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Artists of the Italian Renaissance
The Early
(Renaissance) Medicis in the Glorious 1400s
The Medici Popes Leo
X and Clement VII
About Paradoxplace
The Medici Family - 2
Grand Dukes of the Cadet
Branch
and their Women - 1530s to
1743
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DEI MAGI
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Cosimo I de'Medici
1519 - 1574 (55)
Duke of Tuscany 1537 (aged
18)
Grand Duke of Tuscany 1569
(aged 50)
Cosimo I was the great great grandson
of another Lorenzo (1395 - 1440 (45)) - the younger brother of
Cosimo
il Vecchio
and thus a member of
the so called "cadet" side of the family.
Plucked from complete obscurity by powerbrokers desperate to free
themselves of the legacies of the
last
disastrous members of the senior Medici
dynasty, and to cope with Florence's domination by Emperor Charles V,
Cosimo proved a surprising success even if he was pompous, a control
freak and noveau riche. By comparison with most of the Grand Dukes
to follow, he was a god!
The portrait by L.Cigole is held
by the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, dep Galleria degli Uffizi. |
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Cellini
(1500-1571 (71)) sculptured this
magnificent bust
(now in the Bargello) of
Cosimo I de'Medici
(1519-1574
(55), Duke of Tuscany from 1537, Grand Duke 1569), in his
Marcus
Aurelius dressing up kit plus a bit more hair than he possessed in real
life.
Cosimo I was the great great grandson of Cosimo the Elder's brother (founder
of the
hitherto extremely obscure cadet side of the family). He became the first Duke
(then Grand Duke) of Tuscany,
and with the protection of the Emperor Charles V took over Siena in 1557 (link
to "The Medici take over Siena") and everything else around . He even gave Tuscany a Navy. But by this time Italy
was the
jousting ground of Charles and Flashy King Francis
I
of France, and the City States were no longer free to do their own
thing.
Florence the glorious City State and leader of the
Renaissance had had her day in the sun.
Cosimo did, however, keep up
the family tradition of artistic support - mainly coordinated through his spin doctor
and architect
Giorgio Vasari (who also painted and
wrote books). In fact much of
what you read about Renaissance artists is based on
Vasari's books "Lives of the Artists".
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Eleonora of Toledo (1522-1562
(40)), by Agnolo Bronzino (exhibited in the Uffizi). Cosimo
I's wife,
aristocrat daughter of the Spanish Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples
(i.e. the power behind the throne of Naples). Eleonora was an extremely wealthy woman in her own right and a shrewd investor
- and also probably a bit bored with provincial Florence after court
life in Naples, which then had a population of over 300,000. It
was her money that bought and extended Brunelleschi's Pitti Palace.
She died at the early age of 40, after contracting malaria whilst on holiday with the kids by the sea on the West coast of Tuscany.
Eleonora used to hold get togethers of other Spanish expats in
the enormous old Chapter House of the Santa Maria Novella convent, which is why it is
known as the
Spanish Chapel
(Capella Spagnola). She also had a very beautiful little chapel
built in the Palazzo Vecchio which can be seen as part of the tour of
the
Vasari
Corridor. |
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Cosimo I and Eleonora captured by
Agnolo Bronzino in more workaday gear. |
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THE PORTRAIT PAINTERS /
COPIERS
Agnolo Bronzino (1503 - 1572
(69))
Cristofano
dell'Altissimo (c1530 - 1605 (75))
Justus Sustermans (1597
- 1681 (84))
Agnolo Bronzino was a pupil (and
adopted son) of the famous mannerist painter Pontormo. He
became Cosimo I's court portraitist.
Cristofano
dell'Altissimo was one of Bronzino's more promising pupils who went on to
be a successful artist in his own right.
Justus Sustermans came from
Antwerp and settled in Florence, becoming the Medici Court Painter.
He is responsible for many of the portraits of the later Medici as
well as their friends such as Galileo Galilei.
The Paolo Giovio (1483 - 1552
(69)) Portrait Collection
Paolo Giovio, physician, historian and
biographer, collected portraits of the famous (including the
Medici) in his house on Lake Como until his death in 1552.
Duke Cosimo I, fearing (correctly) that the collection would be
broken up and lost after Paolo's death, had dell'Altissimo and sometimes Bronzino himself
copy all the portraits, using a uniform format. That is why
many of the portraits to do with the earlier Medici and their contemporaries
have a common format and are signed "Cristofano
dell'Altissimo" or "Agnolo Bronzino". Mostly the originals are not known.
The portrait copies in the "Gioviana Collection", under the
control of the Uffizi, are now exhibited in the galleries of
Florence or stored in their warehouses.
Link to Artists of the Italian Renaissance
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See Bianca's Venetian home. |
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Francesco I (1541 - 1587 (46)), Bianca Capello and another
Medici Queen of France
Melancholic alchemist, formally
married to (Habsburg) Joan of Austria, but really the lifetime soulmate
and bedmate
of
Venetian beauty Bianca Capello (above in medal and flesh (Uffizi
Gallery)), whom he married after he had
organized the murder of Bianca's hubby, and Joan had died of natural
causes.
Bianca was hated by the Medici
clan generally and Francesco's brother and successor Ferdinando in particular. She died within
days of Francesco and her body was removed that night to an unknown
grave. Ironic that this touching story of real love was treated
thus, when you see what a monstrous mess several of the rest of the clan made
of selecting their wives.
Today Bianca has to some
extent got her own back because, apart from Eleonora di Toledo, she is
the only one of the Medici wives who is remembered with interest (or at
all)! Her name is also consistently in the top search strings
for paradoxplace. Her portrait (above) can be seen in the Medici Room of the
Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Francesco and Joan's daughter
Maria (1573 - 1642 (69)) followed in the footsteps
of Catherine
to France by becoming the Queen Consort
of Bourbon French King Henry IV, and then Queen Regent for their son
Louis XIII (1601- 1643 (42)) when Henry was assassinated. After
getting even with Henry's mistresses and various courtiers, and advised
by the "unscrupulous" Italian Concino Concini and later the emergingly
famous Cardinal Richelieu (1585 - 1642 (57)), Maria managed to dissipate
the healthy coffers left by Henry and overstay her regency to 1617 - 3
years beyond its due date.
Then son Louis took over, Concini got
assassinated, Richelieu went from strength to strength, and the half
Habsburg half Medici Maria was exiled, then reconciled with her son,
then exiled for good to the Netherlands in 1631 as Bourbon France took
on Habsburg Spain. Her grandson Louis XIV - “Louis the Great” and
“the Sun King” (1638 - 1643 - 1715 (77)) became the longest reigning king in
French history.
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The
Latter Medici
Leaders from the Cadet (or 'Popolani') Family Line mixed with
Cafaggiolo Genes |
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Ferdinando I (1549 - 1609 (60)),
brother of Francesco I
The most competent of the Grand Dukes after Cosimo I himself.
Portraits of Ferdinando's successors lead to the suspicion that
he and wife Cristina - who was the last surviving member of the
Cafaggiolo Medicis - managed to inject some sort of cousinly
goof gene into the remaining Medici stock (see all the following
male portraits).
The photo is of the
equestrian statue of Ferdinando by the 80 year old Giambologna in 1608. The statue,
in the Piazza della S S Annunziata in Florence in front of
Brunelleschi's famous Spedale degli Innocenti (Foundling
Hospital), was
cast using bronze from canons captured from the Barbareschi during the
North Africa expedition led by the Knights of the Order of St Stephen in
1607. |
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Cosimo II
(1590 - 1621 (31)),
son of Ferdinando I
Cosimo's first act as Grand Duke was a disaster - he closed the
Medici Bank, and with it a large slab of the Duchy's income.
He supported no artists, and completely neglected
involvement in the government of his Duchy - leaving this to the
Spanish occupiers of Tuscany. He did however provide shelter from the church
for the scientist
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642 (78))
who was appointed and protected as Professor in
Residence at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, though eventually
they were forced to let the Inquisition try him (in the
Dominican Convent attached to Santa Maria sopra Minerva next to
the Pantheon in Rome) because of his heretical notion
that the Earth went round the Sun (not, as is often stated,
because he said that the earth was spherical -
everyone knew that !). Whilst at the Medici
court
Galileo discovered the four moons of Jupiter which he named "the
Medici stars".
The portrait by Justus
(aka Giusto in Italiano) Sustermans (1597 - 1681, a Dutchman who was court painter for the Medici) shows
Cosimo II (centre), wife Maria Magdalena of Austria and
Ferdinando II.
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Ferdinando II (1610 - 1670 (60)),
son of Cosimo II
Inherited the title when only 11 and had to suffer his extremely
unintelligent and ostentatious mother and grandmother
acting as joint regents, then made matters seriously worse by marrying the
cold and attention seeking Vittoria della Rovere (who was into
having endless portraits painted of her pudgy self as goddess, saint, vestal
virgin, Virgin Mary etc - see below).
Ferdinando himself was a decent retiring chap,
and, though clearly not the sharpest knife in the Tuscan drawer he supported learning through patronage of Galileo and others, and
by forming the Medicean Academy of Science. This was
also patronised by his brother Cardinal Leopoldo, who
had significantly extended the family holdings of Venetian art,
and also founded the Accademia del Cimento ("trials") the motto
of which was "try and try again" - parhaps it should
have been the Academy of Trying.
The only good thing to
come out of Ferdinando's marriage to Vittoria, was the transfer of some
artistic masterpieces to the Medici collections as part of the
dowry she brought as the last person to turn out the lights in
Duke Federico's Palazzo in Urbino. The masterpieces (now in the
Uffizi Gallery) included Titian's Venus of Urbino, and
Piero della Francesco's portraits of the
Duke of Urbino and his wife Battista Sforza ......
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Ferdinando II in his Suleiman dressing up kit
portrait by Giusto Sustermans (1597 - 1681) in the Pitti Palace |
Vittoria della Rovere as Santa Margherita
portrait by Giusto Sustermans |
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THE
INVENTION OF THE PIANOFORTE
The pianoforte was
invented in the late 1600s by Bartolomeo Cristofori
(1655 - 1731 (76)) who was a keyboard instrument
designer for the Medici. The previous keyboard
instrument of choice was the harpsichord, which makes a
sound by plucking strings. The mechanics of sound
production meant that the harpsichord sound came at one
volume level only, and could not be made louder or
softer by the player. The clavichord advanced the
cause of volume changing a bit, but there was still the
inherent limitation imposed by the mechanics of
string plucking.
Christofori invented
a keyboard instrument that made sounds via leather
covered hammers striking (rather than plucking) strings.
The striking could be done lightly or heavily by the
player, resulting in quiet (piano) or loud (forte)
sounds.
The invention was no
overnight success, but by the mid 1700s the design
had been improved considerably and the pianoforte started to be seen
and played more widely. By the 1800s pianos
(having lost the "forte" from their name) were
being manufactured in the USA and sold into middle class
residences.
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What you see is
what Tuscany got ..... |
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Cosimo III (1642 - 1723 (81)),
son of Ferdinando II
Cosimo's 52 year reign was
a disaster for the State of Tuscany, and the penultimate nail in
the coffin of the Medici dynasty, though he did leave the world
the recipe for Jasmine Chocolate (drink).
Portrait in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi collection attributed to
B. Franceschini.
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Gian Gastone (1671 - 1737 (66)),
son of Cosimo III
An "unfortunate wretch" who had no will to reign - in fact no
will to do anything apart from eat and drink.
Portrait in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi collection attributed to G. Pignatta. |
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Cosimo III's instructions
at a public watermill still operating near Siena |
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The last
of the Medicis
Anna Maria Luisa (Sister of Gian Gastone) (1667 - 1743 (76))
Pictured above with
drop dead gorgeous hubby Johann Wilhelm, Palatine Elector, by Frans van
Douven (in the Uffizi - of course). Remembered with affection
because it was she who insisted, 350 years after Giovanni
first set up shop, that the great art collections
of the Medici were gifted to the City of Florence via the
"Treaty of the Family", which was executed on 31 October 1737
following the death of her brother Cosimo III.
That there was so much left after so many idiots had had access
to it is a mark of how hugely successful the first four Medici
bankers and Cosimo I were.
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