Italian family of music patrons. They were renowned for their patronage of learning, literature, the arts and science.
FRANK A. D’ACCONE
The Medici ruled Florence with few interruptions for more than 300 years. Their political genius, as well as their enormous wealth, played no small part in their rise from principal citizens (1434–1532) to absolute rulers of Florence and its Tuscan dominion (1532–1737). The international influence achieved by several members of this family of merchant princes (among them Lorenzo the Magnificent, Popes Leo X and Clement VII and Queens Catherine and Marie of France) and a series of astute dynastic marriages also help explain the Medici’s prominent position in the social and cultural history of Italy and the rest of Europe.
The two main branches of the family were founded by Cosimo (1389–1464) and Lorenzo (1395–1440), both of them the sons of the banker Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici (1360–1429), whose ancestors had settled in Florence as early as 1201. Cosimo’s line included all of the famous Medici of the earlier Renaissance; the last member of this branch of the family, Alessandro, was created Duke of Florence in 1532 and assassinated in 1537. On his death the succession passed to Lorenzo’s line, which carried on the family through six more generations. At the time of the succession (1537) Lorenzo’s line was represented by yet another Cosimo (1519–74), who reigned first as Duke of Florence (1537–69) and then as Grand Duke of Tuscany (1569–74). On his mother’s side this Cosimo was a direct descendant of the first Cosimo, and thus both branches of the family were united in his person.
The humanistic, artistic and literary interests of the first Cosimo and his line have long been celebrated, though information about their patronage of music and musicians has only recently been brought to light. Under Cosimo’s aegis the first musical chapels, emulating those of northern Europe, were instituted in 1438 at the cathedral and baptistry at Florence. He was also apparently responsible for selecting the musicians engaged at the time, among whom was the Avignon composer Beltrame Feragut. An active policy of recruiting northern musicians for the new chapels was carried out by Cosimo’s sons Piero (1416–69) and Giovanni (1421–63). Both were friends of Du Fay, who in a well-known letter to them of 22 February 1456 promised to send them some chansons and four Lamentations for Constantinople that he had recently composed. Giovanni, who was a lutenist, was a close friend and early patron of the great Florentine organist Antonio Squarcialupi. Piero is important in music history because of his acquisition, some time before 1456, of the famous collection of Notre Dame polyphony still housed in the Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, Florence (Plut.29.1).
Florentine musical life flourished with unprecedented vigour during the reign of Piero’s son Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449–92). Through his own efforts, Lorenzo succeeded in attracting to the city’s chapels as well as to his private service some of the most famous singers and composers of the time, including Isaac, Alexander Agricola and Johannes Ghiselin. Lorenzo was an accomplished singer and instrumentalist, capable of accompanying himself on the ‘viola’ (lira da braccio) as he improvised verse, a talent that was inherited by his eldest son Piero, who, according to Poliziano, also performed written polyphony. Lorenzo’s collection of musical instruments, exceptional for the time, included a number of organs and keyboard instruments, as well as lutes, ‘violas’, a harp and several bagpipes. As a youth Lorenzo had sought to have one of his poems set by Du Fay, of whose music he was an ardent admirer. Later in life he had several of his canti carnascialeschi set by his favourite musician, Isaac. Isaac subsequently composed the music for Poliziano’s lament on Lorenzo’s death, Quis dabit capiti meo aquam, as well as a motet, Optime pastor, honouring the accession in 1513 of Lorenzo’s second son Giovanni (1475–1521) to the papal throne as Leo X. Lorenzo's work Trionfi di Bacco e d'Arianna, is preserved in Serofino Razzi's collection of Iaudi (1563).
Medici patronage of music and musicians reached its apogee during Leo’s reign. He was a thoroughly trained musician, as is shown by a few of his extant compositions, and his knowledge of music theory reputedly was exceeded only by his love of musical performance, both his own – he was a lutenist and also played the harpsichord – and that of others, particularly of the famous Jewish lutenist Gian Maria Giudeo, whom he later ennobled, and the lutenist-composer Francesco da Milano. Under Leo’s guidance the papal chapel reached unprecedented heights, employing at times as many as 32 musicians, notably composers such as Gaspar van Weerbeke, Antoine Bruhier, Andreas de Silva, Carpentras, Jean Conseil, Marbrianus de Orto, Francisco de Peñalosa, Bernardo Pisano and Costanzo Festa. Several works by these men are found in the famous Medici Codex of 1518, a decorated manuscript commissioned for the wedding of Leo’s nephew Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de la Tour d’Auvergne. The wedding was one of several sumptuous private celebrations and public festivities honouring various members of the Medici family during these years in which music and spectacle were prominent. At Leo’s court musical activities included both solo and ensemble performances by voices and instrumental groups in concert. Plays and religious services in which the pope himself participated were adorned with musical performances such as had rarely been heard at the Vatican.
Leo’s cousin Giulio (1478–1534) succeeded to the papacy as Clement VII in 1523. As a cardinal, Giulio had taken a great interest in Florentine musical matters, and he seems to have been responsible for the appointments of Verdelot, Charles d’Argentille, Mattio Rampollini and several other outstanding musicians to the city’s chapels. Despite the many political vicissitudes of his pontificate he remained an avid patron of music and sought to maintain the standard of excellence in the papal chapel that had been established by Leo some years earlier. Among the musicians employed by him were Conseil, Festa, Pisano, Pierre Fontaine, Pernot Vermont, d’Argentille and Ivo Barry. Instrumentalists such as Francesco da Milano and Laurentius da Gaeta were also given favours by this last Medici pope. The last scion of the senior Medici branch, Alessandro, who became the first Medici duke of Florence, had a number of instrumentalists in his personal employ as well as the composer Arcadelt.
With the accession of Duke Cosimo I in 1537 official Medicean patronage of music in Florence was resumed on a broad scale. At his instance the chapels at the cathedral and baptistry were reorganized and enlarged, and his favourite musician, Francesco Corteccia, appointed to direct them. Cosimo and his immediate successors – Francesco I (ruled 1574–87), Ferdinando I (ruled 1587–1609) and Cosimo II (ruled 1609–21) – maintained an active interest in the chapels as well as the prerogative of nominating their choirmasters, the most famous of whom after Corteccia were Cristofano Malvezzi, Luca Bati and Marco da Gagliano. At court, Cosimo I began the practice of retaining singers, instrumentalists and dancers, and it was continued on an even more lavish scale by his sons and grandson: in the first decades of the 17th century in particular innumerable ballets were performed. Musicians associated with the court in this period include Alessandro Striggio (i), Marenzio, Giulio and Francesca Caccini, Peri, Antonio and Vittoria Archilei, Cavalieri, Francesco Rasi, Lorenzo Allegri, Antonio Brunelli and Vincenzo Calestani; the last two worked at Pisa. Several of these composers were among the earliest and most persuasive monodists.
Cosimo I also initiated the policy of associating important family and state occasions with extraordinary musical festivities. For his own wedding to Eleonora of Toledo in 1539 he commissioned several occasional pieces from Corteccia, Festa and others and also had Corteccia compose music for the intermedi of Antonio Landi’s comedy Il commodo. Other events during his reign, such as the baptisms and weddings of his children or the arrivals of distinguished visitors, were observed in a similar manner. The most elaborate of the Florentine intermedi, those for Girolamo Bargagli’s La pellegrina, were presented in 1589 as part of the festivities attending the marriage of Ferdinando I and Christine of Lorraine. Much of the music for these intermedi was composed by Malvezzi and Marenzio. In 1600 the union of Maria de’ Medici and Henri IV of France was celebrated with performances of Giulio Caccini’s Il rapimento di Cefalo and Peri’s Euridice, the first complete extant opera. Notable works presented later in the 17th century include Marco da Gagliano’s La Flora, on the occasion of Margherita de’ Medici’s marriage to Duke Odoardo Farnese of Parma in 1628, and Jacopo Melani’s Ercole in Tebe, for the wedding of the future Grand Duke Cosimo III and Marguerite Louise of Orléans in 1661.
Medici patronage of music and musicians followed a somewhat erratic course during the reigns of the last three grand dukes. Under Ferdinando II (ruled 1621–70) the chapels at the cathedral and baptistry, comprising 32 singers and directed by G.B. da Gagliano until 1651, continued to flourish, as did the ensembles of voices and instruments maintained by the court. Official rosters show that a notable number of virtuoso singers and instrumentalists were attached to the court, though many of them, of course, also performed in some of the city’s other musical venues. Invitations to visit Florence were extended to prominent composers such as Luigi Rossi and Frescobaldi, and magnificent court productions were arranged of operas, mascheratas, equestrian ballets and aquatic spectacles with music. The Medici, including Ferdinando himself and his brothers Prince Mattias (1613–67) and Cardinal Gian Carlo (1611–63), also lent their support to the establishment of academies which produced new operas and revived others by Tuscan musicians and librettists, among them Antonio Cesti, the Melani brothers, Domenico Anglesi and G.A. Moniglia.
During the reign of Cosimo III (1670–1723) court-sponsored musical events declined steadily, since he cared little for music. Court indifference notwithstanding, some members of the ducal family, notably Cosimo’s brother Cardinal Francesco Maria (1660–1711) and his son, the heir apparent Prince Ferdinando (1663–1713), indulged their love of music by supporting both private and public performances of operas, ballets and oratorios. As a youth, Ferdinando had studied counterpoint with G.M. Pagliardi and acquired a passion for music that remained with him throughout his life (see illustration). Among the musicians he patronized were Bartolomeo Cristofori, Handel, Pasquini, Veracini, G.M. Casini, Pietro Sanmartini, and Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti. Alessandro Scarlatti composed several operas and sacred works expressly for him. Medici rule petered out with Gian Gastone (ruled 1723–37), whose notorious indolence, allied to the troubled political conditions of the time, precluded notable musical activity at his court, though he employed a few prominent musicians such as the lutenist Carlo Arrigoni and the composer G.M. Orlandini; he also continued the traditional Medici policy of subventions to the Florentine Accademia degli Immobili for opera performances at their Teatro della Pergola.
See also Florence, §§1–2.
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