Architectural Geology of Florence, Part 19: A Closer Look at the Column Courtyard | Medici Riccardi Palace (AD 1484), Tuscany, Italy
Looking up at the courtyard's southwestern corner.
You are kindly invited—nay, strongly encouraged—to read, as a preamble to this, the Part 18 description. It discusses, among other things, the geologic origins of the sandstones mentioned below.
With all my recent focus on the Pietra Serena and Pietraforte, those two stalwarts of this region's Renaissance building trade, it's a treat to now look at another classic Florentine architectural material, terra-cotta, and the intriguing decorative device known as sgraffito.
The terra-cotta is present in the circular tondi that adorn the frieze. These, according to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi's own website, are "large-scale replicas of eight ancient cameos created by artists of Donatello’s workshop." The base clay for these tondi no doubt was obtained from the Arno Valley's ample supply of fluviatile deposits.
In between the big, bas-relief discs are decorations that were made by applying a dark layer of glaze or other material over a lighter one, and then scratching and carving away at the dark layer to reveal the desired patterns in the substrate.
This technique, the aforementioned sgraffito, is something I have also written about, believe it or not, concerning Radio City, an Art Moderne building featured in my guidebook Milwaukee in Stone and Clay. There, in 1941, artist Jefferson Greer created a series of sgraffito tableaux highlighting the impact of broadcast media on modern culture. I'm guessing he got the idea from his study of places like this.
Here in the palace, the sgraffitist's aims were simpler, but most beautifully achieved.
Of course we still do have to grapple with the issue of what stone components in the Column Courtyard are which. None of my sources help, unfortunately.
In this shot, I'd surmise, the coolly elegant, light-bluish-gray Pietra Serena Sandstone is to be found in the main columns, the voussoirs, and also in the columns and surrounds of the upper-floor windows.
The stringcourses bordering the frieze are more problematic. Modern photos make them somewhat brownish. Pietra Serena can weather to that tint; but of course that's also the coloration of the Pietraforte. So in the best traditions of scientific cowardice, I'm hedging: the stringcourses could definitely be either.
But in the case of all that handsomely set coursed ashlar up above, I'm going to be a little less craven. I know it looks grayish here, but more recent images suggest it's substantially darker and often browner than what I think is definitely the Pietra Serena. So I'm calling it Pietraforte.
Still, as I always say, please correct me on any of this if you know I'm wrong. Grazie mille in anticipo!
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Architectural Geology of Florence album.
Architectural Geology of Florence, Part 19: A Closer Look at the Column Courtyard | Medici Riccardi Palace (AD 1484), Tuscany, Italy
Looking up at the courtyard's southwestern corner.
You are kindly invited—nay, strongly encouraged—to read, as a preamble to this, the Part 18 description. It discusses, among other things, the geologic origins of the sandstones mentioned below.
With all my recent focus on the Pietra Serena and Pietraforte, those two stalwarts of this region's Renaissance building trade, it's a treat to now look at another classic Florentine architectural material, terra-cotta, and the intriguing decorative device known as sgraffito.
The terra-cotta is present in the circular tondi that adorn the frieze. These, according to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi's own website, are "large-scale replicas of eight ancient cameos created by artists of Donatello’s workshop." The base clay for these tondi no doubt was obtained from the Arno Valley's ample supply of fluviatile deposits.
In between the big, bas-relief discs are decorations that were made by applying a dark layer of glaze or other material over a lighter one, and then scratching and carving away at the dark layer to reveal the desired patterns in the substrate.
This technique, the aforementioned sgraffito, is something I have also written about, believe it or not, concerning Radio City, an Art Moderne building featured in my guidebook Milwaukee in Stone and Clay. There, in 1941, artist Jefferson Greer created a series of sgraffito tableaux highlighting the impact of broadcast media on modern culture. I'm guessing he got the idea from his study of places like this.
Here in the palace, the sgraffitist's aims were simpler, but most beautifully achieved.
Of course we still do have to grapple with the issue of what stone components in the Column Courtyard are which. None of my sources help, unfortunately.
In this shot, I'd surmise, the coolly elegant, light-bluish-gray Pietra Serena Sandstone is to be found in the main columns, the voussoirs, and also in the columns and surrounds of the upper-floor windows.
The stringcourses bordering the frieze are more problematic. Modern photos make them somewhat brownish. Pietra Serena can weather to that tint; but of course that's also the coloration of the Pietraforte. So in the best traditions of scientific cowardice, I'm hedging: the stringcourses could definitely be either.
But in the case of all that handsomely set coursed ashlar up above, I'm going to be a little less craven. I know it looks grayish here, but more recent images suggest it's substantially darker and often browner than what I think is definitely the Pietra Serena. So I'm calling it Pietraforte.
Still, as I always say, please correct me on any of this if you know I'm wrong. Grazie mille in anticipo!
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Architectural Geology of Florence album.