“Voi rosati e bei labri
E rosate le guancie avete ancora,
Come vermiglio Aurora,
E dorate le chiome
E bianca sete come il vostro nome.”
She must have been kind to the unhappy poet, who wrote, when sending to her fifty madrigals in manuscript: “Had your Highness not experienced both good and evil fortune, you would not so well understand the misfortunes of others.” Her husband, Francesco de’ Medici, however, declared he did not want a madman at his court; and when Tasso returned to Florence in 1590 his patroness was dead, and he is described as wandering about the Palazzo Pitti like a spectre, and the Florentines wrote, actumi est de eo.
Francesco I. had a particular liking for fountains and grottoes. He ordered four unfinished colossal statues, rough-hewn out of marble by Michelangelo, to be used as supports for a mass of rockwork in a grotto near one of the entrances to the Boboli gardens. These are generally supposed to be four of the prisoners destined for the tomb of Pope Giulio II., but according to J. A. Symonds, “this attribution involves considerable difficulties. In the first place the scale is different, and the stride of one of them, at any rate, is too wide for the pedestals of that monument. Then their violent contortions and ponderous adult forms seem to be at variance with the spirit of the captives.... Their incompleteness baffles criticism; yet we feel instinctively that they were meant for the open air and for effect at a considerable distance.”
After the deaths of Francesco I. and of Bianca Cappello within a few hours of each other at Poggio a Cajano, Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici succeeded to the throne. Quitting the ecclesiastical state, he married Christine of Lorraine in 1589, and to amuse his young, good-looking French wife, gave entertainments which put to shame anything attempted in our days. Buontalenti, that most ingenious of men, painter, sculptor and architect, transformed the great courtyard of the Pitti palace into an amphitheatre covered in with scarlet cloth, and erected a castle on the side next the garden, while in the middle stood a stockade containing fireworks. On the firing of a cannon a triumphal car appeared, in which sat a magician who performed tricks of sleight of hand, and told fortunes to those who desired. Then followed a huge dragon drawing a chariot in which were the Duke of Mantua and Don Pietro de’ Medici attended by musicians, who sang sweet songs in praise of the bride. After them a mountain advanced without any visible motor power; it opened in front of the Grand Duchess, and two knights sprang out and challenged the others to mortal combat. “They fought,” writes Baldinucci, “with lances and then with swords, and meanwhile appeared the other masquerades, each one more beautiful and singular than the last. To make our story short, there were fountains, clouds, forests, shells, images of animals on chariots, ships, rocks, sirens, birds and elephants of extraordinary size; then came a great mountain, a crocodile and a conjurer, followed by a triumphal car, in which sat Don Virginio Orsini with eight nymphs, who offered beautiful vases filled with flowers and a programme of the festival, to the princes and princesses, the ladies and the cavaliers. A garden then glided into the amphitheatre, expanding and advancing without any visible agency, and in a short time admirable designs, formed out of clumps of myrtle and of box, such as ships, towers and castles, men, horses, pyramids and the like, were seen, such as we make of plants in our gardens, while the theatre was filled with sweet melody from the birds among the trees. Don Virginio descended from his car and attacked an adversary with his lance, whereupon all the other knights joined in the fray until separated by the explosion of the fireworks, and this finished the tournament. It was already four o’clock in the night when the princes, the noble ladies and the cavaliers, were conducted into the palace to a sumptuous banquet, and meanwhile the courtyard was filled with most limpid water to the depth of four feet.... No less than eighteen ships, large and small, among them a galleon of three decks, arranged themselves in line of battle. To the sound of drums, pipes, cymbals and other instruments used in naval warfare, and the firing of cannon, the spectators again took their seats, wondering exceedingly at the change that had taken place in so short a time. Thereupon a frigate advanced towards the castle and was saluted by two cannon shot, when with proper demonstrations of alarm she fled and returned to the fleet. The Turks sent out four galleys, and then began a fierce battle, during which fine set pieces of fireworks went off, burning even in the water. Horrible cries of wounded Turks and imprecations in the Turkish language were heard, as some fell into the artificial sea, and fought, whilst swimming, with Christians who had also lost their footing. Soon the water was covered with disabled ships and men who, acting their parts well, attempted to save themselves by swimming.... In a short time the Christians were victorious. They set fire to a Turkish galley, of which the captain, soldiers and crew, with loud cries swam to the castle, whilst the other ships surrendered. It was pretty to see how the Christians, withdrawing somewhat after their victory, occupied themselves in clearing the decks of their ships of broken tackle, and in giving meat and drink to their crews before advancing in two lines against the castle, firing so many broadsides that the air was filled with smoke. Casting lines with hooks at one end, they scaled the walls, and a hand-to-hand struggle took place ere the Christian soldiers reached the top of the castle, where they hoisted their flag. Then with joyous music, singing and dancing, the festival ended only just before the break of day.”
Rejoicings in honour of the marriage continued for a month, during which time more than two thousand strangers lived at the expense of the court; nine thousand barrels of wine were emptied, and 6,056 scudi were spent on sweetmeats. On the 12th June the Grand Duchess Christine received the homage of the Florentine Senate in the beautiful saloon of the Nicchie in the Palazzo Pitti, and thus ended the series of her marriage festivities.
Ferdinando I. found full scope for exercising his love of splendour and pomp when MM. de Sillery and d’Agincourt came to Florence to ask the hand of his niece, Maria de’ Medici, for Henry IV. The contract was signed on the 25th April, 1600, and on the 30th was solemnly announced to the senate, nobles and principal citizens, in the throne room. The bride, dressed with extraordinary magnificence, sat on the throne, while the Grand Duke and Duchess sat below her. After the contract had been read aloud the Grand Duke rose and, as is quaintly described, “laying aside all air of majesty and sobbing for joy, was the first to bend the knee and kiss the hem of his niece’s dress, as Queen of France. After him followed the Grand Duchess and the dignitaries of the court in their proper order, and then the whole court, the senate and the nobility, accompanied the Queen in triumph, amid the acclamations of the people, to the church of the S.S. Annunziata to give thanks to God.”