Palazzo Strozzi in Florence is one of the best known Italian
Renaissance palaces. Imposing in size (as many as 15 buildings were
destroyed to make way for it), it is located between the homonymous
via Strozzi and piazza Strozzi, and via Tornabuoni, with three
grandiose identical portals, on as many sides. An undecorated side
is located on vicolo deglio Strozzi, a private road between
Tornabuoni and piazza Strozzi, with access closed by gates.
As Francesco Bocchi wrote, the palace "is magnificent, and splendid,
and laughs in every part in its noble grandeur, which, as anyone who
is knowledgeable warns, for admirable industry surpasses any private
building, whether in Italy, or in another place", which makes it
clear that it is one of the most representative civil buildings of
the Renaissance season and a masterpiece of Florentine civil
architecture. It was started at the behest of Filippo Strozzi, a
wealthy merchant belonging to one of the wealthiest families in
Florence, traditionally hostile to the Medici faction. The building
appears in the list drawn up in 1901 by the Directorate General of
Antiquities and Fine Arts, as a monumental building to be considered
a national artistic heritage.
The Strozzi family had been exiled from Florence in 1434 due to their
opposition to the Medici, but, thanks to the fortune amassed by Filippo
Strozzi as a banker in Naples, they were able to return to the city in
1466, determined to excel over their rivals. Filippo's became a real
obsession, and for years he bought and demolished buildings around his
residence in order to have the land necessary to erect the largest
palace ever seen in Florence.
Among the houses purchased were
those of other Strozzis, Piero Ardinghelli, Francesco Rucellai, Cecca
and Niccolò Popoleschi, Piero Tornaquinci and the tower of the Counts
Guidi of Poppi. Here was also the Piazza dei Tornaquinci, where various
families had their own towers and loggias; only thanks to the
intervention of Lorenzo the Magnificent was Strozzi able to obtain the
rights from the owners to straighten the line of the square and to
occupy any portion of streets or interchanges that was necessary with
the new building. The only condition that the Strozzis underwent was
that of starting work within a year of the ratification of the notarial
deed (dated 10 April 1489) and that construction continued without
interruption, under penalty of confiscation.
Giuliano da Sangallo
executed a model of Palazzo Strozzi in wood between 1489 and 1490 (today
it has returned to be exhibited in the palace, in storage at the
Bargello), but Vasari attributed the primitive project to Benedetto da
Maiano, favorite architect of Lorenzo the Magnificent , however it is
probable that he never directed the works. In any case, the inspiration
was Michelozzo's Palazzo Medici in via Larga, and Giuliano's model is
very close to the work performed, at least as regards the first floor.
With so much money available, nothing was left to chance, so much so
that even astronomers were summoned to decide which day was the most
propitious to lay the first stone. The works therefore began on 6 August
1489, but only two years later Filippo Strozzi died (1491).
His heirs continued, albeit with difficulty, in the costly
construction of Philip's dream.
The construction site was then
followed by Simone del Pollaiolo, known as il Cronaca, who was free to
intervene on what was planned up to this moment: in particular, the
latter appears as director of the works from 1490, as successor to the
master builder Jacopo di Stefano Rosselli, and he was certainly
responsible for the top floor concluded by a magnificent projecting
cornice (1502) and the courtyard with porticos on four sides (1503),
remaining in office until 31 October 1504, as the documents of the time
attest. "The almost ostentatious use of the same motifs, which elsewhere
could be considered monotonous repetition, reveals the architect's
purpose aimed more than anything else at expressing his thoughts through
a sense of proportion. It is this proportion that seems to be achieved
without effort, this perfect balance between solids and voids, between
frames and ashlars, between the division of the floors and the width of
the fronts, is the secret from which the musical harmony of the stone
cube is born, pervaded by a serene and restful beauty". In 1507 the
ground floor began to be inhabited.
After various interruptions,
due to the fluctuating economic conditions of the family, thanks to the
commercial fortune of Filippo Strozzi the Younger, a wealthy banker, the
works were resumed in 1523: in this phase Baccio d'Agnolo was perhaps
superintendent. The part on via de' Tornabuoni, abandoned in the third
row of drafts of the second window, was resumed in April 1533 and
finished in 1534-1535. The construction site was definitively
interrupted in 1538, after Strozzi, enemy of Cosimo I, taken prisoner in
Montemurlo, committed suicide. The south facade and half of the cornice
on via Tornabuoni therefore remained unfinished.
The building was
confiscated by the Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici the same year, and a
return of the Strozzi family appeared distant after Piero, following the
definitive defeat in the battle of Scannagallo, took refuge in France
(1554). Only years later was the palace returned to Cardinal Lorenzo
Strozzi.
In 1638 Gherardo Silvani built the chapel on the first
floor and in 1662 he enlarged the staircase on via Tornabuoni.
Between 1863 and 1865, coinciding with the enlargement and
rectification of via Strozzi and via Tornabuoni, the palace was
"restored", on behalf of prince Ferdinando Strozzi, by Giuseppe Poggi to
whom, among other things, we owe the bench street that runs along the
three facades of the factory. On that occasion, the walled-up door on
Piazza Strozzi was also reopened and the courtyard was connected to
street level via a ramp, to allow carriages to access the heart of the
building.
Other important interior rearranging works (with the
total and often arbitrary reconstruction of many ancient architectural
elements) were carried out between 1886 and 1889, promoted by Piero
Strozzi and directed by the architect Pietro Berti. The palace remained
in the Strozzi family until 28 May 1937, when Prince Roberto sold it to
the National Insurance Institute.
The new owners - setting aside
a first project drawn up by the young architect Gherardo Bosio -
promoted a complete restoration of the factory between 1938 and April
1940, directed by the engineer Ugo Giovannozzi, assisted by the engineer
Gualtiero Cividali and, for the artistic restoration , by the
Superintendent of monuments Giovanni Poggi (work coordinator the
engineer Gino Cipriani of INA, main executing company Mugelli
Costruzioni). Restoration that in the following years did not fail to
arouse punctual criticism, both for the rebuilding from scratch of
capitals, corbels and other decorated stone elements, and for the
arbitrary completion of the side on the alley and the cornice on via de'
Tornabuoni, symmetrically replicating the existing portion, as well as
the covered loggia on the third floor still on the Via de' Tornabuoni
side.
Other restoration works date to 1958 (under the direction
of the architect Guido Morozzi), 1967 and again to 1977, the last ones
based on the project and direction of the works by the architect Saverio
Vella. And again, between 1995 and 1996, a series of reinforced
micro-cementations were carried out on the stone elements of the facades
subject to disintegration.
Subsequently the large factory was
acquired by the State (1998) which gave it for use to the Municipality
of Florence (1999). The restoration of the facades of the internal
courtyard dates back to 2001 (executive company RAM) as part of a larger
project of conservative rehabilitation and functional adaptation of the
structure based on a project by Marco Baldini, Sandro Useli and
Alessandro Parigi.
Currently the building houses some important
cultural institutions, including the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, the
Strozzina Center for Contemporary Culture (CCCS), the National Institute
of Renaissance Studies, the Italian Institute of Human Sciences, and the
Scientific Cabinet literary G.P. Vieusseux (here since 1940).
The palace represents one of the best examples of the ideal
Renaissance residence. It was voluntarily built larger than the Medici
palace, from which it copied the cubic shape developed on three floors
around a central courtyard. Even the facade is almost identical, except
for more uniform ashlar, sloping upwards but with less difference in
thickness than in the model. This gives the whole the archaic appearance
of a fortress. On the ground floor there are rectangular windows, while
on the upper floors there are two orders of elegant mullioned windows,
resting on serrated string course frames. On each of the three sides
facing the street there are three arched portals with a molded and
internally smooth frame, of solemn classicism.
A continuous via
bench-like plinth runs around the building and is crowned by a mighty
cornice, resting on a high smooth band, which interrupts itself on via
Strozzi.
Outside are the torch holders, torches, flag bearers and
rings for the horses in wrought iron, made between 1491 and 1498 by
Niccolò Grosso known as il Caparra based on a design by Benedetto da
Maiano. It is the best example of this artistic form, so much so that
the author was even mentioned by Vasari in his Lives. Particularly
valuable are the works on the corners: the lanterns in the shape of a
small temple and with spikes that crown the similar cell, perhaps to
recall the onions that once gave their name to Piazza Strozzi; dragons
and torch-bearing sphinxes. Between the windows are iron bracelets for
torches and banners, and below the characteristic horseshoes with
Strozzi emblems (some replaced by copies).
On vicolo degli
Strozzi there is a tabernacle with an image of the Annunciation of the
Servants of Mary, equipped with a lamp which in ancient times also had
to illuminate the alley at night. In the corner between the square and
via degli Strozzi there is a plaque from 1762 by the Captains of the
Party (who had replaced the Otto Lords in the functions of public
control) prohibiting the sale of some goods in the square, under penalty
of severe fines.
The transliteration in current Italian is: «The
illustrious Captains of the Party (Guelph) of the city of Florence in
execution of the benign rescript of His Imperial Majesty dated 6 October
1762, with this public edict forbid all watermelon, popon, fruit ,
sellers of old irons (they bought and resold metal objects and so on),
resellers (of used stuff), barulli (small traders, street vendors) and
any other kind of people to stay and sell and resell fruit, cloths, old
irons and whatever other sort of belongings in Piazza degli Strozzi,
under penalty of 5 lire for offenders each and for each time, to whoever
is found in flagrante delicto, plus the discretion of the most
illustrious magistrate (for any accessory penalties in cases of
recidivist or particularly serious ); and to provide for the public
service, they declare that Piazza Nuova di Santa Maria Novella remains
destined for the unloading and trading of poponi, watermelons and other
fruit, which for this use has been replaced by that of the Strozzis.
Done in Florence on 13 October 1762 (by) Urbano Urbani chancellor». A
copy of the plaque can also be found on the corner with via Monalda.