2 6o FLORENTINE GARDENS AND VILLAS. 



inner cellar, where, surrounding an immense butt capable of containing two hundred barrels, 

 are casks ranged round the walls. Similar cellars store the oil when the trees are picked in 

 November, huge jars being used, such as would easily contain and conceal a crouching man, 

 as in the old tale of AH Baba. Ancient stone mills, turned by oxen, are used for crushing the 

 olives. As the focus of the life lived overhead there is the great hall in the centre, rising two 

 storeys, with its great barrel vault. At Dei Collazzi the hall is fifty feet by thirty feet, and 

 there still hangs from the vault the great iron star with many points, which, on the return from 

 the chase, was lowered to be laden with the spoils of the day's hunting, mingled with lighted 

 lamps. These Tuscan halls were the scenes of the daily life of the family ; here the lady sat 

 and worked with her maidens, not ashamed of the reputation of being a good ' massaia." 

 It was the sala di Pranzo, and here the men, returning in the evenings, gathered round the 

 fire built up of huge logs and faggots in the great masonry openings of these early fireplaces. 

 The hounds of the chase were not forgotten, as many an old fresco shows us. In close 

 connection with the hall was the loggia for summer life, usually arcaded and vaulted, and 

 commanding wide views of the enchanting landscape. Perhaps there is a glimpse of the Lily 

 Tower, rising from the city which itself is hidden by the folds of the surrounding hills. 

 Sometimes it is the sharp lines of the acutely pointed dome that is a focus point in the view, 

 a reminder of the thought of Florence ever striving to attain to the true causes and inner springs 

 of human life. 



In 1420, a date which may be taken as that of the actual beginning of Renaissance architecture 

 in Florence, Brunelleschi (1377 1446) was beginning the Cupola, which was to engage his attention 

 for fourteen years. In 1440 he began the great Pitti Palace, which, on the failure of Luca Pitti's 

 conspiracy against Piero de Medici in 1466, remained unfinished. It was the policy of the 

 Medici to engage their rivals in display, and palace building was responsible for the ruin of 

 several of the older families. Scipione Ammirato writes of Nicolo Gaddi : " He is now at 

 his villa turning it into a palace more suited to the city than the country." Early in the 

 sixteenth century the Dini family engaged in the vast construction of Dei Collazzi, which ruined 

 them, and yet itself remained incomplete. 



About 1506 Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo were all engaged in work at 

 Florence, and until Julius II and Leo X concentrated the leading spirits at Rome Florence was 

 the artistic and intellectual centre of Italy. Benvenuto Cellini (1500 1570), after refusing Pietro 

 Torrigiani's invitation to England in 1517, ran away to Rome in 1519 1521. He was welcomed by 

 Firenzuola of Lombardy who, on seeing his work, said to Giannotto Giannotti, also of Florence, 

 who had been with him in Rome several years, " This is one of the geniuses of Florence, and thou 

 art one of its dunces." Cellini made his second visit in 1523 and took part in the siege. He 

 went to France in 1537 and again in 1540, the latter his great time with Francis I. He returns 

 to Florence in 1545, and casts his Perseus in 1552 1554, but his thoughts remained divided 

 between Rome and France, despite the kind of net in which he was enmeshed by the Medicean 

 Duke, who would neither adequately employ nor release him. Many artists returned after the sack 

 of Rome in 1527, and Florence throughout, as we see in Cellini's pages, preserved the unity of 

 her school. Cellini, " the last of the great age," as he became in the general estimation, survived 

 until 1572. The work of Bronzino (1503 1572), Allessandro Allori (1535 1607) and Giovanni 

 da Bologna (1524 1608) will be found adorning the villas and gardens of Tuscany. Few- 

 cities in the world offer more many-sided attractions, and to them have responded many of 

 the brightest intellects who have made of Florence a second home. A. T. B. 



