THE CAPPELLE MEDICEE & THE PALAZZO MEDICI RICCARDI

Visiting the Cappelle Medicee, Firenze

Today, Claire Fontaine and her friends have visited two places very important in the lives of the Medici: the Cappelle Medicee and the Palazzo Medici Riccardi.

Claire loves Art and these two places are good examples of Renaissance.

Before this amazing visit, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 10).

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The Medici Chapels or Cappelle medicee are two structures at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, and built as extensions to Brunelleschi's 15th-century church, with the purpose of celebrating the Medici family, patrons of the church and Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

The Sagrestia Nuova or New Sacristy was designed by Michelangelo. The larger Cappella dei Principi or Chapel of the Princes, though proposed in the 16th century, was not begun until the early 17th century, its design being a collaboration between the family and architects.

The Sagrestia Nuova was intended by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici and his cousin Pope Leo X as a mausoleum or mortuary chapel for members of the Medici family. It balances Brunelleschi's Sagrestia Vecchia, the Old Sacristy nestled between the left transept 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.

The Grandma visits the Cappelle Medicee

It was the first essay in architecture (1519–24) of Michelangelo, who also designed its monuments dedicated to certain members of the Medici family, with sculptural figures of the four times of day that were destined to influence sculptural figures reclining on architraves for many generations to come. The Sagrestia Nuova was entered by a discreet entrance in a corner of San Lorenzo's right transept, now closed.

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

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

There were intended to be four Medici tombs, but those of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, modestly buried beneath the altar at the entrance wall, were never begun. The result is that the two magnificent existing tombs are those of comparatively insignificant Medici: Lorenzo di Piero, Duke of Urbino and Giuliano di Lorenzo, Duke of Nemours.

Their architectural components are similar; their sculptures offer contrast. On an unfinished wall, Michelangelo's Madonna and Child flanked by the Medici patron saints Cosmas and Damian, executed by Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli and Raffaello da Montelupo respectively, to Michelangelo's models, are set over their plain rectangular tomb.

Claire Fontaine visits the Cappelle Medicee

The octagonal Cappella dei Principi surmounted by a tall dome, 59 m. high, is the distinguishing feature of San Lorenzo when seen from a distance.

It is on the same axis as the nave and chancel to which it provides the equivalent of an apsidal chapel. Its entrance is from the exterior, in Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, and through the low vaulted crypt planned by Bernardo Buontalenti before plans for the chapel above were made.

The opulent Cappella dei Principi, an idea formulated by Cosimo I, was put into effect by Ferdinand I de' Medici. It was designed by Matteo Nigetti, 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, which were altered in the execution by the aged Buontalenti. A true expression of court art, it was the result of collaboration among designers and patrons.

The orb that is on top of the lantern has seventy-two facets and is about two feet in diameter. The orb and cross, that is on top of the orb, are traditional symbols of the Roman and Christian power, and recalls the similar orbs on central dome plan churches like St. Maria del Fiore and St. Peter's. But because it is on a private mausoleum, the Medici family is promoting their own personal power with the orb and cross, laurel wreath and lion heads, which are all symbols of status and power.

More information: Museums in Florence

 

 Men are God’s creation.

Whatever we achieve is God’s glory.

Giovanni de' Medici

The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is a Renaissance palace located in Florence. It is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Florence and a museum.

The palace was designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo for Cosimo de' Medici, head of the Medici banking family, and was built between 1444 and 1484. It was well known for its stone masonry, which includes architectural elements of rustication and ashlar. The tripartite elevation used here expresses the Renaissance spirit of rationality, order, and classicism on human scale. 

This tripartite division is emphasized by horizontal stringcourses that divide the building into stories of decreasing height. The transition from the rusticated masonry of the ground floor to the more delicately refined stonework of the third floor makes the building seem lighter and taller as the eye moves upward to the massive cornice that caps and clearly defines the building's outline.

Tina Picotes visits the Palazzo Medici

Michelozzo was influenced in his design of the palace by both classical Roman and Brunelleschian principles.  

During the Renaissance revival of classical culture, ancient Roman elements were often replicated in architecture, both built and imagined in paintings.

In the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the rusticated masonry and the cornice had precedents in Roman practice, yet in totality it looks distinctly Florentine, unlike any known Roman building.

Similarly, the early Renaissance architect Brunelleschi used Roman techniques and influenced Michelozzo. The open colonnaded court that is at the center of the palazzo plan has roots in the cloisters that developed from Roman peristyles.

More information: Palazzo Medici Riccardi

The once open corner loggia and shop fronts facing the street were walled in during the 16th century. They were replaced by Michelangelo's unusual ground-floor kneeling windows or finestre inginocchiate, with exaggerated scrolling consoles appearing to support the sill and framed in a pedimented aedicule, a motif repeated in his new main doorway. The new windows are set into what appears to be a walled infill of the original arched opening, a Mannerist expression Michelangelo and others used repeatedly.

The Palazzo Medici Riccardi was built after the defeat of the Milanese and when Cosimo de Medici had more governmental power. Rinaldo delgi Albizzi had also died giving Cosimo and his supporters even more influence. With this new political power Cosimo decided he wanted to build a palazzo. He was able to acquire property from his neighbors in order to begin the building of the palazzo.

Visiting the Palazzo Medici Riccardi

Unlike other wealthy families however, Cosimo wanted to start fresh and cleared the site before he began building.

It was larger than other palazzi but its more modest design made it less noticeable.

Yet, Cosimo's attempts at modesty did not help later on when the Medici family was scrutinized for their political power. Accused of spending money that was not his, Cosimo's house became part of arguments claiming that the Medicis built the Palazo with money that was not theirs.

Michelozzo had become a favorite of Cosimo due to his attention to tradition and his style for decoration. The courtyard of the palazzo was based on the loggia of the Ospedale degli Innocenti, a Brunelleschian design.

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The Palazzo Medici Riccardi was different for its time, and was the start of several architectural breakthroughs. It was believed to be the combination of Michelozzo's traditional and progressive elements that set the tone and style for future palazzi. 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 itself is based on medieval design with other components added to it. The design 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.

The building materials used for the construction were meant to accentuate the structure of the building through the threefold grading of masonry, rusticated blocks on the ground floor, the ashlar face of the top story, and the cornice.

The Grandma & Claire visit the Palazzo Medici Riccardi

The exterior design of the rusticated blocks and ashlar also create an optical recession that makes the building look even larger by the use of rough texture to smoother textures as the building heightens. The cornice in the palazzo was also the first time it debuted fully developed, giving the palazzo more significance in a historical context.

The Medici were still able to show their wealth on the exterior through their building material choices. The rusticated blocks soon became seen as a status symbol as the materials were costly and rare. They also, later, became a large part of power politics that was believed to have started with the Palazzo Medici Riccardi.

The palazzo is divided into different floors. The ground floor contains two courtyards, chambers, anti-chambers, studies, lavatories, kitchens, wells, secret and public staircases and on each floor there are other rooms meant for family.

Perhaps the most important section of the palace is the Magi Chapel, famously frescoed by Benozzo Gozzoli, who completed it around 1459. Gozzoli adorned the frescos with a wealth of anecdotal detail and portraits of members of the Medici family and their allies, along with Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaiologos and Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg parading through Tuscany in the guise of the Three Wise Men. 

Regardless of its biblical allusions, many of the depictions allude to the Council of Florence (1438-1439), an event that brought prestige to both Florence and the Medici.

More information: Museums in Florence

For the new leaders to rise the old must fall.

Giovanni de' Medici