Let it be known to all that Filippo di Filippo, painter, has
engaged to paint for Filippo di Matteo degl’ Strozzi, his chapel
in Sta. Maria Novella, next to the high altar, under the following
conditions: In the ceiling there are to be four figures, either
Doctors, or Evangelists, or others, as the said Strozzi prefers, to
be decorated in blue and gold as richly as can be; the remainder
of the ceiling to be all of blue ultramarine of the finest,
of the cost of at least 4 “fiorini larghi” the ounce, and the
shafts and capitals are to be adorned with painting and gold,
according to necessity. And on either side there are to be two
stories [paintings] the subjects to be given by the said Filippo
Strozzi; and the sides of the window, and the pillars, and the
arch of the chapel inside and out, and the coats of arms, are to
be ornamented as the said Filippo orders; and in every place where
it be necessary such gold and ultramarine as is called for, shall
be used, and every other colour shall be good and perfect. And the
said Filippo di Filippo promises to the said Strozzi to paint it
in fresco and to finish it with all the care and diligence he is
capable of; and all with his own hand, especially the figures.
And it is agreed that the said Filippo is to have for his work,
with painting, colours, azure, scaffoldings, lime, wood and
everything else, so that the said Strozzi shall have no other calls
upon him, 300 fiorini di suggello[92] paid as follows: 35 fiorini
now, when he begins the work, for the wood, lime, and other
necessaries; the remainder, up to 100 fiorini, when he desires to
go to Venice;[93] and the rest from time to time as he works, but
so that 50, or at least 40, fiorini shall remain, which the said
Strozzi promises to pay punctually when he has finished, which he
promises to do by the 1st March, 1480....
Lorenzo gives a graphic account of the building of the great palace
in the Life of his father, already quoted. “Having amply provided
for his successors, and being more desirous of fame than of riches,
seeing no better or surer method for transmitting his memory to
posterity, and being naturally inclined towards building, and of no
small intelligence, Filippo determined to raise an edifice which should
perpetuate his name and that of his family in Italy and abroad. But he
was confronted by the great difficulty that he who governed [Lorenzo
de’ Medici] might conceive that another’s glory would outshine his;
so, fearing to do a thing that might arouse envy, he spread abroad
the rumour that having so many children and so small a house, he was
bound, having begotten them, to provide a dwelling for them, a thing
better done during life than after death. Thus he began tentatively,
discussing first with masons, then with architects, about the necessity
of having a house. Sometimes he seemed inclined to begin it at once,
then he would appear irresolute and alarmed lest he should spend in
a short time what he had gained in long years with much toil and
industry; astutely hiding from all his desire and his intention, in
order the better to carry out his design; declaring always that he only
wanted a comfortable burgher’s house, for use and not for show. But the
masons and architects, according to their wont, enlarged and improved
on every plan, which pleased Filippo, although he feigned anger, saying
that they drove him into what he neither wished nor could accomplish.
Add to this that the ruler desired that the city should be adorned with
every sort of ornament, thinking that as good and ill depended alone
on him, so every beautiful or ugly thing would also be attributed to
him. Aware that so great and costly a work could not be regulated or
calculated with exactness, he feared that it might not only destroy
his credit, as often happens with merchants, but cause his ruin.
For these reasons he began to interfere, and insisted on seeing the
plans, to which, besides many other expenses, after due consideration,
he added the ‘_bozzi_’ [dressed blocks of stone with bosses] on the
outside. The more Filippo was encouraged, the more he affected to hold
back; declaring nothing should induce him to add the ‘_bozzi_,’ being
unsuited to his condition and too costly, as he was building for use
and not for show, and intended to arrange many shops under the house
as a source of income for his sons. This was strenuously opposed, the
extreme ugliness being dwelt upon as well as the inconvenience to those
who were to inhabit the palace. Filippo respectfully demurred, and
would occasionally complain to his friends that he had entered upon
an undertaking which he prayed God might end well, and that he had
rather never have mentioned it than find himself in such a labyrinth.
Thus the more he appeared intent on avoiding expense, in order to hide
the greatness of his designs and the vastness of his riches, the more
he was driven and encouraged to fulfil his secret desires. By such
sagacity and astuteness he attained what would either have been denied
to him, or have caused him great harm. Most men thought that such a
building would be his ruin before its completion; but he had planned
to finish it in every detail, year by year out of his income, without
diminishing his capital, and would have done so if death, which often
interrupts magnificent and great enterprises, had not prevented him.”
Part of the Palazzo Strozzi covers what once was the Piazza de’
Tornaquinci, belonging to various families who had their towers and
loggie round it. Without the intervention of Lorenzo de’ Medici,
Filippo would never have been able to obtain possession of the
ground. On the 10th February, 1489, Giovanni Tornabuoni, Pietro and
Bartolomeo Popoleschi, Girolamo and Giachinetto Giachinotti, Giovanni,
Piero and Niccolò Tornaquinci ceded all their rights to the whole,
or part, of the said Piazza, to Lorenzo de’ Medici to give, sell, or
cede irrevocably to whomsoever he wished. On the 10th March following
Filippo was authorized to straighten the line of the Piazza, and
to occupy any portions of the streets and small alleys that might
be necessary. He was also permitted to build “_sedilia_,” or stone
benches, suitable to the building. All the rights that the Commune
might have to the Piazza de’ Tornaquinci were ceded to him. This act
was ratified by the Signori and Collegi of the Republic, and on the
10th April Lorenzo de’ Medici had the deed of gift drawn up by a
notary, on condition that the building should be begun within a year
and continued without intermission under pain of forfeiture.
On the 10th July the first cartloads of sand and small stones were
thrown into the foundations, and Filippo writes: “On the 15th July at
daylight I began to pull down the carpenter’s shop in the Via Larga
de’ Tornaquinci, as a beginning to my work; this spot was pointed
out to me as good by Benedetto Bigliotti, who also advised that the
building should begin on Thursday, the 6th August when the sun rose
above the mountain.” This opinion being ratified by Niccolò and Antonio
Benivieni, by the Bishop Paganotti and by Marsilio Ficino, all learned
in astrology, the first stone of the foundation was laid by Filippo
in the middle of the arch of the large door in the Via Larga di Santa
Trinita e Tornaquinci (now Via Tornabuoni), when he placed certain
medals under the stone. Tribaldo de’ Rossi, who happened to pass by
at that moment, notes in his _Memoirs_: “Filippo said to me, take up
a stone and throw it in, and I did so, and then put my hand into my
leathern satchel in his presence and took out a ‘quattrino vecchio
gigliato’ to throw in; he demurred to this, but for luck I threw it
and he was pleased. Then leaving, I went to my shop, opposite to Sta.
Trinita, and bethought me that for the memory of the event I would send
for Guarniero, my son, and for Francesca, my daughter. Tita, our maid,
who had come to the shop to fetch the meat, it being Thursday morning,
went for them, and Nannina, my wife, sent me the two children well
dressed, and I took them to the said foundations. Raising Guarniero in
my arms so that he could look down, I gave him a ‘quattrino gigliato’
and he threw it in, and a nosegay of damask roses he held in his hand
I made him throw in also, and said to him: ‘now thou art to remember
this,’ and he answered yes, together with our servant girl Tita who was
there; Guarniero was exactly four years and two days old, and Nannina
had but a few days before made him a new overcoat of silk, shot green
and yellow, and thus may it ever be to the glory of God.”
In a few days the foundations of the palace on the side next to the
Piazza were filled in and work had begun, to the great discomfort
of the neighbours; particularly of the chemist, Luca Landucci, who
notes in his diary: “The pulling down of houses by great numbers of
master-masons and workmen continues, so that all the streets around are
choked with mountains of stone and lime, and with mules and donkeys
carrying away rubbish and bringing rough stone. The worst is for the
shopkeepers, who are bothered with dust and the plague of people who
stand and look on, and for those who cannot get past with their laden
beasts.” On the 21st August building commenced, and on the 18th May,
1490, the wall below the “_bozzi_” was finished on the side next the
Piazza; on the 2nd June a mast, and a crane for raising the stones,
were set up, and six days afterwards the first of the large “_bozzi_”
was put in its place. “Every day,” writes Rossi, “eight or ten of these
were set,” and Landucci the chemist notes, “on the 20th July, the ring
at the corner of Tornaquinci, the one with the serpent or dragon, was
put into its place.”
On the 18th May, 1491, Filippo Strozzi died, and Rossi writes: “In all
the land has arisen great respect for the beautiful building, and he
[Filippo] is held to be the good man he was. He had begun to put in
the irons of the windows, five were already set in the front and the
others were ready.” The day before his death Filippo made his will,
containing most minute directions for finishing pictures and buildings
commenced by him, particularly with regard to the “big house, which
not being finished inside and out according to plan and model, so
that both houses can be inhabited, my heirs are to see that it is
completed; therefore fifty men at the least, between master-masons,
men, and stone-cutters, are to be kept continually at work, so that
without loss of time it shall be finished at the latest in the year
1496.” Filippo deputes “Messer Andrea Buondelmonti to hasten matters
and to command everybody, at a salary of 50 ‘fiorini larghi’ a year
for so long as he gives his time to the building, but the salary is to
cease in 1496.” If not then finished he begs “the magnificent Lorenzo
de’ Medici, if then living, and willing to undertake the charge, to
see that it be completed in two years from that date, and if he be not
alive or is unwilling to accept such charge, then the Consuls of the
Guild of Merchants of Calimala, with two governors of the hospital of
Messer Bonifazio and two elders of the house of Strozzi, are to have
authority to finish it.” The will is far too long to transcribe, but
the following clause is too characteristic to omit. “In order that
the said Lorenzo, or the said Consuls, etc., may see to the work, I
direct that between 1496 and 1498, or for whatever less time may be
needful to finish the said house, they be authorized to come once every
fifteen days to dine in the said house, in whatever part thereof seems
to them most honourable and convenient, at the expense of my heirs,
but no dinner is to cost more than fifty lire piccioli.” Filippo
also forbids his heirs to sell the house or even to let it, save to
a Strozzi. The two houses mentioned in the will are in reality but
the one palace which was built to serve for two separate families; a
fact often forgotten when the internal arrangements are criticized.
Filippo’s widow did her utmost to carry out his wishes. “She was most
desirous,” writes her son Lorenzo, “to husband the family wealth for
her sons, so that when they attained majority they might not find their
paternal inheritance diminished or the house unfinished.” In the family
archives the building may be followed week by week by payments to the
various artisans until 1507 when, writes Giovanni Cambi, “Selvaggia,
for account of her sons, finished her part in obedience to the will,
but Alfonso” [Filippo’s son by his first wife] “took no heed of it
and did not hasten to take up his abode in the house. He began by
inhabiting the ground floor and then continued building little by
little for his own need and use, so that the said building will remain
imperfect and do dishonour to their father.” Lorenzo Strozzi confirms
this when in mentioning the will he adds: “It is as though he had been
prescient that some of them had in their minds not to carry out what
he had ordered. Though on the palace, that grand and splendid work, he
[Alfonso] spent something, yet he did it unwillingly, and the blame is
his if it is still incomplete.”
Signor Iodici Del Badia, in his historical notes to Messer Mazzanti
and Del Lungo’s fine work[94] throws doubt on the accuracy of Vasari
in attributing the original design of the Palazzo Strozzi to Benedetto
da Majano. Vasari states that “Filippo Strozzi summoned Benedetto da
Majano, who made a model, isolated on all sides, and then commenced the
work, but not according to the plan, as shall be explained below,[95]
because several neighbours declined to sell their houses. So he began
the palace as he best could, and nearly finished the shell thereof
before the death of the said Filippo: the shell being of the rustic
order and graduated as can be seen. The ‘_bozzi_’ from the first-floor
windows downwards, as well as the doors, are huge rustic work, and
from the first-floor windows up to the second-floor they are of lesser
rustic work. Now it happened that at the very time that Benedetto left
Florence, Cronaca returned from Rome, and being recommended to Filippo,
made for him so admirable a design for the courtyard and for the
cornice surrounding the palace outside that, perceiving the excellence
of his talent, Filippo decided to leave all in his hands, and employed
him ever after. So Cronaca added to the beautiful exterior of the
Tuscan order a most magnificent Corinthian cornice round the top of the
palace up to the roof, of which at present but the half is finished,
of such exceeding beauty that it could not be improved or anything
finer be desired. This cornice was drawn by Cronaca, who copied and
took exact measurements of an ancient cornice at Spoglia Cristo, in
Rome, acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful of the many existing
in that city; it is true that Cronaca enlarged it in proportion to
the palace, so that it might make a suitable finish, and with its
projection a roof, to the said palace. Thus by his genius he understood
how to use the works of others and made them almost his own, a thing
few people can do; for the difficulty lies not alone in making copies
and drawings of such beautiful things, but in knowing how to apply them
according to necessity, with grace, proportion, and suitability....
Now Cronaca executed the said cornice with consummate art as far as
the middle, all around the palace with label and egg, and on two sides
he finished it, balancing the stones in such guise and so poising and
tying them, that no better building can be seen or one finished with
more care and perfection. Thus also all the other stones of this palace
are so dressed and fitted that they appear to be of one piece, and not
joined together. And in order that everything might be in unison, he
caused beautiful iron-work to be made for the whole palace, and for the
lanterns that are at the corners; all done by Niccolò Grosso Caparra, a
Florentine smith, with extreme care. Marvellous in these lanterns are
the cornices, the columns, the capitals, and the brackets, wrought in
iron with perfect mastery. Never has any workman of recent times made
objects in iron so large and so complex with such knowledge and skill.”
Other critics had already observed that the name of Benedetto da
Majano, as an architect, appears in connection with no other building,
and Signor Del Badia has found in the Strozzi archives that between
Sept. 1489 and February of the following year, Giuliano da San Gallo
received 115 lire (no small sum in those days) at three different
dates, “for work, and in part for wood, used in making the working
model for building the house;” in April 1490 “the carpenter Filippo
d’Andrea received 9 lire for his trouble and his work on a model of
the first floor of the house;” and in July a quantity of trunks of
lime trees were bought to make “the new model” of 120 large and small
columns. The iron cressets also do not appear to have been exclusively
the work of the famous Caparra, for in the account-books of the family
in 1491, 28 lire are mentioned as paid to Benedetto di Leonardo da
Majano “for a wooden model of the cresset made by order of the chief,”
and 13 soldi were reimbursed to Simon del Pollaiolo which he declares
to have paid to Ippolito the turner for two wooden models of _banderai_
[the iron rings between the windows].
In 1533 Filippo Strozzi the younger, irritated at seeing his father’s
great work remain unfinished succeeded, together with his brother
Lorenzo, in inducing their eldest half-brother Alfonso to finish his
part, by offering to bear one-third of the expense. Two courses of
“_bozzi_” were wanting, and the cornice. A contract was signed with
stonecutters of Settignano for the cornice, and in October 1534 another
with a master-mason for putting it up. But the rupture between Filippo
and the Duke Alessandro stopped the work, and in August the following
year the contract was dissolved by common consent.
Alfonso died without male heirs and the palace went to his
half-brothers, Lorenzo, from whose _Lives of the Strozzi_ these facts
are quoted, and Filippo, who married Clarice, daughter of Piero de’
Medici and Alfonsina Orsini. This marriage created a great stir in
Florence. The Strozzi and the Medici had always been rivals, and the
Gonfalonier Piero Soderini denounced the “presumptuous licence and
audacity” of young Filippo in daring to marry the scion of an exiled
house. He was summoned before the Priors and though he defended himself
with great ability was sentenced to a fine of 500 golden crowns and
exiled for three years. His bride came to live in the palace in
Florence, and by her modest and dignified manners won all hearts, so
after some months her husband was permitted to return to his native
city. A few years later the Medici were once again rulers of Florence;
Giovanni ascended the papal chair as Leo X.; and astute Filippo Strozzi
at twenty-two years of age became one of the most influential men in
the city. But his brother lays stress on the fact that he was not
elated by his position for, “if any Florentine saluted him by taking
off his hood out of respect, or called him Messer Filippo, instead of
as heretofore plain Filippo, he would be angry as though he had been
abused; saying he was neither a doctor nor a knight to whom the title
of Messere belonged, but plain Filippo, son of a citizen and merchant
of Florence of the same name.”
When Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, the nephew of Pope Leo X.,
went in 1518 to France to marry Madeleine de la Tour d’Auvergne,
he insisted on his brother-in-law accompanying him, and Filippo
left Palazzo Strozzi in great state clad in crimson velvet. He was
also charged to represent the Pope as godfather to the son and heir
of Francis I. M. de Fleuranges, who was at Amboise, describes the
festivities as the most splendid that had ever been seen in France or
in Christendom. They lasted for nearly six weeks and then the Duke and
his bride returned to Florence. Six years later he died and his cousin,
the Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, ruled in Florence.
When Giulio de’ Medici, the illegitimate son of Giuliano, ascended
the papal throne as Clement VII., Filippo Strozzi hastened to Rome
to congratulate his wife’s kinsman, and to beg for a cardinal’s hat
for his eldest son Piero. Not long afterwards the Pope was forced
to take refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo, and had to sue for peace with
Charles V. A hostage was demanded, and Filippo, sorely against his
will, was chosen and went as a prisoner to Naples with Don Ugo di
Moncada. Needless to say Clement kept none of his promises and Filippo
was in some danger of losing his head. A shift in politics saved him
just as his wife Clarice reached Rome, where she spoke some hard
words to the Pope. Soon afterwards Clement for the second time sought
refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo and Rome was sacked by the Constable de
Bourbon. “Never,” writes old Varchi, “was chastisement so tremendous
inflicted, nor was it ever more richly deserved.” Filippo and his wife
left two days before the catastrophe for Civitavecchia and sailed
for Pisa, where messengers met them from the Cardinal of Cortona,
who was governing Florence for the Medici, and from Niccolò Capponi,
brother-in-law of Filippo and head of the anti-Medicean party. Strozzi
had need of all his prudence and astuteness at this juncture. Clarice
urged him to proceed at once to Florence, where his influence would be
supreme on whichever side he chose to use it. After much pondering he
decided to send her to “try the difficult ford” as his brother Lorenzo
puts it, and Clarice, who had always been he continues, “high-spirited
even beyond what was prudent,” started for Florence at once. Her first
interview was with Niccolò Capponi and others of the “Ottimati” or
patrician party, to whom she promised her husband’s and her own help in
expelling her kinsmen the Medici. She was then carried in her litter to
the Palazzo Medici (now Palazzo Riccardi), where the Cardinal Ridolfi
and young Ippolito de’ Medici met her on the staircase and conducted
her into the room next the chapel where sat the Cardinal-Governor.
He rose to salute her and, as Varchi writes, she said to him: “Ah
Monsignore, Monsignore, whither have you led us. Does it seem to you
that your past and present conduct is in any way similar to that
practised by my ancestors?” After setting forth how they had always
obeyed the will of the people, she turned to the two lads, Ippolito and
Alessandro de’ Medici, and advised them to think of their own safety,
for which she naturally felt more anxiety than the cardinal.
Two days later prudent Filippo Strozzi entered Florence; many of his
relations and friends met him at the city gate and escorted him to
his palace, which was crowded by anxious citizens eager to know what
he would do. After long consultation he decided to go at once to the
Palazzo Medici and advise the Cardinal to leave the city with Ippolito
and Alessandro. On the 17th May, 1527, he and Niccolò Capponi rode with
them, through a threatening crowd, down the Via Larga (now Via Cavour)
to the city gate, and Filippo accompanied them ten miles further to
their villa of Poggio a Cajano.
A year later he lost his wife and not liking the condition of things in
Florence went to Lyons, where he had a large commerce in silk. One of
his daughters had married Luigi Capponi and is described by Varchi as
being “not less honest and virtuous than beautiful, noble and of most
engaging manners.” She was invited to a masked ball given in honour of
the marriage of Guglielmo Martelli to Marietta Nasi, where the Duke
Alessandro and his courtiers were disguised as nuns. Among them was
Giuliano Salviati, “a man,” writes Varchi, “of abominable life and ill
fame. His wife bore an evil reputation and he, desiring that others
should be like her, accosted Luisa at the ball and said some words,
with actions worthy of himself but certes not of her; whereupon she,
being virtuous and of high spirit, with haughty speech and scornful
demeanour, repulsed him. But in the morning, when the entertainment
which had lasted until daylight was over and Luisa wished to mount her
horse,[96] he, being impudent and shameless, pressed forward to aid her
repeating the words and the actions of the night before; and with most
angry scorn she replied to him as he deserved. The affair passed, and
would perhaps have had no consequences, had Giuliano been satisfied
with using discourtesy towards a gentlewoman such as she was, and not
openly boasted of his behaviour....”
It was customary on every Friday in March for people to go up to S.
Miniato to obtain pardon for their sins, and Luisa’s brother Leone
Strozzi, Prior of Capua, Giuliano Salviati and other young nobles,
stood watching the ladies come out of the church. As Luisa passed
Giuliano made some insolent remarks, so the Prior said: “Giuliano,
you perhaps do not know that she is my sister;” whereupon Giuliano
repeated his insulting words. On the following night, as Salviati
was returning on horseback from the Palazzo Medici, he was assaulted
by three strangers and wounded in the face and on the leg, so that
he was lame ever after. Duke Alessandro was furious, and gave orders
that the assassins must be discovered. Suspicion, of course, fell on
the Strozzi. Piero, Leone the Prior, and two of their friends were
arrested, and there was a question of putting them to the torture;
but Clement VII. interfered, and ordered that nothing more should be
done. Piero Strozzi and his brothers, knowing their lives were in
danger, took horse and went to Rome. Meanwhile Luisa, who had remained
in Florence with her husband, supped joyously one night, as the old
chronicler Segni reports, with her sister Maria, wife of Lorenzo
Ridolfi. A few hours afterwards she died in excruciating agony, and her
body turned black. Her relations insisted on a post mortem examination,
and the doctors declared that she had died from the effect of some
virulent poison. Varchi more than hints that her own family were the
culprits, out of fear that the Duke, “by means of some treachery or
fraud, purposed to stain the honour of their family in the person of
Luisa.” But Segni and others agree that, having repulsed the Duke
Alessandro, as she had done Salviati, his infamous wife poisoned her
by the Duke’s orders. Not long after the death of the beautiful Luisa,
her father and her brothers were declared rebels and outlaws by the
Duke Alessandro. The sentence was confirmed by his successor Cosimo I.
because Lorenzino de’ Medici, after he had murdered his cousin the Duke
Alessandro, fled to Venice where Filippo Strozzi hailed him as a second
Brutus.
The exiles invaded Tuscany, but were beaten; Strozzi was made prisoner
at Montemurlo, together with Bacio Valori, and they were taken to
Florence mounted on miserable peasants’ horses in August, 1537. Filippo
was immured in the fortress of S. Giovan Battista (now Fortezza del
Basso), for which but four years before he had advanced the funds
to Clement VII. He was put on the rack, but no avowal of guilt was
wrung from him; so his friend Giuliano Gondi was tortured, and his
confession--or what purported to be his confession--was sent to the
Emperor Charles V. and an order obtained from him to give up Filippo
Strozzi to the Duke Cosimo. On the morning of the 18th December, 1538,
he was found dead in his prison, but how he came by his death was never
known. The anonymous writer who finished the biography begun by his
brother Lorenzo, states as a fact that he killed himself with a sword
left by chance by one of his guards, and gives a document which he
says was found in the prison in his handwriting. Three contemporary
chroniclers state that he was beheaded, and Segni adds: “His body
was never seen; nor was it ever known where he was buried.” It was
generally believed that he had killed himself when he knew that he
was to be delivered into the hands of the executioner. Signor Bigazzi
gives a facsimile of two epitaphs in Filippo’s handwriting, one to be
used “In my own country, if in these times it shall be permitted,”
consisting of these few proud words: