1600 Florence Villa Gardens - Villa Medicea di Poggio a Caiano

Villa Medicea di Poggio a Caiano in 1599 by Giusto Utens (Flemish artist, 1558-1609) who painted a series of 14 glasses of villas & their gardens near Florence.  This Grand Ducal villa is situated on a hill on the shores of the river Ombrone. Poggio a Caiano is located at the intersection of straight lines from Florence to the city of Pistoia, & from the city of Prato & to Montalbano. Poggio a Caiano lies 9 km south of the provincial capital of Prato.The building of the villa was almost entirely due to Laurence the Magnificent who built the Medici Villa on the site of an ancient castle which once belonged to the powerful Cancellieri family of Pistoia. After 1420 it was bought by the Strozzi & finally by the Medici. The villa at Poggio a Caiano always remained the summer residence of the Medici, and, other than hosting numerous notable personalities, it was a stage for the important events in their history, such as the weddings of Alessandro dè Medici & Margherita d'Austria (1536), Cosimo I & Eleonora da Toledo (1539), & that of Francesco I & his lover Bianca Cappello (1579). From the hill that gives the town its name there is a fine view over the plain of the Ombrone & Bisenzio rivers toward Prato to the north & Florence to the east, & over the lowlands leading to Pistoia & the Appenine mountains. It was not by accident that Lorenzo de' Medici chose this site to build his Villa, the building which is still the most dominant in the town, to the point that the one is always identified by the other. The Villa Medicea at Poggio a Caiano was built by Lorenzo dè Medici & his heirs from the design of Giuliano da San Gallo between 1485 & about 1520, with a probable break in construction from 1495 to 1513 because of the exile of the Medici from Florence. It always remained the summer residence of the Medici, and, other than hosting numerous notable personalities, it was a stage for the important events in their history, such as the weddings of Alessandro dè Medici & Margherita d'Austria (1536), Cosimo I & Eleonora da Toledo(1539), & that of Francesco I & his lover Bianca Cappello (1579). 

In 1473 a ruined fortified house at Poggio a Caiano, called the Ambra, & land & a mill owned by Giovanni Rucellai, were bought by Lorenzo de’ Medici. First, agricultural improvements were carried out, then in 1485 work started on the Medici Villa del Poggio, the Villa on the Hill, to designs by Giuliano da Sangallo commissioned by Lorenzo. Prior to the building of this villa large country dwellings were defensive, fortified & with rooms looking into a central courtyard. Built on a quadrangular base around a large central hall with rooms having windows overlooking the surrounding countryside, the Villa del Poggio was revolutionary. At Lorenzo’s death in 1492 the villa remained largely unfinished, work being resumed when Lorenzo’s youngest son, Giovanni became pope as Leo X. The central hall is named after this first Medici pope. In the following century the villa was used by the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany; in 1587 Francis, the second Grand Duke, & Bianca Capello died at there within a day of one another after short illnesses, raising the still unsolved question of their poisoning by Francis’s brother Ferdinand, who became the third Grand Duke. The formal gardens, now somewhat wild, slope down to the River Ombrone at the rear of the villa. Next to the Villa there are several buildings such as the chapel (where one finds the "Pietà with Saint Cosimo & Saint Damiano" painted in 1560 by Giorgio Vasari)

By the Renaissance, artists began to paint secular scenes including landscapes, breaking away from the dominant religious art of medieval painters. Partly out of interest in the natural world & partly out of nostalgia for classical Greece & Rome, paintings became valued as symbolic & allegorical objects & as depictions of earthly success & status. The period in Europe was the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages & modern history. The relationship between man & nature was evolving as Francis Bacon (1561-1626) promoted man as "the minister & interpreter of nature." Images began to depict natural landscapes & more formal garden settings, where man was obviously using his intelligence, wealth, & power to shape & control the nature around him for sustenance & for pleasure. Thus, the Renaissance garden became as much as symbol of the owner's wealth & culture as his house or art collection.