Palazzo Medici Riccardi
The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi for a later family that acquired it, is a Renaissance palace located in Florence, Italy.
The palace was designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo for Cosimo de' Medici, of the great Medici family, and was built between 1444 and 1460. It was well known for its stone masonry that includes rustication and ashlar. The tripartite elevation was used here as a revelation of the Renaissance spirit of rationality, order, and classicism of human scale. This tripartite division is emphasized horizontal stringcourses that divide the building into stories of decreasing height. This makes the building seem lighter as the eye moves up to the extremely heavy cornice that caps and clearly defines the building's outline.
Michelozzo di Bartolomeo was influenced in his building of this palace by both Roman principles and Brunelleschian principles.
During the Renaissance revival of classical culture, Roman elements were often replicated in architecture, both built and imagined in paintings. In the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the rusticated masonry and the cornice had precedents in Roman art.
Similarly, the great Renaissance architect Brunelleschi used Roman techniques and influenced Michelozzo. The open colonnaded court that is the center of the Palazzo plan has roots in the cloisters that developed from Roman peristyles. The famous ground-floor "kneeling windows" (finestre inginocchiati) supported on innovative scrolling consoles, are framed in pedimented aedicules that are set within blind arches in order to link the fenestration to the similarly-treated main doorway.
The Palazzo Medici Riccardi was one of the numerous palazzi built during the period of Florentine prosperity. The building reflects the accumulated wealth of the Medici family, yet it is somewhat reserved. This was due to the fact that the Medici family was thrown out of Florence because the Florentines prided themselves on their republic and saw the Medici family as a threat to that power. When the Medici family returned to Florence, they kept a low profile and executed their power behind the scenes. This "low profile" is reflected in this building, and is the probable reason why Cosimo de'Medici rejected Brunelleschi's earlier proposal.
The palace includes the notable Magi Chapel, frescoed by Benozzo Gozzoli in 1461 with the members of the Medici family, along with the emperors John VIII Palaiologos and Sigismund of Luxemburg, parading through Tuscany in the guise of the Three Wise Men.
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