PALAZZO RICCARDI.

The name of Medici occurs occasionally in the early annals of Florence, but the real history of the family begins with Salvestro. In 1352 he led the Florentine troops against the Archbishop of Milan, and was knighted on the field of battle. In 1370 he was Gonfalonier of Justice and again in 1378, in spite of the efforts of the old nobility and of the Guelph party whose power he had sought to diminish by a new law. Their opposition to his suggestions brought about the Ciompi riots, and Salvestro de’ Medici was the first citizen knighted by the mob on the Piazza della Signoria. His grandson, Giovanni, born in 1360, became the first banker of Italy, and is described by Machiavelli as “most kind of heart, not only giving alms to all who begged of him, but aiding many poor people without being solicited. He was kindly towards all men, praising the good, and pitying the wicked. Never suing for honours, he obtained them all. He never went to the palace unless summoned. He loved peace, and always sought to avoid war. When men fell into trouble he gave them help, and aided those who had attained prosperity. Hostile to public peculation, he worked for the common good. As a magistrate he was gracious in manner, not eloquent, but of extraordinary prudence. Of a melancholy countenance, yet was he pleasant and witty in conversation. He died rich in the goods of this world, but richer in good repute and in the good-will of his fellow-citizens.”

Cosimo de’ Medici, for whom Michelozzo Michelozzi built the great palace in Via Larga (now Palazzo Riccardi), is described as tall, of dark complexion and of imposing presence. He applied himself so strenuously to increase the political power of his house, “that those who had rejoiced,” writes Machiavelli, “at Giovanni’s death, now regretted it, perceiving what manner of man Cosimo was. Of consummate prudence, staid, yet agreeable presence, he was liberal and humane. He never worked against his own party nor against the State, and was prompt in giving aid to all. His liberality gained him many partisans among the citizens.”

After his marriage with Contessina, daughter of Giovanni Bardi, Count of Vernio, he bought and rebuilt the villa of Careggi, and soon afterwards, as Vasari tells us, charged his intimate friend Michelozzo Michelozzi “to make the design for the house and palace which is at the corner of Via Larga, opposite to S. Giovannino; as it seemed to him that the one made, as has been said elsewhere, by Filippo di Ser Brunelleschi, was too sumptuous and magnificent, and would rather attract the envy of his fellow-citizens, than add to the beauty and ornament of the city and to his own convenience. Being therefore pleased with Michelozzo’s design, he bade him carry it out in the form we now see.... Michelozzo’s merit is the greater, as this is the first palace built in Florence in the modern style, containing suites of rooms both useful and beautiful. The cellars are four braccie below ground and three braccie above, so as to afford light, and near them are store rooms and pantries. The ground floor consists of two courtyards with magnificent loggie, out of which open halls, drawing-rooms, waiting-rooms, studies, bakeries, kitchens, wells, and commodious public and secret staircases. On the upper floors are apartments for a family, with every convenience that can serve, not only for a private citizen, as Cosimo then was, but for a magnificent and powerful king.” The palace was begun in 1444, according to Gianozzo di Bernardo Galviati.[73]

A more detailed account of the palace is given in Firenze Antica e Moderna, where it is described as having “originally been a square building of the rustic order up to the first floor, with large protruding ‘bozzi.’ The two upper floors are Doric and Corinthian, with hammered and flattened ‘bozzi.’ The windows have double arches with composite columns in the centre, and in the triangles are sculptured alternately the Medici arms with seven balls and the device of Cosimo Pater Patriae, a ring with a diamond encircling two feathers, to which was added later a third feather and the motto Semper, the device of the Magnificent Lorenzo. The palace was at first built with four doors, but only the one in Via Larga was retained, the three others being turned into kneeling windows designed by Michelangelo. They are said to be the first made after such fashion in Florence, and are highly praised for their beauty and good proportions. Before these windows were made the two doors at the angle, or at all events the one opposite the church of S. Giovannino, were always open, and led into a large internal loggia, called the Loggia de’ Medici. At the angle of the palace is a magnificent shield containing their well known arms, with the Lily of France, granted to the Medici by Charles VII., on the centre ball. The balls were removed when they were driven out of Florence in 1527 and the Cross, emblem of the People, put in their stead; but on the restoration of the family the balls were replaced. Entering the first courtyard, surrounded with an arcade, are to be seen columns of pietra serena with composite capitals, and in the frieze are eight medallions of marble copied from antique cameos and trophies of medals, by that famous artist, Donatello.”

It will ever remain a mystery why Michelozzi made so small and so dark a chapel for such a noble palace. It almost seems as if he had forgotten it in the original plan, and had then placed it where it would not interfere with the fine suites of rooms. Resting almost entirely on the vaulted rooms of the ground floor, it is in a corner of the building, and is built of brick. But all the defects of the architect vanish before the vivid beauty and the grace of Benozzo Gozzoli’s frescoes.

On either side of the window (enlarged in 1837) in front of which stood the altar with the picture of the Madonna adoring the Infant Christ, by Filippo Lippi, now in the Berlin gallery, are groups of adoring angels with peacock wings, and behind them stand others singing. The landscape is worthy of the angels. From the flower-spangled grass rise hedges of roses and pomegranates, huge stone pines and slender cypresses; in the distance are grey towns with many towers, and in the sky above angels float amongst the clouds. Brilliantly coloured birds are flying here and there, while others perch on the ground at the feet of the kneeling angels. The walls of the chapel are entirely covered with the story of the Magii; only the Kings and their attendants are portraits of the time and the landscape is purely Tuscan.

The centre figure on the north wall is a handsome, fair-haired youth, wearing a curious turban-like jewelled crown and riding a high-stepping white horse on whose gorgeous trappings are embroidered the Medici arms. He is supposed to be Lorenzo, the darling of his grandfather Cosimo. Behind him rides his father, Piero, grasping a lock of his horse’s mane with one hand and attended by a serving-man, evidently a portrait. Cosimo Pater Patriae rides beside him on a mule, a black slave running at his stirrup. Other members of the Medici family are no doubt depicted in the train of followers, amongst whom one discerns the stern, sagacious face of the painter himself, with Opus Benotii written on his cap. A long line of horse and footmen are seen in the distance winding down the hills in a rocky landscape with here and there a tall cypress tree, denuded of its lower branches in the fashion still dear to Tuscan hearts. A hind is rushing up a slope chased by greyhounds and huntsmen. On the west wall, opposite the window, is another King on a splendidly caparisoned white horse, wearing a long green tunic of Oriental cut and a jewelled crown on his head with the points curving inwards. He is the Emperor John Paleologus who came to Florence to attend the Council, and round him are graceful, lithe, young pages on foot, while others follow on horseback crowned with wreaths of pink roses. The landscape is rocky and broken, winding roads lead up to fortified hill-towns and castles, and rivers rush down to the plain. A window has been cut in this wall, but without doing the irreparable damage committed by the Marchese Francesco Riccardi who, in order to widen the staircase leading from the courtyard up to the first floor, cut a corner out of the chapel. Part of the wall was utterly destroyed and the figure of the third King, the portrait of the Greek Patriarch, is cut in two. His mule has lost one leg, and the upper part of the fresco on the wall which was moved forwards is a daub by some inferior artist. Fortunately the lower part suffered less. The Patriarch wears a crown with high points, and is clothed in a cassock with a mozzetta of red velvet edged with ermine over his shoulders. His mule, whose bridle has large golden bosses, holds its head proudly, as though conscious of the high dignity of its rider. Among the richly dressed cavaliers in front of him is a gallant lad, with a hunting guepard on a pad behind him; this is said to be the portrait of Lorenzo’s younger brother Giuliano, murdered some years later by Francesco de’ Pazzi in the cathedral. In the distance a long train of baggage animals, horses, mules, donkeys and camels, are wending their way round the shoulder of a mountain. On each side of the recess where the altar stood are painted, above the doors of the tiny sacristies, the ass on one side, the ox on the other, in whose manger the Holy Infant was laid.

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The war with Lucca gave rise to accusations against all who had to do with it and Florence was divided into two factions, one led by Cosimo de’ Medici, the other by Rinaldo degl’Albizzi, who contrived to get an adherent of his own elected Gonfalonier of Justice for the months of September and October in 1433. Cosimo, who had passed the summer at his villa in the Mugello, “to escape,” as he writes in his diary, “from the contests and divisions in the city,” was advised by his friends to return. On going to the Palazzo della Signoria he was seized and imprisoned in the Barberia, a small room in the tower. Sentenced to banishment he went to Venice, where he notes: “I was received with more honour and charity than I can describe.” Just a year later he was recalled from exile. “Seldom has a citizen, returning from a great victory,” writes Machiavelli, “been greeted by such a concourse of people, and with such demonstrations of affection, as was Cosimo on his return from exile; saluted by all as the benefactor of the people and the Father of his country.” From this time forward, “partly,” as Symonds remarks, “by his remarkable talent for intrigue, partly by the clever use he made of his vast wealth, and partly by espousing the plebeian cause, Cosimo de’ Medici succeeded in monopolizing the government.” Yet while engaged in political matters Cosimo found time to attend to his business and to correspond with the managers of his banks, scattered throughout Europe and even in Asia. To all he gave orders to buy ancient manuscripts on any subject. “Cosimo,” writes Gibbon, “was the father of a line of princes, whose name and age are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning; his credit was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London, and a cargo of Indian spices and Greek books were often imported in the same vessel.”