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| Looking to the North of Florence, The Duomo atop the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral and the Campanile |
Florence is a picturesque composition of solid and void. The architecture flows through its surrounding topography, monuments rise above neighbouring urban fabric and piazzas unfold into the natural landscape of the city.
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| The Palazzo Vecchio rises above the Piazza Della Signoria |
The Renaissance contributed little to the physical pieces of the city whilst the Medieval contributed everything. The North-South axial relationship between the Duomo and the River Arno, the arrangement of public monuments throughout the centre such as the Campanile, the Palazzo Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria for example, the interrelated network of the street pattern, plus the largely residential dimension of the area is all the fruit of pre-Renaissance artistry.
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| The development of the Piazza Della Signoria, source: Dominion of the Eye, by Marvin Trachtenberg |
The Piazza Della Signoria is the direct result of a series of logical and geometrical decisions. The grand Palazzo Vecchio gives the vast, irregular surroundings a form, both solid and void work together in unison.
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| The perspective view,of the Palazzo Vecchio and its Piazza source: Dominion of the Eye |
Communities thrived under the growth of artisan skills, arts and crafts, literature and architecture. In a show of power, the wealthy banking family of the Medici created an urban complex which stretched across the North of the city from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti in the South.
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| Monuments in the city: The Santa Maria Del Fiore, The Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi, source: Dominion of the Eye |
The Galleria degli Uffizi sculptures re-emphasise the route between the Piazza della Signoria and the River Arno. The line is made up of various sculptures which are arranged along the axis of the palace and the central bay of the piazza, ending with the equestrian statue of Cosimo I de’ Medici. This procession of statues move across the piazza from the perspective space between the two arms of the Uffizi.
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| The Galleria Degli Uffizi, source: The Politics of the Piazza, by Eamonn Canniffe |
The Medici family were patrons of the arts. The last of the Medici family tree was Anna Maria Luisa, who in 1737 bequeathed the vast family collection to the city under two conditions; the first was that it remain a collection and the second was that it were never to leave the city. Both conditions have been fulfilled to the present day.
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| The city is a canvas to this day |
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| And the city remains to be a muse alike |
