The Palazzo Medici-Riccardi

A short distance from the religious centre of the city, and prominently placed on the main road leading north (once the via Larga now the via Cavour), stands the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi.

This marked the threshold of Medici territory and Florence's most famous family will appear again and again on this walk.

The palace was designed by the architect Michelozzo for Cosimo de' Medici, the man who stamped the Medici family firmly on the political map of Florence. 

The palace was begun in 1444, the first monumental private residence of the Quattrocento. It would act as the prototype for the design of all subsequent palaces in the city.

We see here the first appearance of the large rough blocks of stone, which would become such a feature of palaces throughout the city. They give the building the appearance of a fortress, an impression reinforced by its overall dimensions. Each story is over 20 feet (6m) high and distinguished by the use of a different cuts of stone. The building is capped by a magnificent stone cornice, which projects 6 feet (2m) and replaces the wooden eaves, which were once such a distinctive part of Florentine domestic architecture.

The Medici family dominated Florence on and off for over three centuries. Their coat of arms can be seen all over the city.

If the family had originally been doctors, as their name suggests, their phenomenal success in the 15th century was due, not to medicine, but to banking. The palace acted as the Head Office of the Medici bank, which had become the largest in Europe under Cosimo's careful management. This is where he would interview clients, receive reports and plan his investment strategies.

Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464) is often referred to as Cosimo Il Vecchio. Cosimo the Old, to distinguish him from his 16th century descendant, Duke Cosimo I (1517-74).

Cosimo was a great patron of the Renaissance, spending huge sums of money on both art and architecture. Both Donatello's statue of 'Judith and Holofernes' and his enigmatic image of 'David' once stood in the palace, one in the courtyard and the other in the garden.

The Chapel of the Magi: 10-19. Closed Wednesday. 7€.

The choice of subject may have been influenced by the Medici family's participation each year in a festival held by the Compagnia dei Magi di San Marco, which took place on the Feast day of Epiphany. 

The frescoes are rich in detail; the artist even included himself in the procession, a fact he records on his hat. Benozzo also included portraits of members of the Medici family in the frescoes, but there is no consensus as to their identities.

Cosimo also spent lavishly on the Dominican church and adjoining monastery of San Marco, which are located further along the via Cavour, on the north side of the Piazza di San Marco. Both buildings were rebuilt in the first half of the 15th century by Michelozzo, the architect responsible for the design of Cosimo's own palace. Most of the finance for the project came from Cosimo's own purse and in return he received a twin cell in the monastery for his own personal use. It was actually frescoed by Benozzo Gozzoli with an image of the 'Adoration of the Magi'.

You may visit Cosimo's cell and the much smaller single cells of the other monks, for the monastery is now a museum.

San Marco

The Museum of San Marco is essentially a showcase for the artistic genius of a painter, who was also a monk, Guido da Fiesole, better known to us as Fra Angelico.

In 1436, some of the Dominican friars from nearby Fiesole (including Fra Angelico) moved into the newly rebuilt monastery. There, Fra Angelico, with the aid of assistants, painted a series of remarkable frescoes for the cloister, chapter house as well as the individual cells of the monks. Each cell, as you can see on the left, was furnished with a single image to aid the monks in their prayers.

A short distance away from San Marco, at via Cavour 69, is another exciting cycle of frescoes, but one which is much less well known.

Chiostro dello Scalzo: Mon., Thur. & Sat. 8.15-13.50. Free

The tiny cloister, which, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful spaces in the city, is all that remains of a complex of buildings belonging to a confraternity (or charitable body) devoted to St John the Baptist. It was called the Scalzo, because the leader of the order would walk barefoot (as a sign of his humility) when the order processed through the city.

The frescoes were painted in monochrome, between 1513 and 1526, by Andrea del Sarto (1487-1530), who was, himself, a member of the confraternity. The beautifully illustrate the life of the their patron saint, St John the Baptist.

La Galleria dell'Accademia

The gallery is home to what is probably the most famous statue in the world, Michelangelo's 'David'. Each year, in the region of, one million people visit the gallery and almost all are there just to see this single work of art.

The statue was commissioned by the Cathedral authorities for a niche high up on the exterior of the cathedral. The tall, thin block of marble had already defeated two earlier sculptors. In 1462, Agostino di Duccio started carving the marble, but soon abandoned the project and, in 1476, Antonio Rossellino suffered the same experience.

This presented Michelangelo with a great challenge and he rose to it magnificently. In little more than two years he had not only carved an image of David, as required, but had also created one of the definitive images of the entire Renaissance. In the contract between the Cathedral authorities and Michelangelo, it was agreed that the work should take two years. Michelangelo finished the work six months late, but the result was a tour de force and the authorities were not slow to realise that the twenty-nine year sculptor had carved something quite exceptional.

Although the statue had been destined to stand in a niche on the exterior of the cathedral, the general feeling was that it should be given a more prominent position in the city, which is how it ended up guarding the entrance to the Palazzo Signoria. There it stood for almost four hundred years, before it was moved to the room in which we find it today, specially built in 1882 to house the statue.
 

For more information on the statue, see: David

The beautiful Piazza Annunziata is bordered on three sides by a portico or loggia. The portico on the east side is the oldest and belongs to Il Ospedale degli Innocenti or The Hospital of the Innocents. It is no ordinary portico, but one with a special position in the history of architecture. This was the first major work to be designed, in the new Renaissance style, by one of the greatest architects of the age, Filippo Brunelleschi.

The design of the portico marked an important stage in the development of the Renaissance in Florence. In its use of the classical principles of balance, harmony and proportion, it was a prototype of future developments in architecture.

A century later, Antonio Sangallo the Elder copied the design in his Loggia dei Serviti (1516-25), which lies on the opposite side of the square. The only real difference between the two designs is that in the latter the spandrels between the arches are decorated with the symbol of the Servite order rather than with images of foundlings. It must be said that the inclusion of the roundels in the latter portico, which were designed by Luca della Robbia, was against the wishes of Brunelleschi, who had wanted to keep the design free from extraneous detail.

The hospital is believed to have been one of the first ever built for orphans. The care of orphans had been entrusted to the Guild of the Silk Merchants as early as 1294 and in 1419 the Guild bought the land and commissioned Brunelleschi to build a hospital.

 On the north side of the square sits the church of Santissima Annunziata, which was built in the 13th century by members of the Servite order. The Servites, Servants of Mary, an order devoted to the Virgin Mary, was founded in 1233 by seven Florentine noblemen, who left the city to set up a monastery in the hills to the north of Florence. (The monastery at Monte Senario still exists and lies in a panoramic position a short drive away from the city).

The church houses one of the city’s most famous icons, an image of ‘The Annunciation’, in which, it is alleged, the head of the Virgin was completed by an angel, while the painter was asleep. The painting is preserved in La Cappella dell’ Annunziata (The  Chapel of the Annunciation), a large and ornate tabernacle designed by Michelozzo and paid for by Piero de’ Medici. There is an inscription in the tabernacle, which, in addition to commemorating the donor, states that the marble alone cost 4,000 florins!

San Lorenzo

The church of San Lorenzo is the oldest Basilica in Florence and once acted as the city's cathedral. For centuries, it was also the parish church of the Medici family and is the place where many of its members are interred.

A church dedicated to San Lorenzo (St Lawrence) has stood on this site since 393, but the present building was mostly designed by Brunelleschi in the first half of the 15th century. It was largely funded by Cosimo de' Medici and in return for this and also for the service he rendered to the Florentine Republic, he was honoured by being buried at the top of the bottom in front of the High Altar, one of the most prestigious places, in a church, to be interred.

In artistic and architectural terms, the complex of buildings which make up San Lorenzo is one of the richest in the city. And most of this is due to the patronage of successive generations of the Medici family and their investment of colossal amounts of cash.

At the end of the north transept lies La Sagrestia Vecchia or Old Sacristy, which was built by Brunelleschi between 1421 and 1426, thus predating the building of the rest of the church. It was commissioned by Cosimo's father, Giovanni de' Bicci de' Medici, who lies buried here alongside his wife. We can see the Medici coats of arms prominently displayed in the four corners of the ceiling vault. La Sacrestia Vecchia is a beautiful fusion of the architectural genius of Brunelleschi and the sculptural genius of Donatello.

The tomb of the patron's second son, Giovannii, and his grandson, Piero, stands by the entrance to the Sacristy. It was executed by Andrea del Verrocchio and his workshop in 1472 and incorporates porphyry, marble and bronze in its design, all expensive materials expressly chosen to parade the wealth of the Medici family.

For 500 years the church has been without a proper marble facade. It came very close to getting one at the beginning of the 16th century when Giovanni de' Medici, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was elected Pope Leo X. The parish church of a family which could now boast a Pope in its ranks had to have a suitably impressive facade and a family friend and sculptor was commissioned to design and build one. He was the same age as the new Pope and his name was Michelangelo.

In the end, the facade never got built, as the Pope transferred his attention to another project, one which would also promote the name. wealth and honour of the Medici family, the building of a new Sacristy.

The New Sacristy

The New Sacristy, or La Sacrestia Nuova, was to be the final resting place of four members of the Pope's family, his illustrious father, uncle, brother and nephew. However, in the end only the Pope's brother, the Duke of Nemours, and his nephew, the Duke of Urbino, were sculpted.

The commission went to Michelangelo, who began work in 1520, but stopped seven years later when the Medici family was driven out of Florence. The family returned in 1530 and the sculptor resumed work only to stop again in 1534 when he left for Rome. Michelangelo would never set foot again in his native city, dying in Rome thirty years later, in 1564. The Sacristy would be completed by Giorgio Vasari and Bartolommeo Ammannati in consultation with the master.

La Biblioteca Laurenziana: 9-13.00. Closed Saturday. €3.

In 1523, the Medici had the good fortune to have another member of their family elected Pope. Giuliano de'Medici, who was Leo X' cousin, took the name Clement VII. In the following year the new Pope commissioned Michelangelo to build a library at San Lorenzo to house the family's priceless collection of manuscripts.

The vestibule is the most startling aspect of the library, dominated as it is by the staircase, which seems to take up so much of the available space.

The library, however, would suffer the same fate as the New Sacristy in that it would not be completed until well after the Pope's death and, in this case, also after the death of Michelangelo. It was finally finished by Vasari and Ammannati, in 1568, forty years after it had first been commissioned.