How did Florentine 15th Century palaces reflect the concerns of their patrons?

by cecewalk2015gmailcom (student)

Florence in the 15th century was a republican city, so a key concern of the patrons was to make the palaces as evidently republican as possible. A celebration of superiority of one individual over others was inherently not republican, so the architecture of palaces such as the Medici palace (Michelelozzo), the Strozzi palace (Giuliano da Sangallo), the Rucellai palace (Alberti) and the Gondi palace (Giuliano da Sangallo) tried to reflect these values, whilst still trying to establish a sense of power. A key feature of this was that the palaces were trying to imitate the Medici palace, which itself was built in imitation of the state palace Palazzo Vecchio (Arnolfo di cambio). Patrons wanted to alignthemselves with the Medici as the medici were the most powerful family in florence, but at the same time had to be careful to show support for the state so as not to present themselves as a threat to the cities republican values.

The location of the palaces are a key reflection of the patrons wanting to establish individual power, but also of the patrons wish to fit into the republican ideals of the city. For example, the Palazzo Medici (1445-60) was commissioned to be built near the Duomo, San Lorenzo, and San Marco, all of which had been previously commissioned by the Medici family. Because of the close proximity of these buildings, there was a sense of a region of the city being under the influence of the Medici, due to the number of impressive buildings within the area that were built by the Medici. With the Medici family in particular, a key concern was that they wanted to establish physical lineage as they were a relatively new family and were not nobility, meaning that they didn’t have an established lineage to build upon. The Medici family was incredibly concerned with a conscious establishment of legacy, and the location of the palace created this. The location of this palace meant that the Medici could have an inflencial presence in an area of the city without actually going against the cities republican values. In a similar way to this, the Palazzo Rucceli is located just off of Santa Maria Novella, which they had also helped to commission. Again, the location of the palace is reflecting the wish for the family to establish a physical sence of influence in a city where this was difficult to do without threatening the state. The location of the Rucceli palace on a narrow street also places the viewer in close proximity to the building, creating an illusion of the palace being a lot larger and more imposing than it already is. This almost intimidating scale due to its location coveys an impressive sense of strength, reflective of the Ruccelais want to establish themselves as a strong, powerful family. Although the location of these 15th century palaces can be used to convey a sense of individual power, they also show alignment with the state and adherence with republican values, specifically in the Gondi palace. Sitting right niext to the Palazzo Vecchio, the Gondi palace directly shows its alignment with the state due to its proximity, reflecting the patrons concern of showing support to the state.

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Another way in which Florentine palaces reflected the concerns of their patrons was through their scale and material. The Medici palace is enormous, being three tiers high, with a contrast between refined stonework on the upper tiers so that the bottom tier looks cruder and the upper tiers look more delicate which both make it seem taller but also more fortified. The monochromatic, relatively dark stone colour represents the republican value of unity and equality, which the Medici family wanted to reflect in their building. The Ruccelai palace, like the medici palace, is only three tiers, but is actually six to seven stories tall. It is much larger than it seems, but in order to adhere to the republican values in which individual power was not emphasised, this illusion of the building being smaller than it actually is meant that the Rucellai could show support for the state whilst also still having an incredibly large scale palace. The articulation of the stones help to make the palace seem much less massive, especially as the element of fragmentation breaks the building down in the viewers eye and makes it seem much less imposing, and therefore much less imposing to the power of the state. The material of the palaces also helped to reflect the individual concerns of the patrons hwo wanted to show wealth, through the use of rustification in all four palaces, as rustification required more stone thus reflected a higher level of wealth. Although it was important to the patrons to show their wealth, it was also very important for patrons to adhere to local traditions in their demonstrations of wealth and magnifices in keeping with other families who were also commissioning palaces, for example in the Ruccelai palace the choise to not use white marble reflected a sense of civic pride in using a local stone.

A key intention of patrons was also to align themselves with the medici family, who were the most powerful family in Florence. The way to do this was through imitation of the Medici Palace. In comparison to the Medici palace, the Rucellai does heavily resemble it specifically in the scale and the use of tiers but also in the material. The use of fenestration, which increases as it ascends also is a key imitation feature of the Medici in the Ruccelai palace. This imitation of the Medici building aligns the Rucellai family with the status of the Medici, whilst also flattering the Medici family with imitation and creating political allegiance. While the Ruccelai family did align themselves with the medici they also do distinguish themselves in order to appear erudite and innovative. The Ruccelai palace was the first building to correctly apply classical orders in their higherarchy, in keeping with vetruvian theory. This evidence of a theoretical grounding to the use of classical language distinguishes themselves through their knowledge. The strozzi palace also sees the family aligning themselves with the medici, with a very similar. Scale and arrangement, although through its much large scale it does distinguish itself to seem more magnificent. The strozzi palace itself had Medici influence directly as Lorenzo Medici had helped to secure rights for the Strozzi palace to be built. Even though the family were rivals, this built political favour, but also subtly proved the power and influence of the Medici family as the strozzi family couldn’t do it themselves, whilst also meaning that the Medici palace looked less outstandish and less like a political statement.

Overall, the major intention to adhere to political values whilst also distinguishing the individual familes superiority was incredibly influencial in the design of the palaces and was heavily reflected in them. The patrons all wanted to align themselves with the state in order to show support of the republican values, therefore wanted to align themselves with the Palazzo Veccio, the state palace. Thus the palaces went along with the state convention for architecture to show that they weren’t a trheat to the state. In the Gondi, Strozzi and Ruccelais attempts to imitate the Medici palace, they were also imitating the Veccio palace as the Medici palace itself was built in imitation of the veccio palace, for example in the similar sense of increasing fenestration as the building ascends, and also having a very similar sense of fortification. So while the patrons wanted to show innovation in order to push the city forward, due to the competition from other cities such as pisa and siena, their main focus had to be on keeping in line with republican values whilst establishing their own sense of power. As Timeoto Maffei said, “(palazzo medici was) not built to suit cosimos needs, but to adorn a great city”, showing how the key concern of the patron was to find ways to justify these public displays of private wealth and power. Within the confinemnets of the Republican values of cultural development the easiest way for the patorns to establish their own status, a physical establishment of wealth and power was important in order to create lineage whilst keeping with republican values.