1.
Piazza della Signoria
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Piazza della Signoria is an L-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio and it is the focal point of the origin and of the history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political hub of the city. It is the place of Florentines as well as the numerous tourists, located near Plazzo Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo. The impressive 14th-century Palazzo Vecchio is still preeminent with its crenellated tower, the square is also shared with the Loggia della Signoria, the Uffizi Gallery, the Palace of the Tribunale della Mercanzia, and the Palazzo Uguccioni. Located in front of the Palazzo Vecchio is the Palace of the Assicurazioni Generali, the Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of the city. This massive, Romanesque, crenellated fortress-palace is among the most impressive town halls of Tuscany, the building acquired its current name when the Medici dukes residence was moved across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti. The Loggia dei Lanzi consists of wide open to the street. The arches rest on clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals, the wide arches appealed so much to the Florentines, that Michelangelo even proposed that they should be continued all around the Piazza della Signoria. The vivacious construction of the Loggia is in stark contrast with the architecture of the Palazzo Vecchio. It is effectively an open-air sculpture gallery of antique and Renaissance art including the Medici lions, the Tribunale della Mercanzia is a building where in the past lawyers judged in the trial between merchants. Here was a porch painted by Taddeo Gaddi, Antonio del Pollaiolo and Sandro Botticelli, built for Giovanni Uguccioni since 1550, its design has been variously attributed to Raphael, Michelangelo, Bartolomeo Ammannati or Raffaello da Montelupo. The Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali was designed in the Neo-Renaissance style in 1871, on the ground floor of this palace is the historical cafè Rivoire. Other palaces are the palazzo dei Buonaguisi and the palazzo dellArte dei Mercatanti, various imposing statues ring this square including, Copy of Michelangelos David. At the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio, the original by Michelangelo is housed in the Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, later there was a church San Romolo, a loggia and an enormous 5th-century basilica. This was shown by the treasures found beneath the square when it was repaved in the 1980s. Even remains of a Neolithic site were found, the square started taking shape from 1268 on, when houses of Ghibellines were pulled down by the victorious Guelphs. The square remained a long time untidy, full of holes, in 1385 it was paved for the first time. In 1497 Girolamo Savonarola and his followers carried out on this square the famous Bonfire of the Vanities, burning in a large books, gaming tables, fine dresses
2.
Seat of local government
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In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre, a guildhall, a Rathaus, or a municipal building, is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city or town council, its associated departments and it also usually functions as the base of the mayor of a city, town, borough, or county / shire. By convention, until the mid 19th-century, a large open chamber formed an integral part of the building housing the council. The hall may be used for meetings and other significant events. This large chamber, the hall, has become synonymous with the whole building. The terms council chambers, municipal building or variants may be used locally in preference to town hall if no such large hall is present within the building, the local government may endeavor to use the town hall building to promote and enhance the quality of life of the community. In many cases, town halls serve not only as buildings for government functions and these may include art shows, stage performances, exhibits and festivals. Modern town halls or civic centres are designed with a great variety and flexibility of purpose in mind. As symbols of government, city and town halls have distinctive architecture. City hall buildings may also serve as icons that symbolize their cities. The term town hall may be a one, often applied without regard to whether the building serves or served a town or a city. This is generally the case in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, english-speakers in some regions use the term city hall to designate the council offices of a municipality of city status. This is the case in North America, where a distinction is made between city halls and town halls, and is also the case with Brisbane City Hall in Australia. The great hall of the town-house or municipal building, now commonly applied to the whole building city hall. Conversely, cities that have subdivisions with their own councils may have borough halls, in Scotland, local government in larger cities operates from the City Chambers, otherwise the Town House. Elsewhere in English-speaking countries, other names are occasionally used, in London, the official headquarters of administration of the City of London retains its Anglo-Saxon name, the Guildhall, signifying a place where taxes were paid. In a small number of English cities the preferred term is Council House, this was also the case in Bristol until 2012, when the building was renamed City Hall. In Birmingham, there is a distinction between the Council House, the seat of government, and the Town Hall, a concert
3.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
4.
Michelangelo
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered to be the greatest living artist during his lifetime, he has since described as one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of Michelangelos works of painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence and he sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library, at the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peters Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification. Michelangelo was unique as the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive, in his lifetime he was often called Il Divino. One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, the attempts by subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelos impassioned and highly personal style resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, at the time of Michelangelos birth, his father was the Judicial administrator of the small town of Caprese and local administrator of Chiusi. Michelangelos mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, the Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa, this claim remains unproven, but Michelangelo himself believed it. Several months after Michelangelos birth, the returned to Florence. There Michelangelo gained his love for marble, as Giorgio Vasari quotes him, If there is good in me. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, as a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to Florence to study grammar under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino. The young artist, however, showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches, the city of Florence was at that time the greatest centre of the arts and learning in Italy. Art was sponsored by the Signoria, by the merchant guilds and by patrons such as the Medici. The Renaissance, a renewal of Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had laboured for fifty years to create the bronze doors of the Baptistry, which Michelangelo was to describe as The Gates of Paradise. The exterior niches of the Church of Orsanmichele contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence – Donatello, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Nanni di Banco. The interiors of the churches were covered with frescos, begun by Giotto. During Michelangelos childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican, among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing, and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence at that period
5.
David (Michelangelo)
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David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504 by Michelangelo. It is a 5. 17-metre marble statue of a male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a subject in the art of Florence. The eyes of David, with a glare, were turned towards Rome. The statue was moved to the Galleria dellAccademia, Florence, in 1873, the history of the statue begins before Michelangelos work on it from 1501 to 1504. In 1410 Donatello made the first of the statues, a figure of Joshua in terracotta, a figure of Hercules, also in terracotta, was commissioned from the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio in 1463 and was made perhaps under Donatellos direction. Eager to continue their project, in 1464, the Operai contracted Agostino to create a sculpture of David, a block of marble was provided from a quarry in Carrara, a town in the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany. Agostino only got as far as beginning to shape the legs, feet and his association with the project ceased, for reasons unknown, with the death of Donatello in 1466, and ten years later Antonio Rossellino was commissioned to take up where Agostino had left off. Rossellinos contract was terminated soon thereafter, and the block of marble remained neglected for 25 years, all the while exposed to the elements in the yard of the cathedral workshop. This was of concern to the Opera authorities, as such a large piece of marble not only was costly but represented a large amount of labour. In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the piece as a figure of marble called David, badly blocked out. A year later, documents showed that the Operai were determined to find an artist who could take this piece of marble. They ordered the block of stone, which they called The Giant, raised on its feet so that an experienced in this kind of work might examine it. Though Leonardo da Vinci and others were consulted, it was Michelangelo, only 26 years old, on 16 August 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract to undertake this challenging new task. He began carving the statue early in the morning on 13 September and he would work on the massive statue for more than two years. They convened a committee of 30 Florentine citizens that comprised many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli, while nine different locations for the statue were discussed, the majority of members seem to have been closely split between two sites. Another opinion, supported by Botticelli, was that the sculpture should be situated on or near the cathedral. In June 1504, David was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, replacing Donatellos bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes and it took four days to move the statue the half mile from Michelangelos workshop into the Piazza della Signoria
6.
Loggia dei Lanzi
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The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. It consists of wide open to the street. The arches rest on clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals, the wide arches appealed so much to the Florentines that Michelangelo proposed that they should be continued all around the Piazza della Signoria. Simone Talenti is also well-known from his contributions to the churches Orsanmichele, the vivacious construction of the Loggia is in stark contrast with the severe architecture of the Palazzo Vecchio. It is effectively an open-air sculpture gallery of antique and Renaissance art, the name Loggia dei Lanzi dates back to the reign of Grand Duke Cosimo I, when it was used to house his formidable landsknechts, or German mercenary pikemen. On the façade of the Loggia, below the parapet, are trefoils with allegorical figures of the four virtues by Agnolo Gaddi. Their blue enamelled background is the work of Leonardo, a monk, the vault, composed of semicircles, was done by the Florentine Antonio de Pucci. It was originally placed in the Villa Medici in Rome, on the side of the Loggia, there is a Latin inscription from 1750 commemorating the change of the Florentine calendar in 1749 to bring it into line with the Roman calendar. The Florentine calendar began on 25 March instead of 1 January, the other inscription from 1893 records the Florentines who distinguished themselves during the annexation of Milan, Venice and Rome to the kingdom of Italy. Underneath the bay on the far left is the statue of Perseus by Benvenuto Cellini. It shows the mythical Greek hero holding his sword in his right hand, the well-proportioned muscular body of Perseus stands poised on the right leg. Perseus is reflecting and he seems to be frightened by his same action, blood is gushing from the head and the neck of the dead Medusa. The richly decorated pedestal, also by Cellini, shows four graceful bronze statuettes of Jupiter, Mercurius, Minerva. The bas-relief on the pedestal, representing Perseus freeing Andromeda, is a copy of the one in Bargello, Benvenuto Cellini worked almost ten years on this bronze. His wax design was approved by Cosimo I de Medici. He met numerous difficulties which, according to his autobiography, almost brought him to the brink of death, the casting of this bronze statue was several times unsuccessful. When attempting again, the melting furnace got overheated, spoiling the casting of the bronze, Cellini gave orders to feed the furnace with his household furniture and finally with about 200 pewter dishes and plates, and his pots and pans. This caused the bronze to flow again, after the bronze had cooled, the statue was finished, except for three toes on the right foot
7.
Republic of Florence
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The Republic of Florence, also known as the Florentine Republic, was a medieval and early modern state that was centered on the Italian city of Florence in Tuscany. The republic originated in 1115, when the Florentine people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany upon the death of Matilda, the Florentines formed a commune in her successors place. The republic was ruled by a council, known as the signoria, the signoria was chosen by the gonfaloniere, who was elected every two months by Florentine guild members. The republic had a history of coups and counter-coups against various factions. The Medici faction gained governance of the city in 1434, upon Cosimo de Medicis counter-coup against the faction that had sent him into exile the previous year, the Medici kept control of Florence until 1494. Giovanni de Medici re-conquered the republic in 1512, Florence repudiated Medici authority for a second time in 1527, during the War of the League of Cognac. The Medici re-assumed their rule in 1531, after an 11-month siege of the city, the republican government was disestablished in 1532, when Pope Clement VII appointed Alessandro de Medici Duke of the Florentine Republic, making the republic a hereditary monarchy. The city of Florence was established in 59 B. C. by Julius Caesar, the city had been part of the Marquisate of Tuscany before the death of Margravine Matilda in 1115. The city did not submit readily to her successor, Rabodo, the first official mention of the republic was in 1138 when several cities around Tuscany formed a league against Henry X of Bavaria. The country was part of the Holy Roman Empire. Florence prospered in the 12th century, trading extensively with foreign countries and this, in turn, provided a platform for demographic growth of the city. The growth of Florences population mirrored the rate of construction, many churches and this prosperity was shattered when Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa invaded the Italian peninsula in 1185. The Margraves of Tuscany re-acquired Florence and its townlands, the Florentines re-asserted their independence when Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI died in 1197. Florences population continued to grow into the 13th century, reaching 30,000 inhabitants, as has been said, the extra inhabitants supported the citys trade and vice versa. Several new bridges and churches were built, most prominently the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the buildings from the era serve as Florences best example of Gothic Architecture. Politically, Florence was barely able to maintain peace between factions, the precarious peace that existed at the beginning of the century was destroyed in 1216 when two factions known as the Guelphs and the Ghibellines began to war. The Ghibellines were the rulers of Florence. The Ghibellines, who under Frederick of Antioch had ruled the city since 1244, were deposed in 1250 by the Guelphs, the Guelphs led Florence to prosper further
8.
Palazzo Pitti
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The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the side of the River Arno. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the residence of Luca Pitti. The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a treasure house as later generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry. In the late 18th century, the palazzo was used as a base by Napoleon. The palace and its contents were donated to the Italian people by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1919, the palazzo is now the largest museum complex in Florence. The principal palazzo block, often in a building of design known as the corps de logis, is 32,000 square metres. It is divided into several principal galleries or museums detailed below, the construction of this severe and forbidding building was commissioned in 1458 by the Florentine banker Luca Pitti, a principal supporter and friend of Cosimo de Medici. The early history of the Palazzo Pitti is a mixture of fact, Pitti is alleged to have instructed that the windows be larger than the entrance of the Palazzo Medici. Besides obvious differences from the architects style, Brunelleschi died 12 years before construction of the palazzo began. The design and fenestration suggest that the architect was more experienced in utilitarian domestic architecture than in the humanist rules defined by Alberti in his book De Re Aedificatoria. Though impressive, the original palazzo would have no rival to the Florentine Medici residences in terms of either size or content. Whoever the architect of the Palazzo Pitti was, he was moving against the flow of fashion. The rusticated stonework gives the palazzo a severe and powerful atmosphere, reinforced by the series of seven arch-headed apertures. The Roman-style architecture appealed to the Florentine love of the new style allantica, work stopped after Pitti suffered financial losses following the death of Cosimo de Medici in 1464. Luca Pitti died in 1472 with the building unfinished, the building was sold in 1549 by Buonaccorso Pitti, a descendant of Luca Pitti, to Eleonora di Toledo. Raised at the court of Naples, Eleonora was the wife of Cosimo I de Medici of Tuscany
9.
Girolamo Savonarola
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Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of art and culture. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule and the exploitation of the poor and he prophesied the coming of a biblical flood and a new Cyrus from the north who would reform the Church. In September 1494, when Charles VIII of France invaded Italy, while Savonarola intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medici and, at the friars urging, established a popular republic. In 1495 when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VIs Holy League against the French and he disobeyed and further defied the pope by preaching under a ban, highlighting his campaign for reform with processions, bonfires of the vanities, and pious theatricals. In retaliation, the Pope excommunicated him in May 1497, a trial by fire proposed by a rival Florentine preacher in April 1498 to test Savonarolas divine mandate turned into a fiasco, and popular opinion turned against him. Savonarola and two of his supporting friars were imprisoned, under torture, Savonarola confessed that he had invented his visions and prophecies. On 23 May 1498, Church and civil authorities condemned, hanged, Savonarola was born on 21 September 1452, in Ferrara. His grandfather, Michele Savonarola, was a physician and polymath. Savonarolas mother Elena claimed a lineage from the Bonacossi family of Mantua and she and her husband Niccolo had seven children, of whom Girolamo was third. His grandfather was a successful physician who oversaw his education. His family had amassed in his grandfathers footsteps, at some point, however, he abandoned his career intentions. In his early poems, he expresses his preoccupation with the state of the Church and of the world. He began to write poetry of a bent, notably On the Ruin of the World and On the Ruin of the Church. About the same time, he seems to have been thinking about a life in religion, as he later told his biographer, a sermon he heard by a preacher in Faenza persuaded him to abandon the world. True or not, in a letter he wrote to his father when he left home to join the Dominican Order he hints at being troubled by desires of the flesh. There is also a story that on the eve of his departure he dreamed that he was cleansed of such thoughts by a shower of icy water which prepared him for the ascetic life. In the unfinished treatise he left behind, later called De contemptu mundi, or On Contempt for the World, he calls upon readers to fly from this world of adultery, sodomy, murder and envy
10.
Arnolfo di Cambio
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Arnolfo di Cambio was an Italian architect and sculptor. Arnolfo was born in Colle Val dElsa, Tuscany and he was Nicola Pisano’s chief assistant on the marble Siena Cathedral Pulpit for the Duomo in Siena Cathedral, but he soon began to work independently on an important tomb sculpture. In 1266–1267 he worked in Rome for King Charles I of Anjou, portraying him in the famous statue housed in the Campidoglio. In this period he worked on the presepio of Santa Maria Maggiore, on Santa Maria in Aracoeli, on the monument of Pope Boniface VIII. In 1294–1295 he worked in Florence, mainly as an architect, the surviving statues are now in the Museum of the Cathedral. While the design of the Church of Santa Croce has been attributed to Arnolfo, Vasari also attributed to him the urban plan of the new city of San Giovanni Valdarno. The monumental character of Arnolfos work has left its mark on the appearance of Florence and his funerary monuments became the model for Gothic funerary art. Giorgio Vasari included a biography of Arnolfo in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, old basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence Cathedral St. Peter Enthroned inside St. Peters Basilica, is often attributed to Arnolfo. Lo stil novo del Gotico italiano, Arnolfo di Cambio in the History of Art
11.
Florence Cathedral
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The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore is the main church of Florence, Italy. The exterior of the basilica is faced with marble panels in various shades of green. The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and these three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major attraction to tourists visiting Tuscany. The basilica is one of Italys largest churches, and until development of new materials in the modern era. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed, the cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is currently Giuseppe Betori. Santa Maria del Fiore was built on the site of a cathedral dedicated to Saint Reparata. The new church was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio and approved by city council in 1294, di Cambio was also architect of the church of Santa Croce and the Palazzo Vecchio. He designed three wide naves ending under the dome, with the middle nave covering the area of Santa Reparata. The first stone was laid on September 9,1296, by Cardinal Valeriana, the building of this vast project was to last 140 years, Arnolfos plan for the eastern end, although maintained in concept, was greatly expanded in size. After Arnolfo died in 1310, work on the cathedral slowed for thirty years, when the relics of Saint Zenobius were discovered in 1330 in Santa Reparata, the project gained a new impetus. In 1331, the Arte della Lana, the guild of merchants, took over patronage for the construction of the cathedral. Assisted by Andrea Pisano, Giotto continued di Cambios design and his major accomplishment was the building of the campanile. When Giotto died in 1337, Andrea Pisano continued the building work was halted due to the Black Death in 1348. In 1359, Talenti was succeeded by Giovanni di Lapo Ghini who divided the nave in four square bays. Other architects were Alberto Arnoldi, Giovanni dAmbrogio, Neri di Fioravante, by 1375, the old church Santa Reparata was pulled down. The nave was finished by 1380, and by 1418, only the dome remained incomplete, on 18 August 1418, the Arte della Lana announced an architectural design competition for erecting Neris dome. The two main competitors were two master goldsmiths, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi, the latter of whom was supported by Cosimo de Medici. Ghiberti had been the winner of a competition for a pair of doors for the Baptistery in 1401
12.
Santa Croce, Florence
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The Basilica di Santa Croce is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 metres south-east of the Duomo, the site, when first chosen, was in marshland outside the city walls. The Basilica is the largest Franciscan church in the world and its most notable features are its sixteen chapels, many of them decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his pupils, and its tombs and cenotaphs. Legend says that Santa Croce was founded by St Francis himself, the construction of the current church, to replace an older building, was begun on 12 May 1294, possibly by Arnolfo di Cambio, and paid for by some of the citys wealthiest families. It was consecrated in 1442 by Pope Eugene IV, the buildings design reflects the austere approach of the Franciscans. The floorplan is an Egyptian or Tau cross,115 metres in length with a nave, to the south of the church was a convent, some of whose buildings remain. The Primo Chiostro, the cloister, houses the Cappella dei Pazzi, built as the chapter house. Filippo Brunelleschi was involved in its design which has remained rigorously simple, in 1560, the choir screen was removed as part of changes arising from the Counter-Reformation and the interior rebuilt by Giorgio Vasari. As a result, there was damage to the churchs decoration, the bell tower was built in 1842, replacing an earlier one damaged by lightning. The neo-Gothic marble façade dates from 1857-1863, the Jewish architect Niccolo Matas from Ancona, designed the churchs façade, working a prominent Star of David into the composition. Matas had wanted to be buried with his peers but because he was Jewish, he was buried under the threshold, in 1866, the complex became public property, as a part of government suppression of most religious houses, following the wars that gained Italian independence and unity. The Museo dellOpera di Santa Croce is housed mainly in the refectory, a monument to Florence Nightingale stands in the cloister, in the city in which she was born and after which she was named. Brunelleschi also built the cloister, completed in 1453. In 1966, the Arno River flooded much of Florence, including Santa Croce, the water entered the church bringing mud, pollution and heating oil. The damage to buildings and art treasures was severe, taking several decades to repair, today the former dormitory of the Franciscan friars houses the Scuola del Cuoio. Visitors can watch as artisans craft purses, wallets, and other goods which are sold in the adjacent shop. Sylvester. Henry Moore Andrea Orcagna Antonio Rossellino Bernardo Rossellino Santi di Tito Giorgio Vasari with sculpture by Valerio Cioli, Iovanni Bandini, way to Calvary painted by Vasari. Domenico Veneziano Once present in the churchs Medici Chapel, but now split between the Florentine Galleries and the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan, is a polyptych by Lorenzo di Niccolò
13.
Giovanni Villani
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Giovanni Villani was an Italian banker, official, diplomat and chronicler from Florence who wrote the Nuova Cronica on the history of Florence. He was a statesman of Florence but later gained an unsavory reputation. His interest in and elaboration of details, statistical information. His Cronica is viewed as the first introduction of statistics as an element in history. Villani was inspired to write his Cronica after attending the celebration in Rome in 1300. He outlined the events in his Cronica year for year, following a linear narrative format. He provided intricate details on important historical events of the city of Florence and the wider region of Tuscany, such as construction projects, floods, fires, famines. While continuing work on the Cronica and detailing the loss of life during the Black Death in 1348. His work on the Cronica was continued by his brother and nephew, Villanis work has received both praise and criticism from modern historians. The criticism is aimed at his emphasis on supernatural guidance of events, his organizational style. Giovanni Villani was born into the Florentine merchant middle class and he was the son of Villano di Stoldi di Bellincione, who came from an old and well-respected arti maggiori family of merchants. Villani was a member of the Arte di Calimala guild in Florence since 1300, during that year he visited Rome during the jubilee celebration. Traveling abroad as a factor for the company, Villani was paid a salary in addition to his shareholding profits. Villani and his brother Matteo transferred most of their activities to the Buonaccorsi firm by 1322. Giovanni Villani was a co-director of Buonaccorsi in 1324, the Buonaccorsi handled banking and commodity trade activities, spreading their influence throughout Italy, France, Flanders, England and several places in the Mediterranean. Villani returned to Florence in 1307 where he married and settled down for a life of city politics and he became one of the priors of Florence in 1316 and 1317. At the same time, he participated in the crafty diplomatic tactics that resulted in peace with Pisa, as head of the mint beginning in 1316, he collected its earlier records and created a register of all the coins struck in Florence. In 1321, he was chosen prior, and in 1324 was deputed to inspect the rebuilding of the city walls
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Nuova Cronica
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The Nuova Cronica or New Chronicles is a 14th-century history of Florence created in a year-by-year linear format and written by the Florentine banker and official Giovanni Villani. In his Cronica, Villani described in detail the many building projects of the city, statistical information on population, ordinances, commerce and trade, education, and religious facilities. He also described several disasters such as famines, floods, fires, and the pandemic of the Black Death in 1348, Villanis work on the Cronica was continued by his brother and nephew after his death. It has been described as the first introduction of statistics as an element in history. The oldest manuscript is Vatican Library BAV Chigiano L VIII296, Giovanni Villanis Cronica is divided into twelve books, the first six deal with the largely legendary history of Florence, starting at conventionally Biblical times to 1264. The second phase, in six books, covers the history from 1264 until his own time, However, his description of such events as the Battle of Crécy in 1346 was fairly accurate according to historian Kelly De Vries. In his Cronica, Villani writes that the Guelph defeat by the Ghibellines at Montaperti in 1260 was a setback to the historical progress of the Republic of Florence. According to Villani, the Florentine Guelphs last stand was in defending the Carroccio, Villani describes the rebuilding of Florence after the 1293 rebellion of one Giano della Bella, he notes that by 1296 conditions were once again in a tranquil state. A new foundation was laid in September of that year, adding new marble, Villani mentions the cardinal legate sent by the Pope in Rome who laid the first stone of the foundation, a significant event since it was the first papal legate to visit Florence. On July 18,1334, work began on the new campanile of the cathedral, the first stone placed by the bishop of Florence in front of an audience of clergy, priors, and other magistrates. Villani notes that the commune chose our fellow-citizen Giotto as the designer of the tower, a man who was the most sovereign master of painting in his time. According to Villani, in 1299, the commune and people of Florence laid the foundation for the Palazzo Vecchio, according to Villani, the Uberti family was not even allowed to return to Florence. In planning for the large expanse of the plaza, the commune of Florence purchased the homes of such as the Foraboschi family. In fact, the tower of the Palazzo was built upon a previously existing tower of the Foraboschi family known as La Vacca or The Cow. Villani boasts of Florences pristine architecture in its monasteries and churches, as well as its ornate houses and his opinion is clear even in the title of the chapter he devotes to this topic, More on the greatness and status and magnificence of the city of Florence. Villani also describes the trend in the early 14th century of affluent Florentine citizens building large country homes far outside the walls of Florence. While holding the signoria of Florence, Robert of Naples had the part of the Bargello in Florence constructed. Villani reports that Florence did not turn away beggars, but cared for anyone who approached the city and was in need of immediate subsistence
15.
Guelphs and Ghibellines
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The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, rivalry between two parties formed a particularly important aspect of the internal politics of medieval Italy. The struggle for power between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire had arisen with the Investiture Controversy, which began in 1075, the division between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Italy, however, persisted until the 15th century. Guelph is an Italian form of the name of the House of Welf, the names were likely introduced to Italy during the reign of Frederick Barbarossa. When Frederick conducted military campaigns in Italy to expand imperial power there, the Lombard League and its allies were defending the liberties of the urban communes against the Emperors encroachments and became known as Guelphs. The Ghibellines were thus the party, while the Guelphs supported the Pope. Broadly speaking, Guelphs tended to come from wealthy mercantile families, the Lombard League defeated Frederick at the Battle of Legnano in 1176. Frederick recognized the autonomy of the cities of the Lombard league under his nominal suzerainty. The division developed its own dynamic in the politics of medieval Italy, smaller cities tended to be Ghibelline if the larger city nearby was Guelph, as Guelph Republic of Florence and Ghibelline Republic of Siena faced off at the Battle of Montaperti,1260. Pisa maintained a staunch Ghibelline stance against her fiercest rivals, the Guelph Republic of Genoa, adherence to one of the parties could therefore be motivated by local or regional political reasons. Within cities, party allegiances differed from guild to guild, rione to rione, moreover, sometimes traditionally Ghibelline cities allied with the Papacy, while Guelph cities were even punished with interdict. Contemporaries did not use the terms Guelph and Ghibellines much until about 1250, at the beginning of the 13th century, Philip of Swabia, a Hohenstaufen, and his son-in-law Otto of Brunswick, a Welf, were rivals for the imperial throne. Philip was supported by the Ghibellines as a relative of Frederick I, Frederick II also introduced this division to the Crusader states in the Levant during the Sixth Crusade. After the death of Frederick II in 1250 the Ghibellines were supported by Conrad IV of Germany and later Manfred, King of Sicily, the Sienese Ghibellines inflicted a noteworthy defeat on Florentine Guelphs at the Battle of Montaperti. In that period the stronghold of Italian Ghibellines was the city of Forlì and that city remained with the Ghibelline factions, partly as a means of preserving its independence, rather than out of loyalty to the temporal power, as Forlì was nominally in the Papal States. Over the centuries, the papacy tried several times to control of Forlì. Essentially the two sides were now fighting either against German influence, or against the power of the Pope. In Florence and elsewhere the Guelphs usually included merchants and burghers and they also adopted peculiar customs such as wearing a feather on a particular side of their hats, or cutting fruit a particular way, according to their affiliation
16.
Rustication (architecture)
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The visible face of each individual block is cut back around the edges to make its size and placing very clear. In addition the central part of the face of each block may be given a rough or patterned surface. Rusticated masonry is usually dressed, or squared off neatly, on all sides of the stones except the face that will be visible when the stone is put in place. This is given wide joints that emphasize the edges of block, by angling the edges. The main part of the face may worked flat and smooth or left or worked with a more or less rough or patterned surface. Rustication is often used to give weight to the ground floor in contrast to smooth ashlar above. Though intended to convey a rustic simplicity, the finish is highly artificial, and it remains in use in some modern architecture. Rough finishes on stone are very common in architecture outside the European tradition. For example, the bases of Japanese castles and other fortifications usually use rough stone, probably the earliest and most influential example is the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, built between 1444 and 1484, with two contrasting rusticated finishes. The ground floor has an irregular and genuinely rugged appearance, with a variation in the degree to which parts of the faces of blocks project from the wall that is rarely equalled later. Above, the rustication is merely to emphasize the blocks. Also in Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, begun 1489, with large oblong rounded cushions, and these facades only used the classical orders in mullions and aedicules, with arched forms in rustication the main relief from the massive flat walls. The Palazzo Rucellai, probably of the 1460s, begins to classicize such facades, using smooth-faced rustication throughout, in Rome, Donato Bramantes Palazzo Caprini provided a standard model for the integration of rustication with the orders. The first major Renaissance building in Spain, the Palace of Charles V in Granada, had a deeply rusticated ground floor facade with regular rounded cushions, the technique was enthusiatically taken up by the next generation of Mannerist architects, with Giulio Romano in the lead. Most early examples of rustic style are therefore built for sophisticated patrons in the leading centres of taste. The Mannerist architectural writer Sebastiano Serlio and others of his generation enjoyed the play between rusticated and finished architectural elements, the Italians brought in to expand the Palace of Fontainebleau introduced the technique to France. Its spread to Germany and England took longer, but by about the end of the 16th century it had reached all parts of Europe. In his Banqueting House in London, Inigo Jones gave a lightly rusticated surface texture to emphasize the blocks on both storeys, and to them behind his orders of pilasters and columns
17.
Trefoil
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Trefoil is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings used in architecture and Christian symbolism. The term is applied to other symbols of three-fold shape. One of the earliest examples is in the tracery at Winchester. The fourfold version of an architectural trefoil is a quatrefoil, two forms of this are shown below, A dove, symbolic of the Holy Spirit, is sometimes depicted within the outlined form of the trefoil combined with a triangle. In architecture and archaeology, trefoil describes a layout or floorplan consisting of three apses in clover-leaf shape, as for example in the Megalithic temples of Malta, particularly in church architecture, such a layout may be called a triconchos. The heraldic trefoil is a stylized clover and it should not be confused with the figure named in French heraldry tiercefeuille, which is a stylized flower with three petals. It differs from the heraldic trefoil in being not slipped and it could be translated as threefoil. Symmetrical Trefoils are particularly popular as warning and informational symbols, easily stenciled symbols are also favored. While the green trefoil is considered by many to be the symbol of Ireland, therefore, shamrocks generally do not appear on Irish coins or postage stamps. A trefoil is also part of the logo for Adidas Originals, a trefoil formation is a cross-sectional arrangement of electrical cables that minimises electrodynamic forces during fault conditions. Also, the field of each phase conductor in a 3-phase system is negated when the other two phase conductors are nearby to form a trefoil. Fleur-de-Lys Foil Trefoil domain Trefoil arch Trefoil knot Torus knot Quatrefoil Explanation of Christian symbolism of Trefoil
18.
Michelozzo Michelozzi
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Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi was an Italian architect and sculptor. Considered one of the pioneers of architecture during the Renaissance. He was a pupil of Lorenzo Ghiberti in his early years, known primarily for designing Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, he is often overshadowed by his contemporaries Donatello in sculpture and Brunelleschi in architecture. He remained for his biographers a shadowy, active, competent, second-rate figure, Michelozzo was born in Florence in 1396. He was the son of Bartolomeo di Gherardo Borgognone and Antonia, Borgognone was of French origin and arrived in Florence from Burgundy at an unknown date. Borgognone lived and worked in the Santo Croce quarter of Florence as a tailor, Michelozzo had three brothers named Leonardo, Zanobi, and Giovanni. By 1391, Michelozzos family had moved to the San Giovanni quarter, as an engraver, Michelozzo learned how to cast, chase, and gild copper and bronze, two of the metals in which the Medieval and Renaissance goldsmith most commonly worked. He also gained immense precision of hand and a mastery of design in miniature. He later served as one of the consuls of the Guild in 1430, throughout his life, Michelozzo retained the family residence on Via Larga, which was near the Medici Palace and next door to the humanist Bartolomeo Scala. In addition, Michelozzo possessed a house and garden in S. Domino a Brozzi, Michelozzos father died sometime before 1427, and his mother passed sometime between 1433 and 1442. From this, Michelozzo learned how to run a closely supervised shop, how to organize it efficiently, how to train and control assistants, under Donatello, Michelozzo assisted in the building of the sacristy of Santa Trinita, where Ghiberti started to fuse together late-Gothic and antique forms. Michelozzo also became the responsible for the architectural frames of Donatellos sculptures such as the funerary monument of John XXIII. He completely subordinates the architectural setting to his sculpture and makes architecture, so to speak, few historians have disputed Cosimos close relationship to Michelozzo, who was the Medici architect for nearly forty years. Michelozzo was more agreeable and accessible to the advice and desires of Cosimo than the turbulent Brunelleschi, historians have cited this as an unparalleled example of esteem between artist and patron. With great engineering skill Michelozzo shored up, and partly rebuilt, the Palazzo Vecchio, then in a ruinous condition, for Cosimo he designed numerous other buildings, most of them of noteworthy importance. For Giovanni de Medici, Cosimos son, he built a very large villa at Fiesole. Ludwig Heydenreich and Paul Davies argue that all of Michelozzos buildings are works of considerable standing. the most independent architect after Brunelleschi, Michelozzo married Francesca, daughter of Piero di Ambrogio Galligari, in late January or February 1441. At the time of their marriage, she was 20 years old, francescas dowry of 425 florins was about average for an upper-middle-class family at that time
19.
Fleur-de-lis
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The fleur-de-lis or flower-de-luce is a stylized lily that is used as a decorative design or symbol. Many of the saints are depicted with a lily, most prominently St. Joseph. The fleur-de-lis is represented in Unicode at U+269C in the Miscellaneous Symbols block and it remains an enduring symbol of France that appears on French postage stamps, although it has never been adopted officially by any of the French republics. According to French historian Georges Duby, the three represent the medieval social classes, those who worked, those who fought. It is unclear where the fleur-de-lis originated, among the Egyptians, Persians, Arabs and Greeks, this arabesque evoked warrior-like power. In France it is used in city emblems like in the coat of arms of the city of Lille, Saint-Denis, Brest, Clermont-Ferrand, Boulogne-Billancourt. The fleur-de-lis was the symbol of Île-de-France, the core of the French kingdom, many of the current departments use the ancient symbol on their coats to express this heritage. In Italy, the fleur de lis, called giglio is mainly known as the crest of the city of Florence, in the Florentine fleurs-de-lis, the stamens are always posed between the petals. This heraldic charge is known as the Florentine lily to distinguish it from the conventional design. As an emblem of the city, it is found in icons of Zenobius, its first bishop. Several towns subjugated by Florence or founded within the territory of the Florentine Republic adopted a variation of the Florentine lily in their crests, often without the stamens. The heraldic fleur-de-lis is still widespread, among the cities which use it as a symbol are some whose names echo the word lily, for example, Liljendal, Finland. This is called canting arms in heraldic terminology, other European examples of municipal coats-of-arms bearing the fleur-de-lis include Lincoln in England, Morcín in Spain, Wiesbaden in Germany, Skierniewice in Poland and Jurbarkas in Lithuania. The Swiss municipality of Schlieren and the Estonian municipality of Jõelähtme also have a fleur-de-lis on their coats, in Malta, the town of Santa Venera has three red fleurs-de-lis on its flag and coat of arms. Another suburb which developed around the area known as Fleur-de-Lys. The coat of arms of the medieval Kingdom of Bosnia contained six fleurs-de-lis, understood as the native Bosnian or Golden Lily and this emblem was revived in 1992 as a national symbol of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and was the flag of Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992 to 1998. The state insignia were changed in 1999, the former flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina contains a fleur-de-lis alongside the Croatian chequy. Fleurs also appear in the flags and arms of cantons, municipalities, cities
20.
Spandrel
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A spandrel, less often spandril or splaundrel, is the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure. Also included is the space under a flight of stairs, if it is not occupied by another flight of stairs and this is a common location to find storage space in residential structures. In a building more than one floor, the term spandrel is also used to indicate the space between the top of the window in one story and the sill of the window in the story above. In concrete or steel construction, a beam extending from column to column usually carrying an exterior wall load is known as a spandrel beam. The spandrels over doorways in Perpendicular work are generally richly decorated, at Magdalen College, Oxford is one which is perforated. The spandrel of doors is sometimes ornamented in the Decorated period, spandrels can also occur in the construction of domes and are typical in grand architecture from the medieval period onwards. Cathedral architecture Spandrel This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
21.
Battlement
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These gaps are termed crenels, and the act of adding crenels to a previously unbroken parapet is termed crenellation. The solid widths between the crenels are called merlons, a wall with battlements is said to be crenelated or embattled. Battlements on walls have protected walkways behind them, on tower or building tops, the roof is used as the protected fighting platform. The term originated in about the 14th century from the Old French word batailler, the word crenel derives from the ancient French cren, Latin crena, meaning a notch, mortice or other gap cut out often to receive another element or fixing, see also crenation. In medieval England a licence to crenellate granted the permission to fortify their property. The castles in England vastly outnumber the licences to crenellate, royal pardons were obtainable, on the payment of an arbitrarily determined fine, by a person who had fortified without licence. The surviving records of such licences, generally issued by letters patent, there has been academic debate over the purpose of licensing. The view of military-focused historians is that licensing restricted the number of fortifications that could be used against a royal army and they indicated to the observer that the grantee had obtained royal recognition, acknowledgment and compliment. The crown usually did not charge for the granting of such licences, battlements have been used for thousands of years, the earliest known example is in the fortress at Buhen in Egypt. Battlements were used in the walls surrounding Assyrian towns, as shown on bas reliefs from Nimrud, traces of them remain at Mycenae in Greece, and some ancient Greek vases suggest the existence of battlements. The Great Wall of China has battlements, late merlons permitted fire from the first firearms. From the 13th century, the merlons could be connected with wooden shutters that provided added protection when closed, the shutters were designed to be opened to allow shooters to fire against the attackers, and closed during reloading. The Romans used low wooden pinnacles for their first aggeres, in the battlements of Pompeii, additional protection derived from small internal buttresses or spur walls, against which the defender might stand so as to gain complete protection on one side. Loop-holes were frequent in Italian battlements, where the merlon has much greater height, Italian military architects used the so-called Ghibelline or swallowtail battlement, with V-shaped notches in the tops of the merlon, giving a horn-like effect. This would allow the defender to be protected whilst shooting standing fully upright, the normal rectangular merlons were later nicknamed Guelph. In Muslim and African fortifications, the merlons often were rounded, the battlements of the Arabs had a more decorative and varied character, and were continued from the 13th century onwards not so much for defensive purposes as for a crowning feature to the walls. They serve a similar to the cresting found in the Spanish Renaissance. European architects persistently used battlements as a decorative feature throughout the Decorated
22.
Corbel
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In architecture a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a piece of material in the wall. A piece of projecting in the same way was called a tassel or a bragger in the UK. The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a support a projecting wall or parapet, has been used since Neolithic, or New Stone Age. A console is more specifically an S-shaped scroll bracket in the classical tradition, keystones are also often in the form of consoles. Whereas corbel is rarely used outside architecture, console is used for furniture, as in console table. The word corbel comes from Old French and derives from the Latin corbellus, a diminutive of corvus, similarly, the French refer to a bracket-corbel, usually a load-bearing internal feature, as a corbeau. Norman corbels often have an appearance, although they may be elaborately carved with stylised heads of humans, animals or imaginary beasts. Similarly, in the Early English period, corbels were sometimes carved, as at Lincoln Cathedral. Corbels sometimes end with a point apparently growing into the wall, or forming a knot, in the later periods the carved foliage and other ornaments used on corbels resemble those used in the capitals of columns. Throughout England, in work, wooden corbels abound, carrying window-sills or oriel windows in wood. The corbels carrying balconies in Italy and France were sometimes of great size and richly carved, taking a cue from 16th-century practice, the Paris-trained designers of 19th-century Beaux-Arts architecture were encouraged to show imagination in varying corbels. A corbel table is a moulded string course supported by a range of corbels. Sometimes these corbels carry a small arcade under the string course, as a rule the corbel table carries the gutter, but in Lombard work the arcaded corbel table was utilized as a decoration to subdivide the storeys and break up the wall surface. In Italy sometimes over the corbels will form a moulding, in modern chimney construction, a corbel table is constructed on the inside of a flue in the form of a concrete ring beam supported by a range of corbels. The corbels can be either in-situ or pre-cast concrete, the corbel tables described here are built at approximately ten metre intervals to ensure stability of the barrel of refractory bricks constructed thereon. In medieval architecture the technique was used to support upper storeys or a parapet projecting forward from the wall plane and this later became a decorative feature, without the openings. Corbelling supporting upper stories and particularly supporting projecting corner turrets subsequently became a characteristic of the Scottish baronial style, medieval timber-framed buildings often employ jettying, where upper stories are cantilevered out on projecting wooden beams in a similar manner to corbelling
23.
Embrasure
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In military architecture, an embrasure is the opening in a crenellation or battlement between the two raised solid portions or merlons, sometimes called a crenel or crenelle. In domestic architecture this refers to the outward splay of a window or arrow slit on the inside, a loophole, arrow loop or arrowslit passes through a solid wall and was originally for use by archers. The purpose of embrasures is to allow weapons to be fired out from the fortification while the remains under cover. The splay of the wall on the inside provides room for the soldier and his equipment, excellent examples of deep embrasures with arrow slits are to be seen at Aigues-Mortes and Château de Coucy, both in France. The etymology of embrasure expresses widening, the invention of the arrowslit is attributed to Archimedes during the siege of Syracuse in 214–212 BC. From Polybiuss The Histories, Archimedes had had the walls pierced with large numbers of loopholes at the height of a man, however, the invention was later forgotten until reintroduced in the 12th century. By the 19th century, a distinction was made between embrasures being used for cannon, and loopholes being used for musketry, in both cases, the opening was normally made wider on the inside of the wall than the outside. A distinction was made between horizontal and vertical embrasures or loopholes, depending on the orientation of the formed in the outside wall. Vertical loopholes—which are much more common—allow the weapon to be raised and lowered in elevation so as to cover a variety of ranges easily. However to sweep from side to side the weapon must bodily move from side to side to pivot around the muzzle, horizontal loopholes, on the other hand, facilitate quick sweeping across the arc in front, but make large adjustments in elevation very difficult. They were usually used in circumstances where the range was very restricted anyway, another variation had both horizontal and vertical slits arranged in the form of a cross, and was called a crosslet loop or an arbalestina since it was principally intended for arbalestiers. A series of perpendicular steps tapering to the gun port ensured that any incoming fire would be stopped by a vertical impact, arrowslit This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
24.
Early thermal weapons
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Incendiary devices were frequently used as projectiles during warfare, particularly during sieges and naval battles, some substances were boiled or heated to inflict damage by scalding or burning. Other substances relied on their properties to inflict burns or damage. These weapons or devices could be used by individuals, manipulated by war machines, the simplest and most common thermal projectiles were boiling water and hot sand, which could be poured over attacking personnel. Other anti-personnel weapons included the use of hot pitch, oil, resin, animal fat, smoke was used to confuse or drive off attackers. Substances such as quicklime and sulfur could be toxic and blinding, fire and incendiary weapons were used against enemy structures and territory, as well as personnel, sometimes on a massive scale. Large tracts of land, towns and villages were frequently ignited as part of a scorched earth strategy, incendiary mixtures, such as the petroleum-based Greek fire, could be launched by throwing machines or administered through a siphon. Sulfur- and oil-soaked materials were sometimes ignited and thrown at the enemy, or attached to spears, arrow and bolts, some siege techniques—such as mining and boring&mash, relied on combustibles and fire to complete the collapse of walls and structures. Towards the latter part of the period, gunpowder was invented, which increased the sophistication of the weapons, and led to the eventual development of the cannon and other firearms. Development of the weapons has continued ever since, with modern war weapons such as napalm, flame throwers. Fire-raising and other destructive strategies can still be seen in modern strategic bombing, the destruction of enemy possessions and territory was a fundamental strategy of war, serving the dual purpose of punishment and deprivation of resources. Until the 5th century BC, the Greeks had little expertise in warfare and relied on a strategy of devastation to draw the enemy out, they destroyed crops. Centuries later, the Byzantines recommended this strategy, even though they had developed siege technology, fire was the easiest way of harrying and destroying territories, and could be done easily and quickly by small forces. King Edward II of England pursued one raiding party in 1327 by following the lights of burning villages, one estimate records the destruction of over 2000 villages and castles during one raid in 1339. As well as causing the destruction of lands, foods and belongings, 13th century Mongol armies regularly sent out small detachments from their main forces to start grass fires and fire settlements as diversions. Devastation by fire was not only used as a tactic, some countries and armies employed scorched earth policies on their own land to deprive invading armies of all food. The English ran out of food and had to abandon the campaign, kitchener employed scorched earth tactics to subdue Boer forces in South Africa when three years of warfare had resulted in a stalemate. Such acts of aggression were not limited to wars against territorial enemies, Alexander the Great suppressed a revolt in Thebes, Greece in 335 BC, after which he ordered the city to be torched and laid waste. Alexander ordered a similar arson at Persepolis in 330 BC and it was a policy which was repeated throughout the period
25.
Cosimo de' Medici
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Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici was an Italian banker and politician, the first of the Medici political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derived from his wealth as a banker, and he was a patron of learning. Cosimo de Medici was born in Florence to Giovanni di Bicci de Medici and he had a twin brother, Damiano, who died shortly after birth. Cosimo also had a brother, Lorenzo the Elder, who was six years his junior. Cosimo inherited both his wealth and his expertise in banking from his father, Giovanni had gone from being a moneylender to joining the bank of his relative, Vieri di Cambio, before founding his own bank, Medici Bank, around 1397. Over the next two decades, the Medici Bank opened branches in Rome, Geneva, Venice, and temporarily in Naples, the branch manager in Rome was a papal depositario generale, managing Church finances in return for a commission. In fifteen years he would make a profit of 290,791 florins, in 1415, Cosimo allegedly accompanied the Antipope John XXIII at the Council of Constance, and in the same year he was named Priore of the Republic. Later he acted frequently as ambassador, showing a prudence for which he became renowned and this gave the Medici family tremendous power, allowing them to threaten defaulting debtors with excommunication, for instance. However, after the Spini Bank went insolvent in 1420, they again secured priority, Giovanni withdrew from the bank in 1420, leaving its leadership to both of his sons. He left them 179,221 florins upon his death in 1429, two-thirds of this came from the business in Rome, while only a tenth came from Florence, even Venice offered better business than Florence. The brothers would earn two-thirds of the profits from the bank, besides the bank, the family owned much land in the area surrounding Florence, including Mugello, the place from which the family originally came. Cosimos power over Florence stemmed from his wealth, which he used to control votes, as Florence was proud of its democracy, he pretended to have little political ambition and did not often hold public office. Enea Piccolomini, Bishop of Siena and later Pope Pius II, said of him, the man he chooses holds office. He it is who decides peace and war and he is king in all but name. Venice sent an envoy to Florence on his behalf, requested they rescind the order of banishment, when they refused, Cosimo settled down in Venice, his brother Lorenzo accompanying him. Cosimo returned a year later in 1434, to influence the government of Florence. Cosimos time in exile instilled in him the need to squash the factionalism that resulted in his exile in the first place. In order to do this, Cosimo, with the help of favorable priors in the Signoria, the Milanese made a brief attempt at democracy before Sforza finally was acclaimed duke by the city in February 1450
26.
Augsburg
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Augsburg is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It was a Free Imperial City for over 500 years and it is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is a district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is the third-largest city in Bavaria with a population of 286,000 citizens, after Neuss and Trier, Augsburg is Germanys third oldest city, being founded by the Romans as Augusta Vindelicorum, named after the Roman emperor Augustus. Augsburg is the only German city with its own legal holiday and this gives Augsburg more legal holidays than any other region or city in Germany. Augsburg was the home of two families that rose to great prominence internationally, replacing the Medicis as Europes leading bankers, the Fugger. Augsburg lies at the convergence of the Alpine rivers Lech and Wertach, in the south extends the Lechfeld, an Outwash plain of the post ice age between the rivers Lech and Wertach, where rare primeval landscapes were preserved. The Augsburg city forest and the Lech valley heaths today rank among the most species-rich middle European habitats, on Augsburg borders the nature park Augsburg Western Woods - a large forestland. The city itself is also heavily greened, as a result, in 1997 Augsburg was the first German city to win the Europe-wide contest Entente Florale for Europes greenest and most livable city. Augsburg is surrounded by the counties Landkreis Augsburg in the west, the neighboring towns and cities are Friedberg, Königsbrunn, Stadtbergen, Neusäß, Gersthofen, Rehling, Affing, Kissing, Mering, Merching, Bobingen, Gessertshausen und Diedorf. Augsburg has a continental climate. The city was founded in 15 BC by Drusus and Tiberius as Augusta Vindelicorum, the name means Augusta of the Vindelici. This garrison camp soon became the capital of the Roman province of Raetia, thus, Augsburg was the intersection of many important European east-west and north-south connections, which later evolved as major trade routes of the Middle Ages. Around 120 AD Augsburg became the capital of the Roman province Raetia, Augsburg was sacked by the Huns in the 5th century AD, by Charlemagne in the 8th century, and by Welf of Bavaria in the 11th century, but arose each time to greater prosperity. Augsburg was granted the status of a Free Imperial City on March 9,1276 and from then until 1803, it was independent of its former overlord, the Prince-Bishop of Augsburg. Frictions between the city-state and the prince-bishops were to remain frequent however, particularly after Augsburg became Protestant and curtailed the rights, with a strategic location as intersection of trade routes to Italy, the Free Imperial City became a major trading center. Augsburg produced large quantities of goods, cloth and textiles. Augsburg became the base of two banking families that rose to prominence, the Fuggers and the Welsers
27.
Vincenzo Viviani
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Vincenzo Viviani was an Italian mathematician and scientist. He was a pupil of Torricelli and a disciple of Galileo, born and raised in Florence, Viviani studied at a Jesuit school. There, Grand Duke Ferdinando II de Medici furnished him a scholarship to purchase mathematical books and he became a pupil of Evangelista Torricelli and worked on physics and geometry. In 1639, at the age of 17, he was an assistant of Galileo Galilei in Arcetri and he remained a disciple until Galileos death in 1642. From 1655 to 1656, Viviani edited the first edition of Galileos collected works, after Torricellis 1647 death, Viviani was appointed to fill his position at the Accademia dellArte del Disegno in Florence. Viviani was also one of the first members of the Grand Dukes experimental academy, the Accademia del Cimento, in 1660, Viviani and Giovanni Alfonso Borelli conducted an experiment to determine the speed of sound. The currently accepted value is 331.29 m/s at 0 °C or 340.29 m/s at sea level and it has also been claimed that in 1661 he experimented with the rotation of pendulums,190 years before the famous demonstration by Foucault. By 1666, Viviani started to receive many job offers as his reputation as a mathematician grew and that same year, Louis XIV of France offered him a position at the Académie Royale and John II Casimir of Poland offered Viviani a post as his astronomer. Fearful of losing Viviani, the Grand Duke appointed him court mathematician, Viviani accepted this post and turned down his other offers. In 1687, he published a book on engineering, Discorso intorno al difendersi da riempimenti e dalle corrosione de fiumi, upon his death, Viviani left an almost completed work on the resistance of solids, which was subsequently completed and published by Luigi Guido Grandi. In 1737, the Church finally allowed Galileo to be reburied in a grave with an elaborate monument, the monument that was created in the church of Santa Croce was constructed with the help of funds left by Viviani for that specific purpose. Vivianis own remains were moved to Galileos new grave as well, the lunar crater Viviani is named after him. In Florence, Viviani had Galileos life and achievements written in Latin on the façade of his palace, the palace was then renamed Palazzo dei Cartelloni. Racconto istorico della vita di Galileo Galilei Galileos Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment Vivianis theorem Vivianis curve Viviani page at Rice Universitys Galileo Project Vivianis Theorem
28.
Giorgio Vasari
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Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany. Recommended at an age by his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia. He was befriended by Michelangelo whose painting style would influence his own, in 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance. Vasaris own Mannerist paintings were admired in his lifetime than afterwards. In 1547 he completed the hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni and he was consistently employed by members of the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and worked in Naples, Arezzo and other places. He also helped to organize the decoration of the Studiolo, now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio, aside from his career as a painter, Vasari was also successful as an architect. In Florence, Vasari also built the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, the enclosed corridor passes alongside the River Arno on an arcade, crosses the Ponte Vecchio and winds around the exterior of several buildings. He also renovated the medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, at both he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodelled the retro-choirs in the Mannerist taste of his time. In Santa Croce, he was responsible for the painting of The Adoration of the Magi which was commissioned by Pope Pius V in 1566 and it was recently restored, before being put on exhibition in 2011 in Rome and in Naples. Eventually it is planned to return it to the church of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo, in 1562 Vasari built the octagonal dome on the Basilica of Our Lady of Humility in Pistoia, an important example of high Renaissance architecture. In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammanati at Pope Julius IIIs Villa Giulia, the Lives also included a novel treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. The book was rewritten and enlarged in 1568, with the addition of woodcut portraits of artists. The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines, and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art – for example, Venetian art in particular, is systematically ignored in the first edition. Between the first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and while the edition gave more attention to Venetian art. Vasaris biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip, with a few exceptions, however, Vasaris aesthetic judgement was acute and unbiased. He did not research archives for exact dates, as art historians do, and naturally his biographies are most dependable for the painters of his own generation. Modern criticism – with new materials opened up by research – has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions. Vasari includes a sketch of his own biography at the end of the Lives, according to the historian Richard Goldthwaite, Vasari was one of the earliest authors to use the term competition in its economic sense
29.
Vasari Corridor
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The Vasari Corridor is an elevated enclosed passageway in Florence, central Italy, which connects the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti. At the time of construction, the corridor had to be built around the Torre dei Mannelli, using brackets, the corridor covers up part of the façade of the chiesa di Santa Felicita. The corridor then snakes its way over rows of houses in the Oltrarno district, becoming narrower, most of it is closed to visitors. The Vasari Corridor was built in 5 months by order of Duke Cosimo I de Medici in 1565 and it was commissioned in connection with the marriage of Cosimos son, Francesco, with Johanna of Austria. The meat market of Ponte Vecchio was moved to avoid its smell reaching into the passage, at the latter extremity, the corridor was forced to pass around the Mannellis Tower, after the staunch opposition of that family to its destruction. In the middle of Ponte Vecchio the corridor is characterized by a series of windows facing the Arno. These replaced the windows of the original construction in 1939. The larger windows were installed for a visit to Florence by Adolf Hitler to give him a panoramic view of the river. In its Uffizi section the Vasari Corridor is used to exhibit the famous collection of self-portraits. The area closest to the Uffizi entrance was damaged by a bombing commissioned by the Italian mafia on the night of May 27th,1993. These paintings, some hopelessly damaged, have been pieced back together, self-portraits in the Uffizi Gallery Media related to Vasari Corridor at Wikimedia Commons
30.
Uffizi
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The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The building of Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de Medici so as to accommodate the offices of the Florentine magistrates, hence the name uffizi, the construction was later continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti and completed in 1581. The niches in the piers that alternate with columns filled with sculptures of artists in the 19th century. The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices, the Tribunal and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive. He commissioned from the architect Buontalenti the design of the Tribuna degli Uffizi that collected a series of masterpieces in one room, over the years, more sections of the palace were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculpture collected or commissioned by the Medici. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, because of its huge collection, some of its works have in the past been transferred to other museums in Florence—for example, some famous statues to the Bargello. A project was finished in 2006 to expand the exhibition space some 6,000 metres² to almost 13,000 metres². On 27 May 1993, a car exploded in Via dei Georgofili and damaged parts of the palace. The most severe damage was to the Niobe room and classical sculptures and neoclassical interior, the identity of the bomber or bombers are unknown, although it was almost certainly attributable to the Sicilian Mafia who were engaged in a period of terrorism at that time. Today, the Uffizi is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Florence, in high season, waiting times can be up to five hours. In early August 2007, Florence experienced a heavy rainstorm, the Gallery was partially flooded, with water leaking through the ceiling, and the visitors had to be evacuated. There was a more significant flood in 1966 which damaged most of the art collections in Florence severely. Here is a selection from the collection, The collection also contains some ancient sculptures, such as the Arrotino. Collections of the Uffizi Official website Uffizi – Google Art Project
31.
Ponte Vecchio
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The Ponte Vecchio is a medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops, the present tenants are jewelers, art dealers, the Ponte Vecchios two neighbouring bridges are the Ponte Santa Trinita and the Ponte alle Grazie. The bridge spans the Arno at its narrowest point where it is believed that a bridge was first built in Roman times, the Roman piers were of stone, the superstructure of wood. The bridge first appears in a document of 996, after being destroyed by a flood in 1117 it was reconstructed in stone but swept away again in 1333 save two of its central piers, as noted by Giovanni Villani in his Nuova Cronica. Modern historians present Neri di Fioravanti as a possible candidate, the Torre dei Mannelli was built at the southeast corner of the bridge to defend it. The bridge consists of three arches, the main arch has a span of 30 meters the two side arches each span 27 meters. The rise of the arches is between 3.5 and 4.4 meters, and the span-to-rise ratio 5,1 and it has always hosted shops and merchants who displayed their goods on tables before their premises, after authorization of the Bargello. The back shops that may be seen from upriver, were added in the seventeenth century, not having a table anymore, the merchant was not able to sell anything. During World War II, the Ponte Vecchio was not destroyed by Germans during their retreat on the advance of the liberating British 8th Army on August 4,1944 and this was allegedly, according to many locals and tour guides, because of an express order by Hitler. Access to Ponte Vecchio was, however, obstructed by the destruction of the buildings at both ends, which have since been using a combination of original and modern design. In order to connect the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti, to enforce the prestige of the bridge, in 1593 the Medici Grand Dukes prohibited butchers from selling there, their place was immediately taken by several gold merchants. The corporative association of butchers had monopolised the shops on the bridge since 1442, along the Ponte Vecchio, there can be seen many padlocks affixed in various places, especially to the railing around the statue of Benvenuto Cellini. This is a recent tradition for the Ponte Vecchio, although it has been practiced in Russia and it was perhaps introduced by the padlock shop owner at the end of the bridge. It is popularly connected to idea of love and lovers, by locking the padlock and throwing the key into the river, there is a similar ongoing padlock phenomenon at Ponte Milvio, due to one of Federico Moccias books. The bridge was damaged in the 1966 flood of the Arno. The bridge is mentioned in the aria O mio babbino caro by Giacomo Puccini, Vasari Corridor Krämerbrücke Pulteney Bridge Flanigan, Theresa, The Ponte Vecchio and the Art of Urban Planning in Late Medieval Florence, Gesta 47, 1-15
32.
Museum
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Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist in smaller cities, towns and even the countryside. Museums have varying aims, ranging from serving researchers and specialists to serving the general public, the goal of serving researchers is increasingly shifting to serving the general public. There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums, the city with the largest number of museums is Mexico City with over 128 museums. According to The World Museum Community, there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 countries, the English museum comes from the Latin word, and is pluralized as museums. The first museum/library is considered to be the one of Plato in Athens, however, Pausanias gives another place called Museum, namely a small hill in Classical Athens opposite to the Akropolis. The hill was called Mouseion after Mousaious, a man who used to sing on the hill, the purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of artistic, cultural, or scientific significance for the education of the public. The purpose can also depend on ones point of view, to a family looking for entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, a trip to a local history museum or large city art museum could be a fun, and enlightening way to spend the day. To city leaders, a healthy museum community can be seen as a gauge of the health of a city. To a museum professional, a museum might be seen as a way to educate the public about the museums mission, Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James Smithsons bequest, that would fund the Smithsonian Institution, stated he wanted to establish an institution for the increase, Museums of natural history in the late 19th century exemplified the Victorian desire for consumption and for order. Gathering all examples of classification of a field of knowledge for research. As American colleges grew in the 19th century, they developed their own natural history collections for the use of their students, while many large museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution, are still respected as research centers, research is no longer a main purpose of most museums. While there is a debate about the purposes of interpretation of a museums collection, there has been a consistent mission to protect. Much care, expertise, and expense is invested in efforts to retard decomposition in aging documents, artifacts, artworks. All museums display objects that are important to a culture, as historian Steven Conn writes, To see the thing itself, with ones own eyes and in a public place, surrounded by other people having some version of the same experience can be enchanting. Museum purposes vary from institution to institution, some favor education over conservation, or vice versa. For example, in the 1970s, the Canada Science and Technology Museum favored education over preservation of their objects and they displayed objects as well as their functions. One exhibit featured a printing press that a staff member used for visitors to create museum memorabilia
33.
Frontispiece (architecture)
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In architecture, a frontispiece is the combination of elements that frame and decorate the main, or front, door to a building. The term is used when the main entrance is the chief face of the building rather than being kept behind columns or a portico. Early German churches often employed frontispieces to hide the aisles and nave, in Kentucky, the frontispieces of Georgian buildings characteristically feature a lunette above the door and colonettes on either side. In Chiapas, frontispieces are typically elongated, media related to Frontispieces at Wikimedia Commons
34.
Christogram
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A Christogram is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a religious symbol within the Christian Church. One of the oldest Christograms is the Chi-Rho and it consists of the superimposed Greek letters chi and rho, which are the first two letters of Greek χριστός Christ. It was displayed on the military standard used by Constantine I in AD312. The IX monogram is a form, using the initials of the name Ἰησοῦς Χριστός Jesus Christ, as is the ΙΗ monogram. The name Jesus, spelt ΙΗΣΟΥΣ in Greek capitals, has the abbreviations IHS, in Eastern Christian tradition, the monogram ΙϹΧϹ is used for in both Greek and Cyrillic tradition. A Middle Latin term for abbreviations of the name of Christ is chrisimus, similarly, Middle Latin crismon, chrismon refers to the Chi Rho monogram specifically. In antiquity, the cross, i. e. the instrument of Christs crucifixion was taken to be T-shaped, while the X-shape had different connotations. In Platos Timaeus, it is explained that the two bands which form the world cross each other like the letter chi, possibly referring to the ecliptic crossing the celestial equator. The most commonly encountered Christogram in English-speaking countries in modern times is the Χ, representing the first letter of the word Christ, in such abbreviations as Xmas, the Alpha and Omega symbols may at times accompany the Chi-Rho monogram. Chrismon since the 17th century has been used as a New Latin term for the Chi Rho monogram. Because the chrismon was used as a kind of invocation at the beginning of documents of the Merovingian period, the term also came to be used of the cross-signatures in early medieval charters. Chrismon in this context may refer to the Merovingian period abbreviation I. C. N. for in Christi nomine, later also I. C. for in Christo, and still later just C. for Christus. The Greek letter iota is represented by I, and the eta by H, while the Greek letter sigma is either in its form, represented by C, or its final form. Because the Latin-alphabet letters I and J were not systematically distinguished until the 17th century, JHS and JHC are equivalent to IHS, IHS is sometimes interpreted as meaning Jesus Hominum Salvator, or connected with In Hoc Signo. Such interpretations are known as backronyms, used in Latin since the seventh century, the first use of IHS in an English document dates from the fourteenth century, in The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman. The IHS monogram with the H surmounted by a cross above three nails and surrounded by a Sun is the emblem of the Jesuits, according to tradition introduced by Ignatius of Loyola in 1541, english-language interpretations of IHS have included In His Service. On icons, this Christogram may be split, ΙϹ on the left of the image and it is sometimes rendered as ΙϹ ΧϹ ΝΙΚΑ, meaning Jesus Christ Conquers. ΙϹΧϹ may also be inscribed on the Ichthys
35.
Galleria dell'Accademia
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The Galleria dellAccademia di Firenze, or Gallery of the Academy of Florence, is an art museum in Florence, Italy. It is the home of Michelangelos sculpture David and it also has other sculptures by Michelangelo and a collection of Renaissance paintings. It adjoins the Accademia di Belle Arti or academy of arts of Florence. The Galleria dellAccademia was founded in 1784 by Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Galleria dellAccademia has housed the original David by Michelangelo since 1873. The sculpture was brought to the Accademia for reasons of conservation. The original intention was to create a Michelangelo museum, with sculptures and drawings. Today, the small collection of Michelangelos work includes his four unfinished Prisoners, intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II. In 1939, these were joined by a Pietà discovered in the Barberini chapel in Palestrina, the David in the Accademia is the original. There is a replica in the Piazza della Signoria, as well as a number of Florentine Gothic paintings, the gallery houses the idiosyncratic collection of Russian icons assembled by the Grand Dukes of the House of Lorraine, of which Leopoldo was one. Media related to Galleria dellAccademia at Wikimedia Commons
36.
Bartolommeo Bandinelli
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Bartolommeo Bandinelli, actually Bartolommeo Brandini, was a Renaissance Italian sculptor, draughtsman and painter. Bandinelli was the son of a prominent Florentine goldsmith, and first apprenticed in his shop, as a boy, he was apprenticed under Giovanni Francesco Rustici, a sculptor friend of Leonardo da Vinci. Among his earliest works was a Saint Jerome in wax, made for Giuliano de Medici, having counterfeited the key of the chamber. 1512, Piero Soderini was deposed and the, in the tumult, therefore, Baccio, being by himself, secretly cut the cartoon into several pieces. The loss anyhow to the city was no one. Bandinellis lifelong obsession with Michelangelo is a theme in assessments of his career. A brilliant draughtsman and excellent small-scale sculptor, he had a fascination for colossi which he was ill-equipped to execute. His failure as a sculptor on a scale was accentuated by his desire to imitate Michelangelo. Hercules and Cacus was commissioned by the Medici pope Clement VII, the supplied block of Carrara marble was not big enough to execute Bandinellis wax model. He had to make new wax models, one of which was chosen by the pope as the final draft, Bandinelli had already carved the sculpture as far as the abdomen of Hercules, when during the 1527 Sack of Rome, the pope was taken prisoner. Meanwhile, in Florence, republican enemies of the Medici took advantage of the chaos to exile Ippolito de Medici, Bandinelli, a supporter of the Medici, was also exiled. In 1530 Emperor Charles V retook Florence after a long siege, Pope Clement VII subsequently installed his illegitimate son Alessandro de Medici as duke of Tuscany. Bandinelli then returned to Florence and continue work on the statue completed in 1534. But from the moment it was unveiled, it faced ridicule, afterwards, the Bandinelli tried to sabotage Cellinis career. The statue was restored between February and April 1994, Bandinellis drawings, which have in the past masqueraded as Michelangelos in connoisseurs collections, have come into their own in the later twentieth century. Among Bandinellis pupils were Vasari and Francesco de Rossi and his sons Clemente, a collaborator in his studio, and Michelangelo Bandinelli were also sculptors. Baccio Bandinellis works include, copy of Laocoon, at the time in the Cortile del Belvedere, tombs of the Medici popes Leo X and Clement VII in Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Bust of Cosimo I de Medici This had been locked away in a vault in a Swiss bank until a tip led the curator Olga Raggio to its rediscovery
37.
Hercules and Cacus
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Hercules and Cacus is a white sculpture to the right of the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy. Although descriptions of its unveiling in 1534 provided verbal and written criticisms of the marble, a few of the writers of these hypercritical verses were imprisoned by Alessandro deMedici, further suggesting a political commentary. The two harshest critics were Giorgio Vasari and Benvenuto Cellini, both of whom were champions of Michelangelo and rivals of Bandinelli for Medici patronage, Vasari lamented the change of hands from Michelangelo to Bandinelli, and the change of design. Cellini referred to the musculature as a sack full of melons. Neither Vasari, nor Cellini can be viewed as unbiased resources due to their rivalries and this marble group shows the basic theme of the victor and the vanquished. The pause suggests the leniency of the Medici to those who would concede to their rule, the commission for the Hercules and Cacus, as mentioned, was appropriated by the pope Clement VII, some time during or before 1523. He was shown a wax bozzetto by Bandinelli, who received the commission, the quarried block of white Carrara marble arrived in Florence in 1525. It has been suggested that the block of marble was not large enough for Bandinellis design and he was to make a new one, however, the reason for the change may have been purely for symbolic reasons. His first design was extremely active and violent, and it is likely that the Medici did not want such a reminder of their brutal return to power. Meanwhile, in Florence, the enemies of the Medici took advantage of the chaos to expel Ippolito de Medici from the city. Vasari stated a change in subject, which is substantiated by a terracotta bozzetto and this was probably to separate the project from the Medici and was allowed due to Bandinelli, as a supporter of the Medici, having to leave the city. In 1530, Emperor Charles V assisted the Medici in retaking possession of Florence after a long siege, pope Clement VII subsequently installed his illegitimate son Alessandro de Medici as duke of Florence. Bandinelli then returned and continued his work on the statue, finally in 1534 the work on the statue was finished transported from his studio to the Piazza della Signoria and placed on its marble pedestal as part of the ringiera. The statue was restored between February 1994 and April 1994 and it was then discovered that the club in the hand of Hercules was not the original club, but was made of aluminum instead of the original bronze
38.
Lunette
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In architecture, a lunette is a half-moon shaped space, either filled with recessed masonry or void. A lunette is formed when a horizontal cornice transects a round-headed arch at the level of the imposts, if a door is set within a round-headed arch, the space within the arch above the door, masonry or glass, is a lunette. If the door is an access, and the lunette above is massive and deeply set. The term is employed to describe the section of interior wall between the curves of a vault and its springing line. A system of intersecting vaults produces lunettes on the surfaces above a cornice. The lunettes in the structure of the Sistine Chapel inspired Michelangelo to come up with compositions for the spaces. In neoclassical architecture of Robert Adam and his French contemporaries, like Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the lunettes above lent themselves to radiating motifs, a sunburst of bellflower husks, radiating fluting, a low vase of flowers, etc. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc taken from an oval, a lunette is commonly called a half-moon window, when the space is used as a window. Fanlight Media related to Lunettes at Wikimedia Commons
39.
Andrea del Verrocchio
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Andrea del Verrocchio, born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de Cioni, was an Italian painter, sculptor, and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence. He became known by his nickname Verrocchio, from vero occhio, which in Italian means true eye, few paintings are attributed to him with certainty, but a number of important painters were trained at his workshop. His pupils included Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino and Lorenzo di Credi and his greatest importance was as a sculptor and his last work, the Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice, is generally accepted as a masterpiece. Verrocchio was born in Florence in around 1435 and his father, Michele di Francesco Cioni, initially worked as a tile and brick maker, then later as a tax collector. Verrocchio never married, and had to provide support for some members of his family. He was at first apprenticed to a goldsmith and it has been suggested that he was later apprenticed to Donatello, but there is no evidence of this and John Pope-Hennessy considered that it is contradicted by the style of his early works. It has been suggested that he was trained as a painter under Fra Filippo Lippi, little is known about his life. His main works are dated in his last twenty years and his advancement owed much to the patronage of Lorenzo de Medici and his workshop was in Florence where he was a member of the Guild of St Luke. At the end of his life he opened a new workshop in Venice where he was working on the statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni and he died in Venice in 1488. Despite the importance of Verrocchios workshop in the training of younger painters, very few paintings are universally recognised as his own work, a painting of the Madonna with seated child in tempera on panel is considered an early work of 1468-70. It is a work which has formerly been attributed to Pollaiuolo. Covi thinks that it was painted with assistance from Ghirlandaio. It is now in London at the National Gallery, the Baptism of Christ, now in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence, was painted in 1474–75. In this work Verrocchio was assisted by Leonardo da Vinci, then a youth and a member of his workshop, who painted the angel on the left and the part of the background above. According to Vasari, Andrea resolved never to touch the brush again because Leonardo, his pupil, had far surpassed him, the Madonna enthroned with John the Baptist and St Donato is in the Pistoia Cathedral. It had been left unfinished and was completed by Lorenzo di Credi when Verrocchio was in Venice near the end of his life, around 1465 he is believed to have worked on the lavabo of the Old Sacristy in San Lorenzo, Florence. He therefore had the problem of placing two statues in a tabernacle originally intended for one, as Covi says, the problem was resolved in a most felicitous manner. The work was placed in position in 1483 and has been acclaimed since the day of its unveiling, in 1468 Verrocchio made a bronze candlestick, now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, for the Signoria of Florence
40.
Villa Medici at Careggi
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The Villa Medici at Careggi is a patrician villa in the hills near Florence, Tuscany, central Italy. The villa was among the first of a number of Medici villas, notable as the site of the Platonic academy founded by Cosimo de Medici, like most villas of Florentine families, the villa remained a working farm that helped render the family self-sufficient. Cosimos architect there, as elsewhere, was Michelozzo, who remodelled the fortified villa which had something of the character of a castello. Its famous garden is walled about, like a garden, overlooked by the upper-storey loggias. Michelozzos Villa Medici in Fiesole has a more outward-looking, Renaissance character, the property was purchased in 1417. At the death of Giovanni di Bicci, Cosimo il Vecchio set about remodelling the beloved villa around its central courtyard. His grandson Lorenzo extended the gardens and the shaded boschi. Marsilio Ficino, who died at the villa in 1499, was a member of the academy. Today the villa belongs to the Tuscan public administration and it is currently in a process of restoration and is closed to the public until at least 2020
41.
Boboli Gardens
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The Boboli Gardens is a park in Florence, Italy, that is home to a collection of sculptures dating from the 16th through the 18th centuries, with some Roman antiquities. The Gardens, directly behind the Pitti Palace, the seat of the Medici grand dukes of Tuscany at Florence, are some of the first and most familiar formal 16th-century Italian gardens. The openness of the garden, with a view of the city, was unconventional for its time. The gardens were very lavish, considering no access was allowed to anyone outside the immediate Medici family, the Boboli Gardens were laid out for Eleonora di Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de Medici. The name is a curruption of Bogoli, a family from whom land had been bought to construct the garden, the elaborate architecture of the grotto in the courtyard that separates the palace from its garden is by Buontalenti. The garden lacks a water source. To water the plants in the garden, a conduit was built from the nearby Arno River to feed water into an irrigation system. The primary axis, centered on the rear façade of the palace, at the center of the amphitheater and rather dwarfed by its position is the Ancient Egyptian Boboli obelisk brought from the Villa Medici at Rome. This primary axis terminates in a fountain of Neptune, with the sculpture of Neptune by Stoldo Lorenzi visible against the skyline as a visitor climbs the slope, Giulio Parigi laid out the long secondary axis, the Viottolone or Cyprus Road at a right angle to the primary axis. In 1617, Parigi constructed the Grotto of Vulcan along this axis, the gardens have passed through several stages of enlargement and restructuring work. They were enlarged in the 17th century to their present extent of 45,000 meters², the Boboli Gardens have come to form an outdoor museum of garden sculpture that includes Roman antiquities as well as 16th and 17th century works. In the first phase of building, the amphitheatre was excavated in the hillside behind the palace, the small Grotto of Madama, and the Large Grotto, were begun by Vasari and completed by Ammannati and Buontalenti between 1583 and 1593. Even while undergoing restoration work in 2015, the Large Grottos statues are still on display, decorated internally and externally with stalactites and originally equipped with waterworks and luxuriant vegetation, the fountain is divided into three main sections. Other rooms in the Grotto contain Giambolognas famous Bathing Venus and an 18th-century group of Paris, in the hillside above the amphitheatre is a double ramp, leading to the Fountain of Neptune. The main feature is a basin with a central bronze statue of Neptune by Stoldo Lorenzi. The conceit here recalls the story of the competition of Athena, in that legend, Neptune struck the ground with his trident to spring forth water from the land. Higher up on the hillside is a statue of Abundance, the Isolotto is an oval-shaped island in a tree enclosed pond nearly at the end of the alternative Viottolone axis. In the centre of the island is the Fountain of the Ocean, while in the moat, there are statues of Perseus
42.
Niche (architecture)
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A niche in classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse. The word derives from the Latin nidus or nest, via the French niche, in Gothic architecture, a niche may be set within a tabernacle framing, like a richly-decorated miniature house, such as might serve for a reliquary. The backings for the altars in churches can be embedded with niches for statues, one of the earliest buildings which uses external niches containing statues is the Church of Orsanmichele in Florence, built between 1380-1404. The Uffizi Palace in Florence modified the concept by setting the niche within the wall so it did not protrude, the Uffizi has two dozen or so such niches containing statues of great historical figures. In England the Uffizi style niches were adopted at Montacute House, in Fra Filippo Lippis Madonna the trompe-loeil niche frames her as with the canopy of estate that was positioned over a personage of importance in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe. At the same time, the Madonna is represented as an iconic sculpture who has come alive with miraculous immediacy, expanding from its primary sense as an architectural recess, a niche can be applied to a rocky hollow, crack, crevice, or foothold. The sense of a niche as a clearly defined narrow space led to its use describing the position of an organisms species. Alcove Grotto Mihrab Wave cut platform Sir John Summerson,1948. in Heavenly Mansions
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Pierino da Vinci
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Pierino da Vinci, born Pier Francesco di Bartolomeo di Ser Piero da Vinci, was an Italian sculptor, born in the small town of Vinci in Tuscany, he was the nephew of Leonardo da Vinci. The son of Bartolomeo da Vinci, Leonardo’s younger brother, Pierino demonstrated artistic ability at an early age and he studied under both Baccio Bandinelli and Niccolò Tribolo. Pierino died from fever at the age of 23, in Pisa. A relief that was admired by Vasari and was thought to be by Michelangelo was recently the subject of an unsuccessful effort to keep it in the United Kingdom when it came up for auction. According to Vasari the relief was made by Pierino in 1549 for Luca Martini dell’Ala and it depicts Ugolino and his sons. The work is now in the collection of the Liechtenstein Museum, several sculptures, now believed to be by Pierino da Vinci, were at one time attributed to Michelangelo. Britta Kusch-Arnhold, Pierino da Vinci, Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance, cianchi, Marco, Pierino da Vinci, atti della giornata di studio, Vinci, Biblioteca leonardiana, Firenze, Becocci,1995. Goguel, Catherine Monbeigl, Maestri toscani del Cinquecento, Michelangelo, Sansovino, Bandinelli, Jacone, Montorsoli, Salviati, Vasari, Dosio, Pierino da Vinci, Giambologna, etc. Middeldorf, Ulrich, Additions to the Work of Pierino da Vinci, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol.53, rosi, Mino, Pierino da Vinci, Profilo Interpretativo, Pisa, ETS,2000. Vasari, Giorgio, Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori, many editions and translations
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Veduta
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A veduta is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or, more often print, of a cityscape or some other vista. The painters of vedute are referred to as vedutisti and this genre of landscape originated in Flanders, where artists such as Paul Bril painted vedute as early as the 16th century. In the 17th century Dutch painters made a specialty of detailed and accurate recognizable city, an archetypal example is Johannes Vermeers View of Delft. The Ghent architect, draughtsman and engraver Lieven Cruyl contributed to the development of the vedute during his residence in Rome in the late 17th century, cruyl’s drawings reproduce the topographical aspects of the urban landscape. By the mid-18th century, Venice became renowned as the centre of the vedutisti, the genres greatest practitioners belonged to the Canal and Guardi families of Venice. Some of them went to work as painters in major capitals of Europe, e. g. Canaletto in London and his nephew Bernardo Bellotto in Dresden, in other parts of 18th-century Italy, idiosyncratic varieties of the genre evolved. Giovanni Paolo Pannini was the first veduta artist to concentrate on painting ruins and his collaborators included Hendrik Frans van Lint, who would become one of the leading vedute painters in the first half of the 18th century. In later developments of the vedute, Panninis veduta morphed into the scenes partly or completely imaginary elements, known as capricci, giambattista Piranesi was the foremost master of vedute ideate etchings. His topographical series, Vedute di Roma, went through many printings, in the later 19th century, more personal impressions of cityscapes replaced the desire for topographical accuracy, which was satisfied instead by painted, and later photographed, panoramas. These artists responded to the international market for their city views of Venice and they made such big names for themselves through this genre that they painted nothing. Demand for Federico del Campos views, particularly from English tourists, was so strong, I pittori di vedute in Italia, 1580-1830. Canaletto, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has material on Canalettos contributions to the genre
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Habsburg Monarchy
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The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, from 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy had no official name. The entity had no official name, Austrian Empire, This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i. e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, Austria-Hungary, This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler, Crownlands or crown lands, This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen or Lands of Holy Stephens Crown, the Bohemian Lands were called Lands of the St. Wenceslaus Crown. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary, Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austrias capital became a state January 1,1922, after being residence, Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns. Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the War of the Bavarian Succession by the so-called Innviertel, formerly part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands, In a narrower sense these were the original Habsburg Austrian territories, i. e. basically the Austrian lands, in a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were also included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term Crownlands in the 1849 March Constitution, within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid 17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, in this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed, it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy, instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance. Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I, to these were added in 1779 the Inn Quarter of Bavaria, and in 1803 the Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen
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Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Francesco I was the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1574 until his death in 1587. He was the grand duke of the house of Medici. Born in Florence, he was the son of Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleanor of Toledo, by all reports, it was not a happy marriage. Joanna was homesick for her native Austria, and Francesco was neither charming nor faithful, Joanna died at the age of thirty one in 1578. Soon after the Grand Duchess Joanna had died, Francesco went on to marry his Venetian mistress, Bianca Cappello, after disposing of her husband. Because of the quick remarriage and similar occurrences among the Medici, rumours spread that Francesco, Francesco reportedly built and decorated Villa di Pratolino for Bianca. She was, however, not always popular among Florentines, Francesco also adopted Biancas daughter by her first marriage, Pellegrina. Like his father, Francesco was often despotic, but while Cosimo had known how to maintain Florentine independence, Francesco acted more like a vassal of the Habsburgs of Austria and he continued the heavy taxation of his subjects to pay large sums to the empire. He had an amateurs interest in manufacturing and sciences and he founded porcelain and stoneware manufacture, but these did not thrive until after his death. He continued his fathers patronage of the arts, supporting artists, Francesco and Bianca died on 19 and 20 October both at the Medici Villa in Poggio a Caiano. Although the original death certificates mention malaria, it has been speculated that the couple was poisoned, possibly by Francescos brother. Investigations of Francescos facial hair that were found among his remains have detected low levels of arsenic, testing showed proof that support the theory of arsenic-poisoning. The same findings were detected in organs from Francesco and it is believed that Francesco and Bianca were given small doses of arsenic for several days until it killed them. But the doses were too small and given over a too short period of time to be detected in Francescos facial hair. In this way their symptoms, such as fever, stomach-cramps and vomiting, easily could be misinterpreted as some kind of infection, Francesco was succeeded by his younger brother, Ferdinando I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1857, all members of the Medici family were exhumed and reburied in the place where they still lie today and these are the features of a right sided stroke possibly within the internal capsule. The presence of the orthopaedic footwear suggests that this stroke happened significantly before his death, during life, in his official portraits, the Grand Duke was always depicted as being in perfect physical condition. The cause of his stroke is not known but malaria is known to cause this condition There is a portrait of Francesco as a child by Bronzino
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Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Cosimo I de Medici was the second Duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany. Cosimo was born in Florence, on 12 June 1519, the son of the famous condottiere Giovanni dalle Bande Nere from Forlì and he was the grandson of Caterina Sforza, the Countess of Forlì and Lady of Imola. Cosimo came to power at 17, when the 26-year-old Duke, Alessandro de Medici, was assassinated in 1537, Cosimo was from a different branch of the family, and so far had lived in Mugello, and was almost unknown in Florence. However, many of the men in the city favoured him. Several hoped to rule through him, thereby enriching themselves at the states expense, however, as Benedetto Varchi famously put it The innkeepers reckoning was different from the gluttons. Cosimo proved strong-willed, astute and ambitious, and soon rejected the clause he had signed, when the Florentine exiles heard of the death of Alessandro, they marshalled their forces with support from France and from disgruntled neighbors of Florence. During this time, Cosimo had a daughter, Bia. Toward the end of July 1537, the exiles marched into Tuscany under the leadership of Bernardo Salviati and Piero Strozzi. When Cosimo heard of their approach, he sent his best troops under Alessandro Vitelli to engage the enemy, which they did at Montemurlo, after defeating the exiles army, Vitelli stormed the fortress, where Strozzi and a few of his companions had retreated to safety. It fell after only a few hours, and Cosimo celebrated his first victory, the prominent prisoners were subsequently beheaded on the Piazza or in the Bargello. Filippo Strozzis body was found with a sword next to it and a note quoting Virgil. In June 1537 Cosimo had sent Bernardo Antonio de Medici to Charles V to gain his recognition as head of the Florentine state and that recognition came in June 1537, in exchange for help against France in the course of the Italian Wars. With this move Cosimo firmly restored the power of the Medici, the help granted to Charles V allowed him to free Tuscany from the Imperial garrisons, and to increase as much as possible its independence from the overwhelming Spanish influence in Italy. With the support of the Emperor, he defeated the Sienese at the Battle of Marciano, despite the inhabitants desperate resistance, on 17 April 1555, after a 15-month siege, the city fell, its population diminished from forty thousand to eight thousand. In 1559 Montalcino, the last redoubt of Sienese independence, was annexed to Cosimos territories, in 1569, Pope Pius V elevated him to the rank of Grand Duke of Tuscany. In the last 10 years of his reign, struck by the death of two of his sons by malaria, Cosimo gave up the rule to his son and successor Francesco I de Medici. He retreated to live in his villa, Villa di Castello, Cosimo was an authoritarian ruler and secured his position by employing a guard of Swiss mercenaries. In 1548 he managed to have his relative Lorenzino, the last Medici claimant to Florence, Cosimo also was an active builder of military structures, in an attempt to save his state from the frequent passage of foreign armies
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Joanna of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany
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Joanna of Austria was born an Archduchess of Austria as the youngest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. By marriage, she was the Grand Princess of Tuscany and later the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, one of her daughters was Marie de Medici, second wife of King Henry IV of France. Joanna was born in Prague as the youngest of 15 children and she never knew her mother and eldest sister as her mother died 2 days after Joannas birth and her sister Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of Poland, died two years before Joanna was born. Her paternal grandparents were Philip I of Castile and Joanna of Castile and her maternal grandparents were King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary, and Anna of Foix-Candale. Through her father, Joanna was also a descendant of Isabella I of Castile and her marriage to Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, took place on 18 December 1565 in Florence, after she solemnly arrived in the city by the Porta al Prato. Giorgio Vasari and Vincenzo Borghini, with the help of Giovanni Caccini made big festivities for these event, the party was also taken to the Medici Villa in Poggio a Caiano. Nevertheless, Joanna was homesick and unhappy, ignored by her husband, and despised by the Florentines for her Austrian hauteur, she never felt at home in Florence. Her father-in-law, Cosimo I de Medici, was kind to Joanna. The position of Joanna in the Florentine court was difficult during most of her marriage, finally, in 1577 Joanna gave birth to the long-awaited heir, baptised Filippo in honour of King Philip II of Spain, Joannas first cousin. In the end, however, it was all for naught, Joannas brother-in-law, Ferdinando, on 10 April 1578, Joanna – heavily pregnant with her eighth child – fell from the stairs in the Grand Ducal Palace in Florence. Some hours later, she gave birth to a son, who, born prematurely and she died the next day on 11 April. Francesco subsequently married his mistress, Bianca Cappello and then made her grand duchess, the mysterious circumstances around this accident caused rumours accusing her husband and his mistress of murdering Joanna, so that they could be married. However, modern medical investigation of her remains confirm the reports of her death as caused by the birth. Joanna suffered from scoliosis, her spine and pelvis were severely deformed and it is clear from the condition of her pelvis that her previous births had been difficult, and it seems remarkable that she had survived them. The eight children of Francesco and Joanna were, Eleanor de Medici married Vincenzo I Gonzaga, romola de Medici died in infancy. Isabella de Medici died in infancy, lucrezia de Medici died in infancy. Maria de Medici married Henri IV of France and had issue, Philip de Medici died in infancy. Out of a total of eight children, only two daughters, Eleanor and Marie lived to adulthood, the rest of the children died young
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Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Maximilian II, a member of the Austrian House of Habsburg, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 until his death. He was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on 14 May 1562, on 8 September 1563 he was crowned King of Hungary and Croatia in the Hungarian capital Pressburg. On 25 July 1564 he succeeded his father Ferdinand I as ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, maximilians rule was shaped by the confessionalization process after the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. Though a Habsburg and a Catholic, he approached the Lutheran Imperial estates with a view to overcome the denominational schism and he also was faced with the ongoing Ottoman–Habsburg wars and rising conflicts with his Habsburg Spain cousins. According to Fichtner, he failed to achieve his three major aims, rationalizing the government structure, unifying Christianity, and evicting the Turks from Hungary and he was named after his great-grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I. At the time of his birth, his father Ferdinand succeeded his brother-in-law King Louis II in the Kingdom of Bohemia, having spent his childhood years at his fatherss court in Innsbruck, Tyrol, he was educated principally in Italy. Among his teachers were humanist scholars like Kaspar Ursinus Velius and Georg Tannstetter, Maximilian also came in contact with the Lutheran teaching and early on corresponded with the Protestant prince Augustus of Saxony, suspiciously eyed by his Habsburg relatives. From the age of 17, he gained experience of warfare during the Italian War campaign of his uncle Charles V against King Francis I of France in 1544. On 13 September 1548 Emperor Charles V married Maximilian to Charless daughter Mary of Spain in the Castile residence of Valladolid, by the marriage his uncle intended to strengthen the ties with the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, but also to consolidate his nephews Catholic faith. Maximilian temporarily acted as the representative in Spain, however not as stadtholder of the Habsburg Netherlands as he had hoped for. He returned to Germany in December 1550 in order to part in the discussion over the Imperial succession. However, Charles brother Ferdinand, who had already designated as the next occupant of the imperial throne. Maximilian sought the support of the German princes such as Duke Albert V of Bavaria and even contacted Protestant leaders like Maurice of Saxony and Duke Christoph of Württemberg. At length a compromise was reached, Philip was to succeed Ferdinand, the relationship between the two cousins was uneasy. While his cousin was reserved and shy, Maximilian was outgoing and his adherence to humanism and religious tolerance put him at odds with Philip who was more committed to the defence of the Catholic faith. Also, he was considered a promising commander, while Philip disliked war, nonetheless, the two remained committed to the unity of their dynasty. In Vienna, he had his Hofburg residence extended with the Renaissance Stallburg wing, the site of the later Spanish Riding School, the court held close ties to the University of Vienna and employed scholars like the botanist Carolus Clusius and the diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq. Maximilians library curated by Hugo Blotius later became the nucleus of the Austrian National Library and he implemented the Roman School of composition with his court orchestra, however, his plans to win Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina as Kapellmeister foundered on financial reasons
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