Florentine palaces & their stories

by Janet Ross

Of Filippo’s life at Naples, where he made a large fortune and became a favourite with the King, who eventually obtained his recall from exile from Lorenzo de’ Medici, we have an account by his son, who writes: “He lived well, but not magnificently ... entertaining rarely, but when he did, splendidly and with great ceremony, being served by the youths in his house, who were nearly all Strozzi, as he preferred to benefit his own blood rather than strangers. Ofttimes there were eighteen at his table, and he cared for their honour and advancement as though they had been his sons. It can truthfully be said that all the riches of the house of Strozzi of that time are due to him.... Near to the city of Naples he had a Masseria, or farm ... and he took such delight in it that he often worked with his own hands, and gathered from it the rarest and finest fruits.... He enriched his native State with many noble plants, introducing the ‘gentile’ fig, and artichokes, which had never been brought to these parts [Florence] before.... In stature Filippo was above the common, good-looking, alert, lithe and well made, fearing neither cold nor heat, hunger nor thirst. So kind was he of heart that when any of his partners, relations, or friends fell out (a thing that often happened, as their number was considerable), they came to him as head of the family, and he always reconciled them, often giving, in addition to his time and trouble, whatever he saw was needful to facilitate peace. He visited friends or relations in adversity or sickness, comforting and aiding them with all necessaries, so that his presence was often of more use to such persons than any other comfort or medicine. In short, he seemed made by nature not less to dispense his riches usefully, than to accumulate them.”

In 1466 his sentence of exile was cancelled, and he once more beheld his native city, where he married the beautiful Fiametta degl’ Adimari, one of the girls described by his mother, by whom he had a son, Alfonso, and two daughters. After her death he married Selvaggia, daughter of Bartolomeo Gianfigliazzi, who bore him three daughters and two sons; Lorenzo, writer of the records of his father and of other members of his family, and Giovanbattista, who by his mother’s desire took his father’s name, Filippo, after his death.

In the Strozzi archives is the contract between Filippo Lippi and Filippo degl’ Strozzi for the painting of the chapel which Strozzi had bought from the decayed family of Boni in Sta. Maria Novella, showing the shrewd man of business, who was determined to have his money’s worth:

THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY OF APRIL, 1487.

Let it be known to all that Filippo di Filippo, painter, has engaged to paint for Filippo di Matteo degl’ Strozzi, his chapel in Sta. Maria Novella, next to the high altar, under the following conditions: In the ceiling there are to be four figures, either Doctors, or Evangelists, or others, as the said Strozzi prefers, to be decorated in blue and gold as richly as can be; the remainder of the ceiling to be all of blue ultramarine of the finest, of the cost of at least 4 “fiorini larghi” the ounce, and the shafts and capitals are to be adorned with painting and gold, according to necessity. And on either side there are to be two stories [paintings] the subjects to be given by the said Filippo Strozzi; and the sides of the window, and the pillars, and the arch of the chapel inside and out, and the coats of arms, are to be ornamented as the said Filippo orders; and in every place where it be necessary such gold and ultramarine as is called for, shall be used, and every other colour shall be good and perfect. And the said Filippo di Filippo promises to the said Strozzi to paint it in fresco and to finish it with all the care and diligence he is capable of; and all with his own hand, especially the figures.

And it is agreed that the said Filippo is to have for his work, with painting, colours, azure, scaffoldings, lime, wood and everything else, so that the said Strozzi shall have no other calls upon him, 300 fiorini di suggello[92] paid as follows: 35 fiorini now, when he begins the work, for the wood, lime, and other necessaries; the remainder, up to 100 fiorini, when he desires to go to Venice;[93] and the rest from time to time as he works, but so that 50, or at least 40, fiorini shall remain, which the said Strozzi promises to pay punctually when he has finished, which he promises to do by the 1st March, 1480....

Lorenzo gives a graphic account of the building of the great palace in the Life of his father, already quoted. “Having amply provided for his successors, and being more desirous of fame than of riches, seeing no better or surer method for transmitting his memory to posterity, and being naturally inclined towards building, and of no small intelligence, Filippo determined to raise an edifice which should perpetuate his name and that of his family in Italy and abroad. But he was confronted by the great difficulty that he who governed [Lorenzo de’ Medici] might conceive that another’s glory would outshine his; so, fearing to do a thing that might arouse envy, he spread abroad the rumour that having so many children and so small a house, he was bound, having begotten them, to provide a dwelling for them, a thing better done during life than after death. Thus he began tentatively, discussing first with masons, then with architects, about the necessity of having a house. Sometimes he seemed inclined to begin it at once, then he would appear irresolute and alarmed lest he should spend in a short time what he had gained in long years with much toil and industry; astutely hiding from all his desire and his intention, in order the better to carry out his design; declaring always that he only wanted a comfortable burgher’s house, for use and not for show. But the masons and architects, according to their wont, enlarged and improved on every plan, which pleased Filippo, although he feigned anger, saying that they drove him into what he neither wished nor could accomplish. Add to this that the ruler desired that the city should be adorned with every sort of ornament, thinking that as good and ill depended alone on him, so every beautiful or ugly thing would also be attributed to him. Aware that so great and costly a work could not be regulated or calculated with exactness, he feared that it might not only destroy his credit, as often happens with merchants, but cause his ruin. For these reasons he began to interfere, and insisted on seeing the plans, to which, besides many other expenses, after due consideration, he added the ‘bozzi’ [dressed blocks of stone with bosses] on the outside. The more Filippo was encouraged, the more he affected to hold back; declaring nothing should induce him to add the ‘bozzi,’ being unsuited to his condition and too costly, as he was building for use and not for show, and intended to arrange many shops under the house as a source of income for his sons. This was strenuously opposed, the extreme ugliness being dwelt upon as well as the inconvenience to those who were to inhabit the palace. Filippo respectfully demurred, and would occasionally complain to his friends that he had entered upon an undertaking which he prayed God might end well, and that he had rather never have mentioned it than find himself in such a labyrinth. Thus the more he appeared intent on avoiding expense, in order to hide the greatness of his designs and the vastness of his riches, the more he was driven and encouraged to fulfil his secret desires. By such sagacity and astuteness he attained what would either have been denied to him, or have caused him great harm. Most men thought that such a building would be his ruin before its completion; but he had planned to finish it in every detail, year by year out of his income, without diminishing his capital, and would have done so if death, which often interrupts magnificent and great enterprises, had not prevented him.”

Part of the Palazzo Strozzi covers what once was the Piazza de’ Tornaquinci, belonging to various families who had their towers and loggie round it. Without the intervention of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Filippo would never have been able to obtain possession of the ground. On the 10th February, 1489, Giovanni Tornabuoni, Pietro and Bartolomeo Popoleschi, Girolamo and Giachinetto Giachinotti, Giovanni, Piero and Niccolò Tornaquinci ceded all their rights to the whole, or part, of the said Piazza, to Lorenzo de’ Medici to give, sell, or cede irrevocably to whomsoever he wished. On the 10th March following Filippo was authorized to straighten the line of the Piazza, and to occupy any portions of the streets and small alleys that might be necessary. He was also permitted to build “sedilia,” or stone benches, suitable to the building. All the rights that the Commune might have to the Piazza de’ Tornaquinci were ceded to him. This act was ratified by the Signori and Collegi of the Republic, and on the 10th April Lorenzo de’ Medici had the deed of gift drawn up by a notary, on condition that the building should be begun within a year and continued without intermission under pain of forfeiture.

On the 10th July the first cartloads of sand and small stones were thrown into the foundations, and Filippo writes: “On the 15th July at daylight I began to pull down the carpenter’s shop in the Via Larga de’ Tornaquinci, as a beginning to my work; this spot was pointed out to me as good by Benedetto Bigliotti, who also advised that the building should begin on Thursday, the 6th August when the sun rose above the mountain.” This opinion being ratified by Niccolò and Antonio Benivieni, by the Bishop Paganotti and by Marsilio Ficino, all learned in astrology, the first stone of the foundation was laid by Filippo in the middle of the arch of the large door in the Via Larga di Santa Trinita e Tornaquinci (now Via Tornabuoni), when he placed certain medals under the stone. Tribaldo de’ Rossi, who happened to pass by at that moment, notes in his Memoirs: “Filippo said to me, take up a stone and throw it in, and I did so, and then put my hand into my leathern satchel in his presence and took out a ‘quattrino vecchio gigliato’ to throw in; he demurred to this, but for luck I threw it and he was pleased. Then leaving, I went to my shop, opposite to Sta. Trinita, and bethought me that for the memory of the event I would send for Guarniero, my son, and for Francesca, my daughter. Tita, our maid, who had come to the shop to fetch the meat, it being Thursday morning, went for them, and Nannina, my wife, sent me the two children well dressed, and I took them to the said foundations. Raising Guarniero in my arms so that he could look down, I gave him a ‘quattrino gigliato’ and he threw it in, and a nosegay of damask roses he held in his hand I made him throw in also, and said to him: ‘now thou art to remember this,’ and he answered yes, together with our servant girl Tita who was there; Guarniero was exactly four years and two days old, and Nannina had but a few days before made him a new overcoat of silk, shot green and yellow, and thus may it ever be to the glory of God.”

In a few days the foundations of the palace on the side next to the Piazza were filled in and work had begun, to the great discomfort of the neighbours; particularly of the chemist, Luca Landucci, who notes in his diary: “The pulling down of houses by great numbers of master-masons and workmen continues, so that all the streets around are choked with mountains of stone and lime, and with mules and donkeys carrying away rubbish and bringing rough stone. The worst is for the shopkeepers, who are bothered with dust and the plague of people who stand and look on, and for those who cannot get past with their laden beasts.” On the 21st August building commenced, and on the 18th May, 1490, the wall below the “bozzi” was finished on the side next the Piazza; on the 2nd June a mast, and a crane for raising the stones, were set up, and six days afterwards the first of the large “bozzi” was put in its place. “Every day,” writes Rossi, “eight or ten of these were set,” and Landucci the chemist notes, “on the 20th July, the ring at the corner of Tornaquinci, the one with the serpent or dragon, was put into its place.”