Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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| Cosimo I de' Medici | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Florence — Grand Duke of Tuscany | |
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| Cosimo I de' Medici in Armour by Agnolo Bronzino. | |
| Spouse | Eleanor of Toledo Camilla Martelli |
| Issue | |
| Maria de' Medici Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Isabella de' Medici Giovanni Cardinal de' Medici Lucrezia di Cosimo de Medici Pietro de' Medici Garzia de' Medici Antonio de' Medici Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Anna de' Medici Don Pietro de' Medici Virginia de' Medici |
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| Noble family | Medici |
| Father | Giovanni dalle Bande Nere |
| Mother | Maria Salviati |
| Born | 12 June 1519 Florence, Republic of Florence |
| Died | 21 April 1574 (aged 54) Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany |
Cosimo I de' Medici (June 12, 1519 – April 21, 1574) was Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574, reigning as the first Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1569.
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[edit] Biography
Cosimo was born in Florence, the son of the famous condottiere Giovanni dalle Bande Nere from Forlì and Maria Salviati.
Cosimo came to power at 17, when Duke Alessandro de' Medici was assassinated in 1537, as Alessandro's only male issue was illegitimate. He was from a different branch of the family, and so far had lived in Mugello, being almost unknown in Florence: however, many of the influential men in the city favored him, in some cases perhaps hoping to rule through him, taking advantage of his age. However, as Benedetto Varchi famously put it "One bill had the glutton in mind, and another the innkeeper" [1]. Cosimo proved strong-willed, astute and ambitious, and soon rejected the clause he had signed, which entrusted much of the power to a council of Forty-Eight.
When the Florentine exiles heard of the death of Alessandro, they marshalled their forces with support from France and from disgruntled neighbors of Florence. During this time, Cosimo had an illegitimate daughter, Bia (1537 – 1542), who was portrayed shortly before her premature death in a marvelous painting[2] by Bronzino.
Toward the end of July 1537, the exiles marched into Tuscany under the leadership of Bernardo Salviati and Piero Strozzi. When Cosimo heard of their approach, he sent his best troops under Alessandro Vitelli to engage the enemy, which they did at Montemurlo, a fortress that belonged to the Nerli. After defeating the exiles' army, Vitelli stormed the fortress, where Strozzi and a few of his companions had retreated to safety. It fell after only a few hours, and Cosimo celebrated his first victory. The prominent prisoners were subsequently beheaded on the Piazza or in the Bargello. Filippo Strozzi's body was found with a bloody sword next to it and a note quoting Virgil, but many believe that his suicide was faked.
In June 1537 Cosimo was recognized as head of the Florentine state by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, in exchange for help against France in the course of the Italian Wars. With this move he firmly restored the power of the Medici, who thereafter ruled Florence until the death of the last of the Medici, Gian Gastone de' Medici, in 1737. The help granted to Charles V allowed him to free Tuscany from the Imperial garrisons, and to increase as much as possible its independence from the overwhelming Spanish influence in Italy.
Cosimo next turned on Siena. With the support of the Emperor, he defeated the Sienese at the Battle of Marciano (1554), and laid siege to Siena. Despite the inhabitants' desperate resistance, on April 17 1555, after a 15-month siege, the city fell, its population diminished from forty thousand to eight thousand. In 1559 Montalcino, the last redoubt of Sienese independence, was annexed to Cosimo's territories. In 1569 he Pope Pius V elevated him to the position of a Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Cosimo was an authoritarian ruler and secured his position by employing a guard of Swiss mercenaries. In 1548 he managed to have his relative Lorenzino, the last Medici claimant to Florence, assassinated in Venice.
Cosimo also was an active builder of military structures, in an attempt to save his state from the frequent passage of foreign armies (examples are the new fortresses of Siena, Arezzo, Sansepolcro, the new walls of Pisa and Fivizzano, and the strongholds of Portoferraio, on the island of Elba, and Terra del Sole).
He laid heavy tax burdens on his subjects. Despite his economic difficulties, he was a lavish patron of the arts and also developed the Florentine navy, which eventually took part in the Battle of Lepanto, and which he entrusted to his new creation, the military Order of St. Stephen.
(Piazza della Signoria, Florence).
In the last 10 years of his reign, struck by the death of two of his sons by malaria, Cosimo gave up the active rule to his son and successor Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. He retreated to live in his villa at Castello, outside Florence.
[edit] Cosimo and the arts
Among his many accomplishments was the creation of the Uffizi, originally intended to house the government, now one of the world's great art galleries. He also finished the Pitti Palace as a home for the Medici and created the magnificent Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti. He was a great patron of the arts, supporting, among others, Vasari, Cellini, Pontormo, Bronzino, the architect Lanci, and the historians Scipione Ammirato and Benedetto Varchi.
A large bronze equestrian statue of Cosimo I by Giambologna, erected in 1598, still stands today in the Piazza della Signoria, the main square of Florence.
Cosimo was also an enthusiast of alchemy, a passion he had inherited from his grandmother Caterina Sforza.
Since Cosimo was thrown into control unexpectedly and at a very young age, his first Florentine art and cultural accomplishments were widely recognized. Cosmio’s first step toward symbolizing his new power and the death of the Florentine Republic was with the renovations of the Palazzo Vecchio, located in the Piazza della Signoria.
The Palazzo Vecchio was home to the Florentine Government, the meeting place of all important decisions made by the highest ranking government officials and rightfully so, representative and symbolic of Florence as a whole. The first thing that Cosimo I did was move his family out of this Medici Palace where they had resided since into the Palazzo Vecchio in 1540. This move into the government building was a way of Cosimo I signifying that by living in the Palazzo, the Medici family should be seen as the actual government of Florence. [1]
Work on the Palazzo Vecchio: Work on the Palazzo Vecchio was strategic for Cosimo I because he wanted to appeal to his citizens, and keep them loyal to he and his family name by preserving a look of the Palazzo Vecchio that they were already used to, while at the same time, changing other things to make it a Medici emblem. Cosimo I decided to do this by keeping the entire outside façade of the building the same as before and renovate the inside of the palace, more specifically, the Sala dei 500, or the “room of the 500”.[2]
Outside of the Palazzo Vecchio, Cosimo began or was linked to several sculptures including the Fountain of Neptune by Bandinelli in 1575, Perseus by Cellini in 1554, and Herculeus & Cacus by Bandinelli in 1545. All of these outside works commemorate Cosimo's triumph over the preceeding Republic of Florence through the content of each scuplture. For example, the sculpture by Cellini titled "Perseus" that remains outside of the Palazzo Vecchio in the Loggia dei Lanzi depicts Perseus having just slayed the head of Medusa, raising in the air as a sign of victory.
Cosimo and Giorgio Vasari
Cosimo I acted as a patron of the arts and commissioned many works but had a special relationship with the artist Giorgio Vasari from Arezzo. He commissioned Vasari as the artist to do the renovations to the interior of the Palazzo Vecchio and is well known for his construction of the Sala dei 500. This room was named for the actions that took place here, where the 500-member government council would meet in the Palazzo Vecchio on government matters. It is also the most important room in any building in Florence for this reason, therefore any additions and/or renovations to this room are symbolic in themselves. Adorning the walls and ceiling of the Salone dei 500 are all of Cosimo’s successes as a leader, including the territories he conquered from Siena to coastal territories, as well as his own coronation located in the center of the ceiling.
After his works on the Palazzo Vecchio, Cosimo moved his family out of the building, acquired the Pitti Palace in 1549 and moved into that building, where he did more renovations and added the Boboli Gardens. In 1540 Cosimo commissioned Vasari to began working on the project of the Uffizi Gallery, home to the government offices. This modern style U-shaped building was named "uffizi" for the italian traslation meaning "offices".[3]
When the Uffizi Gallery was completed in 1560, Cosimo had now completed work and lived in various buildings including the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi, and the Pitti Palace. For the purpose of convenience and as a symbol of prestige, Cosimo had Vasari build a secret corridor that connected all three places. The pathway began in the south corner of the Palazzo Vecchio and went into the Uffizi, then followed along the Arno river and across the Ponte Vecchio, over the shops that lined the bridge, and into the Pitti Palace on the other side of the river. By having this special corridor Cosimo shows that he walks a separate pathway above the streets where his citizens walk.[4]
[edit] Marriage and family
In 1539, he married Eleonora di Toledo (1522 – 1562), the daughter of Don Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, the Spanish viceroy of Naples. Her face is still familiar to many because of her solemn and distant portraits by Agnolo Bronzino. The most famous of them, with her son Giovanni, hangs in the Uffizi Gallery. She provided the Medici with the Pitti Palace and seven sons to ensure male succession and four daughters to connect the Medici with noble and ruling houses in Italy. She was a patron of the new Jesuit order, and her private chapel in the Palazzo della Signoria was decorated by Bronzino, who had originally arrived in Florence to provide festive decor for her wedding. She died, with her sons Giovanni and Garzia, in 1562, when she was only forty; all three of them were struck down by malaria while traveling to Pisa.
Before his first marrriage, Cosimo fathered an illegitimate daughter with an unknown woman:
- Bia de' Medici (ca. 1536 – March 1, 1542)
With Eleonora, Cosimo fathered eleven children[3]:
- Maria (April 3, 1540 – November 19, 1557)
- Francesco (March 25, 1541 – October 19, 1587)
- Isabella (August 31, 1542 – July 16, 1576)
was murdered by her husband Paolo Giordano I Orsini because of infidelity - Giovanni (September 28, 1543 – November 1562)
became Bishop of Pisa and cardinal - Lucrezia (June 7, 1545 – April 21, 1561)
in 1560 married of Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Modena - Pietro (Pedricco) (August 10, 1546 – June 10, 1547)
- Garzia (July 5, 1547 – December 12, 1562)
- Antonio (1548 – 1548)
- Ferdinando (July 30, 1549 – February 17, 1609)
Cosimo's successor as Grand Duke of Tuscany - Anna (1553 – 1553)
- Don Pietro de' Medici (June 3, 1554 – April 25, 1604)
murdered his wife Eleonora di Garzia di Toledo because of infidelity
After Eleonora's death in 1562, Cosimo fathered two children with his mistress Eleonora degli Albrizzi:
- Giovanni (1563 – 1621)
later legitimized by his father - unnamed daughter (born and died 1566)
died before baptism
In 1570, Cosimo married Camilla Martelli (died 1574) and fathered one child with her[4]:
- Virginia (May 29, 1568 – January 15, 1615)
married Cesare d'Este, Duke of Modena
[edit] Ancestors and Descendants
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand duke of Tuscany ancestors in three generations
- "Ancestors of Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence", from Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
- Pictorial version of Cosimo I de Medici's Ancestors
- Descendants of Cosimo I de' Medici which maps how the Medici became part of the European Royal families, eventually leading to Prince William of Wales, future King of Great Britain through the House of Stuart.
| Preceded by Alessandro de' Medici |
Duke of Florence 1537–1569 |
Succeeded by became Grand Duke of Tuscany |
| Preceded by — |
Grand Duke of Tuscany 1569–1574 |
Succeeded by Francesco I de' Medici |
[edit] References
- ^ it. "Ma un conto facea il ghiotto, e un altro il taverniere", B.Varchi, Storia Fiorentina
- ^ Bia's portrait by Bronzino, now at the Uffizi Gallery
- ^ http://www.medici.org/general/PhotoEssay.pdf Cosimo's children
- ^ http://www.medici.org/news/dom/dom072002.html
- Eisenbichler, Konrad, editor (2001). The Cultural Politics of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici.
- Eisenbichler, Konrad, editor (2004). The Cultural World of Eleonora of Toledo, Duchess of Florence and Siena.*
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
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