Art in Theory. Группа авторов
Medici
Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449–92) was head of the Medici family from the age of twenty, and in that role was one of the leading intellectual and political figures of the Florentine Renaissance. On his death, as was common practice (cf. IA7), his heirs had an inventory made of the family’s possessions. The inventory is well known and famous largely for showing how things which are very highly valued today, such as works of ‘fine art’, were then seen as less valuable than other objects which have since been relegated to the status of the crafts or ‘applied arts’ – including tapestries, furniture, jewellery and antiques. That is not the main purpose of the present selection, although we have included some paintings and carvings for comparison, including Brunelleschi’s important perspective rendering of the Palazzo de’ Signori and the surrounding piazza. The inventory is a long document, running to over 130 pages in a modern book, so our extracts are relatively fragmentary. What we have focussed on here is the number of exotic items included in the Medici palace. It is important to remember that this is not a dedicated ‘cabinet of curiosities’ as such but the record of a working household. It includes barrels of wine, saucepans and bolts of fabric for future use, as well as objects from distant lands including pieces of textile, diplomatic gifts and Byzantine mosaics, in addition to Lorenzo’s own collection of antiquities and exotica. The result is a picture of an interconnected world, at least for patricians, wherein porcelain from China sits beside Moorish textiles, ‘damascene’ metalwork, Turkish weaponry and natural things such as coral and ivory. Our source is Richard Stapleford, Lorenzo de’ Medici at Home: The Inventory of the Palazzo Medici in 1492, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013; the selections are from pp. 67–8, 71, 74, 76, 79, 81, 83, 88–9, 93–4, 96–8, 103–4, 107, 109–10, 112–16, 120–2, 124 and 189–90. The valuations are in Florentine florins.
In the Sale Grande suite of the ground floor loggia
| In the first cassone [chest] | |
| A tapestry wall hanging … depicting a hunt by the Duke of Burgundy | f.100 |
| In the other cassone | |
| A silk carpet‐weave table cover in the Moorish style patterned with squares … | f.10 |
| Another carpet‐weave table cover of silk in the Moorish style, patterned with squares … | f.15 |
The chamber of Lorenzo in the Sala Grande suite of the ground floor
| Six paintings … above the bedstead framed all around in gold … three depicting the rout at San Romano and one a battle of dragons and lions and one the story of Paris, from the hand of Paolo Uccello, and one in which is depicted a hunt by Francesco di Pesello | f.300 |
| […] In the cupboard with seven shelves set into the panelling | |
| First shelf: Nineteen plates from large to small, a large vase, two small vases, a terra‐cotta vase, four shallow cane bowls in a leather case: all in [Chinese] porcelain of many colours | f.150 … |
| Third shelf: Twenty small plates of white and blue porcelain | f.15 |
| Fourth shelf: A large platter, three vases like jars, of which one has a cover and another is like a flask, two large ewers, three small casks to use as flasks, three blue ewers, four large white mugs, all of porcelain … | f.75 … |
| Sixth shelf: Nine large bowls of green porcelain | |
| Two blue and white porcelain basins […] | f.30 … |
In the room above the bath
| […] Two elephant teeth … that were sitting on the clothes rack of the room and were overlooked by me | f. — |
The chamber of the two beds
| In the cassone [chest] | |
| […] A beautiful carpet … | f.4 … |
| A chess set and chess board all of walnut, inlaid with ivory and decorated throughout with ivory and carved. | f.1 […] |
Continuing in the same chamber
| […] A panel painting depicting a perspective scene, that is, the palazzo de’ Signori and the loggia and the houses around looking the way they are [Brunelleschi?] | f. — |
In the passageway at the top of the stairs which leads to the chapel
| … A panel showing the Nativity of Our Lord [by Gozzoli] with the Magi on horseback arriving to make their offerings … | f. — |
In the large bedchamber … called the bedchamber of Lorenzo
| […] An ostrich egg and a mirrored ball with a silken cord | f.1 |
| […] In the first clothes chest | |
| […] A turca [Turkinsh‐style gown] of Moroccan cloth lined in ermine | f.40 […] |
Continuing into the antechamber of the same suite
| A little panel painting, depicting Our Lord dead, with many saints who are carrying him to the sepulchre, by Fra Giovanni [Fra Angelico] | f.15 |
| A marble panel by Donato [Donatello] depicting Our Lady holding her child | f.6 |
| A gilt bronze panel depicting Our Lady with the child in her arms, completely framed, by Donato | f.25 |
| A panel painting with a gilt frame depicting Saint Jerome and Saint Francis, by Pesello and Fra Filippo [Filippo Lippi] | f.10 |
| A little panel painting, depicting Our Lord crucified with three figures by Giotto | f.6 |
| A marble panel with many figures in relief and other things in perspective, that is, of St John, by Donato | f.30 |
| A tondo with Our Lady, small, by Fra Giovanni | f.5 … |
| A lunette … depicting the universe [Last Judgement] | f.50 […] |