The first great Medici palace. This watercolour captures Palazzo Medici Riccardi on Via Cavour, Florence, the severe yet elegant Renaissance residence commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici in 1444 and designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo. Michelozzo created the classical courtyard shown above with an arcaded loggia, columns, sculpture, and mathematical proportion, establishing a model copied by generations of Florentine palaces.
The Medici family lived here for more than a century, Cosimo the Elder, Piero the Gouty, and Lorenzo the Magnificent made it the political and cultural heart of Renaissance Florence. In 1540, Cosimo I moved the court to Palazzo Vecchio, and in 1659 the wealthy Riccardi family purchased the palace, extending it and transforming its interiors in the Baroque style. Their most spectacular addition was the Gallery of Mirrors, whose gilded walls and ceiling frescoes were painted by Luca Giordano in the 1680s.
Interesting facts...
Michelangelo hid inside the palace for several weeks in 1530 after the Medici returned to Florence and sought him out for his political allegiance, Cosimo I eventually pardoned him, and the small room is now known as Michelangelo's Secret Room.
The palace was the setting for the Council of Florence in 1439, when Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos and the Patriarch of Constantinople came to Florence. Look to the exterior to view Michelangelo's famous "kneeling windows" windows resting on large console brackets like kneeling legs were added to the facade during the Medici period and became a signature of Florentine Mannerism.
In 1478, the Pazzi family plotted to assassinate Lorenzo de’ Medici. He was actually murdered during Mass at Florence Cathedral. Morbidly an exhibition of Lorenzo’s death mask and teeth, and the bloodstained clothing used to be on show in the Palace.
Location: Via Cavour 1, Florence, Italy
