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Francesco dI Medici I And Buontalenti, Florence in the 1500's

The most important building projects during the last years of Cosimo's life were undertaken and guided by Francesco who commissioned Buontalenti to do the work. Vasari is to Cosimo I as Buontalenti is to Francesco. Buontalenti's versatility is typical of Francesco's cultural moment. In fact, Buontalenti was nicknamed "Bernardino delle Girandole" (Little Bernard of the Catherine-Wheels).

Buontalenti was an architect, engineer, superintendent of public works (specifically plumbing systems and works for river navigation), inventor of war machine, mechanical and hydraulic tools, chemist, theoretician on fortifications, theatrical set and costume designer, creater of arrays and displays of all types-urban, masked, banquets, parades-designer of typological building solutions, inventor of all kinds of things, automatons, ornamental waterworks, ice cream, watermills, and new methods for storing ice in the summer (he had his private pits outside the walls).

On the site of the garden-laboratory that dated from the era of Lorenzo the Magnificent, on Via Larga, Buontalenti built the Casino Mediceo for Francesco's workshops (1568-74).
With the Casino, the work he did on the Pitti-Boboli complex (he drew up the transformation plans and worked on the gardens), the Forte del Belvedere, Buontalenti brought the concept of architecture that combines the features of city palace and country villa into the precints of the city's walls.

This meant a new concept of the relationships between built-up volumes and open spaces, of the visual relationships on urban streets, and of the environmental qualification or upgrading of parts of the city.
Within the urbanistic context of the "city" functions the "Casino del Granduca" (according to the wording in the legend on Bonsignori's plans) incremented the system of cultural facilities in the Medici area between San Marco and the Annunziata.

During the XVI century, and mainly during the latter half, this was the section of the city where the artists preferred to live. Via della Colonna was home to Pontormo (n.23); Tribolo (n.13) and Stradano (n.1) who then moved to Via Gino Capponi. Andrea del Sarto’s house was at the corner of Via Capponi and Via Giusti, later it was purchased by Zuccari who added the studio in Via Giusti.

Giuliano and Antonio da Sangallo lived in Borgo Pinti as did Perugino (at the corner of Via Laura as of 1498); Giambologna lived on the same street at n.26 and Cellini lived in Via della Pergola. Buontalenti's home was near the duke's residence, in Via Maggio, where he ran his school that trained G. Parigi, L. Cigoli, B. Poccetti, G. Silvani and others.

During the same year, 1569, that work began on the Villa di Pratolino, Francesco started the "studiolo" in Palazzo della Signoria. First it was called a "stanzino" (little room), then the "scrittoio" (writing room) and now recently, "studiolo" (small study); this was where Francesco wanted to keep the most valuable items from the foundry.

The complex ideological and iconographic program, a typical example of the development of interior iconographic-space relationships in XVI century architecture was studied by Don Vincenzo Borghini. The study was no longer a retreat for an heroic spirit as in the Ducal Palace at Urbino, nor is it one of the "artificial paradises, a surrogate for a flight to the villa" as at Mantua and Ferrara.

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