an excellent imitator of the works of antiquity, was rendered obvious in all the buildings erected by him; and which also clearly proved the closeness wherewith he observed the rules of Vitruvius, and the careful study which he gave to the works of Filippo Brunelleschi.
There was at that time living in Florence, that Filippo Strozzi, who is now called the elder, to distinguish him from his son,[1] and who, possessing great riches, desired to leave to his country and his children, one memorial among many others, in the form of a handsome palace. Benedetto da Maiano was accordingly summoned by him for that purpose, when this master prepared him a model, which was entirely isolated from every neighbouring fabric, the design was placed in execution accordingly, but not in all its extent, seeing that certain of Filippo’s neighbours refused to make space for it and accommodate him by yielding up their houses, as will be related hereafter. Benedetto, therefore, had to commence the palace in the best manner he could; but he brought the external works of the building almost to their completion before the death of Filippo. This outer shell is in the rustic manner, but with certain gradations, as is clearly seen, since the lower part, that beneath the first range of windows, namely, has its blocks of a much more elevated form, and of a more decidedly rustic character, than has that above it, as may be said of the doors; the portion between the first range of windows and the second, is indeed of a character much less decided.
Now it happened, that just at the time when Benedetto was leaving Florence, II Cronaca had returned to that city from Rome, when he was proposed as an assistant to Filippo, whom he pleased greatly by the model which he made for the court yard, and for the large cornice which he also designed and
- ↑ This “son” was that Filippo Strozzi who, being imprisoned dnring the
reign of Cosmo I., destroyed himself with his own hand, and who, according to some historians, wrote the following verse from Virgil with his blood,
while dying:—
Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor.
whence he has been called the Tuscan Cato. From a MS, by this younger Filippo, Gaye has furnished us with the history of the building in question. See the Kunstblatt, No. 67, (1837.) See also the Carteggio inedito, &c., of the same author, where a more circumstantial relation will be found.
