The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Cosimo di Giovanni de’ Medici, Pater Patriae, 1389–1464, by Pontormo

2. Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, 1360–1429, by Bronzino.

3. Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici, ‘il Gottoso’, 1416–1469, by Mino da Fiesole.

4. Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici, 1424–1463, by Mino da Fiesole.

5. Giuliano di Piero de’ Medici, 1453–1478, by Botticelli.

6 and 7. Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, ‘il Magnifico’, 1449–1492.

Left a painted terracotta by Verrocchio. Right anonymous painting.

8. A detail of The Procession of the Magi, the mural by Gozzoli in the chapel in the Medici Palace. Suggestions about the identity of the various figures are given on pages 110–11; but the man on the horse on the far right has also been identified as Piero de’ Medici, Gozzoli’s patron. Gozzoli left no room for doubt as to his own identity by painting his name on his hat.

9. Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi. As suggested on page 109 the young man withthe sword on the left is probably intended to represent Lorenzo the Magnificent. Thepossible identity of the other figures is given on page 320. The man on the extreme rightis usually taken to be Botticelli himself.

10. The courtyard of the Medici Palace was designed by MichelozzoMichelozzi. It is described on page 90.

11. Botticelli’s Young Woman, though formerly supposed to represent either Clarice Orsini or Simonetta Vespucci, is more likely to be a portrait of Fioretta Gorini, mistress of Giuliano de’ Medici and mother of Giulio who later became Pope Clement VII.

12. Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici, 1471–1503, by Bronzino.

13. Girolamo Savonarola, 1452–1498, by Fra Bartolommeo.

14. The cloister of San Marco. Michelozzo was commissioned to rebuild this monastery by Cosimo de’ Medici. Savonarola became Prior here in 1491.

15. King Charles VIII’s army entering Florence on 17 November 1494. by Granacci. A corner of the Medici Palace can be seen on the left.

16. The execution of Savonarola in the Piazza della Signoria on 23 May 1498, by an unknown artist.

17. The Medici villa il Trebbio by Giusto Utens. Cosimo retreated to this villa during the anti-Medicean plot of 1433. It later passed into the hands of Giovanni delle Bande Nere.

18. The Medici villa at Cafaggiolo by Giusto Utens. It was rebuilt for Cosimo by Michelozzo on an estate which the family had owned for generations. One of the towers has since been demolished

19. The Ponte Santa Trinità was rebuilt by Bartolommeo Ammanati between 1567 and 1569. Beyond it may be seen the Ponte Vecchio and the tower of the Palazzo della Signoria, by this time known as the Palazzo Vecchio.

20. The villa of Poggio a Caiano by Giusto Utens. It was converted by Giuliano da Sangallo for Lorenzo the Magnificent. The loggia and pediment were added in the time of his son, Pope Leo X.

21. Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Pope Leo X, portrayed by Raphael with the Pope’s cousin, Giulio, the future Pope Clement VII, on his right and Cardinal Luigi de’ Rossi standing behind the chair.

22. Florence at the time of the siege of 1529–30 as depicted by Giorgio Vasari. The Prince of Orange’s camp sprawls across the foreground. It was on Michelangelo’s advice that the defences were extended to circumvallate the hill of San Miniato on the right. The belfry of its church was protected from artillery fire by mattresses. Starved into surrender, the citizens were forced to accept the return of the Medici who had fled from Florence after the Sack of Rome.

23. Ajoust in the Piazza Santa Croce where chariot races and games ofcalcio were also traditionally held. The church of Santa Croce in the background contains the tombs of Michelangelo and of several of Cosimo de’ Medici’s friends, including Leonardo Bruni. The present marble façade, though built to a seventeenth-century design, was not added until 1863.

24. The Medici Palace as it appeared after its enlargement by the Riccardi family. The upper storeys which can be seen facing the church and the overhanging cornice are as Michclozzo designed them. The church on the left is San Giovannino degli Scolopi which was rebuilt between 1579 and 1661 by Ammanati and Giulio and Alfonso Parigi.

25. The Palazzo Vecchio (formerly known as the Palazzo della Signoria) and the Loggia dei Lanzi after the building of the Uffizi which can be seen behind the Palazzo.

26. The lily of the commune of Florence, surmounted by the granducal coronet, as represented in mosaic in the Cappella dei Principi.

27. The Grand Duke Cosimo I, 1519–1574, by Bronzino.

28. The Grand Duke Cosimo I as portrayed by Cellini whom he treated with the ‘greatest affection’ on Cellini’s return to Florence.

29. Cosimo I’s son, the Grand Duke Fcrdinando I, 1549–1609, by Pulzone.

30. The Pitti Palace was bought by Cosimo I’s wife, Eleonora of Toledo, in 1549 and thereafter became the residence of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

31 and 32. Two views of Florence from the Arno. In the lower picture the Palazzo Vecchio, Bruncllcschi’s dome and Giotto’s campanile are all easily identified.

33. The studiolo of the Grand Duke Francesco I in the Palazzo Vecchio built for him by Vasari and filled with Florentine late Mannerist paintings. The circular portrait in the lunette is of Francesco’s mother, Eleonora of Toledo, by Bronzino.

34. A portrait of Cosimo I engraved by Niccolô délia Casa in 1547 after a portrait by Baccio Bandinelli painted in 1544.

35. The Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere, by Dolci. She was the wife of Ferdinando II and mother of Cosimo III.

36. The festival of the Omaggi on St John the Baptist’s Day when the Grand Duke ‘received homage from such as hold territories, forts and castles of him, within his dominions… which was performed by their passing one by one before him, lowering the banner they carried’. It was celebrated every year on 24 June until 1808.

37. The Grand Duke Ferdinando II, 1610–1670, by Sustermans.

38 and 39. The spectacular performance of Il Moudo Festeggiaiite was given in the Boboli gardens before about 20,000 people to celebrate the wedding of the Grand Prince Cosimo and Princess Marguerite-Louise (see page 289). A gigantic Atlas appeared bearing the world on his shoulders and moved around the arena ingeniously propelled by hidden contrivances. After his awesome announcement that Hercules had descended from the sky for Cosimo’s wedding, the sphere on his shoulders suddenly broke, discharged its contents and transformed him into the Atlas mountain with four girls sitting round the summit. The metamorphosed giant is shown in the lower picture where horse-drawn chariots are also to be seen bearing Apollo, the sun-god, and Cynthia, goddess of the moon.

40. The Grand Prince Cosimo, later Cosimo III, 1642–1723, by Sustermans.

41. The Grand Prince Fcrdinando, 1663–1713, by Bernini.

42. The Grand Duke Gian Gastone, 1671–1737.

43. Princess Anna Maria de’ Medici, Electress Palatine, 1667–1743, by Douven.