Episode 11: Florence - Palazzo Vecchio

Bonjardinum, I'm Dr. Rocky Regiro. Join me in rebuilding the Renaissance and making art and history come to life. Welcome to the Rebuilding the Renaissance podcast, your guide to the art and history of Italy, from the glory of Rome to the magnificence of the Renaissance. And now here's your host, Dr. Rocky Regiro. Bonjardinum, everyone. So our subject for this podcast is one of the most famous buildings in the world. It is the Palazzo Vecchio in the city of Florence, right now. But work on your Italian language skills as well on these podcasts. Palazzo, I imagine most of you know, translates as palis, whereas the word "vecchio," right? "V-E-C-C-H-I-O," translates as "old," right? It doesn't not new. But of course it doesn't make much sense to build something and call it "old" immediately, right? So anything referred to as "vecchio." In the city of Florence, "vecchio" is a later adjective, right? Added to the name. That also goes for the "ponte" "vecchio," right? The old bridge. The original name of the Palazzo Vecchio was the Palazzo della Signoria, right? And if you're standing in the square looking up at the building, you are in Piazza della Signoria, right? S-I-G-N-O-R-I-A, right? And as similar as that word is to the Italian word "Signorina," right? Which means "miss." There really is no connection except for the fact that they are both feminine nouns, right? Signorina, meaning "miss," Signoria. Again, usually translated using the French word "Signory." It was the title that Florence gave to its executive city council, right? Nine members who were elected into public office, and once elected, were given the title of "Signore," or "Sir" or "Lord," right? This is where the term "Signoria" comes from. Now, construction on the Palazzo della Signoria begins in the year 1299. And one of the trends that you're going to pick up over the next few podcasts is that a majority of the public monuments and flords all go up around the year 1300. And the reason is it's shortly after the transformation of the city from an oligarchy to a republic, right? And that's what we've talked about in my last podcast, which was called "Out of Darkness," right? "Out of the Dark Ages." Now, when you look at the Palazzo Vecchio, as we call it today, the Palazzo della Signoria, it has served as town hall in Florence for the last seven centuries. But most people would be hard pressed to describe it as what they imagined a town hall should look like. And there are many different reasons for this. Now, consider that the actual commission for the Palazzo della Signoria was in the year 1295. If you remember from my last podcast, I told you that once Florence became a republic. The first thing they did was to commission the construction of a new set of city walls. The second thing they did was to chop down all of those tower houses, right, formerly owned by the Nobles in Florence. The third thing that they did was to commission the construction of a new stable seat from which the senioria could rule over the city. Now, consider that before the Palazzo della Signoria was built, the senioria itself, the governing council, met and convened in a nearby church called San Piero Schieradjo, which was technically still is located where the Ufizzi is today. It's just to the south of the present day Palazzo della Signoria. And the story goes that the new council was looking for a place to build themselves a city hall. And one of the points that they were adamant about was a city hall with a large open space, a public space or a piazza in an interior position, right, the open space would have been important for public ceremony and what have you. But the story goes that the urban reality of medieval cities was that the greatest commodity was space, right, they very simply did not have any space. The only open plot of land they could find in Florence was located just north of the present day Palazzo Vecchio. And the reason it was an open plot of land or empty was because it had belonged to the most notorious of the Gibelines, right. You remember from my last podcast we talked about this conflict between the nobles called Gibelines and the merchants called Guelphs, right. And this Gibeline was named Fari Nata De Li Uberti. Fari Nata De Li Uberti, who is to quarantine lore what Benedict Arnold is to American. And when he was cast out of the city, when the wealth took power, all of his property was confiscated, all of his buildings were destroyed and burned to the ground. A priest was brought in to curse the ground, right, vowing never again to build on that piece of land as testimony to the tyranny of these feudal lords, okay. Well, that's the story. Well, after searching desperately for an open plot of land, they realized that that was essentially their only option. So in 1299 they call up the same priest, they bring him back into the piazza. He then de-curses the ground, right. He actually took the curse away and we began the construction of the Palazzo de la Signoria, whose main entrance was actually on its northern side. In other words, if you're standing in the square, okay, looking at that row of statues directly in front, just to your left you'll see the Gucci Museum, okay. If you walk towards the Gucci Museum so that you're standing behind the Equestrian Monument behind you to your left and the Neptune fountain behind you to the right, that door to your immediate right hand side leading into the Palazzo de la Ciel was the original door, right, the north door. Because the remaining portion of the piazza was actually occupied by buildings, okay. One of them, a church dedicated to San Aromolo or St. Romulus, and then it's surrounding parishioner homes as well. That pretty much occupied everything from where the Equestrian Monument and the Neptune fountain are located today all the way through where the copy of Michelangelo's David is located. In other words, that entire area of the piazza was completely occupied by homes and buildings and what have. In fact, the only open space on the western side of the building that is the side where the copy of the David is was a sliver of space as wide as the space that you see today delineated by the David on the left and the Hercules fountain on the right. In other words, the western entrance was there. It just wasn't the principal entrance. This is the story. Now, if you look at the building, what you'll note is that it is quadrary lateral, right. It has four sides, but it is not rectangular. And the reason it's not rectangular is because they built the building again into a predetermined space that was defined by the buildings that were already there. That's why those corners are not at 90 degrees. You'll notice that the building material is this brown stone, which is ubiquitous in the city of Florence called pietrà forte. Right. Pietrà is the Italian word for stone. Forte is the Italian word for strong. So we call it strong stone. It is a local brown sandstone. It's quarried just some of it was actually quarried where the Bobli Gardens are today. And it is very resilient to weathering and what have you as well. In fact, one of my favorite themes in Italy, and we'll be talking about this quite a bit, is that when you visit Italian cities, what you find is that the architecture is more or less just a geological extension of what is underneath. In other words, they built with the most readily available building materials, which makes economic sense, right. Considering that it cost about 10 times more to transport building materials than it did to actually buy them outrider, what have you. And so just about everything in Florence built in the middle ages was made of this brown stone or pietrà forte. But you'll also notice that the pietrà forte, the brown stone, is left rough on its exterior surface. Right. This is what we call rustication. I know, please don't make the mistake that all of my students do when they mistakenly call it rustification. Right. Rustication is the rough surface treatment of stone on the outside of a building. And the intention is to make the building look more rustic or more fortified. This is the idea. Right. Now, we pull apart the elevation of the building. In other words, it's three dimensional rise. And what you will see is that there are three distinct horizontal registers or what we would call stories. Right. And if we work our way up on the ground floor, there are very few apertures or windows. Okay. And those windows that you see are quite small and have been screened with bars since the building was built seven centuries ago. You have one large door on the north side and one large door on the western side, right, between the David and the Hercules statue today. And remember, the larger the doors, the larger the hinges on those doors. And so the more difficult it would have been to actually get through. In other words, this is not a city hall in American fashion, right, with the evergreen lawn and the potted flowers and the big sign above the door that says, come on in, see your tax dollars at work. Right. The only thing that the Palazzo Vecchio is missing is some barbed wire and snipers up on the window. In other words, this is not a building that's inviting its citizens in for transparency for whatever other reason. Right. In fact, the idea of accessible architecture begins up on the first floor. Okay. Now remember, in Europe, we go ground floor, first floor, second floor, third floor, what have you. Right. Different from the US where it's first, second, third. I won't have you. And up on that first floor, you see this very particular type of window known as a by48 window, or a bifor-r-a-t-e. In noun form, we call them byforce, okay? By meaning two, fora, like when you per forate, something right meaning opening. And a by48 window is essentially a window opening that's divided into two spaces by that central column that you see. Now, why do you care about by48 windows? You care because when we talk about Sienna, in a couple of podcasts, you'll see that their city hall actually incorporates try48 windows, right? Or windows divided into three spaces. So there are actually architectural elements that are regional or geographical, right? So you can tell Florentine from C&E's windows or what have you. Now, we have those by48 windows, right? Essentially delineating the entire first floor. You see the same thing then on the next register or story, by48 windows with the central white marble column. And then suddenly we have this crown of an overhang, right? That sort of projects off with those arches, the arched openings and windows above them. And then of course, the Merlons or the Crenulations, those rectilinear castle tops that you see, that really give the building the distinct look of a castle/fortress/present as well. But more important than that, if you look up into those arches in the overhang, in other words, the arches directly above those painted coats of arms. You'll see that there are a series of rectangular shields or coats with symbols. And those are all the different organizations that were in some way responsible for the transformation of the Florentine oligarchy into the Florentine Republic. But directly above them, there are these arches, okay? And each of those arches aligning with the window or a door on the ground level has a rectangular opening or aperture facing straight down to that window or door. And those openings are what we call drop holes, okay? Align with the windows to essentially dissuade rioting mobs from sacking the building, right? Now, we talked about this in the previous podcast. And that is the fragility of democracy, especially at the beginning phase. In other words, we elect a government to power and we're euphoric because they're going to do everything that we say and want to have you. And they go do something crazy like raising taxes on us. So what do we do? Well, we form into what we call a lynch mob. And we storm the building and we try to string up those very politicians that we elect it, okay? In fact, some political analysts have suggested that we go back to that practice today, which might not be the worst idea in the world. So what are the people inside of the building do? Well, they simply bombed away, right? Drop holes as they're called. And you can pretty much let your imagination do the rest. You could drop stones. You could drop boiling oil or tar. You could shoot arrows. You can throw spears. On one occasion in the 1340s, tubs of human feces dropped upon the heads of the rioting mob below. Now, don't ask me why they were storing this material, but they found a very effective way of getting rid of it. They're at town hall. So the moral of the story is not only does the town hall look like a palace or a fortress or what have you, it acted like one. And when I want you to realize, the entire series of podcasts that we're creating together here is that there's always a Y, a WHY. There's always an explanation to what you see. It's not just some random architect who decided to make a fortified looking city hall, because the style of the Palazzo Vecchio is a direct reflection of the political climate and for its when it was built. And that climate was anything but stable, right? Now, you'll notice, of course, then the moral lines, as I mentioned, the creonulations from which soldiers could protect themselves while looking down onto the space below. And that tower, that 91 meter tall tower, which if you look carefully, is actually off center. Right? And the reason it's off center is because they actually built that tower onto the stump of one of the tower houses. In other words, back when they decided to chop down all of the tower houses in Florence, there was one located right there. But as opposed to destroying it all the way down to its foundations, they decided to economize a bit and actually use the stump as the base of the tower of town hall. In other words, town hall was built around this tower house, which is still there. In fact, if you walk into the courtyard, you walk between the copy of the David and the Hercules statue into the courtyard, and you look off, you'll see that there's this portion of the wall that kind of projects out. And that essentially is the tower house, right? That was there and used as the base upon which to build their tower. And that tower, very, very important. So one of the two tallest structures, one of three tallest structures in the city, the Tower of Palazzo Vecchio, the bell tower of Florence Cathedral, at the Campanelit Diceotto, which is one meter taller. And then of course, the structure that towers above all the others is Bernalesschese Dome on top of Florence Cathedral that comes in at 102 meters, so taller than both of the others. But that tower on Palazzo Vecchio was critical to the city, one because it allowed soldiers to keep view of the entire Arno River Valley and proximity of Florence so that if they saw an approaching enemy army, they just start gonging that bell up there, right? The Vecca, as it's called, the cow, because when they rang it, it was this kind of low kind of noise that it produced or what have you. It was also the bell that sounded curfew. In the city of Florence, they knew when the city gates were being shut down. So it's not just this random phallic symbol of power or what have you, there was a certain utilitarian purpose as well to the overall structure, all right? OK, so that is the building that today we call the Palazzo de la Cignoria. Now what I want to talk about is its surroundings, right? Now consider that the piazza itself, as I mentioned, was non-contiguous. In other words, there was the open space on the north side. There was that small sliver between the David and the Hercules statue. And then there were houses in what have. But in the 1340s, Florence was temporarily in the hands of a dictator known as the Duke of Athens. He was actually brought in to deal with a military issue with the nearby city of Luca. And its ruler, whose name was Castrucio Castricani, who was incurring upon Florence in territory. So this Duke of Athens was essentially given absolute authority, made dictator of the city. And while he was there, he actually petitioned the pope to demolish the Church of Saint Romulus and its surrounding home so that he could actually unify those two urban spaces around the city hall. The pope refused, but the Duke of Athens did it anyway. In fact, coincidentally, he remained in office just as long as it took to knock down all of those homes. And once the two spaces were unified, the people of Florence rose up and cast him out of the city. And so this unique, L-shaped urban space was formed. Now consider that the space as much as the city insisted was for public ceremony or what have you. It also serves as a kind of green zone, if you will. In other words, it's like an urban moat around city hall so that the people inside the building could see who was coming. In other words, they didn't want buildings reaching up to the walls of city hall because that would just facilitate people actually sneaking through homes or buildings or what have you and then cutting it. So they kind of create this buffer space between themselves and its surrounding city. And because this is also reflective of the instability in Florence during the 14th century. Now consider that every two months when a new government was inaugurated, the ceremony took place just in front of that Western door. In other words, right behind where the copy of Michael Antelope's David is today. And of course, you have to imagine the entirety of that building without any statues at all screening the front. You would never have put a statue out there when things were topsy-turvy for fear that they would be vandalized or destroyed. In fact, I have this recurring nightmare of a riding mob taking all five tons of Michael Antelope's David statue and turning it horizontal and using it as a battering ram to actually get through. So the sculptures came much later. And so essentially what happened is that every two months when a new government was sworn in, they did so very close to that Western door and consider that the top of the stairs, which today are hidden by that hedge or that bush that you see, but there are stairs behind them. There was a marble balustrate or a sort of marble railing. So that the nine seniority city council was separated or were separated from the people outside. They'd have their little ceremony raising their hands and I solemnly swear to perform my duty and blah, blah, blah. And if there was civil unrest and people started throwing stones or vegetables or what have you at them, they could simply scoot inside the door, shut that Western door and they were safe behind the walls of their palace. And that is more or less the status quo of the political reality influence until the year 1380. In 1380, the Signoriat Commission, the construction of that large three arched structure just to your right hand. In other words, you're looking at the Palazzo Vecchio in front of you, the copy of the David in front of you. That large three arched structure to your right is the Loja de la Signoriat. Now, L-O-G-G-I-A Loja, which is an Italian word that we use in English still today and is essentially identifying a large covered open space. The direct translation would be a pavilion. So the Loja de la Signoriat, which when built in the 1380s, was also completely empty of statues. There was nothing underneath it. And it was built as a political stage. In other words, now every two months when a new government was sworn in, instead of doing it right by the door, they would do it under the central arch of the Loja. and everyone. watch. And this is important because it was a message being delivered by the city council but they now felt safe enough to move away. They're not moving very far. It's 120 feet or so, but they're moving away from the safety of their palace and of their building. And this, of course, means greater political control in the city of Florence. But the real signal that there was political stability in the city of Florence was, in fact, the appearance of the statues. And every one of those statues that appears in the Piazza serves almost like a chapter, right? In a different chronological moment of the history that is Florence. And in fact, one of my favorite things about the Piazza della Signoria, the building and the statues as well, is that I could pretty much tell you the entire history of the city without moving. In other words, using the buildings in the urban spaces and the statues and what have you to tell you the entire history of Florence from its medieval beginnings, right? Around the year 1300 to then the rise and essentially overtaking of the city by the Medici family as well. So stay tuned because in our next podcast, what I'll be talking about is the symbolism of those statues there in the Piazza della Signoria. For more information on lectures and programs in the United States, art history tours in Italy and for online video lectures, visit RockyRigero.com.