coramas (decorated leather panels) and neo-Renaissance furniture, the result of a complete reconstruction of the 1865 style (non-visitable).
The stone staircase in Pietra serena, connected to the fireplace, connect two upper openings in the same room, which communicate these rooms with the upper level, where today there is the room of King Victor Emmanuel II and where it was probably that of Francesco I.
Noble floor.
On the first floor is the most interesting environment of the villa: the Leo X saloon, placed in the middle of the building and finished around 1513. According to Vasari the decoration of the vault belongs only in part to Sangallo, the rest would be the work of Franciabigio and Cosimo Feltrini. Fresco decoration is one of the most important pictorial cycles of the Mannerism period.
On the first floor is the entrance hall (with monochrome paintings of the eighteenth century, by Luigi Catani, reproducing celebratory themes referring to the foundation of the Villa: the scenes depicted are "Lorenzo the Magnificent who receives the villa's model from Giuliano da Sangallo" and "Agnolo Poliziano who crowns with laurel the bust of Homer".
On the ceiling of the so-called "Dining Room" there is a large fresco, by Anton Domenico Gabbiani, depicting the work of Cosimo The Elder, father of the homeland. The painting dates back to 1698 and was commissioned by Prince Ferdinando III de' Medici. This hall was also known as "Salone degli stucchi" but the stuccos in question, with portraits of Medici within medallions and other decorations, were removed in 1812 because they were considered too redundant. Only in some periods of the year is decorated the table with the "table carp" drawings designed by Agnolo Bronzino between the 1533 and 1548, beautifully woven with silk and filaments of gold and silver.
Completing the first floor is Victor Emmanuel II's apartment with four rooms: Cloakroom, Studio, Reception Room and Bedroom, and that of Countess of Mirafiori, Rosa Vercellana, (the "Bella Rosina") consisting of three rooms with antique furniture. The Bella Rosina's room is decorated in particular with a four-poster bed and walls entirely covered with pink silk with floral motifs (1865), radiated draped so as to see a pre-existing neoclassical fresco at the center. The French bath, designed by the court architect Giuseppe Cacialli, was commissioned by Elisa Bonaparte and involved the demolition of some of the older rooms. Today it is well preserved, with its marble basin with carvings and a sculpture of "Venus and Love" in a niche, in addition to the original toiletries. The two mythological frescoes depict "Achilles immersed in the Lete River" and "Teti attends the departure of Achilles".
In 1807, Pasquale Poccianti designed, in addition to the exterior stairs, the internal staircase connecting the ground floor to the remaining floors of the building, and was also commissioned for some restoration work on the upper floor of the villa. In the same period there are also fresco paintings in some saloons, of a strictly neoclassical style, with subjects drawn from ancient mythology.
Renaissance frescos.
The most ancient fresco of the villa, belonging to the period of Lorenzo the Magnificent, is the so-called "Sacrifice of Laocoön" (according to Halm's interpretation) by Filippino Lippi, kept under the loggia at the first floor, once detached for restoration and now relocated, though it is rather faded by weather. The fresco is quoted by Vasari as "A sacrifice, fresh, in a loggia that remained imperfect" and which would go back to before Lorenzo's death, or in any case completed by 1494.
The dominant theme of the first constructive phase Was the interpretation of the ancient in modern and decorative style and this fresco testifies to the kernel, as well as the frieze of the tympanum, maybe of Andrea Sansovino and the first decorated lunette in the salon of Leo X, that of Pontormo. Between 1519 and 1521, Depicts the Roman deities of Vertumnus and Pomona embedded in an unusual classical landscape.
Afterwards, the theme of decoration changed, probably due to the arrival in the house of the first noble titles of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino and Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, and became the illustrations of the glories of the Medici family, to which they clearly mentions the official themes of the paintings, that is, the "Stories of Roman History".
Between 1519 and 1521 Andrea del Sarto worked at the villa, painting the "Tribute to Caesar", an allusion to the gifts received by Lorenzo the Magnificent from the Sultan of Egypt in 1487. The fresco finished about one-third of the surface of the wall where nearer to the outer wall there was a large column painted in the wall, which was later removed and the fresco painted by Alessandro Allori, who appointed his signature with that of Andrea del Sarto near the boy with the turkey in the foreground. By the time the frame of the primitive fresco was re-emerged, cutting the scene in two, but was again hidden by recent restorations.
More or less at the same time the Franciabigio realized in the wall diagonally opposite the "Return of Cicero From Exile", a clear metaphor of Cosimo the Elder and his expulsion with the subsequent triumphal return to Florence. This fresco is dominated at the top by fantastic architectures featured in a rich landscape in aerial perspective. This scene was also enlarged by Aldi, and the original border is hidden from the porphyry obelisk that rises unusually close to the center of the representation to the top of the painting. The painted column was partly preserved in the fresco, in fact, the Allori inserted it beside the obelisk. Allori added figures to both frescoes that he copied from both Andrea del Sarto's and Franciabigio's frescoes in the Chiostro dello Scalzo, Florence.
Alessandro Allori was the one who integrated the earlier paintings and completed the decorative program of the saloon, and worked there between 1578 And 1582, more than fifty years after the commencement of the decorations of the other painters. He was commissioned by Francesco I de' Medici, who lived in the villa in particular with the Venetian noblewoman Bianca Cappello. In addition to expanding the existing panels, he created two new ones: "Numidia's Syphace Receiving Scipione", alluding to the journey Lorenzo the Magnificent made to Naples to treat with Ferdinand I of Naples; The "Consul Flaminio speaks to the council of the Achaeans", in which he refers to the intervention of Lorenzo the Magnificent in the Dieta di Cremona.
He also frescoed, with numerous aids, the two boxes above the portals, the second bezel With the "Garden of the Hesperides" and the space between the lunettes and the windows and the lunettes. The elaborate and fantastic compositions with floral, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures are typical of the taste for the "whim" that is typical of the time.
Altori then created a magnificent architecture throughout the room, which almost contrasts with architecture realities, with figures that seem to be carved in their strong and crystalline colors typical of manierism, creating a magnificent and virtuoso scenery.
Completed the pictorial decoration a superb series of tapestries wanted by Cosimo I and his son Francesco, drawing on Stradano before, and Allori then. There were numerous hunting scenes depicted, taking the inspiration from the real jumps that were held in the huge park around the villa (far bigger than today). However, it is not possible to admire them as a whole because the collection is now dispersed among some Florentine museums, deposits and embassies abroad.
Second floor.
On the second floor, the "Museum of Still Life" is set up, which is unique in its kind and exhibits about 200 paintings dating from the late sixteenth to the middle of the eighteenth century and coming from the Medici collections. Many of these paintings, up to the opening of the museum, were in the depots of the Polo Museale Fiorentino and other public bodies and thus largely visible to the general public for the first time. In a room there are 'papiers peints' of French manufacture, with an exotic theme of the early nineteenth century. The depicted views are wide-ranging with a line of low horizon and small characters depicting "Les sauvages de la Mer Pacifique" (1804).
The frieze room.
The room is dedicated to two important masterpieces of the Medici era recently restored: the imposing frieze that adorned the façade of the villa and was commissioned by Lorenzo himself, and the precious tapestry of the Hunting Swan, one of 36 tapestries designed by Giorgio Vasari on commission of Cosimo I, especially for the Villa. Finally, though temporarily, the room is embellished with the 17th century painting of a family tree of the Medici family.
Buildings adjacent to the Villa and Gardens.
Adjacent to the Villa are some buildings such as the chapel, (where the "Pietà con i Santi Cosimo e Damiano", painted in 1560 Giorgio Vasari, waiting for restoration), housed on the ground floor of the south-east bastion; the "Cucinone" built at the beginning of the 17th century and the neoclassical cellar (or limonaia) "with anchored water retention", the work of Pasquale Poccianti (1825). The "Hall of the Pallacorda" is a building at the corner of the garden, which dates back to the late eighteenth century to practice this game, and today houses the concierge and a store.
In the middle of the sixteenth century, under Cosimo I, Niccolò Tribolo rearranged the gardens and finished the construction of the stables (1548). The overall view of the garden and the stables after the Tribolo's intervention is in the famous lunette of Giusto Utens (1599) kept in Florence Museum.
The Gardens.
The gardens around the villa date back to the nineteenth century and are very interesting.
Up until the 17th century, the villa's garden was quite simple compared to those of Castello or Petraia: garden areas and wooded areas with an Italian garden on the right, all without fountains and sculptural decorations, as appears from the painting of Giusto Utens. In the eighteenth century some areas of the garden were restored, extending the hunting ground, the so-called 'phagianaia'. In the Italian garden area, a fountain is placed in the center instead of a grove of trees, fed by a new water tank.
In 1813 Louis-Martin Berthault noted the desolation of the square in front of the villa and proposed to remedy the fact that the various highlights of the park, which would be vast, are actually isolated From the other: the villa and the backyard are adjacent, but the Italian garden is cut off from the road to Prato and Barco mediceo di Bonistallo (not to be confused with the much bigger "Barco Reale" placed on the Montalbano ridge), a hunting forest that still rises on the hill in front of the villa to the church of San Francesco, from the road to Pistoia; The "Pavoniere", in addition to the Cascine and still existing ones, are separated from the Ombrone river.
In order to remedy these disadvantages several steps were taken: the road to Prato was rerouted, the numerous walls that separated the seating areas and unified in one fence were cut down, while on the square of the villa were made some serpentine driveways with various vegetable decoration; The Ombrone course was straightened and a new ironable bridge was built to connect with Cascine di Tavola and Pavoniere. The garden thus came to be an irregular shape. The kitchens, the watercourse and the chapel were hidden by new tree groups.
Notes.
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References.
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Bibliography.
Todi 2016.

Medici Madonna (van der Weyden)
Painting by Rogier van der Weyden
The Medici Madonna is an oil-on-panel painting by the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden, dating from around 1460–1464 and housed in the Städel, Frankfurt, Germany.
The work is known to have been commissioned by the Medici family in Florence, as testified by the Florentine coat of arms with a red lily at the center of the lower step. The work has been variously dated from 1450 to 1451, when the artist travelled to Rome visiting several Italian courts, or from 1460 to 1464, the same years of the "Lamentation of Christ", inspired by Beato Angelico and now at the Uffizi.
Description.
Within a gold ground for the sky, van der Weyden painted a baldachin lined with precious damask cloth, under which are the Virgin with Child, St. Peter, St. John the Baptist (patron saint of Florence), St. Cosmas (a protector of the House of Medici), and St. Damian. Cosmas is portrayed while putting a coin in a handbag hanging from his belt, a reference of his legend, according to which he had accepted a small sum for a medical performance, causing rage in his brother Damian.
In the foreground is a still life with the artist's typical attention to natural details. In the centre is a gilt metallic amphora, in which are several lilies: the white ones symbolize the Virgin's purity, while the red ones are another reference to Florence.

Madonna of Palazzo Medici-Riccardi
Painting by Filippo Lippi
The Madonna of Palazzo Medici-Riccardi is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Filippo Lippi. It is housed in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi of Florence, central Italy.
History.
The painting was found by art historian Giuseppe Poggi in 1907 in the psychiatric hospital of San Salvi in Florence. There are several theories about the provenance of the panel: Poggi assigned it to the Villa of Castelpulci, owned by the Riccardi family, who bought Palazzo Medici in 1655. According to another, the "Madonna" was instead part of the original decoration of the palace.
After having been acquired by the Italian state, it was moved to Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, where now is displayed in the Hall of the Triumphs and Arts in the first floor, near the gallery of Luca Giordano. It has been restored in 2001 by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure.
Description.
The model of the painting had been used by Lippi since as early as 1436: it portrays the Madonna's half-bust in a niche with a shell-shaped dome, holding the Child; in this case, he stands on a marble parapet. The style is however typical of his late career, not far from the frescoes in the Cathedral of Spoleto, and is thus generally considered one of the artists' last panels.
The rear of the panel has a drawing with St. Jerome's head.

Medici Fountain
Fountain in Paris, France
The Medici Fountain () is a monumental fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement in Paris. Built in about 1630, it was commissioned by Marie de' Medici, the widow of King Henry IV of France and regent of King Louis XIII of France. It was moved to its present location and extensively rebuilt in 1864-1866.
Italian influence in Paris in the 17th century.
The period between the regency of Catherine de' Medici in France (1559–1589) and that of Marie de' Medici (1610–1642) saw a great flourishing of the Italian mannerist style in France. This community of artists from Florence, including the sculptor Francesco Bordoni, helped design the statue of King Henry IV of France built on the Pont Neuf. The fountain technician Thomas Francini, who had worked on fountains in the new gardens of the Medici villas in Florence and Rome, found eager royal patrons in France. Soon features of the Italian Renaissance garden, such as elaborate fountains and the grotto, a simulated cave decorated with sculpture, appeared in the first Gardens of the French Renaissance at Fontainebleau and other royal residences.
Construction.
Marie de' Medici, as widow of Henry IV and mother and regent of King Louis XIII of France, began construction of her own palace, which she called the Palais des Medicis, between 1623 and 1630, on the left bank of Paris. The new palace was modeled after the Palazzo Pitti in her native Florence, and the gardens around the palace were modeled after those of the Boboli Gardens in Florence. The Palace was the work of architect Salomon de Brosse, but the fountain and grotto was most probably the work of Tommaso Francini, the Intendant General of Waters and Fountains of the King. Francini, who emigrated to France at the invitation of Henry IV in 1598 and was naturalized in 1600, had built grottos and fountains in the Italian style for the marquis de Gondi and for the royal chateau of Henry IV at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
The first difficulty of construction was the lack of water in the Left Bank of Paris. Unlike the Right Bank, where the water table was near the surface, and there were many wells and two aqueducts which served the city, the water table on the Left Bank was deep underground and all water had to be carried from the Seine. As a result, the city had expanded far from the Right Bank of the Seine, but had hardly grown at all on the Left Bank. This problem was finally solved by the construction of the aqueduct of Arcueil, between 1613 and 1623.
19th Century modifications.
After the death of Marie de' Medici, the Palace and fountain went through a series of owners. By the middle of the 18th century, when the fountains of Versailles and the Garden à la française were in fashion, the Medici Fountain fell into disrepair. The two original statues at the top of the fountain, by the sculptor Pierre Biard, two nymphs pouring water from pitchers, had disappeared, and the wall of the Orangerie, against which the fountain was placed, was crumbling.
In 1811, at the instructions of Napoleon Bonaparte, the grotto was restored by the neoclassical architect Jean Chalgrin, the architect of the Arc de Triomphe, who replaced the simple water fountain in the niche of the grotto with two streams of water, and added a white marble statue representing Venus in her bath.
In 1864, during the Second French Empire, Baron Haussmann planned to build the rue de Medicis through the space occupied by the fountain. The lateral arcades of the fountain and the crumbling old orangerie behind it had already been torn down in 1855. From 1858 to 1864, The new architect, Alphonse de Gisors, moved the fountain thirty meters to make room for the street, and radically changed its setting and appearance.
Since the fountain no longer stood against a wall, the Fontaine de Léda, displaced from another neighborhood, was placed directly behind it. (See the Fountain of Leda, below.) He replaced the two original statues of nymphs at the top of the statue with two new statues, representing the Rivers Rhone and Seine. He restored the coat of arms of the Medici family over the fountain, which had been defaced during the Revolution. He inserted two statues into the niches, one representing a faun and the other a huntress, above which are two masks, one representing comedy and the other tragedy. He removed the simple basin and water spout which had been in the niche and replaced them with a long tree-shaded basin. Finally, he removed the statue of Venus and replaced her with a group of statues by Auguste Ottin, representing the giant Polyphemus, in bronze, discovering the lovers Acis and Galatea, in white marble. The fountain was completely cleaned during the summer of 2021, and that is the fountain as it appears today.
The Hidden Fountain - the Fountain of Léda.
The fountain which Gisors placed behind the Medici Fountain had a history of its own. The Fontaine de Léda had been constructed in 1806-1809, during the First Empire, at the corner of rue Vaugirard and rue du Regard. It was the work of architect François-Jean Bralle and sculptor Achille Valois. The bas-relief of the fountain depicts the story of Leda and the Swan; Leda holds the swan on her knees, and the figure of Amor is shooting an arrow at her from the corner of the sculpture. Water flowed from the beak of the swan down to a hemispherical basin at the foot of the fountain.
In 1856, when Baron Haussmann wanted to extend the rue de Rennes, the chief of the service of Promenades and Plantations of Paris, Gabriel Davioud, who designed most of the city's fountains, benches, gates and other urban architectural decorations during the Second Empire, and who was himself a sculptor, wanted to preserve the fountain, and in 1858 he had it moved to the Jardin du Luxembourg. Since it was a wall fountain, it had to be attached to something, so he placed it on the back of the Medici Fountain, where it still remains, unnoticed by passers-by. (See also Fountains in Paris.).
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Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena (Raphael)
Painting by Raphael
The Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena is a painting of Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena (pope Leo X's private secretary) by Raphael, created around 1516. It is currently housed in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The rendering appears more rigid than usual for Raphael, leading some critics to attribute it to one of his pupils or suggest it may be a copy of a lost original by the artist.
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Medici Madonna
Sculpture by Michelangelo
The Medici Madonna is a marble sculpture carved by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo Buonarroti measuring about 88.98 inches (226 cm) in height. Dating from 1521 to 1534, the sculpture is a piece of the altar decoration of the Sagrestia Nuova in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence.
The work, according to Michelangelo's letters and other documents, was one of the first works begun for the decoration of the Sagrestia Vecchia (Old Sacristy), as early as 1521. In 1526 it was still incomplete and in 1534, when Michelangelo moved to Rome, it was left in its current unfinished state and moved to the current location by Niccolò Tribolo.
The "Medici Madonna" shows the Christ Child sitting in the lap of the Virgin Mary and facing away from the viewer. Christ is attempting to nurse from the Virgin Mother, who by every indication appears to be denying her breast to her child. The Virgin is positioned sitting with her right arm behind her and she is gripping the edge of her seat; her left hand rests on Christ's arm but is in no way securing him to her or offering an embrace. Another indication of the Virgin denying the infant Christ of her breast is shown through the girdled chiton garment she is wearing that completely conceals her. There has been speculation that a Roman copy of a 5th-century statue of Penelope influences the pose in this sculpture.
Several preparatory drawings (at the British Museum and the Albertina) show a less compact composition, in which the Madonna's legs were parallel to each other. The composition is somewhat similar to Michelangelo's "Madonna of the Stairs", with the Virgin sitting on nearly cubic block and breastfeeding the Child. The latter is turning his body towards his mother, hiding the face from the viewer.
Through Michelangelo's personal writings, letters, and poetry that include recollections of his wet nurse, it is known that Michelangelo was very emotionally engaged with the motherhood of Mary, relating the Virgin Mother to his own wet nurse. It is believed that although the work was commissioned, the "Medici Madonna" is largely tied to his own deep-rooted personal issues.
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Palazzo Pitti
Renaissance palace and museum in Florence, Italy
The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker.
The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the chief residence of the ruling family of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a great treasure house, for generations amassing paintings, plates, jewelry and luxurious possessions. The Medici also added the extensive Boboli Gardens to the palace estate.
In the late 18th century, the palazzo was used as a power base by Napoleon during his conquests of Europe. For a brief period, it later served as the principal royal palace of the newly united Italy under the House of Savoy. The palace and its contents were donated to the Italian people by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1919.
The palazzo is now the largest museum complex in Florence. The principal palazzo block, often in a building of this design known as the corps de logis, is 32,000 square metres. It is divided into several principal galleries or museums detailed below.
History.
Early history.
The construction of this severe and forbidding building was commissioned in 1458 by the Florentine banker Luca Pitti (1398–1472), a principal supporter and friend of Cosimo de' Medici. The early history of the Palazzo Pitti is a mixture of fact and myth. Pitti is alleged to have instructed that the windows be larger than the entrance of the Palazzo Medici. The 16th-century art historian Giorgio Vasari proposed that Brunelleschi was the palazzo's architect, and that his pupil Luca Fancelli was merely his assistant in the task, but today it is Fancelli who is generally credited. Besides obvious differences from the elder architect's style, Brunelleschi died 12 years before construction of the palazzo began. The design and fenestration suggest that the unknown architect was more experienced in utilitarian domestic architecture than in the humanist rules defined by Alberti in his book "De Re Aedificatoria".
Though impressive, the original palazzo would have been no rival to the Florentine Medici residences in terms of either size or content. Whoever the architect of the Palazzo Pitti was, he was moving against the contemporary flow of fashion. The rusticated stonework gives the palazzo a severe and powerful atmosphere, reinforced by the three-times-repeated series of seven arch-headed apertures, reminiscent of a Roman aqueduct. The Roman-style architecture appealed to the Florentine love of the new style "all'antica". This original design has withstood the test of time: the repetitive formula of the façade was continued during the subsequent additions to the palazzo, and its influence can be seen in numerous 16th-century imitations and 19th-century revivals. Work stopped after Pitti suffered financial losses following the death of Cosimo de' Medici in 1464. Luca Pitti died in 1472 with the building unfinished.
The Medici.
The building was sold in 1549 to Eleonora di Toledo. Raised at the luxurious court of Naples, Eleonora was the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici of Tuscany, later the Grand Duke. On moving into the palace, Cosimo had Vasari enlarge the structure to fit his tastes; the palace was more than doubled by the addition of a new block along the rear. Vasari also built the Vasari Corridor, an above-ground walkway from Cosimo's old palace and the seat of government, the Palazzo Vecchio, through the Uffizi, above the Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti. This enabled the Grand Duke and his family to move easily and safely from their official residence to the Palazzo Pitti. Initially the Palazzo Pitti was used mostly for lodging official guests and for occasional functions of the court, while the Medicis' principal residence remained the Palazzo Vecchio. It was not until the reign of Eleonora's son Francesco I and his wife Johanna of Austria that the palazzo was occupied on a permanent basis and became home to the Medicis' art collection.
Land on the Boboli hill at the rear of the palazzo was acquired in order to create a large formal park and gardens, today known as the Boboli Gardens. The landscape architect employed for this was the Medici court artist Niccolò Tribolo, who died the following year; he was quickly succeeded by Bartolommeo Ammanati. The original design of the gardens centred on an amphitheatre, behind the "corps de logis" of the palazzo. The first play recorded as performed there was "Andria" by Terence in 1476. It was followed by many classically inspired plays of Florentine playwrights such as Giovan Battista Cini. Performed for the amusement of the cultivated Medici court, they featured elaborate sets designed by the court architect Baldassarre Lanci.
The "cortile" and extensions.
With the garden project well in hand, Ammanati turned his attentions to creating a large courtyard immediately behind the principal façade, to link the palazzo to its new garden. This courtyard has heavy-banded channelled rustication that has been widely copied, notably for the Parisian "palais" of Marie de' Medici, the Luxembourg. In the principal façade Ammanati also created the "finestre inginocchiate" ("kneeling" windows, in reference to their imagined resemblance to a "prie-dieu", a device of Michelangelo's), replacing the entrance bays at each end. During the years 1558