Fra Angelico's Annunciation

Not far from the Medici Palace is the Convent of San Marco where Fra Angelico's beautiful frescoes adorn the hallways and individual monks' cells.  The Dominican Order appealed to Cosimo the Elder in 1437 when the church and convent needed renovation.  Cosimo entrusted the work to Michelozzo, the same architect who had designed the Medici Palace.   The decoration of the walls was carried out between 1439 and 1444 by Giovanne of Fiesole, whom we know today as Fra Angelico.  He had several assistants, including the young Benozzo Gozzoli, who would later do the Medici Chapel.  Today the convent is a museum, open to the public.  More information, including a wonderful catalog of the frescoes:  http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/museum_of_san_marco.html

Lorenzo il Magnifico, si' o no?

 

This image has been taken from a fresco called "Procession of the Magi" in the family chapel of the Medici-Riccardi Palace.   In 1459 Piero de' Medici commissioned Benozzo Gozzoli  to decorate three walls of this chapel.   The fresco cycle contains many figures, including Piero himself, as well as Lorenzo's grandparents, Cosimo and Piccarda.  From the web-site www.museumsinflorence.com, we learn the following:  "The sumptuous and varied costumes with their princely finishings make this pictorial series one of the most fascinating testimonies of art and costume of all time."  While the portrait above is widely held to be an idealized version of Lorenzo, when he grew to manhood he had very dark hair and a rather misshapen nose.   The frescoes were restored recently (1987-1992) and  now the richness of the original colors and the complex composition can be truly appreciated.

The Annunciation . . .

. . . was a common theme, especially in the art of the early Quattrocento.  Here we see Ghiberti's effort, part of the North Doors of the Baptistry.  Ghiberti won the contest in which he was pitted against Brunelleschi, among others, for the privilege of creating these doors, of which there are 28 quatrefoil designs.  He worked on these gilded bronze reliefs from 1404 until 1424.  Ghiberti's later doors, on the east side of the Baptistry, were called "the Gates of Paradise" by Michaelangelo.  I have to wonder if baby Lorenzo was carried in through one of these set of doors for his baptism, which would have occurred, according to custom, very soon after his birth.

A gift from Piero to Lucrezia . . .

. . . on the occasion in 1449 of the birth of their first-born, Lorenzo (later known as Lorenzo the Magnificent), was this birth tray (desco da parto).  The scene is of 28 men on horseback pledging allegiance to Fame, a beautiful winged woman holding a sword and a statuette of Cupid as she stands on a globe atop an enormous pedestal.  The work was done in tempera, gold and silver on wood; the artist was Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guido, known as Lo Scheggia, brother to the more famous painter Massacio.  The rear of the tray shows the Medici and Tournabuoni arms and devices.  This tray is the best executed and preserved of perhaps 28 known trays from the Renaissance period.  It was included in the list of possessions in Lorenzo's bedroom upon his death in 1492.  Today it hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Lucrezia was an educated woman . . .

. . . a rarity in her time.  The Cohens, in their book "Daily Life in Renaissance Italy," estimate that only one in three males and one in eight females were literate.  She would have had at her disposal the manuscript collection of her father-in-law, Cosimo the Elder, which at the time of his death numbered 150 books and was housed at the Palazzo Medici on Via Larga.  Today, that collection has grown to over 120,000 volumes and is located at the Laurentian Library, which is next to the San Lorenzo basilica.  San Lorenzo was the Medici family church which is one block from the palazzo.  Above is a photo of the inside of the library, which wasn't actually built until the 16th century. 

Mary Magdalene, another sculpture by Donatello . . .

. . . would have been familiar to Lucrezia, as it stood in the Baptistry next to the Duomo.  According to custom, in Tuscany a cathedral complex consisted of three buildings:  the campanile (bell tower), the baptistry and the church itself.  One could not go into the church until one was first baptized.  This sculpture of the penitent Mary, which Donatello most likely worked on in the period 1445-55, was a potent reminder that inner beauty prevails even when outer beauty fails.  Unlike most sculpture of the time, which was done in bronze or marble, this piece was carved of poplar wood.  It was badly damaged in the Flood of 1966, but after restoration stands in the Opera del Duomo, a separate museum housing many works related to the cathedral complex.

What Lucrezia saw in her garden . . .

. . . and what might have inspired one of her literary creations, is this sculpture by Donatello, "Judith and Holofernes."  Currently this sculpture is in the Hall of Lilies in the Palazzo Vecchio, and a copy has been placed outside, in the Piazza della Signoria, but when first commissioned by the Medici family, this sculpture along with Donatello's more famous "David" graced the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici (see post of Jan 29).

One of the stanzas of Lucrezia's poem about this biblical story from the Book of Judith reads:  

 Once she had said her prayer

Judith rose, her heart resolved,

and in one hand she grasped a sword she had found

leaning against a column or the wall,

and so well did the young woman brandish it

it would have been fitting for a strong and sturdy man;

she struck him twice, with force,

and his head rolled away from his shoulders.

Lucrezia Tornabuoni . . .

. . . married Piero  de' Medici, Cosimo and Contessina's oldest son, in 1444 when she was 19. Over the next ten years she had six children, four of whom lived to adulthood, including Lorenzo ("the Magnificent").  In 1464 when Cosimo died, the reins of Medici power fell to Piero, who was known as "Piero the Gouty."  His illness meant that much of the Medici business, including Florentine politics, was conducted at the newly built Medici Palace (see post of Jan 29, 2012).  From infionline.net, we learn:  "Scholars and artists came as well: like his father, Piero supported vernacular literature and the work of local artists. As a result of all this activity at her home, Tornabuoni began to play a role closer to that of the duchesses of the princely Italian states than to that of the wife of a republican merchant-banker. Favor-seekers asked for her intercession with Piero; vernacular poets read her their work and exchanged sonnets with her. It may have been at this period that she began to take her own writing seriously."

Brunelleschi's Dome . . .

. . . was being constructed during the early years of the marriage of Cosimo and Contessina.  Although the duomo had been conceptualized in 1299, the huge cupola remained incomplete until Brunelleschi conceived of a method for its construction.  Cosimo and the other city fathers were involved in the decision to award the project to Brunelleschi, who was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.  Work on the dome continued throughout the 1420's and was essentially complete when Pope Eugenius IV dedicated the cathedral in 1436.  The photo above was one I took in 2006 when I was fortunate enough to live on the top floor of a 19th century palazzo directly east of the duomo.

Villa Medici at Careggi

Cosimo actually died here, at Villa Medici at Careggi, which is located in the hills outside Florence.  Patrician families maintained their villas in the countryside for several purposes.  Perhaps the most important function was to keep the family supplied with olive oil, wine, fresh fruit and vegetables, poultry and game.   Hunting was a sport that also produced meat for the table.  Medici children and their caretakers (wet-nurses, servants, tutors) were often raised primarily at the country villas, as the country air was believed to be more healthful.  Most likely Contessina was tasked with directing the daily flow of goods and services between the palazzo in the city of Florence and the country villas.