Who designed the Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano?
Giuliano da Sangallo
The victory at Calabria gave Lorenzo de' Medici confidence to keep working with Giuliano. Consequently, Lorenzo commissioned him to design a villa in Poggio a Caiano after holding a competition to determine the best design. Giuliano was able to use Leon Battista Alberti's design for the Villa Medici in Fiesole as his initial inspiration. Construction on the villa began in 1485 and remained largely unfinished throughout Lorenzo's life. His son, Giovanni, oversaw its completion after being elected pope as Pope Leo X. Giuliano's design featured classical design elements including Ionic columns and an ancient temple style façade. The Medici Villa in Poggia a Caiano is one of the oldest examples of Renaissance-style country villas and served as an inspiration for many future architects of the era.
Giardino all'italiana
Villa Castello was the project of Cosimo de' Medici, first Duke of Tuscany, begun when he was only seventeen. It was designed by Niccolò Tribolo who designed two other gardens: the Giardino dei Semplici (1545) and the Boboli Gardens (1550) for Cosimo.
Renaissance architecture
Michelozzo Michelozzi (1396–1472), was another architect under patronage of the Medici family, his most famous work being the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, which he was commissioned to design for Cosimo de' Medici in 1444. A decade later he built the Villa Medici at Fiesole. Among his other works for Cosimo are the library at the Convent of San Marco, Florence. He went into exile in Venice for a time with his patron. He was one of the first architects to work in the Renaissance style outside Italy, building a palace at Dubrovnik.
Raphael
The Villa Madama, a lavish hillside retreat for Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, later Pope Clement VII, was never finished, and his full plans have to be reconstructed speculatively. He produced a design from which the final construction plans were completed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. Even incomplete, it was the most sophisticated villa design yet seen in Italy, and greatly influenced the later development of the genre; it appears to be the only modern building in Rome of which Palladio made a measured drawing.
Villa Medici at Cafaggiolo
Thus, at first glance, the architecture of Castello Mediceo di Cafaggiolo appears that of a medieval castle rather than a villa, with a crenellated tower at the front flanked by two battlemented wings, reinforced with bastions at each corner. These Gothic and Renaissance features were not included by Michelozzo to retain older features from the earlier fortress but, 33 years after the commencement of Brunelleschi's Ospedale degli Innocenti, as a deliberate motif intended to fulfil the humanist need that a villa should be "a place for the spirit to rest" which was compatible with the buildings intended use a country retreat and hunting lodge. Its machicolations and crenelations, in reality no more than a projecting crenelated pediment, supported by small arches and corbels, were only intended for decoration, not defence. That is not to say that the villas was completely undefended, and this is apparent in the architecture. The political climate of the period required all noble houses to be semi-fortified; so, just as in the design of the first great urban palazzi, the ground floor was "a defended courtyard surrounded by guardrooms and quarters for men at arms". This structure dictated the fenestration: the windows are few, small and high from the ground on the lower floor, while those on the upper floors, occupied by the household proper, were larger and more plentiful. Utens' 1599 painting shows nothing in the way of outer defences and fortifications: a moat is known to have existed, probably one of the few feature retained from the older fortress.
Medici Vase
The vase reappeared in the 1598 inventory of the Villa Medici, Rome, but its origin is unknown. Transferred from the villa in 1780, it has ever since been displayed in the Uffizi Gallery, today in the first-floor "Verone sull’Arno" overlooking the River Arno. It was often illustrated in engravings, the most famous of which is by Stefano della Bella (1656); he depicted the young Medici heir who would become Grand Duke Cosimo III seated, drawing the vase.
History of Italian Renaissance domes
The Medici Chapel in Florence was designed by Michelangelo and built between 1521 and 1534. It contains the tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici.
Villa del Poggio Imperiale
The building work was very costly, as was the near simultaneous work at the Palazzo Pitti. The Medicis' finances had deteriorated since the time of Cosimo the Elder, and the Grand Duke's decision to close what few branches remained of the Medici Bank at this time meant that the people of Tuscany were forced to pay increased taxes to finance the building projects. Following the death of Cosimo II and the joint regency of Maria Magdalena and her mother-in-law Christine of Lorraine, the extravagances and unprecedented luxury of the court at the Villa del Poggio Imperiale and the Palazzo Pitti severely depleted the Medici finances.
Poggio Reale (villa)
During the Italian wars, in 1494 Charles VIII invaded Italy, King Alfonso fled to Sicily with some of the villa's most valuable furnishings, and soon after, the building was abandoned. Charles helped himself to the villa's remaining treasures while Alfonso was in hiding to avoid him, and while there Charles became so enthralled by the villa's charms that he induced the villa's garden designers Fra 'Giocondo and Pacello da Mercogliano to follow him to France to design the gardens of his own royal residences. Later on, King Ferdinand II of Naples ceded parts of the villa to others during a time when he was in financial difficulty, including the gardens, which by that time were used for cultivation.
Palazzo Medici Riccardi
Michelozzo had become a favorite of Cosimo due to his attention to tradition and his style for decoration. Michelozzo had studied under Brunelleschi and some of his work was influenced by the renowned architect and sculptor. However, Brunelleschi had proposed a design to Cosimo but was believed to be too sumptuous and extravagant and was rejected for Michelozzo's more modest design, although Brunelleschi's style can still be seen in the palazzo. The courtyard of the palazzo was based on the loggia of the Ospedale degli Innocenti, a Brunelleschian design.
Medici Chapel
The "Sagrestia Nuova" was intended by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici and his cousin Pope Leo X as a mausoleum or mortuary chapel for members of the Medici family. It balances Brunelleschi's "Sagrestia Vecchia", the "Old Sacristy" nestled between the left transept of San Lorenzo, with which it consciously competes, and shares its format of a cubical space surmounted by a dome, of gray "pietra serena" and whitewashed walls. It was the first essay in architecture (1519–24) of Michelangelo, who also designed its monuments dedicated to certain members of the Medici family, with sculptural figures of the four times of day that were destined to influence sculptural figures reclining on architraves for many generations to come. The "Sagrestia Nuova" was entered by a discreet entrance in a corner of San Lorenzo's right transept, now closed.
Gaetano Medini
Medini was hired as a personal chef, sometime after 1800 by the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, to the court of later grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Friedrich Franz I. He received the title of chief chef. He was the head of the kitchens in the residence and later, during the annual summer residence of the ducal family in Doberan, also set up tents near the pavilions at the Kamp. Medini was married to a Swedish woman Maria (1766–1821). The architect Carl Theodor Severin, who was responsible for realizing many of the buildings in Heiligendamm and Doberan, built a house for Medini around 1825 near the Kamp on today's Severinstrasse. Medini lived in this house until his death in 1857. The building still exists and is now a monument.
Vincenzo Borghini
He was an artistic advisor to the Medici, and was engaged with Giorgio Vasari in designing and selecting the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I Medici in the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence.
Poggio a Caiano
Following the Italian unification, the villa was refurbished and used by Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. The villa was donated to the Italian state in 1919. After a long period of neglect it became a national museum in 1984 and since that date has undergone restoration. It is now open to the public.
Villa Badoer
Villa Badoer is a villa in Fratta Polesine in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed in 1556 by Andrea Palladio for the Venetian noble Francesco Badoer, and built between 1557 and 1563, on the site of a medieval castle which guarded a bridge across a navigable canal. This was the first time Palladio used his fully developed temple pediment in the facade of a villa.
Villa del Trebbio
The villa belonged to Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, the founder of the Medici bank and of the fortunes of the Medici family. Following his death in 1429, it was remodelled by his son, Cosimo de' Medici, whose architect, Michelozzo, restyled it as a fortified castle. Michelozzo retained the windowless tower, moat and drawbridge, and added a perimeter walkway with corbels. There is a central courtyard with a well.
View of the Garden of the Villa Medici
View of the Garden of the Villa Medici is a small painting by Diego Velázquez of the garden at the Villa Medici in Rome, with some figures standing watching an unseen event, possibly the works behind the scaffolding in the middle of the building in the background. It is now in the Prado. There is some controversy as to its date, with some scholars believing it was made during the artist's first trip to Italy (1629-31) and others feeling its advanced technique must mean it belongs to his second trip (1649-51). There is another version with similar features and the same title, and the two are of similar size and vary little in their execution and manner of depicting the garden.
Palazzo Giordano a Via Medina, Naples
The Palazzo Giordano in central Naples, Italy, is a Palace located on via Medina 61 in the Quartiere San Giuseppe of Rione Carita. It is flanked by the contemporary Palazzo d'Aquino di Caramanico to the tall modern NH Ambassador Hotel, two doors down from the also modern Palazzo della Questura, and diagonally across the street from the church of San Diego all'Ospedalletto. The palace has had many owners, and variously called Palazzo Carafa di Noja and Palazzo Caracciolo di Forino.
Originally the palace of the Duke Giuseppe Giordano, the present structure was completed in 1761 by the architect Giuseppe Alviani, using a late-Baroque design on paper by Ferdinando Fuga.
Villa Medici at Cafaggiolo
The castle is today privately owned by the company "Società Cafaggiolo srl".
During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Tuscan aristocracy, who had forsaken their medieval castles for the political expediency, comfort and greater security of town life, developed an aesthetic awareness which necessitated the seasonal occupation of a country retreat. The new humanist values they sought could be found in an attractive country setting, enhanced by a garden. The first of these villas were built by the Medici family, whose affluence coincided with the beginning of the Renaissance period, circa 1420. The builder of Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo was Cosimo de' Medici, whose villa at Careggi is considered to be the model for the Renaissance villas of Florence. These early villas as in the case at both Careggi and Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo were the result of the complete rebuilding of existing Medici castles.
Villa Medici at Cafaggiolo
The view (above) painted by Giusto/Gustav Utens in 1599 shows the villa as completed by Michelozzo. Built around a courtyard, the front appears much as it is does today, but with a larger tower dominating the building at the rear. It is possible that this tower (now demolished) was retained from the older fortress. A similar tower exists at another Medici villa, Villa La Petraia, which Bernardo Buontalenti retained in 1575 when converting that villa from an earlier fortress, for Francesco de' Medici.
Villa Medici at Cafaggiolo
Unlike many of the Tuscan residences created by the Medici family, Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo does not adhere to ideals of Renaissance architecture. This cannot be attributed to its date of 1452, the year Michelozzo was charged with transforming the building from castle to villa. The first true Renaissance building, the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, had been designed as early as 1419, and Michelozzo had proved his understanding of the new form in 1444 with his design for the ten-sided extension to Santissima Annunziata, Florence, inspired by a plan from the Roman temple of Minerva Medica. and between 1444 and 1460 he constructed the first of the 15th century Renaissance palazzos, the Medici-Riccardi for Cosimo de' Medici. This palazzo provides another possible reason for the conservative design of the castle - Cosimo had been heavily criticised in Florence by the Florentine nobility for what was considered the pretentious design of the more Renaissance Palazzo Medici-Riccardi.
Poggio a Caiano
On Lorenzo’s death in 1492, the villa was still largely unfinished; however, work resumed under Lorenzo’s second son, Giovanni, who became pope as Leo X. The central hall is named after this first Medici pope.
Medici Fountain
Marie de' Medici, as widow of Henry IV and mother and regent of King Louis XIII of France, began construction of her own palace, which she called the Palais des Medicis, between 1623 and 1630, on the left bank of Paris. The new palace was modeled after the Palazzo Pitti in her native Florence, and the gardens around the palace were modeled after those of the Boboli Gardens in Florence. The Palace was the work of architect Salomon de Brosse, but the fountain and grotto was most probably the work of Tommaso Francini, the Intendant General of Waters and Fountains of the King. Francini, who emigrated to France at the invitation of Henry IV in 1598 and was naturalized in 1600, had built grottos and fountains in the Italian style for the marquis de Gondi and for the royal chateau of Henry IV at Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Quinlan Terry's Regent's Park villas
Quinlan Terry's Regent's Park villas are six large detached villas on the north-western edge of London's Regent's Park designed by the English Neo-Classical architect Quinlan Terry between 1988 and 2004. Terry designed each house in a different classical style, intended to be representative of the variety of classical architecture, naming them the "Veneto Villa", "Doric Villa", "Corinthian Villa", "Ionic Villa", "Gothick Villa" and the "Regency Villa" respectively.
Italian Renaissance garden
The Villa Madama, situated on the slopes of Monte Mario and overlooking Rome, was begun by Pope Leo X and continued by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (1478–1534). In 1516 Leo X gave the commission to Raphael who was at that time the most famous artist in Rome. Using the ancient text of "De Architectura" by Vitruvius and the writings of Pliny the Younger, Raphael imagined his own version of an ideal classical villa and garden. His villa had a great circular courtyard, and was divided into a winter apartment and a summer apartment. Passages led from the courtyard to the great loggia from which views could be gained of the garden and Rome. A round tower on the east side was intended as garden room in winter, warmed by the sun coming through glazed windows. The villa overlooked three terraces, one a square, one a circle, and one an oval. The top terrace was to be planted in chestnut trees and firs while the lower terrace was intended for plant beds.
Luca Pitti
It was then that he sought to rival the glory, if not power, of the Medici and began construction of the Palazzo Pitti intended to rival the palazzo of the Medici. He also began work on a villa at Rusciano. For the Palazzo Pitti, legend has it he "decided to employ the most brilliant architect of the times, whom he ordered to make the windows as big as the doors of the Medici residence and create an internal courtyard that was large enough to contain the whole of the Medici's palace on the Via Larga". This is almost certainly apocryphal as the architect Brunelleschi often credited with the design had been dead twelve years. The true architect, often thought to be Luca Fancelli, was less well known at the time and the new palazzo, while awe inspiring, was not a true rival to the magnificence of the Medici residences. Machiavelli also states that Pitti would give sanctuary to any criminal within his walls if they could be of use in their building or decoration. Machiavelli also hints that Pitti's wealth was further increased by bribes and presents in return for favours. These allegations may or may not be true, one should remember that Machiavelli was not only opposed to the Medici himself, but also a kinsman of Pitti's arch enemy Girolamo Machiavelli who had been most likely murdered by the government which in effect Pitti controlled.
San Miniato al Monte
Adjacent to the church is the fine cloister, planned as early as 1426 and built from 1443 to mid-1450s. It was also designed by Bernardo and Antonio Rosselino, and financed by the "Arte della Mercantia" of Florence, and the fortified bishop’s palace, built in 1295 and later used as a barracks and a hospital. The whole complex is surrounded by defensive walls, originally built hastily by Michelangelo during the siege and in 1553 expanded into a true fortress ("fortezza") by Cosimo I de' Medici. The walls now enclose a large ornate monumental cemetery, the "", laid out in 1854. Buried there are Carlo Collodi, creator of Pinocchio; politician Giovanni Spadolini; painter Pietro Annigoni; poet and author Luigi Ugolini; film producer Mario Cecchi Gori; sculptor Libero Andreotti; fine artist Maria Luisa Ugolini Bonta; soprano Marietta Piccolomini; writer Giovanni Papini; and experimental physicist Bruno Benedetto Rossi.
Villa Medici at Cafaggiolo
The style of villas's architecture was a deliberate retrospective quattrocento - a style and period which combined both the Gothic and classical styles, and a period of transformation which was the birth of the Renaissance, perhaps best exemplified by Brunelleschi's dome of Florence Cathedral, begun in 1417. The dome, in itself, a classical feature, is Gothic in its use of the pointed arch, but rises to a classical oculus. or put simply "Gothic in form but Renaissance in detail". In style, the castle resembled the Palazzo Vecchio, the Medici's older Florentine residence, to which Michelozzo was also making alterations while the castle was being built.
Villa di Marignolle
The Villa di Marignolle is a Medici villa in the hills between Galluzzo and Soffiano, in the south-western suburbs of the comune of Florence, in Tuscany in central Italy. It passed into the hands of the Medici family after the Pucci Conspiracy, when it was confiscated from Lorenzo di Piero Ridolfi by Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Francesco passed it to his illegitimate son Antonio.
Palazzo Medici Riccardi
The Palazzo Medici Riccardi was built after the defeat of the Milanese and when Cosimo de Medici had more governmental power. Rinaldo delgi Albizzi had also died giving Cosimo and his supporters even more influence. With this new political power Cosimo decided he wanted to build a palazzo. He was able to acquire property from his neighbors in order to begin the building of the palazzo. Unlike other wealthy families however, Cosimo wanted to start fresh and cleared the site before he began building. Most other families, including those from wealthy backgrounds, built from what was already present. During this time, there was also a concern over sumptuary laws which affected how much wealth one could display or how to display wealth without displaying wealth. Cosimo agreed with this law and believed in this ideal possibly because of his status within the Signoria of Florence as Pater Patriae Cosimo was able to find ways around it through building materials and the idea of having the exterior of the building simpler and modest while the inside was more decorated. It was larger than other palazzi but its more modest design made it less noticeable. Yet, Cosimo's attempts at modesty did not help later on when the Medici family was scrutinized for their political power. Accused of spending money that was not his, Cosimo's house became part of arguments claiming that the Medicis built the palazzo with money that was not theirs.
Poggio a Caiano
The main attractions of the villa are the Pontormo frescoes depicting Vertumnus and Pomona in the main salon. Most of the interior has lost its original furnishings, but these are being recreated to return the villa to the state described in a 1911 inventory, when it was a residence of the Savoyard. The formal gardens, now somewhat wild, slope down to the Ombrone at the rear of the villa. Poggio also contains in the North East corner of the formal garden Cosimo I's tennis court (1543) intact but no longer in use. The "palatoia" (as the court was referred to in Tuscany - elsewhere known as "pallacorda") was built for Cosimo I at the same time as his court at Palazzo Pitti. The "tennis" of the Italian Renaissance was hugely popular at court and in the streets as in France where the sport is known as "jeu de paume". "Real tennis" (as it is called today), which requires a customised court with elaborate interior playing surfaces, is the model for modern tennis although the sport played in the Renaissance continues to be played today with 46 active courts in France, Australia, the UK and USA.
Giardino all'italiana
The oldest existing Italian Renaissance garden is at the Villa Medici in Fiesole, north of Florence. It was created sometime between 1455 and 1461 by Giovanni de' Medici (1421–1463) the son of Cosimo de' Medici, the founder of the Medici dynasty. Unlike other Medici family villas that were located on flat farmland, this villa was located on a rocky hillside with a view over Florence.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
In the middle of the sixteenth century, under Cosimo I, Niccolò Tribolo rearranged the gardens and finished the construction of the stables (1548). The overall view of the garden and the stables after the Tribolo's intervention is in the famous lunette of Giusto Utens (1599) kept in Florence Museum.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
Completing the first floor is Vittorio Emanuele II's apartment with four rooms: Cloakroom, Studio, Reception Room and Bedroom, and that of Countess of Mirafiori, Rosa Vercellana, (the "Bella Rosina") consisting of three rooms with antique furniture. The Bella Rosina's room is decorated in particular with a four-poster bed and walls entirely covered with pink silk with floral motifs (1865), radiated draped so as to see a pre-existing neoclassical fresco at the center. The French bath, designed by the court architect Giuseppe Cacialli, was wanted by Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi and involved the demolition of some of the older rooms. Today it is well preserved, with its marble basin with carvings and a sculpture of "Venus and Love" in a niche, in addition to the original toiletries. The two mythological frescoes depict "Achilles immersed in the Lete River" and "Teti attends the departure of Achilles".
Villa Medici
Between 1961 and 1967, the artist Balthus, then at the head of the Academy, carried out a vast restoration campaign of the palace and its gardens, providing them with modern equipment. Balthus participated “hands on” in all the phases of the construction. Where the historic décor had disappeared, Balthus proposed personal alternatives. He invented a décor that was a homage to the past and, at the same time, radically contemporary: The mysterious melancholic decor he created for Villa Medici has become, in turn, historic and was undergoing an important restoration campaign in 2016. Work continued under the direction of the previous director, Richard Peduzzi, and the Villa Medici resumed organizing exhibitions and shows created by its artists in residence.
Poggio Reale (villa)
The Poggio Reale villa or Villa Poggio Reale was an Italian Renaissance villa commissioned in 1487 by Alfonso II of Naples as a royal summer residence. The Italian phrase "poggio reale" translates to "royal hill" in English. The villa was designed and built by Giuliano da Maiano and located in the city of Naples, in the district now known as Poggioreale, between the present Via del Campo, Via Santa Maria del Pianto and the new and old Via Poggioreale. At the time it was built, a period when the capitol city of the Kingdom of Naples was renowned for elegant homes with expansive vistas of the surrounding landscape and Mount Vesuvius, the villa was outside the city walls of Naples and was one of the most important architectural achievements of the Neapolitan Renaissance. Imitated, admired, robbed of its treasures by another king, left in ruins and partially destroyed, the summer palace of the King of Naples lives on in name as a style.
Villa Emo
Andrea Palladio's architectural fame is considered to have come from the many villa's in which he designed. The building of Villa Emo was the culmination of a long-lasting project of the patrician Emo family of the Republic of Venice to develop its estates at Fanzolo. In 1509, which saw the defeat of Venice in the War of the League of Cambrai, the estate on which the villa was to be built was bought from the Barbarigo family. Leonardo di Giovannia Emo was a well-known Venetian aristocrat. He was born in 1538 and inherited the Fanzolo estate in 1549. This property was dedicated to the agricultural activities that the family prospered from. The Emo family's central interest was at first in the cultivation of their newly acquired land. Not until two generations had passed did Leonardo Emo commission Palladio to build a new villa in Fanzolo.
Villa del Poggio Imperiale
The present monumental principal facade was created in 1807 for the newly elevated Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Elisa Bonaparte. The architect chosen was , who designed the great facade using drawings by Paoletti's admirer and imitator Pasquale Poccianti, an architect better known for his later work the Cisternoni of Livorno.
Villa Kathrine
The Villa Kathrine is a Moroccan-style home located on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River in Quincy, Illinois. The unique home, sometimes branded as a castle, was built in 1900 by architect George Behrensmeyer for wealthy Quincy native W. George Metz. Metz had a fondness for Mediterranean architecture, and used the Villa Kathrine as his home when he was not venturing the world. Metz eventually sold the castle in 1912, and the site fell into disrepair and neglect before the non-profit "Friends of the Castle" sought to restore the Villa in 1978. Work on restoring the castle was completed in 1998, and appropriate site furnishings have been donated and obtained by staff throughout the years to further enhance the castle's Moroccan roots. Currently, the site functions as the official tourist information center to the City of Quincy and tours are granted of the site on an appointment basis.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
The villa was the place where foreign brides of the family members in Florence were welcomed. Here, among other events, were the weddings of Alessandro de' Medici and Margaret of Austria (1536), between Cosimo I and Eleanor of Toledo (1539), Francesco I and Bianca Cappello already his lover (1579). Bianca and Francesco also found death in this villa, for causes not fully clarified and suspected of poisoning.
Palazzo Zorzi Galeoni
The Palazzo Zorzi Galeoni or Palazzo Zorzi a Rio San Severo is a Renaissance style palace of the Zorzi family (also spelled Giorgi)in the Sestiere of Castello, number 4930, in central Venice, Italy; it was designed after 1480 by Mauro Codussi. It lies a few streets away from Santa Maria Formosa, also designed by Codussi. There are a number of Zorzi palaces in Venice, including the Palazzo Zorzi Liassidi and Palazzo Zorzi Bon.
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
His gardens at Villa di Castello, designed by Niccolò Tribolo when Cosimo was only seventeen years old, were designed to announce a new golden age for Florence and to demonstrate the magnificence and virtues of the Medici. They were decorated with fountains, a labyrinth, a grotto and ingenious ornamental water features, and were a prototype for the Italian Renaissance garden. They had a profound influence on later Italian and French gardens through the eighteenth century.
Villa Medici at Careggi
The villa was among the first of a number of Medici villas, notable as the site of the Platonic academy founded by Cosimo de' Medici, who died at the villa in 1464. Like most villas of Florentine families, the villa remained a working farm that helped render the family self-sufficient. Cosimo's architect there, as elsewhere, was Michelozzo, who remodelled the fortified villa which had something of the character of a castello. Its famous garden is walled about, like a medieval garden, overlooked by the upper-storey loggias, with which Michelozzo cautiously opened up the villa's structure. Michelozzo's Villa Medici in Fiesole has a more outward-looking, Renaissance character.
Villa Pisani, Bagnolo
The Pisani were a rich family of Venetian nobles who owned several "Villas Pisani", two of them designed by Andrea Palladio. The villa at Bagnolo was built in the 1540s and represents Palladio's first villa designed for a patrician family of Venice: his earlier villa commissions were from provincial nobility in the Vicenza area. The villa at Bagnolo was at the centre of an agricultural estate, as were most of the villas commissioned from Palladio. It was designed with rusticated features to complement its rural setting; in contrast, the Villa Pisani at Montagnana in a semi-urban setting utilizes more refined motifs.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
Afterwards, the theme of decoration changed, probably due to the arrival in the house of the first noble titles of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino and Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, and became the illustrations of the glories of the Medici family, to which they clearly mentions the official themes of the paintings, that is, the "Stories of Roman History".
Between 1519 and 1521 he worked Andrea del Sarto, who painted the "Triumph of Caesar", an allusion to the gifts received by Lorenzo the Magnificent from the Sultan of Egypt in 1487. The fresco finished about one-third of the surface of the wall where nearer to the outer wall there was a large column painted in the wall, which was later removed and the fresco built by Alessandro Allori, who appointed his signature With that of Andrea del Sarto near the boy with the turkey in the foreground. By the time the frame of the primitive fresco was re-emerged, cutting the scene in two, but was again hidden by recent restorations.
Medici villas
The Medici villas are a series of rural building complexes in Tuscany which were owned by members of the Medici family between the 15th century and the 17th century. The villas served several functions: they were the country palaces of the Medici, scattered over the territory that they ruled, demonstrating their power and wealth. They were also recreational resorts for the leisure and pleasure of their owners; and, more prosaically, they were the centre of agricultural activities on the surrounding estates. In 2013, the Medici villas were added to UNESCO's World Heritage list.
Villa
In 14th and 15th century Italy, a "villa" once more connoted a country house, like the first Medici villas, the Villa del Trebbio and that at Cafaggiolo, both strong fortified houses built in the 14th century in the Mugello region near Florence. In 1450 Giovanni de' Medici commenced on a hillside the Villa Medici in Fiesole, Tuscany, probably the first villa created under the instructions of Leon Battista Alberti, who theorized the features of the new idea of villa in his "De Re Aedificatoria".
Villa di Castello
Cosimo died in 1574, and a long succession of other Medicis occupied the Villa. Ferdinando I de' Medici, completed the villa in its present form, between 1588 and 1595, enlarging the east side, remaking the facade, and adding a new entrance on the south side. Don Lorenzo de' Medici commissioned the painter Il Volterrano to decorate the villa with a fresco, "Vigilance and Sleep", in 1640. Cosimo III de' Medici, deeply interested in botany, introduced a very rare species of Indian jasmine, called mugherino, in 1688, and built a special greenhouse to protect it in winter. During the Medici years, many foreign travelers, including Michel de Montaigne and the botanist Pierre Belon, visited the villa and wrote descriptions, which made it known throughout Europe. It inspired other European gardens which were designed to illustrate the grandeur, wisdom and power of the ruler.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
On the ceiling of the so-called "Dining Room" there is a large fresco, by Anton Domenico Gabbiani, depicting the work of Cosimo The Elder, father of the homeland. The painting dates back to 1698 and was commissioned by Prince Ferdinando III de' Medici. This hall was also known as "Salone degli stucchi" but the stuccos in question, with portraits of Medici within medallions and other decorations, were removed in 1812 because they were considered too redundant. Only in some periods of the year is decorated the table with the "table carp" drawings designed by Agnolo Bronzino between the 1533 and 1548, beautifully woven with silk and filaments of gold and silver.
Villa di Montevettolini
Also called Monte Veturino, the villas was built after 1595 by commission of Grand Duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany on a high hill at the feet of Monte Albano, where a large hunting reserve (the so-called Parco Reale) was located. The architect was Gherardo Mechini, a pupil of Bernardo Buontalenti, who included some pre-existing structures from the medieval borough, such as a fortress and a stretch of walls. The building was finished with the 1620s. The result was a villa with a severe and compact appearance, with a polygonal plan, resembling more a defensive fortress than a patrician residence. It was used as administrative base for the Medici estates in the area.
Giuliano da Sangallo
Giuliano da Sangallo (c. 1445 – 1516) was an Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance. He is known primarily for being the favored architect of Lorenzo de' Medici, his patron. In this role, Giuliano designed a villa for Lorenzo as well as a monastery for Augustinians and a church where a miracle was said to have taken place. Additionally, Giuliano was commissioned to build multiple structures for Pope Julius II and Pope Leo X. Leon Battista Alberti and Filippo Brunelleschi heavily influenced Sangallo and in turn, he influenced other important Renaissance figures such as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, his brother Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, and his sons, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Francesco da Sangallo.
Florence
Palazzo Medici Riccardi, designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo for Cosimo il Vecchio, of the Medici family, is another major edifice, and was built between 1445 and 1460. It was well known for its stone masonry that includes rustication and ashlar. Today it is the head office of the Metropolitan City of Florence and hosts museums and the Riccardiana Library. The Palazzo Strozzi, an example of civil architecture with its rusticated stone, was inspired by the Palazzo Medici, but with more harmonious proportions. Today the palace is used for international expositions like the annual antique show (founded as the Biennale dell'Antiquariato in 1959), fashion shows and other cultural and artistic events. Here also is the seat of the Istituto Nazionale del Rinascimento and the noted Gabinetto Vieusseux, with the library and reading room.
There are several other notable places, including the Palazzo Rucellai, designed by Leon Battista Alberti between 1446 and 1451 and executed, at least in part, by Bernardo Rossellino; the Palazzo Davanzati, which houses the museum of the Old Florentine House; the Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali, designed in the Neo-Renaissance style in 1871; the Palazzo Spini Feroni, in Piazza Santa Trinita, a historic 13th-century private palace, owned since the 1920s by shoe-designer Salvatore Ferragamo; as well as various others, including the Palazzo Borghese, the Palazzo di Bianca Cappello, the Palazzo Antinori, and the Royal building of Santa Maria Novella.
Medici lions
A pair of lions were required by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had acquired the Villa Medici in 1576, to serve as majestic ornaments for the villa's garden staircase, the "Loggia dei leoni". The first lion originates from a 2nd-century marble that was first mentioned in 1594, by the sculptor Flaminio Vacca, by which time it was already in the collection of Ferdinando; Vacca reported that it had been found in the via Prenestina, outside Porta San Lorenzo. According to Vacca, the lion had been a relief, which was carved free of its background and reworked by "Giovanni Sciarano" or Giovanni di Scherano Fancelli, of whom little is now known.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
The villa is located in the middle of a hilltop, the last offshoot of the Montalbano mountains, in a strategic position, lying on the promontory towards the Ombrone river and the plain and dominating the road between Florence and Pistoia, which overwhelms the small heights here.
It was built by Lorenzo de' Medici after buying a rustic farm from Giovanni Rucellai, who in turn had bought what was then a simple fortress from Palla Strozzi, built by the Cancellieri family of Pistoia at the beginning of the fifteenth century.
Villa di Pratolino
Michel de Montaigne, one of the earliest visitors to leave a description of Pratolino, saw it in 1581, and considered it to have been built, he thought when visiting Villa d'Este, "precisely in rivalry with this place". A long description was published by a Florentine, Francesco de' Vieri, in 1586. Giusto Utens included a view of the southern half of the villa complex among his series of lunettes containing bird's-eye views of the Medicean villas, painted in 1599. Six views were etched by Stefano Della Bella in the mid-17th century, and the picture is rounded out by further 18th century descriptions. Nevertheless, Pratolino has not survived, as other Medici villas have.
Villa Porto (Vivaro di Dueville)
Villa Porto is a patrician villa in Vivaro di Dueville, province of Vicenza, northern Italy, designed in 1554 and traditionally attributed to the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, but not included by UNESCO in the strict list of Palladian Villas of Veneto within the World Heritage Site City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
Villa Medici at Careggi
The villa property was purchased from the Lorraine heirs of the Medici in 1779 by Vincenzo Orsi; the Orsi heirs sold it to an Englishman, Francis Sloane, in 1848: Sloane planted exotics in the landscape: Cedar of Lebanon and Himalayan cedars, Californian sequoias, arbutus from the eastern Mediterranean and palms, which give the grounds their feeling of an arboretum. Today the villa belongs to the Tuscan public administration.
Pojana Maggiore
Pojana Maggiore is a town and "comune" in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, north-eastern Italy. It is the site of Villa Pojana, designed by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. The town has reputation for its agriculture. It is bounded by the other communes of Noventa Vicentina and Montagnana.
Villa Medici
Like the Villa Borghese that adjoins them, the villa's gardens were far more accessible than the formal palaces such as Palazzo Farnese in the heart of the city. For a century and a half the Villa Medici was one of the most elegant and worldly settings in Rome, the seat of the Grand Dukes' embassy to the Holy See. When the male line of the Medici died out in 1737, the villa passed to the house of Lorraine and, briefly in Napoleonic times, to the Kingdom of Etruria. In this manner Napoleon Bonaparte came into possession of the Villa Medici, which he transferred to the French Academy at Rome. Subsequently, it housed the winners of the prestigious Prix de Rome, under distinguished directors including Ingres and Balthus, until the prize was withdrawn in 1968.
Villa Medicea L'Ambrogiana
It was built in 1587, putatively using designs of Bernardo Buontalenti, and built over a pre-existing structure. In the 19th century, the Leopold II converted the villa into a mental asylum. In 1886, it was converted into a jail for women and minors, and later into a jail for those judged mentally ill. The Villa and grounds in the 17th century were used by Francesco Redi for anatomic studies of leprosy, and by Andrea Scacciati and Bartolomeo Bimbi to create paintings of flora and fauna for the Grand-Duke Cosimo III de' Medici.
Medici villas
The later villas are outstanding examples of Renaissance and Baroque architecture, and were often accompanied by gardens. The garden at the Villa di Castello, created for Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was the first in Italy by Niccolò Tribolo, who later designed the Boboli Gardens for Cosimo's Florentine new residence, the Palazzo Pitti.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
In 1807, Poccianti designed, in addition to the exterior stairs, the internal staircase connecting the ground floor to the remaining floors of the building was also commissioned for some restoration work on the upper floor of the villa. In the same period there are also fresco paintings in some saloons, of a strictly neoclassical style, with subjects drawn from ancient mythology.
Villa Medici at Cafaggiolo
In the following year, 1452, Averardo de' Medici's grandson Cosimo de' Medici (known as Cosimo the Elder - the first of the Medici to combine leadership of the family bank with governing the Republic of Florence) commissioned his favourite architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo (usually known simply as "Michelozzo") to redesign his fortress as a more comfortable country retreat, which could be used for hunting. It was to be one of four villas built by Cosimo, the others being Careggi, Villa Mozzi and Villa Trebbia. Michelozzo had already designed the Medici's town palazzo in Florence, the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, and Cosimo's new villa at Careggi. The architect transformed the forbidding fortress into a castellated country house - in effect, the castle became a villa.
Palazzo Malvezzi de' Medici
In 1725 the Marquis Giuseppe Maria Malvezzi de' Medici (1670-1736) commissioned the design of the scenic staircase from Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena and construction completed by Alfonso Torreggiani. In the mid-nineteenth century, Giovanni Malvezzi (1819-1892), refurbished the palace under the direction of Francesco Cocchi. In 1931 the building was sold by Aldobrandino Malvezzi (1881-1961), professor at the University of Florence, to the Province of Bologna.
Poggio a Caiano
In the following century, the Villa di Poggio a Caiano was used by successive Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany. In 1587, Bianca Cappello and Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany died there within a day of one another after short illnesses; raising the still unsolved question of their poisoning by Francesco’s brother Ferdinand, who succeeded Francesco as Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the architects Giuseppe and Giovan Battista Ruggeri and Antonio Maria Ferri extended the villa. Major improvements to the gardens were also carried out after it came into the ownership of Maria Luisa, Queen of Etruria.
Villa La Magia
Villa La Magia is a Medici villa in the comune of Quarrata, in the province of Pistoia, to the west of Florence, in Tuscany in central Italy. It was built by the Panciatichi family in the fourteenth century, and was bought by Francesco I de' Medici in 1583 or 1584. It has been owned by the comune of Quarrata since 2000, and since 2013 has been one of the fourteen sites which together make up a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany.
Villa
These first examples of Renaissance villa predate the age of Lorenzo de' Medici, who added the Villa di Poggio a Caiano by Giuliano da Sangallo, begun in 1470, in Poggio a Caiano, Province of Prato, Tuscany.
Palazzo Viviani della Robbia, Florence
The palace was commissioned by marchese Luigi Viviani, a counselor for Cosimo III Medici. It was designed by Giovanni Battista Foggini and completed in 1693.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
Concerts held at the theater of the villa included Giovanni Paisello, Etienne Nicolas Méhul and Gaspare Spontini. The frescoes of neoclassical Luigi Catani are in this hallway in the entrance hall on the first floor and in seventeen rooms of the villa, to which various guided artists collaborated Always from Catani.
Always on commission by Elisa Baciocchi, in 1811 Giuseppe Manetti designed new English Gardens, featuring irregular avenues, a pond, and small neoclassical pavilions, such as a conical glacier and a temple of Diana. The project was only completed later and partially.
House of Medici
Later, in Rome, the Medici popes continued in the family tradition of patronizing artists in Rome. Pope Leo X would chiefly commission works from Raphael, whereas Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel just before the pontiff's death in 1534. Eleanor of Toledo, a princess of Spain and wife of Cosimo I the Great, purchased the Pitti Palace from Buonaccorso Pitti in 1550. Cosimo in turn patronized Vasari, who erected the Uffizi Gallery in 1560 and founded the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno – ("Academy of the Arts of Drawing") in 1563. Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV of France and mother of Louis XIII, is the subject of a commissioned cycle of paintings known as the Marie de' Medici cycle, painted for the Luxembourg Palace by court painter Peter Paul Rubens in 1622–23.
Maserati Medici
The Maserati Medici is a concept car developed by the Turin design firm Italdesign for Maserati. Two slightly different models, the Medici I and the Medici II were produced in 1974 and 1976. The design was led by Giorgio Giugiaro. The Medici's design had an influence on numerous other production vehicles in the 1970s. The Medici was named after the Florentine family of the same name, renowned for their power and patronage of the arts during the Renaissance.
The Maserati Medici was a design study for a luxury sports sedan. Both versions of the Medici were designed on the frame of the Maserati Indy as a four door fastback. Both versions had a longitudinally mounted 4.9 Liter V8, which was also borrowed from the Indy.
The Medici I was built in the spring of 1974, and it shared many design elements with Giugiaro's previous Asso Di Picche concept. One influential feature of the Medici I was the trapezoidal C-pillar, which became wider as it ran down the side of the car. Giugiaro later used this design in many different cars, including the Lancia Delta I and the Audi Coupé (B2). While the Medici's C-pillar was made of solid sheet metal, other vehicles such as the Audi 80 B2 and the Yugo Florida had an additional trapezoidal window in the C-pillar.
Tribuna of the Uffizi
The Tribuna of the Uffizi is an octagonal room in the Uffizi gallery, Florence, Italy. Designed by Bernardo Buontalenti for Francesco I de' Medici for Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1584, the most important antiquities and High Renaissance and Bolognese paintings from the Medici collection were and still are displayed here. In 1737 the Grand Duchess Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici ceded the collection to the Tuscan government, and by the 1770s the Uffizi (and in particular the Tribuna) was the hub for Grand Tourists visiting Florence.
Cisternoni of Livorno
Pasquale Poccianti, the reservoirs' architect, was "Engineer to the Commune of Livorno" and "Architect of the Royal Works". Poccianti had trained at Florence's Accademia di Belle Arti. In his capacity as court architect, Poccianti worked on many prominent Tuscan buildings both private and municipal, including the grand ducal residence, the Palazzo Pitti. Poccianti was a keen disciple of the architect Gaspare Maria Paoletti, who had redesigned much of the Villa del Poggio Imperiale leaving only the main facade unchanged. In 1807, Giuseppe Cacialli redesigned the principal facade of the Villa from drawings by Poccianti.
Villa Giulia
The pope, a highly literate connoisseur of the arts, assigned the initial design of the building to Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola in 1551-1553. The nymphaeum and other garden structures, however, were designed by Bartolomeo Ammanati, all under the supervision of Giorgio Vasari. Michelangelo also worked there. Pope Julius took a direct interest in the villa's design and decor and spent vast amounts of money on enhancing its beauties. Villa Giulia became one of the most delicate examples of Mannerist architecture.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
The triangle (white, blue and green) frieze that today is seen on the tympanum mantel on the main façade of the villa is a copy made in 1986 by the manufacturer Richard Ginori, while the original is in a room on the first floor of the villa. This work is 14 meters long and 22 feet long, 58 centimeters long, of uncertain attribution and dating. It is principally attributed to Andrea Sansovino regarding the construction phase of Lorenzo il Magnifico, as It refers to the theme of the return to the "Age of gold", or performed by Giuliano da Sangallo or Bertoldo. Two phases, the second of which ended at the time of Leo X.
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
In 1539, Cosimo married the Spanish noblewoman Eleanor of Toledo (1522 – 1562), the daughter of Don Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, the Spanish viceroy of Naples and third cousin to Emperor Charles V himself. Her face is still familiar to many from solemn portraits of her painted by Agnolo Bronzino. The most famous of them, which hangs in the Uffizi Gallery, depicts her with her son Giovanni. She provided the Medici with the Pitti Palace, seven sons to ensure male succession and four daughters to connect the Medici with noble and ruling houses in Italy. She was a patron of the new Jesuit order, and her private chapel in the Palazzo Vecchio was decorated by Bronzino, who had originally arrived in Florence to provide festive decor for her wedding. She died with her sons Giovanni and Garzia in 1562, when she was only forty; all three of them were struck down by malaria while traveling to Pisa.
Zanetto Bugatto
The Uffizi "Portrait of Galeazzo Maria Sforza" by Piero Pollaiuolo is one such piece. When Galeazzo visited Lorenzo Medici in Florence from March 15 to March 18, 1471, it was a very important and celebrated event. Though Lorenzo Medici would have wanted a portrait of the Duke to commemorate the visit, there likely would have not been time for him to sit for one. Because of this, some historians suggest that Pollaiuolo's portrait was made based on Bugatto's work which may have either been loaned to the Medici's or shown to Pollaiuolo on a visit to Milan. These historians point to the Rogierian influence of this portrait as evidence that it may be based on Bugatto's work.
Villa
In the later 16th century in the northeastern Italian Peninsula the Palladian villas of the Veneto, designed by Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), were built in Vicenza in the Republic of Venice. Palladio always designed his villas with reference to their setting. He often unified all the farm buildings into the architecture of his extended villas. Examples are the Villa Emo, the Villa Godi, the Villa Forni Cerato, the Villa Capra "La Rotonda", and Villa Foscari.
House of Medici
After Lorenzo's death, the puritanical Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola rose to prominence, warning Florentines against excessive luxury. Under Savonarola's fanatical leadership, many great works were "voluntarily" destroyed in the Bonfire of the Vanities (February 7, 1497). The following year, on 23 May 1498, Savonarola and two young supporters were burned at the stake in the Piazza della Signoria, the same location as his bonfire. In addition to commissions for art and architecture, the Medici were prolific collectors and today their acquisitions form the core of the Uffizi museum in Florence. In architecture, the Medici were responsible for some notable features of Florence, including the Uffizi Gallery, the Boboli Gardens, the Belvedere, the Medici Chapel and the Palazzo Medici.
Schloss Bensberg
The palace was commissioned by Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine for his wife Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici. Anna Maria Luisa enjoyed the site's elevated scenery and views onto the river Rhine, Rhine Valley and Cologne Bight. The building was designed by Italian Baroque architect Matteo Alberti and completed in 1711.
Poggio Reale (villa)
For the construction of the building and its annexes, Alfonso used his authority to expropriate land from others, often without compensation, for example, during construction he removed the standing water flowing to some mills that belonged to Gian Battista Brancaccio. For the residence's design, he hired the Florentine architect Giuliano da Maiano, who arrived in Naples in 1487 with a model for the villa which he had developed while still in Florence. Giuliano da Maiano began the work that year and continued to direct construction until his death in 1490, when the building was substantially completed and partially occupied. Construction then continued, possibly by Francesco di Giorgio Martini and students of Maiano, and ultimately the Villa Poggio Reale became the seat of the Neapolitan court. The design of the villa was a considerable success and was mentioned in Book III of Sebastiano Serlio's architectural treatise of sixteenth century Italian architecture.
Palazzo Pitti
Though impressive, the original palazzo would have been no rival to the Florentine Medici residences in terms of either size or content. Whoever the architect of the Palazzo Pitti was, he was moving against the contemporary flow of fashion. The rusticated stonework gives the palazzo a severe and powerful atmosphere, reinforced by the three-times-repeated series of seven arch-headed apertures, reminiscent of a Roman aqueduct. The Roman-style architecture appealed to the Florentine love of the new style "all'antica". This original design has withstood the test of time: the repetitive formula of the façade was continued during the subsequent additions to the palazzo, and its influence can be seen in numerous 16th-century imitations and 19th-century revivals. Work stopped after Pitti suffered financial losses following the death of Cosimo de' Medici in 1464. Luca Pitti died in 1472 with the building unfinished.
Giuliano da Maiano
As an architect he was virtually the house architect for the Pazzi, rebuilding Palazzo Pazzi (1462–1472), the main seat of the family, for Jacopo de' Pazzi. For the Strozzi, at the Palazzo dello Strozzino he added a piano nobile (c. 1456) in the manner of Palazzo Medici-Riccardi to a ground floor that had been begun by Michelozzo; he is also often credited with Palazzo Antinori (1465–1469). In Siena, he built Palazzo Spannocchieschi (c. 1475), in the Florentine manner of delicately rusticated facade and twinned arch-headed windows within a blind arch that had been established in Florence by Alberti's Palazzo Rucellai and Michelozzo's Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. Between the two cities, at San Gimignano, Giuliano is credited with enlarging the Romanesque church of Santa Maria and building the chapel of Santa Fina, in collaboration with Benedetto; at Arezzo, where Benedetto built the Portico of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Giuliano built the cloister of the Badia.
Villa del Poggio Imperiale
The principal facade, however, was not to be transformed until ownership of the villa passed to Maria Louisa of Bourbon, the Queen of Etruria, who in 1806 assigned the project to the architect Pasquale Poccianti. Poccianti extended this effort of complete neoclassical transformation (of the facade) to include a rusticated five-bay portico flanked by a theater and a chapel. The facade was completed under the eventual ownership of Napoleon's sister Elisa Baciocchi, then the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, who hired the architect Giuseppe Cacialli to freely adapt the completion of Poccianti's original plans. The free adaptation by Cacialli allowed him to supplement the original "piano nobile" with luminous peristyle including stuccowork and wall paintings. With the return of the House of Lorraine in 1814, the previously designed chapel and guard house were at last built, and a number of rooms were embellished by the painters Domenico Nani and Giorgio Angiolini.
Kazimierz Palace
The Kazimierz Palace was erected in 1637-41 for King Władysław IV in the mannerist-early Baroque style as a "villa suburbana" (suburban villa) christened the "Villa Regia" (Latin for "Royal Villa"), to the design of Italian architect Giovanni Trevano. It was constructed as a rectangular building with corner towers, a type of residence known as "Poggio–Reale - Serlio" after the Villa Poggio Reale in Naples.
Villa del Poggio Imperiale
Between 1766-1783, the architect Gaspare Paoletti, during the third and final renovation of the villa, accomplished the definitive restructuring of the villa to twice its previous size. Paoletti added the two flanking inner courtyards to the central courtyard, and also designed the rear facade and the great ballroom on the "piano nobile". This was embellished with the notable stuccowork by Giocondo and Grato Albertolli.
Villa Cornaro
Villa Cornaro is a patrician villa in Piombino Dese, about 30 km northwest of Venice, Italy. It was designed by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio in 1552 and is illustrated and described by him in Book Two of his 1570 masterwork, "I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura" [The Four Books on Architecture].
Villa Medici at Cafaggiolo
From 1476 onwards, Lorenzo il Magnifico needed to raise funds, the Pope having seized many of his assets. He borrowed from his cousins, with the eventual result that ownership of the villa was transferred after protracted negotiations to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco and his brother Giovanni in 1485. Cafaggiolo thus passed for a time to the younger branch of the Medici— who established the manufacture of maiolica in the villa's outbuildings— until all the Medici holdings were once more reassembled in the hands of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici
In his position as court painter for the Medici, Bronzino was author of several portraits of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. In this portrait, Cosimo is represented in his younger years, commanding and proud; and to quote Giorgio Vasari, "clad with white armor and a hand over the helmet". It has been identified as having been painted in the Medicis' Villa of Poggio a Caiano in 1545.
Foiano della Chiana
Architectural works of Foiano include the 14th century "Palazzo Pretorio" along one side of Piazza Cavour, and the "Palazzo delle Logge "on the other, built between the 16th and 17th centuries. The Palazzo delle Logge was the residence of Ferdinando II de Medici and the Municipal Historic Archive and the Library are now housed inside, with some of the halls used for exhibitions. The Civic Tower has been recently restored, preserving its original proportions and façade. The Garibaldi Theatre which used to be called Monte Pio in 1570 and the Palazzo Neri-Serneri are also found within the old town. Also, the grain loggias bearing the Medici arms are a good example of Foiano’s long history. Close to the town is located the small octagonal temple of Santo Stefano della Vittoria, built by Giorgio Vasari for Duke Cosimo I and dedicated to Cosimo's victory in the battle of Scannagallo.
Villa di Castello
Villa di Castello also strongly influenced the later Medici villas, such as the Villa di Pratolino, constructed by Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany between 1569 and 1581. These gardens, like Villa di Castello, were built on a hillside, and featured a statue of Appennino, this one by Giambologna, multiple grottos, fountains, and hidden water jets to drench visitors. Unfortunately they were largely destroyed in 1820.
Architecture of Paris
After the assassination of Henry IV in 1610, his widow, Marie de' Medici, became the regent for the young Louis XIII and between 1615 and 1631 she built a residence for herself, the Luxembourg Palace, on the left bank. It was inspired by the palaces of her native Florence, but also by the innovations of the French Renaissance. The architect was Salomon de Brosse, followed by Marin de la Vallée and Jacques Lemercier. In the gardens, she built a magnificent fountain, the Medici Fountain, also on the Italian model.
Giardino all'italiana
The Villa Madama, situated on the slopes of Monte Mario and overlooking Rome, was begun by Pope Leo X and continued by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (1478–1534). In 1516 Leo X gave the commission to Raphael who was at that time the most famous artist in Rome. Using the ancient text of "De Architectura" by Vitruvius and the writings of Pliny the Younger, Raphael imagined his own version of an ideal classical villa and garden. His villa had a great circular courtyard, and was divided into a winter apartment and a summer apartment. Passages led from the courtyard to the great loggia from which views could be gained of the garden and Rome. A round tower on the east side was intended as garden room in winter, warmed by the sun coming through glazed windows. The villa overlooked three terraces, one a square, one a circle, and one an oval. The top terrace was to be planted in chestnut trees and firs while the lower terrace was intended for plant beds.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
Among the innovations of the era, the porch was placed on the ground floor (almost an interconnected area between the surrounding landscape and the villa), the classic porch and pediment on the noble floor and the lack of a central courtyard. Gradually the villa was enriched with works in a 'continuum' between architecture, painting and sculpture. The fresco of Filippino Lippi dates back to the period under the loggia on the first floor and perhaps the glazed majolica pediment attributed to Andrea Sansovino (some historians refer to a second constructive step).
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
Alessandro Allori was then the one who integrated it completed the decorative program of the Salon, and worked there between 1578 And 1582, more than fifty years after the commencement of the decorations of the other painters, was commissioned by Francesco I de' Medici, who lived in the villa in particular with his Venetian noblewoman Bianca Cappello. In addition to expanding the existing panels, he created two new ones: "Numidia's Syphace Receiving Scipione", alluding to the journey Lorenzo the Magnificent made to Naples at Ferdinand II of Aragon; The "Consul Flaminio speaks to the council of the Achaeans", in which he refers to the intervention of Lorenzo the Magnificent in the Dieta di Cremona.
Villa Bologna
The architect of Villa Bologna is unknown but an attempt has been made to attribute this design to Domenico Cachia, capomastro della Fondazione Manoel. This is because the design of Selmun Palace, which is very similar in places to that of Villa Bologna, too has been attributed to Cachia. However, this attribution is unproven and tentative at best. Current research indicates that Andrea Belli, who was an architect involved in the reconstruction of the Auberge de Castille between 1741 and 1744), may be responsible for Villa Bologna. This possibility may appear remote but a certain similarity between the Auberge de Castille and Villa Bologna, as well as the dates of Castille’s reconstruction (1741-1744), just a year prior to the construction of Villa Bologna, support this hypothesis. Moreover, Andrea Belli’s brother was a colleague of Fabrizio Grech and this same brother appears to have colluded substantially with Fabrizio Grech and the Perdicomati Bolognas in the Bologna-Testaferrata case. These close links between the principal characters of the story and Andrea Belli offer strong circumstantial evidence that Belli was, indeed, the architect of Villa Bologna. Confirmation, however, requires further research. Nonetheless, this evidence linking one of the most imposing, majestic and lavish palaces ever erected by the Knights of Malta with Villa Bologna gives some insight into the character of Fabrizio Grech. It also speaks volumes about the extent of his influence and his wealth.
Villa del Poggio Imperiale
With the extensive redesign and renovation in the eighteenth century, many of the original chapels in the Villa were lost. Today, only the Chapel of the Annunciation remains which the architect Giuseppe Cacialli included as part of the 1820 neoclassical renovation.
Villa
The cool hills of Frascati gained the Villa Aldobrandini (1592); the Villa Falconieri and the Villa Mondragone. The Villa d'Este near Tivoli is famous for the water play in its terraced gardens. The Villa Medici was on the edge of Rome, on the Pincian Hill, when it was built in 1540. Besides these designed for seasonal pleasure, usually located within easy distance of a city, other Italian villas were remade from a "rocca" or castello, as the family seat of power, such as Villa Caprarola for the Farnese.
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
The necessary maintenance work and periodic restoration were carried out, though, according to their economic strategy, they intended to resize their landholdings: they began to no longer use some villas (such as the Ambrogiana and Lappeggi), bringing the furnishings into Palazzo Pitti and the surviving residences. Poggio a Caiano did not suffer this fate, and only a few furnishings testify to that period, such as the small wooden chest of drawers with inlays depicting views and landscapes. The architects Giuseppe and Giovan Battista Ruggeri cared for a general restoration, with the renovation of the theater and the affixing of a clock on the facade.
Veneto
Jacopo Bassano (1517–1592) and Lorenzo Lotto were active in the mainland, and reflected some of the influences of Milanese painters with the introduction of images taken from real life, enriched by a touch of drama.
In architecture, Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), born in Padua, completed some highly influential works, including Villas in the mainland, in Vicenza, Padua and Treviso. In Venice, he designed the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, the Il Redentore, and Zitelle on the island of Giudecca. Palladian Villa architecture, in masterpieces such as Villa Emo, Villa Barbaro, Villa Capra, and Villa Foscari, evoked the imagined grandeur of antique classical Roman villas. This aesthetic, through his publications, proved very popular and underwent a revival in the neoclassical period. In his villas, the owner shall permit the control over production activities of the surrounding countryside by structuring the functional parts, such as porch, close to the central body. In the case of Villa Badoer, the open barn, formed by a large circular colonnade, enclosing the front yard in front of the villa allows you to create a space that recalls the ancient idea of the Forum Romanum, and bringing all campaign activities to gravitate in front of the villa itself.
Rocca Pisana
Rocca Pisana is a 16-century patrician villa in the comune of Lonigo, province of Vicenza, northern Italy, designed by the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi for the Pisani family. In Italy there are several villas called Villa Pisani, which take their name from this powerful Venetian family. This villa is also known as "La Rocca" or "La Rocca Pisana". Lonigo is also the home of Palladio's Villa Pisani (Bagnolo).