Tapestries for Palazzo Vecchio and Poggio a Caiano
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THE MEDICI TAPESTRY WORKS painters decorating Palazzo Vecchio.83 Alessandra Baroni has in fact hypothesized a visit made to Rome at this time to explain the evolution of the painter’s style after 1560.84 After weaving the Stories of Jason in 1554, the only documented works produced by Rost’s tapestry works at San Marco were a ‘portiera’ with the coat of arms of a Medici cardinal, probably Giovanni di Cosimo, and four ‘spalliere’ with the arms of the Duke woven by a tapestry master from Bruges, Pieter de Witte, known in Florence as Pietro d’Elia Candido. This master is described in Medici court rolls as an “araziere minuto”, specialized in a particularly refined type of tapestry work. Candido’s name appears along with those of Rost and his son on the lists of the Medici’s salaried staff from 1559 to 1564. His son, also named Pieter, called Pietro di Pietro Candido in Italian documents, would later become the main cartoonist at the court tapestry works in Munich.85 Bronzino supplied cartoons at a slow pace: his workshop only produced twenty of them over a period of nine years, causing Rost to make justifiable complaints to the Duke. This slow rate of production may explain the employment given to Stradanus, who probably was already familiar with the Flemish cartoon techniques that would speed the tapestry masters’ work. In fact, unless his skills were already well tested, it would be hard to explain how Stradanus gained in such a short period of time, albeit under Vasari’s direction, his position as the principal cartoonist for the important series of tapestries woven for Palazzo Vecchio. “Maestro Giovanni Strada Fiammingo, huomo di grande eccellenza & prestezza”: tapestries for Palazzo Vecchio and Poggio a Caiano. The work and cartoons attributed to Stradanus cited above suggest that the painter probably collaborated with Jan Rost and Francesco Salviati starting around 1548 or 1549, even if his presence in the city is documented only from 1554.86 1554 was also the year in which Cosimo I’s new tapestry enterprise entered the second phase of development. Nicolas Karcher returned to Mantua at a date after 6 February 1554, while Jan Rost continued production at the San Marco workshop until 1560, devoting his time exclusively to soliciting and carrying out the orders of private clients. Giorgio Vasari returned to Florence in the summer of the same year. At the same time the tapestries commissioned by the court were ordered for the first time from the so-called “creati fiorentini”, the new Florentine tapestry masters who had been trained by Rost and Karcher. In 1556 two new workshops were opened for the “creati”, one in Via del Cocomero (today’s Via Ricasoli) and the other in Via de’ Servi. These workshops were managed respectively by Giovanni Sconditi and Benedetto Squilli, the latter from 1559 onwards. The inauguration of these workshops can in essence be considered the founding act of the ducal tapestry works, now administrated as a detached department of the Medici ‘Guardaroba’. The enterprise, completely under Cosimo’s control, gave a new impetus to the restoration and decoration of the Palazzo Vecchio. 87 The decoration of Palazzo Vecchio was entrusted to Vasari, who coordinated the work of all the artisans and artists, including the tapestry weavers. Florentine erudites including Cosimo Bartoli and Vincenzo Borghini helped him with the iconographical programme that was aimed at glorifying their sovereign Cosimo.88 The accounting both for the construction work and for the tapestries woven was handled by Tanai de’ Medici, who was thus able to reduce the total cost of the undertaking. The workshops produced : : 42 : : Johannes Stradanus as Cartoonist tapestries for the new private apartments using simplified techniques and less precious materials, made of wool and a limited quantity of silk, a choice that made them more able to stand up to prolonged use.89 The decisive factor for Cosimo’s choice to entrust Vasari with responsibility for Palazzo Vecchio was probably the reputation that the painter earned during his stay in Rome. The rapid conclusion of Vasari’s decoration in the Farnese family’s Palazzo della Cancelleria, which was nicknamed the palace of ‘Cento Giorni’, precisely because it only took one hundred days for Vasari to complete the commission, by 1546 had already won him admiration in Florence.90 Johannes Stradanus was also praised by his contemporaries for the skill and speed of his work. For example, in the description of the decorations painted for the ceremonial entrance of Cosimo’s daughter-in-law Joanna of Austria, which was published in 1566, Domenico Mellini described “Maestro Giovanni Strada Fiammingo” as a “huomo di grande eccellenza & prestezza nel fare”, literally as a man of excellence and rapidity.91 Since Stradanus and Vasari were both skilled in creating, organizing and carrying out high quality work, new impetus for the decoration of the Medici residences grew from their well-synchronized collaboration on the building site at Palazzo Vecchio. The decoration of the palace under Vasari’s artistic direction began at the beginning of 1555, in the apartment dedicated to the Elements. While the artists painted frescoes in the rooms of the apartment they also made the cartoons for the tapestries which would hang there.92 The humanist Cosimo Bartoli supplied the iconographic programme for the decoration of this apartment and for the one dedicated to Pope Leo X, begun at the same time.93 In the meantime the workshop in Via del Cocomero, re-organized to house the new looms, opened on 19 March 1556, joined in November of the same year by the twin workshop in Via de’ Servi.94 The decoration of the room dedicated to Ceres in Palazzo Vecchio took place between early 1555 and the Spring of 1556. Vasari mentions eight cartoons made for the tapestries with Stories of Ceres, including one for above the window and one for above the door with the Duke’s coat of arms on them. The tapestries were woven between 6 May 1557 and 22 January 1558. Three drawings for this series have been identified, two at Christ Church in Oxford and one in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, all attributed to Vasari.95 Five other tapestries with Stories of Cybele were woven from 30 October 1557 to 15 January 1558 for the room in Palazzo Vecchio dedicated to Hopi and Cybele, which was painted during the first months of 1557.96 Neither the present whereabouts of these two series, nor the names of the cartoonists are known. Since in other rooms Vasari specifies that the tapestries were designed by the artists, himself included, who painted the frescoes, we can make the same assumption for this case as well.97 The same can be said for the rooms dedicated to Cosimo il Vecchio and Lorenzo de’ Medici: from 26 April 1557 on documents mention Johannes Stradanus98 as the figure painter responsible for the frescoes and on 31 July 1557 he received payment for the cartoons for the tapestries in these rooms.99 Thus, since his presence in Florence is documented from 1554 onwards, he could easily have been responsible for the Ceres and Cybele series as well.100 The Flemish artist was paid on 19 November and 2 December 1558 for cartoons that can be identified with theStories of Saturn, woven by Squilli by 13 July 1559 as decorations for two of the walls of the terrace dedicated to Saturn in the Elements Apartment, where Stradanus painted the ceiling frescoes using drawings by Vasari.101 A tapestry with Jupiter’s Birth (fig. 11) presented for sale at an auction in 1999, has been linked to this series, but might actually be a replica of the lost original.102 There are two surviving drawings related to Jupiter’s Birth, both attributed to the circle of Vasari, one in the Albertina in Vienna and the other in the Art Institute of Chicago. Since both drawings show the composition reversed, we : : 43 : : THE MEDICI TAPESTRY WORKS Fig. 11. Jupiter’s Birth (from a set of the Stories of Saturn ?), woven Fig. 12. Virility accompanied by Virtues (from a set of Life of Man), in the workshop of Benedetto Squilli (?), cartoon by Johannes woven in the workshop of Benedetto Squilli (?), design Giorgio Stradanus (?), 1559 (?), Private collection Vasari, cartoon by Johannes Stradanus, 1562-1563 (?), London, Victoria and Albert Museum can recognize them as preparatory studies for low warp tapestries.103 Recently another tapestry with Saturn and Philyra from the Stories of Saturn, based on cartoons by Stradanus, has been identified in the Acton collection at Villa La Pietra in Florence. Quite probably it is another replica of the lost original, linked to a second edition made shortly after the first for the Saturn terrace in Palazzo Vecchio.104 There can be no doubt about the cartoons for the major series of fourteen tapestries with Life of Man: according to documents, Stradanus delivered the cartoons for this series starting in November 1559 and Squilli and Sconditi finished the tapestries early in 1565. Only three of these tapestries from the series, split between Pisa, Paris and London (fig. 12), have been found. Sixteenth century sources indicated that they were made for the Duke’s winter dining room,105 which was situated between Eleonora de Toledo’s Apartment and the ‘Scala Piana’. The room, which had a ceiling painted by Salviati, was demolished in a later period.106 Stradanus’ collaboration became indispensable for the Medici tapestry works, given the rapid pace of the work and he soon became the most important cartoonist working for the ‘creati fiorentini’.