The Story Of Florence - free ebook by Edmund G. Gardner

The Story of Florence

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Illustrated by Nelly Erichsen

London: J. M. Dent &amp; Co. Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street Covent Garden W.C. * * 1900 To MY SISTER MONICA MARY GARDNER...

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PREFACE

T HE present volume is intended to supply a popular history of the Florentine Republic, in such a form that it can also be used as a guide-book. It has been my endeavour, while keeping within the necessary limits of this series of Mediæval Towns , to point out briefly the most salient features in the story of Florence, to tell again the tale of those of her streets and buildings, and indicate those of her artistic treasures, which are either most intimately connected with that story or most beau

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The People and Commune of Florence

"La bellissima e famosissima figlia di Roma, Fiorenza." – Dante. B EFORE the imagination of a thirteenth century poet, one of the sweetest singers of the dolce stil novo , there rose a phantasy of a transfigured city, transformed into a capital of Fairyland, with his lady and himself as fairy queen and king: "Amor, eo chero mea donna in domino, l'Arno balsamo fino, le mura di Fiorenza inargentate, le rughe di cristallo lastricate, fortezze alte e merlate, mio fedel fosse ciaschedun Latino." [2]

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The Times of Dante and Boccaccio

"Godi, Fiorenza, poi che sei sì grande che per mare e per terra batti l'ali, e per l'inferno il tuo nome si spande." – Dante. T HE century that passed from the birth of Dante in 1265 to the deaths of Petrarch and Boccaccio, in 1374 and 1375 respectively, may be styled the Trecento , although it includes the last quarter of the thirteenth century and excludes the closing years of the fourteenth. In general Italian history, it runs from the downfall of the German Imperial power at the battle of Be

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The Medici and the Quattrocento

"Tiranno è nome di uomo di mala vita, e pessimo fra tutti gli altri uomini, che per forza sopra tutti vuol regnare, massime quello che di cittadino è fatto tiranno."– Savonarola. "The Renaissance of the fifteenth century was in many things great, rather by what it designed or aspired to do, than by what it actually achieved."– Walter Pater. N ON già Salvestro ma Salvator mundi , "thou that with noble wisdom hast saved thy country." Thus in a sonnet does Franco Sacchetti hail Salvestro dei Medici

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From Fra Girolamo to Duke Cosimo

"Vedendo lo omnipotente Dio multiplicare li peccati della Italia, maxime nelli capi così ecclesiastici come seculari, non potendo più sostenere, determinò purgare la Chiesa sua per uno gran flagello. Et perchè come è scripto in Amos propheta, Non faciet Dominus Deus verbum nisi revelaverit secretum suum ad servos suos prophetas: volse per la salute delli suoi electi acciò che inanzi al flagello si preparassino ad sofferire, che nella Italia questo flagello fussi prenuntiato. Et essendo Firenze i

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The Palazzo Vecchio–The Piazza della Signoria–The Uffizi

"Ecco il Palagio de' Signori si bello che chi cercasse tutto l'universo, non credo ch'é trovasse par di quello." – Antonio Pucci. THE PALAZZO VECCHIO A T the eastern corner of the Piazza della Signoria–that great square over which almost all the history of Florence may be said to have passed–rises the Palazzo Vecchio, with its great projecting parapets and its soaring tower: the old Palace of the Signoria, originally the Palace of the Priors, and therefore of the People. It is often stated that

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Or San Michele and the Sesto di San Piero

"Una figura della Donna mia s'adora, Guido, a San Michele in Orto, che di bella sembianza, onesta e pia, de' peccatori è gran rifugio e porto." ( Guido Cavalcanti to Guido Orlandi .) A T the end of the bustling noisy Via Calzaioli, the Street of the Stocking-makers, rises the Oratory of Our Lady, known as San Michele in Orto, "St. Michael in the Garden." Around its outer walls, enshrined in little temples of their own, stand great statues of saints in marble and bronze by the hands of the greate

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From the Bargello past Santa Croce

"Non ha l'ottimo artista alcun concetto, ch'un marmo solo in sé non circonscriva col suo soverchio; e solo a quello arriva la man che ubbidisce all'intelletto." – Michelangelo Buonarroti. E VEN as the Palazzo Vecchio or Palace of the Priors is essentially the monument of the Secondo Popolo , so the Palazzo del Podestà or Palace of the Commune belongs to the Primo Popolo ; it was commenced in 1255, in that first great triumph of the democracy, although mainly finished towards the middle of the fo

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The Baptistery, the Campanile, and the Duomo

"There the traditions of faith and hope, of both the Gentile and Jewish races, met for their beautiful labour: the Baptistery of Florence is the last building raised on the earth by the descendants of the workmen taught by Dædalus: and the Tower of Giotto is the loveliest of those raised on earth under the inspiration of the men who lifted up the tabernacle in the wilderness. Of living Greek work there is none after the Florentine Baptistery; of living Christian work, none so perfect as the Towe

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The Palazzo Riccardi–San Lorenzo San Marco.

Per molti, donna, anzi per mille amanti, creata fusti, e d'angelica forma. Or par che'n ciel si dorma, s'un sol s'appropria quel ch'è dato a tanti. ( Michelangelo Buonarroti ). T HE Via dei Martelli leads from the Baptistery into the Via Cavour, formerly the historical Via Larga. Here stands the great Palace of the Medici, now called the Palazzo Riccardi from the name of the family to whom the Grand Duke Ferdinand II. sold it in the seventeenth century. The palace was begun by Michelozzo for Cos

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The Accademia delle Belle Arti–The Santissima Annunziata–And other Buildings

"In Firenze, più che altrove, venivano gli uomini perfetti in tutte l'arti, e specialmente nella pittura."– Vasari. T URNING southwards from the Piazza di San Marco into the Via Ricasoli, we come to the Accademia delle Belle Arti , with its collection of Tuscan and Umbrian pictures, mostly gathered from suppressed churches and convents. In the central hall, the Tribune of the David, Michelangelo's gigantic marble youth stands under the cupola, surrounded by casts of the master's other works. The

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The Bridges–The Quarter of Santa Maria Novella

"Sopra il bel fiume d'Arno alla gran villa." – Dante. O UTSIDE the portico of the Uffizi four Florentine heroes–Farinata degli Uberti, Piero Capponi, Giovanni delle Bande Nere, Francesco Ferrucci–from their marble niches keep watch and ward over the river. This Arno, which Lapo Gianni dreamed of as balsamo fino , is spanned by four ancient and famous bridges, and bordered on both banks by the Lungarno. To the east is the Ponte Rubaconte–so called after the Milanese Podestà, during whose term of

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Across the Arno

"Come a man destra, per salire al monte, dove siede la Chiesa che soggioga la ben guidata sopra Rubaconte, si rompe del montar l'ardita foga. per le scalee che si fero ad etade ch'era sicuro il quaderno e la doga." – Dante. A CROSS the river, partly lying along its bank and partly climbing up St. George's hill to the south, lies what was the Sesto d'Oltrarno in the days when old Florence was divided into sextaries, and became the Quartiere di Santo Spirito when the city was reorganised in quarte

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In the Sala dell' Iliade.

First, the three masterpieces of this room. Fra Bartolommeo's great altar-piece painted in 1512 for San Marco (208), representing Madonna and Child surrounded by Saints, with a group of Dominicans attending upon the mystic marriage of St. Catherine of Siena, is a splendid picture, but darkened and injured; the two putti , making melody at the foot of Madonna's throne, are quite Venetian in character. Titian's Cardinal Ippolito dei Medici (201) is one of the master's grandest portraits; the Cardi

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In the Sala di Saturno.

Here are some of the choicest pictures in the collection, including a whole series of Raphael's. Raphael's Madonna del Gran Duca (178)–so called from its modern purchaser, Ferdinand III.–was painted in 1504 or 1505, either before leaving Urbino or shortly after his arrival in Florence; it is the sweetest and most purely devotional of all his Madonnas. Morelli points out that it is strongly reminiscent of Raphael's first master, Timoteo Viti. The portraits of Angelo Doni and Maddalena Doni (61 an

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In the Sala di Giove.

The treasure of this room is the Velata (245), Raphael's own portrait of the woman that he loved, to whom he wrote his sonnets, and whom he afterwards idealised as the Madonna di San Sisto; her personality remains a mystery. Titian's Bella (18), a rather stolid rejuvenation of Eleonora Gonzaga, is chiefly valuable for its magnificent representation of a wonderful Venetian costume. Here are three works of Andrea del Sarto–the Annunciation (124), the Madonna in Glory, with four Saints (123), and S

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In the Sala di Marte.

The most important pictures of this room are: Titian's portrait of a young man with a glove (92); the Holy Family, called of the Impannata or "covered window" (94) a work of Raphael's Roman period, painted by his scholars, perhaps by Giulio Romano; Cristofano Allori's Judith (96), a splendid and justly celebrated picture, showing what exceedingly fine works could be produced by Florentines even in the decadence (Allori died in 1621); Andrea del Sarto's scenes from the history of Joseph (87, 88),

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In the Sala di Apollo and Sala di Venere.

Here, first of all, is Raphael's celebrated portrait of Pope Julius' unworthy successor, Leo X. (40), the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent; on the left–that is, the Pope's right hand–is the Cardinal Giulio dei Medici, afterwards Pope Clement VII.; behind the chair is the Cardinal Luigi dei Rossi, the descendant of a daughter of Piero il Gottoso. One of Raphael's most consummate works. Andrea del Sarto's Pietà (58) was painted in 1523 or 1524 for a convent of nuns in the Mugello, whither Andrea had

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The Sala dell' Educazione di Giove and following rooms.

A series of smaller rooms, no less gorgeously decorated, adjoins the Sala dell' Iliade. In the Sala dell' Educazione di Giove are: Fra Bartolommeo's Holy Family with St. Elizabeth (256), over the door; the Zingarella or Gipsy Girl (246), a charming little idyllic picture by Boccaccino of Cremona, formerly ascribed to Garofalo; Philip IV. of Spain (243) by Velasquez. Carlo Dolci's St Andrew (266) is above his usual level; but it is rather hard to understand how Guido Reni's Cleopatra (270) could

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Conclusion

T HE setting of Florence is in every way worthy of the gem which it encloses. On each side of the city and throughout its province beautiful walks and drives lead to churches, villas and villages full of historical interest or enriched with artistic treasures. I can here merely indicate a very few such places. To the north of the city rises Fiesole on its hill, of which the historical connection with Florence has been briefly discussed in chapter i. At its foot stands the Dominican convent, in w

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TABLE OF THE MEDICI

CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX OF ARCHITECTS, SCULPTORS &amp; PAINTERS ( Names of non-Italians in italics ) ARCHITECTS AND SCULPTORS...

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