Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici

Giovanni took up residence in Rome in 1500, where he lived a lavish lifestyle, surrounded by friends and relatives, including his cousin Guilio, illegitimate son of the Guiliano who had been murdered by the Pazzi, and his youngest brother, also named Guiliano.  According to Christopher Hibbert, in "The House of the Medici," Giovanni played the role of the generous host to the extent that he was frequently in debt.  The days of the great Medici Bank, established by Giovanni's great-great-grandfather were over.  Church benefices and later, the sale of indulgences, would fund the lives of the Medici cardinals and popes.

In 1503 a new pope was elected:  Cardinal Guilano della Rovere became Julius II.  Known as the "Warrior Pope" for expanding the Papal States by warfare, he was also known for his ambitious building projects and his patronage of the arts.  Julius II commissioned the destruction and reconstruction of St. Peter's Basilica, and also later commissioned the decoration by Michelangelo of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The cardinals, including Giovanni, accompanied Julius II in battle, aided by the Spanish, and as it happened, Giovanni was taken prisoner near Bologna by the French in 1512, but later escaped and made his way to Mantua.  There a plot was in the works to bring the Medici back to power in Florence, which had been suffering a lack of leadership after the exile of the Medici.   The Spanish Army then marched on into Tuscany, where the engagement that was later called "The Sack of Prato" convinced the Florentines to lay down arms.   The Medici Family was now back in power in Florence!!

The Legacy of Lorenzo and Clarice

Why not have it all?  Control of both Church and State!  Although this may have been their plan, control of both Church and State at the same time would prove difficult for the Medici Family.

After Lorenzo's death, the head of the family was Piero, the eldest son.  Unfortunately, he was not the diplomat his father was.  In brief, he allowed the French king to march his army through Florence in 1494, after which the Florentines exiled the Medici.

The hopes of the family were then pinned on the future of Giovanni 1475-1521), second son of Lorenzo and Clarice.  From an early age, he had been destined for the Church.  He was tonsured at age seven or eight and made a cardinal at the age of 13.  He was not allowed to wear the robes until three years later, but as his father lay dying in Florence in 1492 he was already being welcomed in Rome (see Lives of the Early Medici, as told by their correspondence, translated by Janet Ross).

After being exiled from Florence, because there was a price on his head, Giovanni traveled in Germany, the Netherlands and France, returning to Rome in 1500, where he was welcomed by the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI.

The fresco above, Ghirlandaio's "Confirmation of the Franciscan Rule," in the Sassetti Chapel of Santa Trinita in Florence, is widely believed to be portraits of the young children of Lorenzo and Clarice.  According to "The Medici, the Golden Age of Collecting," by Massimo Winspeare, proceeding up the staircase is the children's tutor, Agnolo Poliziano, with Guilio (son of the murdered Guiliano, see post of 9/23/12) followed by Piero and Giovanni.  Bringing up the rear are the poet Luigi Pulci and the canon Matteo Franco.  Hint:  there are two future Medici popes in this fresco!

The Pazzi Conspiracy: A Tour through Florence

Now, with a nod to Cheryl Tucker, whose concept for this walk was first published In Florence, Sights and Landmarks:

Let us begin at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi (see post of Sun, Jan 29, 2012), at the corner of Via Cavour and Via de' Gori. The conspirators had originally set their sights on this palace to carry out their attack on the two Medici brothers, but as Guiliano was not in attendance, the site was changed to the duomo, one long block away, down Via de Martelli:

We'll walk around the north side of the cathedral, taking note of the fact that Lorenzo hid in the North Sacristry until it was safe to get back to the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi (see post of Feb 3, 2012 for more info on the duomo).  We'll proceed to the street facing the east side of the cathedral,  the Via del Proconsolo, and we'll turn south, going about a block to the corner where Borgo degli Albizi meets Via del Corso.  This is the Canto dei Pazzi (see post of Nov 25, 2012), where the Pazzi and their compatriots would have run from the melee that ensued after the murder of Guilano and the attempt on the life of Lorenzo.

Looking up we can see the Pazzi coat of arms (see post of Sep 28, 2012), and on the ground level we can take note of the entrance to the Palazzo Pazzi Quaratesi.  If we had been here Sep 21 & 22, 2012 and if we had purchased a 15 euro "wine card," as part of the Wine town 2012 festivities, we would have been able to enter (see <www.winetown.it> for details).  Since we missed that opportunity, we'll continue south along Proconsolo another long block or so until we see the Bargello.

Today the Bargello is the National Sculpture Museum, but in the time of the Medici it was a prison, and it was in this place that many of the low-level conspirators were hanged.  There will be more on the Bargello, one of my favorite museums, in a later post.   From here we cross the tiny Piazzi di San Firenze, turning right at Via di Gondi, which is also the most northeast corner of the Palazzo Vecchio.

Walking around to the front of the Palazzo, we see the windows at the top which served as a continuous gallows during those three days after the attempted coup.  The bodies of the major conspirators--Francisco de' Pazzi and the Archbishop of Pisa among them--were each left dangling by a noose above the crowd below (see post of Oct 20, 2012).  In all, about a hundred people were killed in three days.

I don't know about you, but one of the things that impresses me most about Florence is its permanence. Living in Southern California as I do most of the year, I have become accustomed to public, commercial, and private buildings being continuously torn down and replaced.  It gives me great reassurance to walk around Florence and see that the major landmarks are still there, as they were three, four, five hundred years ago.

Canto dei Pazzi

Another reminder of the Pazzi family that we can still see today is the Palazzo Pazzi Quaratesi, or the Pazzi Quarter (neighborhood).  Today, when we walk north up Via del Proconsolo and turn left at Borgo degli Albizi to go to the Duomo, we look up and see "Canto die Pazzi," which means the Pazzi corner.  There we find the main Palazzo Pazzi, which was rebuilt 1462-72 for Jacapo de' Pazzi.  When the Pazzi were executed or exhaled, this property was seized by Lorenzo.  We next hear of it when it becomes a wedding present . . .

Also in the neighborhood is the three-story Palazzo Pazzi-Ammannati, which today houses Florence's small museum of natural history and is also the site of temporary exhibitions.

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The Pazzi Chapel

Of course, the Pazzi should not only be remembered for their bad deeds, their participation in the Pazzi Conspiracy, but also for their good deeds.  The Pazzi Chapel, designed by Brunelleschi, who also designed and completed the dome over the cathedral, is located in the Santa Croce complex.  One passes through the chapel when leaving the church before going to the museum.  Construction was begun in 1442, in the iconic style of Brunelleschi, and is made of pietra serena and white plaster, and is unrelieved by color.

So, while the Medici and their friends were temporarily successful in stripping the Pazzi of their possessions, their properties, their florins (and therefore their dowries--there's another story), in the long run, the Pazzi name continues still today to be visible in Florence. 

Clarice and the Children after the Conspiracy

Above, we see a portion of a fresco by Ghirlandaio in the Sassetti Chapel of Santa Trinita, Florence.  Poliziano is seen here with his pupils, Lorenzo's sons and nephew.

In 1478 , after the Pazzi conspiracy, when the Pope was stirring up war against the Medici he hated, Lorenzo sent his wife and children to Pistoia, where they were the guests of the Panciaticchi, for safety.  With them went Angelo Poliziano as tutor to Piero the eldest boy, then about six years of age.  The stiff, proud Roman, Madonna Clarice, had never know how to gain her husband’s love, and did not get on well with his brilliant, sarcastic, rather Bohemian friends.  She particularly disliked Poliziano’s growing influence over Piero, and at the end of the year there was an open rupture, when she dismissed him with scant courtesy.  One pities them both.  Clarice, already far gone in consumption, was irritable and anxious about her husband, whose attitude towars the Holy See she, with her education, could not approve;  while Poliziano, used to the brilliant talk in the Medici palace, where he measured his wit with Luigi Pulci, Matteo Franco, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, etc., and Lorenzo himself, was bored to death and always longing to be back in Florence.

from Lives of the early Medici as told in their correspondence, as a point of information, most likely by Janet Ross, who translated and edited the letters, which were published in 1910.

Bianca de' Medici Pazzi

The painting, Botticelli's Madonna of the Magnificat, today in the Uffizi, is said to portray the family of Piero de' Medici, de facto lord of Florence from 1464.  His wife Lucrezia Tornabuoni as Mary, Lorenzo as the young man with the ink-pot, flanked by his brother Guilano de' Medici who is holding a book.  Behind the two boys is Maria, while the two older sisters are holding the crown in the background, Bianca on the left and Nannina on the right.   The newborn would be the daughter of Lorenzo, Lucrezia de' Medici.  One would think that the one dressed in white would be the one called "Bianca," which translates "white," and while I don't know if there is any truth to the story that it is the Medici family portrayed hereit makes a pretty story. 

More on Bianca:  Because she had married Guglielmo Pazzi in 1458, he was allowed exile as his punishment for being a member of the family creating the conspiracy.  Bianca and Guglielmo had a large family, at least 14 children who lived to adulthood.  In a letter Bianca wrote to her mother Lucrezia in 1479, after the conspiracy, she is again pregnant.