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 2_Via de' Martelli
_ _ _ First Itinerary
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After the miniscule Via de' Gondi connects this street to the neighborhood and the basilica of San Lorenzo,
Via Cavour continues south but its name changes to Via de' Martelli,
once called Borgo degli Spadai. In Florence the streets located outside
of the Roman walls were named Borgo and here, next to the basilica of
Santa Reparata, was a small door in the northern city walls. Martello
Ghetti lived in Borgo degli Spadai, a continuation of Via Larga degli
Spadai. A native of the Mugello, just like the Medici, he enrolled in
the Armor Guild. Martello was the founding father of a family that
would make its fortune in the silk and brocade trade. Ugolino dei
Martelli was a member of the Silk Guild as early as 1373 and among his
descendants there are 40 Priors and 7 Gonfaloniers. This may have been
the result of the sincere devotion that closely tied this family to the
Medici. Protectors and patrons of young artists, they gave Donatello a
home for many years and he sculpted many works for them. Most of them
are now located in the Bargello including Donatello's famous coat of
arms, which the government recently acquired. Leonardo da Vinci also
lived in one of their houses and it was there that he painted Mona Lisa
or Monna Lisa del Giocondo who lived close-by in Via della Stufa.
The street next to Palazzo Medici Riccardi offers a fascinating
complex. In 1351 Giovanni Gori built a small oratory dedicated to Saint
John there, called San Giovanni. The name was later changed to San
Giovannino to avoid confusion with the Baptistery.
The building was originally constructed in the Gothic style as you can
see from what remains of the windows on Via de' Gori. It was here Giovanni de' Medici,
Lorenzo the Magnificent's son, used to pray. He received his cardinal's
hat in 1482 while still an adolescent. Fearing revolt in 1536 the
government hid Duke Alessandro's body here, after Lorenzino
assassinated him. San Giovannino degli Scolopi
The church of San Giovannino degli Scolopi is also worth a visit. The
result of Bartolomeo Ammannati's rennovation, as he wished he was
buried here beside his wife in 1592. Ammantati was both an architect
and a sculptor: the poor Neptune statue in Piazza Signoria
is his, but also the amazing Santa Trinita bridge. The church of San
Giovannino is a good example of Florentine Mannerist style. Ammannati's
façade recalls Michelangelo's
double inset columns in the Laurentian Library's vestibule. Finished in
the sixteen hundreds by Alfonso Parigi, it was heavily redone when
Leopoldo Pasqui restored it in 1843. Inside the baroque taste is
apparent in the niches' plaster statues. It contains an interesting
anthology of paintings from the Late Mannerist Florentine School. The
panel by Alessandro Allori in the second chapel on the left, where the
Ammannatis are buried, depicts "Christ and the Canaanite" (around
1592). Saint Bartolomeo is Ammannati's portrait and his wife Laura
Battiferri was depicted in the woman at the far right. On the right of
the nave is Girolamo Macchietti's "Crucifix" (close to the entrance)
and a "San Francesco Saverio Preaching to the Indians" by painter
Francesco Curradi. Before taking Via Gori to enter the neighborhood
let's visit Palazzo Medici Riccardi. |
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The Medici entrance
