Museums: Palazzo Medici Riccardi (Part 1 of 2)

One of the many museums in Florence is the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, not far from our apartment. 

The Palazzo is the former residence of the heads of the Medici family.  The Palazzo was commissioned by Cosimo the Elder and completed in 1460 following a design by Michelozzo do Bartolomeo.  The building is considered by some to be the first Renaissance building in Florence. 

The Palazzo is very large and today houses multiple collections of art and historical artifacts and building itself is a work of art. (Parts of the building are used for governmental meetings and offices--not a bad place to work).

One of the treasures of the Palazzo is the Magi Chapel, a small chapel beautifully decorated with frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli.  The frescoes depict the visitors on the road to Bethlehem.  (In fact, many of the faces in the frescoes are portraits of the Medici and other powerful people of the 1400's and the setting is the countryside of Tuscany.) 

Fresco depicting the Procession of the Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli (1459) (in the Magi Chapel, Palazzo Medici Riccardi)

Fresco depicting the Procession of the Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli (1459) (in the Magi Chapel, Palazzo Medici Riccardi)

Fresco depicting the Procession of the Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli (1459) (in the Magi Chapel, Palazzo Medici Riccardi)

Altar in the Magi Chapel (Palazzo Medici Riccardi), with a replica of the Adoration in the Forest by Filippo Lippi (1459)

Throughout the Palazzo, we saw lovely decoration and architecture and works of art.  Below are some examples.

A chandelier made with Murano crystal

Cosimo III, one of the seven Medici who were Grand Dukes of Tuscany

Below is a sceptre of the Grand Dukes.  The top of the sceptre is a fleur-de-lis made of glass.  The red fleur-de-lis, or giglio in Italian, is the symbol of Florence.  The sceptre appears in the portraits of the Grand Dukes (above and below). 

Gian Gastone, the seventh and last Medici to be a Grand Duke of Tuscany (he died with no heirs)

Tapestry depicting Herod ordering the imprisonment and beheading of St. John the Baptist (from the 17th century)

A wall-mounted hourglass.  The holder can be rotated to start the hourglass. 

Next Up:  More of the Palazzo