26 o 
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 Ali 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, w'hich, 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 
Aledici 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 : “ Pie 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 
P’lorence, 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 — 157°)' ^fter refusing Pietro 
Torrigiani’s invitation to England in 1517, ran away to Rome in 15^9 — 1 welcomed by 
Firenzuola of Lombardy who, on seeing his work, said to Giannotto Giannotti, also of Plorence, 
who had been with him in Rome several years, “ This is one of the geniuses of P'lorence, 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 wdth 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 alter the sack 
of Rome in 1527, and P'lorence 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) Giovanni 
da Bologna (1524 — 160S) will be found adorning the villas and gardens of Tuscany. Few 
cities in the world oflfer 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. 
