Early Palaces in and around Florence

The Palazzo Davanzati: shown above.

Background: defensive town-planning and architectural style

• San Gimignano, Tuscany Official Web site, showing the surviving towers, dating from the 12th to 14th centuries.
• A Medieval Tuscan walled town A painting by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, circa 1325.
• An aerial view of the medieval walled town of Lucca, in Tuscany.
• An aerial view of Lucca and the former arena.

The Palazzo Davanzati

Built from 1300 (the top floor is much later), this is now the "Museo Statale della Casa Fiorentina Antica"--the State Museum of the Ancient [sic] Florentine House.

• Official Site.
• A decent photograph of the exterior of the Palazzo Davanzati
• The Courtyard of the Palazzo Davanzati A small, tight space yet the only room to have windows on more than one side.
• Cross-section of the interior of the Palazzo Davanzati. Similar to photo on this page. Note how obvious is the addition of the loggia.
• The Museum of Palazzo Davanzati Good brief site explaining its early history and its recent renovation into the Museum of the Ancient House in Florence.
• Three photos of the interior.

Palace Furnishings

Note that at most of these sites, you can click on the small photograph to make it grow larger. Left: a cabinet, fifteenth century Florentine.

• Domestic Art in Renaissance Italy. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• A short article on Italian Renaissance furniture from the Britannica Online.
• Some examples of Renaissance furniture, from the University of British Columbia.
• Book: Roberta Ferrazza. Palazzo Davanzati e le collezioni di Elia Volpi. Florence, 1994.

• A cassone Literally "big box" these were usually elaborately painted or carved wooden chests presented to newlyweds to be used as storage space, rather like hope chests. They were often decorated with scenes relating to love and loyalty. This one, at the Central Museum and Art Gallery in Northampton, UK, is from Siena, dates to about 1470 and is by Francesco di Giorgio (1439-1501/2) and Neroccio de Landi (1447-1500). The inlaid paintings and the gilding indicate that it is a top-of-the-line product.

• Carved wooden cassone from Rome, 16th-century.

• Cassapanca (Right) This is a sort of combination of cassone (linen chest) and sofa. This example is from the Palazzo Davanzati.

General Written Sources

• Inside the Home Domestic life in Florence during the 14th and 15th centuries.
• Mario Praz. An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration from Pompeii tp Art Nouveau. London, 1964.
• Peter Thornton. The Italian Renaissance Interior, 1400-1600. New York, 1991.
• Marta Ajmar-Wollheim, Flora Dennis, and Ann Matchette, Eds. Approaching the Italian Renaissance Interior: Sources, Methodologies, Debates. 2007.