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 The Medici entrance
_ _ _ First Itinerary
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The 'noble' entrance to San Lorenzo is on the side of Palazzo Medici;
on the antique Via Larga, it is still the political crossroads where
governmental powers meet. The central, regional and provincial
governments are all located here. But today this street, which makes a
straight line from Piazza Liberta to Piazza Duomo passing alongside
Piazza San Marco, has changed its name to honor Camillo Benso Count of
Cavour.
The Florentine City Council on June 17,1861 in an understandable moment
of great emotion after the death of the Piedmontese statesman who
helped unify Italy, cancelled the toponymic name that caused it to be
named "Via Larga degli Spadai" (for the swords forgers) or, more
simply, "Via Larga", not only for the size of the street, it was
possible to hold jousts and tournaments there, but also because of the
great 'political' importance that the street acquired when the Medici
took control of the reins of the Republic. Above all it became
artistically important in 1440 when Cosimo the Elder decided to
commission his trusted architect Michelozzo to create a new palazzo for
the entire family. In perhaps an unexpected twist of fate this palazzo
became the prototype for all noble Renaissance palazzi, not just in
Florence. Over a century before the Medici "masnada", which literally
means gang, came to Florence from the Mugello. They had owned several
houses near the Old Market (Via dei Medici, by Orsanmichele is a
reminder of this time period) but Giovanni di Bicci, the real founder
of the family's economic wealth, made San Lorenzo the Medici
neighborhood, with a prestigious basilica established in the fourth
century serving as their parish. Now his son Cosimo wanted a noble and
spacious house, one that was impossible to build in the cramped
medieval streets of the city center. He thought it was better to occupy
the open area in Via Larga with the basilica behind it. He rejected
Fillipo Brunelleschi's proposal for the house on the grounds that it
was too sumptuous and it shamelessly faced the church. Cosimo felt it
would attract too much criticism from other citizens. So he called in
Michelozzo, who had already worked for him on the Convent of San Marco
and was better able to interpret the modest wishes of his patron. The
South side of Canto de' Medici (canto means corner) was marked by a
loggia, a common structure in late medieval Florentine social life,
used to hold meetings and public visits, gave people a place to conduct
business and host banquets. Sometimes these loggias were separated from
the main palazzo, as was the case with the Rucellai Loggia, in narrow
Via della Vigna, and the Priors themselves who ruled the city
government had commissioned Orcagna to design them a Loggia next to
Palazzo Signoria. In 1517 the Medici Loggia was closed off with the two
windows that we see today. They are called kneeling windows because of
the form of the supporting brackets. This innovation is attributed to
Michelangelo. On the second floor, the family coat of arms that
Benvenuto Cellini remembers seeing replaced after the Medici returned
from their last exile (1494-1513). He commented on the nice coloring of
its red balls against a golden background.
Palazzo Medici is wider today than it was then, another wing was added
by the second owners of the house, the Riccardi family, who acquired it
in 1659. It now spans from number 1 to number 7 on Via Cavour, and it
houses offices of the Provincial government and the Prefecture. They
say that Palazzo Medici was transformed and enlarged on the suggestion
of the great sculptor and architect Lorenzo Bernini, architect of many
famous buildings including Saint Peters' Colonnades in Rome. It is said
that, on his way to Paris in 1665, he stayed at the Riccardi Palazzo.
Work on the addition was begun in 1670 and according to the tastes of
the new century, the palazzo was enlarged to include an additional 7
windows, all marked with the golden key, which became the Riccardi's
family symbol. |
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The Medici entrance
