Palazzo Medici Riccardi: The Power and Beauty of the Medici Palace

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In the historic center of Florence, the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, stands the former Medici residence, a model of civil Renaissance architecture. The three-level façade inspired many Renaissance architects. The façade’s first level is decorated with rustic stone blocks, the second level has a smooth ashlar surface, and the third level is the shortest but also the most elegant with its ashlar blocks almost free of cracks between each block. JJFarq/Shutterstock

Once ruled by the powerful Medici family, Florence hosts some of the most beautiful treasures of the Italian Renaissance. Among these is the official residence of the Medicis until 1659, known as the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, or the Medici Palace.

In 1444, Cosimo the Elder, the head of the Medici banking family, commissioned this palace as a private residence for his family. The Medici had a tremendous economic and artistic influence in Tuscany and promoted the growth of the Florentine Renaissance.

A pioneer of Italian Renaissance architecture, Michelozzo di Bartolomeo, designed the structure. The architect took inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman classical architecture, an essential component of the Renaissance style. This is especially clear in the palace’s rough-textured façade in the rusticated masonry style, a decorative technique used in Roman architecture that highlighted a building’s stone construction. The palace’s façade combines this rough texture with an ashlar decoration (finely worked stone) and double lancet windows; these were popular features of 15th-century Tuscan palaces.

The Medici Palace was a prototype for Renaissance architecture, representing the ideals of a new era. It’s even rumored that the palace’s courtyard marble medallions inspired a young Michelangelo in his later work.

The palace also hosts gems of Renaissance art. Among these is the Magi Chapel, which hosts a colorful fresco cycle painted by Benozzo Gozzoli praising the family’s rising power. There’s also the Luca Giordano gallery, with a ceiling fresco honoring the Medici. This last one was commissioned by Marquis Gabriello Riccardi, the new owner of the palace in 1659. He retained the original architectural style of the palace while expanding it, and renovated the interiors in the richly decorative Baroque style.

As soon as the visitors pass the doors of the Medici Riccardi Palace, they're greeted with an elegant inner courtyard featuring prominent classical features. An internal court surrounded by an arcade is typical of Renaissance palaces, and the Medici Palace is an early example of this.  On the arcade is the Medici crest, five red balls and a blue ball, which shows their influence on the Florentine Renaissance. Underneath the arcade windows, the friezes present sculptured marble medallions. Bernard Barroso/Shutterstock

An upper view of the inner courtyard and the Roman lattice-leaded glass windows and square oculus, which leads to the open sky. Fedele Ferrara/Shutterstock

Under the Tuscan sun rests the beautiful garden of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. It's filled with lemon trees, mosaic pavement, and figures from Greco-Roman mythology. At the center, one can admire Hercules wearing the Nemean lion skin. silverfox999/Shutterstock

A glimpse of the Medici Riccardi Palace’s decoration after the Riccardi family renovated the interiors. This room is in the Baroque style, as shown by the beautiful gilded ceiling, hanging chandeliers, and furniture. However, the tapestries on the walls are a feature of the Renaissance, showing how the Riccardi blended Medici influence with the Baroque style. Vasco Figueiredo/Shutterstock

The private chapel of the Medici, the Magi Chapel. Its marble walls are covered in a rich fresco cycle by painter Benozzo Gozzoli in 1459. In the Renaissance, no decoration was left to chance. The colorful wall decorations depict the three Magi procession as well as some members of the Medici family such as Cosimo and his son, Piero the Gouty. The Magi’s entrance into the city is a symbolic representation of the Medici’s influence over Florence and represents hope for the future. silverfox999/Shutterstock

Yet another highlight of this sumptuous palace: the Luca Giordano gallery. This gallery has a magnificent hall of mirrors, an important feature of the Baroque style. The painted ceiling frescoes are another essential component of the Baroque and pay homage to the Medici. Bernard Barroso/Shutterstock

A close-up of the Luca Giordano frescoes in the Luca Giordano gallery. It depicts the four cardinal virtues (prudence, courage, temperance, justice) through the lens of mythology. At the center, Giordano painted the “Apotheosis of the Medici,” with Jupiter surrounded by members of the Medici family: Cosimo; his sons, Gian Gastone and Ferdinando; and his brother, Francesco Maria. Ann Raff/Shutterstock