Palazzo Strozzi

Coordinates: 43°46′17″N 11°15′07″E / 43.77139°N 11.25194°E / 43.77139; 11.25194
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The imposing Palazzo Strozzi, North and West façade
Inner courtyard
Inside Palazzo Strozzi
Art exhibit in the inner courtyard

Palazzo Strozzi is a palace in Florence, Italy.

History

The construction of the palace was begun in 1489

Cosimo I de' Medici
confiscated it in the same year, not returning it to the Strozzi family until thirty years later.

The palace faces the historical Via de' Tornabuoni.

Description

Palazzo Strozzi is an example of civil architecture with its

Palazzo Medici, but with more harmonious proportions. Unlike the Medici Palace, which was sited on a corner lot, and thus has only two sides, this building, surrounded on all four sides by streets, is a free-standing structure. This introduced a problem new in Renaissance architecture, which, given the newly felt desire for internal symmetry of planning symmetry: how to integrate the cross-axis. The ground plan of Palazzo Strozzi is rigorously symmetrical on its two axes, with clearly differentiated scales of its principal rooms.[6]

The

mullioned paired windows (bifore); the radiating voussoirs
of the arches increase in length as they rise to the keystone, a detail that was much copied for arched windows set in rustication in the Renaissance revival. Its dominating cornice is typical of the Florentine palaces of the time.

Flagpole stand, iron work by Niccolo Grosso, or Il Caparra

The palace was left incomplete by Simone del Pollaiolo (il Cronaca), who was in charge of the construction of the palace until 1504. Also by Cronaca is the cortile or central courtyard surrounded by an arcade,[7] inspired by Michelozzo.

Wrought-iron objects known as

Niccolo Grosso
, known as Il Caparra.

The palazzo remained the seat of the Strozzi family until 1937. Great changes were made to the building when the

Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni occupied Palazzo Strozzi. The palazzo, granted by the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni to the Italian State in 1999, is now home to the Institute of Humanist Studies and to the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi
. The Gabinetto G.P. Viesseux and the Renaissance Studies Institute have both also occupied the building since 1940. Today the palace is used for international expositions like fashion shows and other cultural and artistic events, such as "Cézanne in Florence. Two Collectors and the 1910 Exhibition of Impressionism". Here also is the seat of the Istituto Nazionale del Rinascimento and the noted Gabinetto Vieusseux, with the library and reading room.

See also

The square

Notes

  1. ^ Florence: The city layout. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007.
  2. ^ Goldthwaite 1968.
  3. ^ Heather Gregory, "The Return of the Native: Filippo Strozzi and Medicean Politics" Renaissance Quarterly 38.1 (Spring 1985), pp. 1–21.
  4. ^ Richard Goldthwaite, "The building of the Strozzi palace: the construction industry in Renaissance Florence" Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 10 (1973) pp99-135.
  5. ^ rustication. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007.
  6. ^ Amanda Lillie, Florentine Villas in the Fifteenth Century: An Architectural and Social History (Cambridge University Press) 2005:239 and fig. 195.
  7. ^ cortile. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007.

Sources

  • Bullard Melissa M., Filippo Strozzi and the Medici: Favor and Finance in Sixteenth-Century Florence and Rome (Cambridge) 1980.
  • Goldthwaite, Richard, Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence: A Study of Four Families (Princeton) 1968.
  • —, The Building of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History (Baltimore) 1980.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Palazzo Strozzi.
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