Part 17

Nearly all Pandolfo’s sons died violent deaths. Orazio, the eldest, attempted the life of Francesco I. and was hung fifteen years after his father, at the same window of the Bargello. Another fled to Rome, found favour with Clement VIII., and was about to be made a Cardinal when he died of poison, administered by order of the Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici. A third was killed by a madman.

The present branch of the family descend from Saracino, a brother of Puccio, who also made a large fortune under Cosimo the Elder. One of his sons, implicated in the Pazzi conspiracy, was hung; another, named Priore, cautiously kept aloof from politics and occupied himself with commerce. His descendant, Niccolò inherited the riches of the eldest branch of the family, married an heiress and left a large fortune to his grandson, who built the palace, and owned many houses and villas, on which the moor’s head (the Pucci arms) is to be seen. The Marquess Pucci still inhabits the old palace.

PALAZZO RICCARDI

_Via Cavour. No. 1._

The first of the great house of Medici, according to Passerini, was Giambuono, an ecclesiastic. He lived in the XIIth century, and his son Chiarissimo owned houses and a tower in Florence near S. Tommaso. Admirers of the Medici attributed to them a far more magnificent origin--Perseus; a Roman Emperor; a learned physician who saved the life of Charlemagne; or Averardo de’ Medici, a brave knight who slew Mugello, a giant who was the terror of Tuscany. Their enemies, on the other hand, assert that the son of a poor charcoal-burner in the Mugello who became a doctor (medico) was their progenitor, and point to the well-known balls, or pills, on the Medici arms as confirming their story; whilst to their admirers they represent golden apples from the gardens of the Hesperides, or dents in Averardo’s shield, made by the mace of the giant Mugello.

A more detailed account of the palace is given in _Firenze Antica e Moderna_, where it is described as having “originally been a square building of the rustic order up to the first floor, with large protruding ‘bozzi.’ The two upper floors are Doric and Corinthian, with hammered and flattened ‘bozzi.’ The windows have double arches with composite columns in the centre, and in the triangles are sculptured alternately the Medici arms with seven balls and the device of Cosimo Pater Patriae, a ring with a diamond encircling two feathers, to which was added later a third feather and the motto _Semper_, the device of the Magnificent Lorenzo. The palace was at first built with four doors, but only the one in Via Larga was retained, the three others being turned into kneeling windows designed by Michelangelo. They are said to be the first made after such fashion in Florence, and are highly praised for their beauty and good proportions. Before these windows were made the two doors at the angle, or at all events the one opposite the church of S. Giovannino, were always open, and led into a large internal loggia, called the Loggia de’ Medici. At the angle of the palace is a magnificent shield containing their well known arms, with the Lily of France, granted to the Medici by Charles VII., on the centre ball. The balls were removed when they were driven out of Florence in 1527 and the Cross, emblem of the People, put in their stead; but on the restoration of the family the balls were replaced. Entering the first courtyard, surrounded with an arcade, are to be seen columns of pietra serena with composite capitals, and in the frieze are eight medallions of marble copied from antique cameos and trophies of medals, by that famous artist, Donatello.”

It will ever remain a mystery why Michelozzi made so small and so dark a chapel for such a noble palace. It almost seems as if he had forgotten it in the original plan, and had then placed it where it would not interfere with the fine suites of rooms. Resting almost entirely on the vaulted rooms of the ground floor, it is in a corner of the building, and is built of brick. But all the defects of the architect vanish before the vivid beauty and the grace of Benozzo Gozzoli’s frescoes.

On either side of the window (enlarged in 1837) in front of which stood the altar with the picture of the Madonna adoring the Infant Christ, by Filippo Lippi, now in the Berlin gallery, are groups of adoring angels with peacock wings, and behind them stand others singing. The landscape is worthy of the angels. From the flower-spangled grass rise hedges of roses and pomegranates, huge stone pines and slender cypresses; in the distance are grey towns with many towers, and in the sky above angels float amongst the clouds. Brilliantly coloured birds are flying here and there, while others perch on the ground at the feet of the kneeling angels. The walls of the chapel are entirely covered with the story of the Magii; only the Kings and their attendants are portraits of the time and the landscape is purely Tuscan.

The centre figure on the north wall is a handsome, fair-haired youth, wearing a curious turban-like jewelled crown and riding a high-stepping white horse on whose gorgeous trappings are embroidered the Medici arms. He is supposed to be Lorenzo, the darling of his grandfather Cosimo. Behind him rides his father, Piero, grasping a lock of his horse’s mane with one hand and attended by a serving-man, evidently a portrait. Cosimo Pater Patriae rides beside him on a mule, a black slave running at his stirrup. Other members of the Medici family are no doubt depicted in the train of followers, amongst whom one discerns the stern, sagacious face of the painter himself, with _Opus Benotii_ written on his cap. A long line of horse and footmen are seen in the distance winding down the hills in a rocky landscape with here and there a tall cypress tree, denuded of its lower branches in the fashion still dear to Tuscan hearts. A hind is rushing up a slope chased by greyhounds and huntsmen. On the west wall, opposite the window, is another King on a splendidly caparisoned white horse, wearing a long green tunic of Oriental cut and a jewelled crown on his head with the points curving inwards. He is the Emperor John Paleologus who came to Florence to attend the Council, and round him are graceful, lithe, young pages on foot, while others follow on horseback crowned with wreaths of pink roses. The landscape is rocky and broken, winding roads lead up to fortified hill-towns and castles, and rivers rush down to the plain. A window has been cut in this wall, but without doing the irreparable damage committed by the Marchese Francesco Riccardi who, in order to widen the staircase leading from the courtyard up to the first floor, cut a corner out of the chapel. Part of the wall was utterly destroyed and the figure of the third King, the portrait of the Greek Patriarch, is cut in two. His mule has lost one leg, and the upper part of the fresco on the wall which was moved forwards is a daub by some inferior artist. Fortunately the lower part suffered less. The Patriarch wears a crown with high points, and is clothed in a cassock with a mozzetta of red velvet edged with ermine over his shoulders. His mule, whose bridle has large golden bosses, holds its head proudly, as though conscious of the high dignity of its rider. Among the richly dressed cavaliers in front of him is a gallant lad, with a hunting guepard on a pad behind him; this is said to be the portrait of Lorenzo’s younger brother Giuliano, murdered some years later by Francesco de’ Pazzi in the cathedral. In the distance a long train of baggage animals, horses, mules, donkeys and camels, are wending their way round the shoulder of a mountain. On each side of the recess where the altar stood are painted, above the doors of the tiny sacristies, the ass on one side, the ox on the other, in whose manger the Holy Infant was laid.

* * * * *

The war with Lucca gave rise to accusations against all who had to do with it and Florence was divided into two factions, one led by Cosimo de’ Medici, the other by Rinaldo degl’Albizzi, who contrived to get an adherent of his own elected Gonfalonier of Justice for the months of September and October in 1433. Cosimo, who had passed the summer at his villa in the Mugello, “to escape,” as he writes in his diary, “from the contests and divisions in the city,” was advised by his friends to return. On going to the Palazzo della Signoria he was seized and imprisoned in the Barberia, a small room in the tower. Sentenced to banishment he went to Venice, where he notes: “I was received with more honour and charity than I can describe.” Just a year later he was recalled from exile. “Seldom has a citizen, returning from a great victory,” writes Machiavelli, “been greeted by such a concourse of people, and with such demonstrations of affection, as was Cosimo on his return from exile; saluted by all as the benefactor of the people and the Father of his country.” From this time forward, “partly,” as Symonds remarks, “by his remarkable talent for intrigue, partly by the clever use he made of his vast wealth, and partly by espousing the plebeian cause, Cosimo de’ Medici succeeded in monopolizing the government.” Yet while engaged in political matters Cosimo found time to attend to his business and to correspond with the managers of his banks, scattered throughout Europe and even in Asia. To all he gave orders to buy ancient manuscripts on any subject. “Cosimo,” writes Gibbon, “was the father of a line of princes, whose name and age are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning; his credit was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London, and a cargo of Indian spices and Greek books were often imported in the same vessel.”

A liberal and discerning patron to artists and men of letters, Cosimo founded libraries in the Badia of Fiesole and in S. Marco; in the latter he had a cell for his own use. To the Greeks who came to the Council of Florence, or soon afterwards fled thither when Constantinople was captured by the Turks, he extended a splendid hospitality in his palace in Via Larga. “To him,” remarks Burckhardt, “belongs the special glory of recognizing in the Platonic philosophy the fairest flower of the ancient world of thought, and of inspiring his friends with the same belief.” While spending his money in a princely manner on works of art, public libraries and buildings, and in donations to needy scholars, his home life was perfectly simple. He was an excellent husband and a kind father, and contemporaries tell us he rose early to prune his pear trees and plant his vines. His greatest recreation was in the society of learned men. On feast days Argyropolos, who taught Greek to his son Piero and afterwards to his grandson Lorenzo, would go with his scholars to the Palazzo Medici and discuss philosophy. “The great Cosimo,” writes Marsilio Ficino, “often attended to hear the Greek philosopher Gemisthus Pletho, well nigh a second Plato, discourse concerning the Platonic mysteries, and so moved was he by his stirring eloquence that he determined to establish a Greek academy at the first opportunity. When this project was about to be carried into effect he selected me, the son of his favourite doctor, to preside over the important work, though at the time I was little more than a boy.” Enormous sums were spent by him on building. The convent of S. Marco cost 70,000 golden florins, and his own palace 60,000, so that an army of workmen obtained employment, whose wages were paid regularly at his banking house every Saturday.

The death of his second son, Giovanni, was a blow from which Cosimo did not recover. He lingered for a year, during which his chief solace was in being read aloud to. “Come to us, Marsilio,” he wrote, “as soon as you can. Bring with you your translation of Plato, _De summo Bono_, for I desire nothing so much as to learn the road which leads to the greatest happiness. Farewell, come not without thy Orphean lyre.”

Cosimo died on the 1st August, 1464, at Careggi. His funeral was attended by a huge concourse of people. His fellow-citizens enacted that the epitaph _Cosmus Medice hic situs est decreto publico Pater Patriae_ should be engraved on the plain porphyry slab which marks his tomb in front of the choir in S. Lorenzo.

Piero de’ Medici, a martyr to gout and in bad health, soon felt the weight of irksome business, as had been predicted by his father, and called in one of his most trusted friends. The sagacious, far-seeing Cosimo had been singularly deceived in his estimate of Messer Diotisalvi Neroni, in whom he had counselled his son to place absolute confidence. Neroni was secretly in league with Luca Pitti, Agnolo Acciaiuoli and Niccolò Soderini, avowed enemies of the Medici, and when Piero placed the books containing Cosimo’s business transactions in his hands, he advised him to call in the debts owing by many of the chief families of the city. The consequence was the loss of the popularity and of the affection enjoyed by Cosimo. The projected marriage of Piero’s son, Lorenzo, to a daughter of the proud Roman house of Orsini, added fuel to the flame. It was decided to assassinate him on his return from Careggi, and his life was only saved by the presence of mind of young Lorenzo. He observed armed men as he rode into town before his father, and sent a messenger back to tell the bearers of Piero’s litter to take a roundabout country lane, whilst announcing that his father was but a short way behind him. The defection of Luca Pitti was a deathblow to the conspiracy and to his own fortunes. Neroni and Soderini fled to Venice, Agnolo Acciaiuoli to Naples, whence he wrote to Piero to excuse himself:

“I laugh at the tricks of fortune, and how she turns friends into foes. Thou may’st recall that when thy father was exiled, thinking more of his disaster than of mine own peril I lost my country, and was well nigh losing my life. Never during my friendship with Cosimo did I cease to honour and favour thy house, neither have I, since his death, had any intention of offending thee. It is true that thy bad health and the tender age of thy children so alarmed me, that I thought it were better to give such form to the State that our country should not fall to ruin after thy death. Hence arose certain events, not directed against thee, but in favour of Florence, which even if erroneous merit forgetfulness, on account of my good conscience and my past actions.”

Piero’s answer to this epistle was: “Thy laughter is the reason why I do not weep; for wert thou laughing at Florence, I should be weeping at Naples. I admit thy friendship for my father and thou must admit that he repaid thee well. So thou art more beholden to us than we to thee, as deeds are worth more than words. Having been thus recompensed for thy good services, thou canst not wonder at being repaid for evil ones. Love of thy country is no excuse, as none will believe that the Medici love this city less, or have served her worse, than the Acciaiuoli. Live therefore in dishonour where thou art, as thou hast not known how to live with honour here.”

Piero de’ Medici was forty-eight when his father died. He inherited his love of letters and was of a kindly nature, “it was due to him,” writes Machiavelli, “that his partisans did not stain their hands with the blood of their fellow-citizens.” In June, 1469, his son Lorenzo married Clarice Orsini, and great festivities took place in the Medici palace, soon to be followed by sounds of mourning, for Piero died in December. “Two days later, the principal men of the city and of the State,” writes Lorenzo in his _Ricordi_, “came to us in our house to condole with us on our loss, and to encourage me to take charge of the city and of the government, as my grandfather and my father had done. This I was most unwilling to accept, on account of my youth and of the great responsibility and peril, yet for the safety of our friends and of our possessions I did so. For it is ill living for the rich in Florence unless they rule the State. Until now we have succeeded with honour and renown, which I attribute, not to prudence, but to the grace of God and the good conduct of my ancestors.”

Lorenzo was then in his twenty-second year and Giuliano was sixteen. Few princes of that time had received such an education as the sons of Piero de’ Medici. Messer Gentile Becchi of Urbino, a man of great learning, pure life and high moral character, was their tutor, Landino taught them Italian literature, Argyropolos Greek, and Marsilio Ficino the philosophy of Plato. Above all Lorenzo had been well trained by his mother, a woman of strong good sense, a poetess, yet withal an excellent housewife. Niccolò Valori describes Lorenzo as “above the common stature, broad-shouldered and solidly built, robust, and second to none in agility. Although nature had been a step-mother to him with regard to his personal appearance, she had acted as a loving mother in all things connected with the mind. His complexion was dark, and although his face was not handsome it was so full of dignity as to compel respect. He was short-sighted, his nose was flattened and he had no sense of smell. This did not trouble him and he was wont to say that he was grateful to nature, disagreeable things being more common than agreeable ones to so delicate a sense.”

In March, 1471, when Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, with his wife, paid a visit to Lorenzo, the Medici palace must have been filled to overflowing. “100 men at arms, 500 infantry, 50 running footmen clothed in silk and cloth of silver, 50 led ambling palfreys for the use of the Duchess and 50 led war-horses, splendidly caparisoned, for himself; dogs and falcons for the chase and 12 two-wheeled carts,[74] drawn by mules and covered with embroidered cloth of gold and silver, for the use of the Duchess and her ladies whilst crossing the Alps; in all the Duke had 2,000 horses,” says an eyewitness. Magnificent festivities were given every day and to the horror of the religiously inclined, meat was eaten although it was Lent; so when the church of S. Spirito was burnt to the ground, owing to the scenery erected for a sacred play acted before the Duke catching fire, it was looked upon as a judgment of God.

But Lorenzo loved the society of scholars and artists, and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Leon Battista Alberti, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Marsilio Ficino, Angelo Poliziano, Cristofano Landino, and Luigi Pulci, who wrote his _Morgante_ for the amusement of Lorenzo’s mother Lucrezia, and recited it canto by canto after dinner, were his constant guests in the palace of Via Larga. In their society he laid aside the statesman and became the discerning critic and the graceful poet.