Storia I - 04/05/2016

Palazzo Medici, Firenze

Michelangelo Buonarottis kneeling

window

Three on Via Cavour and one on Via de Gori.

The
monumental
window,
with pediment above,
is
used
exclusively on the ground floor,
where the sill rests on two protruding
brackets which resemble two legs
from the knee down, hence the name
These two windows were built in
1517, inserted into the wall sections
filling in the arches of the loggia over
the road; they were equipped with
shutters of pierced copper, that were
wonderful to behold designed by the
artist himself and made by a certain
goldsmith named Piloto.
These windows with their copper
shutters are in fact portrayed in the
fresco in Palazzo Vecchio showing Via Larga, painted by Stradano in 1561
The fresco also shows the third kneeling window built in place of the
northern door of the fifteenth-century building. The shutters of the
windows on the ground floor were later replaced with gratings
The fourth kneeling window, which gives light to the loggia built in
the garden by the Riccardi, was added in 1663 during the renovation
carried out by the new owners of the palazzo
Finally, the last kneeling window, inserted in the facade on Via
Larga at the northern end, just before the coach-house entrance beneath
the terrace, was constructed in 1682. The window was set into the arch of
the last doorway of the houses annexed to the fifteenth-century palazzo
during the works for the northward extension of the facade, which
were supervised in this phase by the stonemason Agnolo Tortoli.
A novelty in Florence on account of its impressive proportions, and the
vertical slant projecting over the road, the classical suggestions of the
pediment and, above all, the scroll-shaped brackets that give a plastic
dynamism to the structure.
This type of window, naturally with variations of detail and decoration,
became a recurrent element on the ground floors of the Florentine and
Tuscan mansions in the Mannerist and Baroque periods.

Chiesa di San Lorenzo

Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome

One of the seven hills of rome

It was the citadel (equivalent of the ancient Greekacropolis) of the

earliest Romans. The name capitol seems to have meant "dominant
height", although ancient tradition places its origin in caput ("skull": a
specific skull found while laying the Temple of Jupiter foundation)
The Capitoline contains few ancient ground-level ruins, as they are almost
entirely covered up by Medieval and Renaissance palaces (now housing
the Capitoline Museums) that surround a piazza, a significant urban plan
designed by Michelangelo.
The existing design of the Piazza del Campidoglio and the surrounding
palazzi was created by Renaissance artist and architect Michelangelo
Buonarroti in 15361546
he was commissioned by Pope Paul III, who wanted a symbol of the new
Rome to impress Charles V, who was expected in 1538
Offered him the opportunity to build a monumental civic plaza for a major
city as well as to re-establish the grandeur of Rome. Michelangelo's first
designs for the piazza and remodelling of the surrounding palazzi date
from 1536.
He accentuated the reversal of the classical orientation of the Capitoline,
in a symbolic gesture turning Romes civic centre to face away from
the Roman Forum and
instead in the direction of
Papal Rome and
the Christian church in
the form of St. Peters
Basilica. This full half
circle turn can also be
seen as Michelangelos
desire to address the
new, developing section
of the city rather than
the ancient ruins of the
past.
Executing the design was
slow: Little was actually
completed in
Michelangelo's lifetime,
but work continued
faithfully to his designs
and the Campidoglio was
completed in the 17th
century, except for the paving design, which was to be finished three
centuries later.

Palazzo Senetario, Roma