Don Giovanni de Medici

84 DON GIOVANNI DE’ MEDICI (1567-1621) The designer of the Cappella dei Principi

Don Giovanni de’ Medici was a military commander, diplomat and architect. Born the illegitimate son of Cosimo I de’ Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Florentine noble Eleanora degli Albizzi, Don Giovanni was never in line for inheriting the dukeship or participating in Florentine politics. Rather like many of the illegitimate sons of nobles and the wealthy, he sought a career in the military.

Career in military

Don Giovanni began his military career in Spain, where he also became the Florentine ambassador to Madrid. His advancement in the Spanish court was impeded, when he turned down a generalship position due to its threatening implication to Spain’s rival, France, with which the Medici family had marriage ties through Maria de’ Medici, queen to France’s Henry IV. However his opportunities in the French court were also encumbered due to similar concerns for his professional ties with Spain. Back home, Giovanni’s possibility of a commission in Florence was blocked by his half-brother Ferdinand de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Eventually he accepted the post as the Commander-in-Chief of the Republic of Venice.

Don Giovanni received a humanist education at Cosimo I’s court, which prepared him for participation in the major cultural trends of the time. His aristocratic and formal writing style was evident in his exchange of some 80+ letters with his wife, Livia del Vernazza, over the course of their courtship and marriage. They accounted for some of the most welldocumented and eloquent testimony of romance from the Renaissance period.

Patronage of art and theater

Don Giovanni was a patron of the theater, especially in the genre of commedia dell’arte, and wrote many plays performed by the company that he supported financially. A refined connoisseur of art, he also collected and commissioned many works that can be found today in the Uffizi Gallery and the Medici villa in Artimino. Don Giovanni also had interests in alchemy, astrology and natural knowledge, to the point that he was called upon to judge Galileo’s falling bodies controversy.

Work in architecture

Beyond his military and diplomatic ventures, Don Giovanni was probably best known as an architect. His most major achievement is the monumental Cappella dei Principi (Chapel of Princes) at the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence, the grand mausoleum containing the tombs of the Medici grand dukes. The idea of a mausoleum was formulated by Don Giovanni’s father, Cosimo I, and implemented by his half-brother Ferdinando. Don Giovanni competed successfully against his own mentor Bernardo Buontalenti with a design that employed a more effective use of light and a more scenographic positioning of the tombs, so that the viewer could appreciate the whole dynasty at a glance. The design was combined with that of Matteo Nigetti, and its construction was overseen by Buontalenti. As well Don Giovanni played a role in organizing the delivery of construction materials from Flanders.

The architect of the grand mausoleum of the Medici, Don Giovanni de Medici spent his final years in the Venetian Republic, on the island of Murano among its glassmakers. Though born illegitimate and intentionally kept outside of Florence and its affairs, Don Giovanni eventually played a vital role in building the family’s eternal resting place.

PORTRAIT OF DON GIOVANNI DE’ MEDICI

oil on canvas, 17th century The painting is likely inspired by the larger portrait in Villa Medicea di Cerreto Guidi.