Daily Archives: 29 May, 2016

Medici Chapels – The New Sacristy (Florence, Italy)

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New Sacristy (Sagrestia Nuova)

The Sagrestia Nuova (“New Sacristy”), intended by Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici (future Pope Clement VII) and his cousin Pope Leo X as a mausoleum or mortuary chapel for members of the Medici family (his uncle Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano; Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino; and Giuliano, Duke of Nemours), balances Brunelleschi‘s Sagrestia Vecchia (“Old Sacristy”), nestled between the left transept of the Basilica of San Lorenzo (with which it consciously competes) and shares its format of a cubical space surmounted by a dome, of gray pietra serena and whitewashed walls.

In the passage leading to the New Sacristy are two military trophies (trofeus militares) executed by Silvio Cosini, a further close pupil of Michelangelo.  They were part of the early project for the decoration (which included decorative grotteschi decoration and masks) of the New Sacristy, which was left unfinished in 1534 due to Michelangelo’s definitive move to Rome.

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Military Trophies (Troféus Militares) by Silvio Cosini

The chapel, the first essay in architecture (1519–24)  of Michelangelo (who also designed its monuments dedicated to certain members of the Medici family), features the sculptural figures of the four times of day that were destined to influence sculptural figures reclining on architraves for many generations to come.

Altar

The Sagrestia Nuova was entered by a discreet but now closed entrance in a corner of San Lorenzo’s right transept.

The sacristy’s dome partly inspired by the Pantheon in Rome

This magnificent cubic space is covered by a hemispherical dome topped by a lantern, whose design was inspired partly by the Pantheon in Rome.

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Tomb of Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici which includes the sculptures Dusk and Dawn, with the pensive duke sitting in a niche above in a meditative manner

By 1524, it was vaulted over but the ambitious projects of its sculpture and the intervention of events (the temporary exile of the Medici in 1527, the death of  Pope Clement VII and the permanent departure of Michelangelo for Rome in 1534) meant that Michelangelo never finished it.

Duskl ooks sleepy, as if ready to fall into a peaceful sleep

Dawn seem like it is just awaking from slumber

By the time of Michelangelo’s departure, most of the statues had been carved but they had not been put in place, being left in disarray across the chapel. Later, in 1545, they were installed by Niccolò Tribolo. By order of Cosimo I, Giorgio Vasari and Florentine architect Bartolomeo Ammannati finished the work by 1555.

Tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo de’ Medici decorated with the sculptures of a reclining Day and Night, made between 1526 and 1531. Both allegories are said to reflect Giuliano’s personality, prudent but ready to act, and indeed his statue sitting above the sarcophagus, sculpted as a Roman mercenary, lends credence to this portrayal.

Four Medici tombs were intended to be built but those of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano were never begun. As a result, the two existing magnificent tombs, with the four statues of the allegories of Dawn and Dusk, Night (placed at the right foot of Giuliano, it is regarded as one of Michelangelo’s finest works) and Day, are those of Lorenzo di Piero, Duke of Urbino and Giuliano di Lorenzo, Duke of Nemours, two comparatively insignificant Medici here depicted as Roman leaders.

Day is depicted as a strapping man, his face unfinished

Night is portrayed as a young, sleek woman “drenched in lunar light”

Though their architectural components are similar; their sculptures offer contrast. On an unfinished wall, Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child flanked by Saints Cosmas and Damian (the Medici patrons), executed by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli and Raffaello da Montelupo (both of whom were pupils of Michelangelo) respectively, to Michelangelo’s models, are set over the plain rectangular tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent. His brother Giuliano de Medici is modestly buried beneath the altar at the entrance wall.  Both were brought to the sacristy in 1559.

Statues of Madonna and Child flanked by Saints Cosmas and Damian over the tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent

In 1976, numerous charcoal drawings and sketches executed on walls, thought to be 16th century Michelangelo originals, were discovered in a small space in a concealed corridor beneath the apse and sacristies of the New Sacristy.

Crowning Lantern (Giovanni di Baldassare)

The 56 drawings show legs, feet, heads and masks, and may be related to the statues and architecture of the sacristy. From two small side rooms, go beyond the Crowning Lantern in the room on the right to see two of these charcoal drawings.

Michaelangelo Charcoal Drawings

Medici Chapels: Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini 6 (at the back of the Basilica of San Lorenzo), Florence, Italy. Open daily, 8:15 AM to 2 PM (ticket office closes at 1:20 PM). Closed on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month and 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday of every month as well as New Year’s Day, May 1 and Christmas.  Admission: €8,00.  Free entry for all visitors on the first Sunday of every month between October and March.

Medici Chapels – Chapel of the Princes (Florence, Italy)

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Jandy at the Chapel of the Princes (Capella dei Principi)

The larger, opulent Chapel of the Princes (Cappella dei Principi), a true expression of court art and a rare example in Florence of the Baroque style, was the result of collaboration among architects and family.  An idea formulated by Cosimo I in the 16th century, it was put into effect by Ferdinand I de’ Medici in the early 17th century (1604 to 1640).

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The author beside the Sarcophagus of Francesco I

The chapel was designed by architect  Matteo Nigetti (1560-1649), following some sketches tendered to an informal competition of 1602 by Don Giovanni de’ Medici, the natural son of Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany who practiced architecture in a semi-professional way, which were altered in the execution by the aged Bernardo Buontalenti.

The cahpel’s altar

The huge, beautiful cupola and lavish interior of this mausoleum were conceived as monuments to the greatness of the Medici. The chapel’s tall, 59 m. (185-ft.) high dome, the distinguishing feature of the Basilica of San Lorenzo when seen from a distance, is on the same axis as the nave and chancel to which it provides the equivalent of an apsidal chapel. From the exterior, its entrance is in Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini and through the low vaulted crypt planned by Bernardo Buontalenti (before plans for the chapel above were made).

Sarcophagus of Cosimo I

Its sumptuous, jaw-dropping octagonal interior, conceived to hold the grand ducal tombs, is completely covered with hard stones or marble, mainly of foreign origin.  The six grand and princely sarcophagi (all empty as the Medici remains are unceremoniously laid to rest in the crypt below), with cenotaphs carved in porphyry and grey granite, are each set into a different wall and embellished with a dedicatory inscription and a grand-ducal crown.

Sarcophagus of Cosimo II

They were supposed to have bronze statues of the Grand Dukes (Cosimo I, Francesco I, Ferdinando I, Cosimo II, Ferdinando II, and Cosimo III) set into niches but only two (for Ferdinando I and Cosimo II) of the niches have portrait sculptures of Medici, both executed by Pietro Tacca (1626–42). The dado has 16 compartments with coats-of-arms of Tuscan cities under Medici control.

Sarcophagus of Cosimo III

The Opificio delle Pietre Dure (Semi-Precious Stones Workshop), the Grand Ducal hardstone workshop, was established for the execution (which lasted for three centuries) of its astonishing revetment of marbles inlaid with colored marbles and hard semi-precious stone. To form the designs of the revetment that entirely cover the walls, jig-sawn fragments of specimen stones assembled via the art of commessi, as it was called in Florence.

Sarcophagus of Ferdinando II

On account of the difficulty of obtaining such rare materials as well as difficulties of working the materials and their very high cost, the process of covering the walls, mainly carried out in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was fraught with problems.

Sarcophagus of Ferdinando I

The inlay of semi-precious stones wasn’t finished until 1962. Many 18th- and 19th-century visitors disapproved of the result but, today, it has come to be appreciated for an example of the taste of its time.

Sarcophagus of Francesco I

The cupola originally should have had an internal covering of lapis lazuli but, at the end of the Medici period, was left incomplete.  In 1828, at the command of Grand Duke Leopold II of the then reigning house of Lorraine, it was frescoed, with scenes from the Old and New Testaments, by Pietro Benvenuti.

The chapel’s cupola frescoed with scenes from the Old and New Testament

Medici Chapels: Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini 6 (at the back of the Basilica of San Lorenzo), Florence, Italy. Open daily, 8:15 AM to 2 PM (ticket office closes at 1:20 PM). Closed on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month and 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday of every month as well as New Year’s Day, May 1 and Christmas.  Admission: €8,00.  Free entry for all visitors on the first Sunday of every month between October and March.

Medici Chapels – The Crypt (Florence, Italy)

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Medici Chapel Crypt

The vaulted crypt, tidied up in the 19th century, now houses the tombs of the Medici grand dukes and their families, from Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany to his wife Eleanor of Toledo, Cardinal Giancarlo de’ Medici to Vittoria della Rovere to the revered Anna Maria Luisa de Medici, the last heir of the Medici dynasty, to whom Florence owes the protection of its many treasures.

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Anna Maria Luisa Medici Statue and Tomb

The crypt has a low ceiling and bare walls, a far cry from the splendor one might expect when it comes to Florentine rulers as illustrious and powerful as the Medici. Their modest tombs are little more than plaques inlaid in the pavement with metal barriers that surround them serving as the only indication that they’re something worth preserving.

Some of the modest, plaque-topped Medici tombs

For example, even the tomb of young Cosimo, Grand-Prince of Tuscany, is simply tucked away between a robust pillar. The simple tombstone and statue of Ana Maria de Medici stands near the entrance.

Altar

In the center of the crypt is a permanent exhibition featuring the Treasure of San Lorenzo, consisting of reliquaries, liturgical vestments, ceremonial objects as well as various pieces related to the Medici family including effigies, medallions, jewelry, rock crystal, and semi-precious stone vases, silvers, and other precious applied art pieces.

Treasures of San Lorenzo

All great examples of Renaissance and Baroque goldsmith’s art, they were collected by the Medici throughout their time in power through purchases and donations, especially objects given by Pope Clement VII and Pope Leo X, both members of the family, and later donated to the parish.

Reliquaries

Medici Chapels: Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini 6 (at the back of the Basilica of San Lorenzo), Florence, Italy. Open daily, 8:15 AM to 2 PM (ticket office closes at 1:20 PM). Closed on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month and 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday of every month as well as New Year’s Day, May 1 and Christmas.  Admission: €8,00.  Free entry for all visitors on the first Sunday of every month between October and March.

Medici Chapels (Florence, Italy)

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The Medici Chapels

From the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, it was just a short 100 m. walk, via Via Camillo Cavour and Via de’ Gori, to the Medici Chapels (Cappelle medicee).  Its two chapels form part of the  monumental complex developed over almost two centuries in close connection with adjoining Basilica of San Lorenzo (the official church of the Medici).

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L-R: Cheska, Kyle and Grace

Dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, they were built as extensions to Brunelleschi‘s 15th-century church, with the purpose of celebrating the Medici family (who successfully ruled Florence for several centuries and lived in the neighboring palace on Via Larga, now known as the Palazzo Medici Riccardi), patrons of the church and Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

The decision to build their family mausoleum in this church dates to the 14th century.  Giovanni di’ Bicci de’ Medici (died 1429) and his wife Piccarda were buried in the Old Sacristy, on a project designed by Brunelleschi. Later, his son Cosimo the Elder, was buried in the crossing of the church.

Medici Chapels (Florence, Italy)

The Medici Chapels are one of the five museums that make up the Bargello Museums which, in 2015, were reorganized into a single institution (the others are the namesake Bargello Museum, Palazzo Davanzati, Casa Martelli and Orsanmichele). The chapels are divided into three distinct parts – the , the Cappella dei Principi (Chapel of the Princes) and the Sagrestia Nuova (New Sacristy, designed by Michelangelo). We entered through the back of the Basilica of San Lorenzo and our visit to the Medici Chapels began at the crypt.

Check out “Medici Chapels – The Crypt,” “Medici Chapels – Chapel of the Princes” and “Medici Chapels – The New Sacristy“

 

Medici Chapels: Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini 6 (at the back of the Basilica of San Lorenzo), Florence, Italy. Open daily, 8:15 AM to 2 PM (ticket office closes at 1:20 PM). Closed on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month and 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday of every month as well as New Year’s Day, May 1 and Christmas.  Admission: €8,00.  Free entry for all visitors on the first Sunday of every month between October and March.

Palazzo Medici Riccardi (Florence, Italy)

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Galleria Riccardiana

The Renaissance-style, relatively little frequented Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi  after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Florence and a museum. Located along Via Cavour (formerly Via Larga), close to the Church of San Lorenzo, the palace is the first Renaissance building erected in Florence and is a prototype of civil Renaissance architecture. Originally, the Palazzo Medici Riccardi was a cube shape with 10 windows across.  Today, what we see is a rectangular building with 17 windows.

Palazzo Medici Riccardi by night (photo: Wikipedia)

The palace, designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo (who was influenced in his design of the palace by both classical Roman and Brunelleschian principles) for Cosimo de’ Medici (head of the Medici banking family), was built between 1444 and 1484, after the defeat of the Milanese and when Cosimo de Medici had more governmental power.

Salone Carlo VIII

The simple and modest exterior (though the inside was more decorated) of this building reflects the desire of the Medici family to keep a low profile, while exercising their power behind the scenes, after their return to Florence after their short exile in the early 15th century. This is said to be the reason why Cosimo de’ Medici rejected Filippo Brunelleschi‘s earlier too sumptuous and extravagant proposal (although Brunelleschi’s style can still be seen in the palazzo) for Michelozzo’s more modest design.

Ceiling of Salone Carlo VIII

The palace remained the principal residence of the Medici family until Piero de Medici was exiled in 1494. Following their return to power, the palace continued to be used by lesser members of the Medici until 1540 when Cosimo I, after he became Grand Duke, moved his principal residence to the Palazzo Vecchio. Still, the younger family members continued to use the Palazzo Medici as a residence.

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Bedroom

Its purposely plain exterior too austere for Baroque era tastes, the palace was then sold, in 1659, by Ferdinando II de Medici to marquise Gabriello Riccardi, his majordomo maggiore (probably the highest office in the Florentine court). Francesco Riccardi (a nephew of Gabriello who inherited uncle’s fortune when he died in 1675) had the palace renovated and commissioned Neapolitan artist Luca Giordano (a pupil of Pietro da Cortona) to do the magnificent gallery (probably one of the most beautiful and best-preserved Baroque halls in Italy).

The author at Galleria Riccardiana

Frescoed with the Apotheosis of the Medici, Giordano, with the help of three collaborators, painted the entire gallery from mid-April to the end of August 1685. A new entrance staircase was also built by the architect Foggini and Baroque decorations were added also to the courtyard through the addition of old marbles belonging to the Riccardi collection.
In 1814, the Riccardi family sold the palace to the Tuscan state and, in 1874, the building became the seat of the provincial government of Florence.

Apotheosis of the Medici

Many significant events occurred in the palace:

  • This palace was the main home of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), Cosimo the Elder’s grandson and the unmistakable Lord of Florence.
  • In 1478, the Pazzi conspirators came to the palace to pick up Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano to accompany them to the nearby Duomo for mass with the intention of assassinating both (they only succeeded in killing Giuliano during the service).
  • In 1489, a 14 year old Michelangelo came to live here as a teenage artist under the sponsorship of Lorenzo de Medici who actively sought to cultivate the development of young talent.
  • In 1494, when the Medici were temporarily banished from the city, the citizens came to loot the building, taking away many of its Renaissance masterpieces.
  • This palace was where Catherine the Medici, the future queen of France, lived as a little girl in the early 1500’s.
  • The courtyard of the palace was where Donatello’s famous sculpture ‘Judith’ as well as his masterpiece, the bronze David, originally stood (both commissioned by the Medici).
  • In 1512, soon after Giovanni became Pope Leo X, the first Medici pope, Lorenzo’s sons Giovanni and Giuliano return to this palace from exile to eventually rule Florence again – .
  • In 1689, the palace was the site of the wedding reception between Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany and Violante Beatrice of Bavaria. 
  • In 1938, a dinner between heads of state Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was held in the Gallery Room of the palace.

Garden

The palace, well known for its stone masonry, uses building materials meant to accentuate the structure of the building through the threefold grading of masonry.  By the use of rough texture to smoother textures as the building heightens, the rusticated blocks, on the ground floor, and ashlar for the face of the top story, create an optical recession that makes the building look even larger.

Statue of Hercules with Nemean lion skin

The huge cornice crowning the palazzo’s roofline (the first time it debuted fully developed) gave the palazzo more significance in a historical context. Through their choice of building material on the exterior, the Medici were still able to show their accumulated wealth and the costly and rare rusticated blocks soon became seen as a status symbol. A large part of power politics was believed to have started with the Palazzo Medici Riccardi.

Inner Courtyard

The tripartite elevation, expressing the Renaissance spirit of rationality, order, and Classicism on a human scale, is emphasized by horizontal string courses that divide the building into stories of decreasing height. The building seems lighter and taller due to the transition, from the rusticated masonry of the ground floor, to the more delicately refined stonework of the third floor which makes as the eye moves upward to the massive cornice that caps, and clearly defines, the building’s outline.

Inner Courtyard

Ancient Roman elements, both built and imagined in paintings during the Renaissance revival of Classical culture, were often replicated in architecture and, in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the rusticated masonry and the cornice had precedents in Roman practice.  However, in totality and unlike any known Roman building, it looks distinctly Florentine.

Courtyard of Columns

Michelozzo was influenced by the renowned sculptor and early Renaissance architect Brunelleschi who used Roman techniques. Two asymmetrical doors led to the typical fifteenth century open colonnaded courtyard (which originally opened on to a typically Renaissance garden) decorated with graffiti, a Brunelleschian design at the center of the palazzo plan, was based on the loggia of the Ospedale degli Innocenti and has roots in the cloisters that developed from Roman peristyles.

Statue of Orpheus (Baccio Bandinelli)

In 1517, the once open corner loggia and shop fronts, facing the street, were walled in and were replaced by Michelangelo‘s unusual ground-floor “kneeling windows” (finestre inginocchiate). These new windows, with exaggerated scrolling consoles appearing to support the sill and framed in a pedimented aedicule (a motif repeated in his new main doorway), are set into what appears to be a walled infill of the original arched opening, a Mannerist expression Michelangelo and others repeatedly used.

Tapestry

Different for its time, the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, believed to be the combination of Michelozzo’s traditional and progressive elements (that set the tone and style for future palazzo), was the start of several architectural breakthroughs:

  • The palazzo was the first building in the city to be built after the modern order including its own separate rooms and apartments.
  • The palazzo was also a start, to not only Michelozzo’s climb in status as an architect, but also as “the prototype of the Tuscan Renaissance palazzo” (which became a repeated style in many of his later work).
  • It was one of the first buildings to have a grand staircase that was not a secular design.
  • For a building of this time and the status symbol of the client at the time, it was a simple and modest-looking building.
  • One of Michelozzo’s most important commissions for the family, it became a standard for other housing designed by him in years to come.
  • The design of the palazzo, based on medieval design with other components added to it, was meant to be simpler but set, in such a way, that it still showed the wealth of the Medici family through use of materials, the interior and the simplicity.

Madonna with Child (Fra Lippo Lippi, ca. 1460)

The palazzo, divided into different, clear delineated floors, has a ground floor containing two courtyards, chambers, anti-chambers, studies, lavatories, kitchens, wells, secret and public staircases and, on each floor, other rooms meant for family.

Meeting Room

The perfectly symmetrical Magi Chapel (Capella dei Magi), perhaps the most important section of the palace, had its entrance through the central door, which today is closed. Divided into two juxtaposed squares (a large hall and a raised rectangular apse with an altar and two small lateral sacristies), it was begun around 1449-50.  Its precious ceiling of inlaid wood, painted and generously gilded according to Michelozzo’s design, is attributed to Pagno di Lapo Portigiano.

The Magi Chapel

The flooring, of marble mosaic work, is divided by elaborate geometric design which, due to the extraordinary value of the materials (porphyries, granites, etc.), affirmed the Medicis’ desire to emulate the magnificence of the Roman basilicas and the Florentine Baptistry.  A wooden baldachin, its architectural design attributed to Giuliano da Sangallo, around 1469, is worked in inlay and carving.

Altarpiece with copy of Fra Lippo Lippi’s Adoration in the Forest

The first pictorial element in the chapel is the altar panel bearing a copy, attributed to the Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino (a follower of Filippo Lippi), Filippo Lippi‘s Adoration in the Forest which was sold during the last century and today is in Berlin. In 1992, the original beauty of the painting was restored.

Carved Wooden Stalls at the Magi Chapel

The famous frescos, by Benozzo Gozzoli who completed it around 1459, were adorned with a wealth of anecdotal detail and portraits of members of the Medici family including family members (Cosimo, his son Piero, and grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent) and their allies, along with wealthy protagonists Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaiologos and Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg parading through Tuscany in the guise of the Three Wise Men.

Many of the depictions, regardless of its biblical allusions, explicitly referred to the train of the Concilium that met in Florence during the Council of Florence (1438-1439), an event that brought prestige to both Florence and the Medici.

The Angels in Adoration are in the rectangular apse and the Journey of the Magi are in the large hall. The sumptuous and varied costumes, with their princely finishing, make this pictorial series one of the most fascinating testimonies of art and costume of all time. The frescoes were restored from 1987 to 1992.

The Palazzo also displays works by Donatello, namely the statues David, displayed in the courtyard, and Judith and Holofernes, displayed in the garden. Two lunettes,  by Filippo Lippi, depicting Seven Saints and the Annunciation, are both now at the National Gallery, London.

The courtyard of columns has huge stone friezes decorating the walls.  Above it is a portico decorated with cameo-style carvings.The palace also has an interactive media room (in what was once Lorenzo’s bedroom) and conference rooms (still in use today) decorated with 17th-century tapestries.

Palazzo Medici Riccardi: Via Camillo Cavour 3, Florence, Italy. Open daily (except Wednesday), 9 AM to 7 PM. Tel: (+33) 0 55-276-0340. Website: www.palazzo-medici.it. Admission: €7.00 (adults), €4.00 (children aged 6 to 12, military categories) and free for the disabled and their caretakers.   Ticket sales close at 6.30 PM.

Entrance to the Chapel is limited to a maximum of 8 visitors every 7 minutes Bookings operate on a “fast lane” basis, offering priority entrance at the beginning of every hour(from 9 AM to 6 PM) for a maximum number of 25 people at a time. Visitors who have booked should report to the ticket office at least 15 minutes before the booked time.

How to Get There: C1, 23, 14 stop Pucci