Palazzo Strozzi

Palazzo Strozzi is a palace in Florence, Italy. The Palace was begun in 1489 [cite book | year=2007 | title=Florence: The city layout | publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica] by Benedetto da Maiano, for Filippo Strozzi the Elder, a rival of the Medici who had returned to the city in November 1466 and desired the most magnificent palace to assert his family's continued prominence and, perhaps more importantly [Goldthwaite 1968.] a political statement of his own status. [Heather Gregory, "The Return of the Native: Filippo Strozzi and Medicean Politics" "Renaissance Quarterly" 38.1 (Spring 1985), pp. 1-21.] A great number of other buildings were acquired during the 70s and demolished to provide enough space for the new construction. Giuliano da Sangallo the Younger provided a wood model of the design. [Richard Goldthwaite, "The building of the Strozzi palace: the construction industry in Renaissance Florence" "Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History" 10 (1973) pp99-135.] Filippo Strozzi died in 1491, long before the construction's completion in 1538. Duke Cosimo I de' Medici confiscated it in the same year, not returning it to the Strozzi family until thirty years later.

Architecture

Palazzo Strozzi is a splendid example of civil architecture with its rusticated stone, [cite book | year=2007 | title=rustication | publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica] inspired by the 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 need for internal symmetry of planning symmetry, was 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. [Amanda Lillie, "Florentine Villas in the Fifteenth Century: An Architectural and Social History" (Cambridge University Press) 2005:239 and fig. 195.] .The "palazzo" has mullioned paired windows ("bifori"); the radating 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 magnificent cornice is typical of the Florentine palaces of the time.

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 [cite book | year=2007 | title=cortile | publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica] , inspired by Michelozzo. The famous wrought-iron lanterns that decorate the corners of the palace exterior, are by an iron-worker named Caparra.

The palazzo remained the seat of the Strozzi family until 1937. Today the palace is used for international expositions like the now-annual antique show, founded as the "Biennale del'Antiquariato" in 1959, fashion shows and other cultural and artistic events, such as the Leon Battista Alberti exhibition in 2006. [http://www.albertiefirenze.it/english/palazzo_strozzi/index.htm "L'Uomo del Rinascimento" (Palazzo Strozzi) ] ] Here also is the seat of the "Istituto Nazionale del Rinascimento" and the noted "Gabinetto Vieusseux", with the library and reading room.

ee also

* Palais Strozzi in Vienna

Notes

External links

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* cite web | url = http://www.palazzostrozzi.info | title = Palazzo Strozzi | accessdate = February 16 | accessyear = 2007

References

*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.