The Story of the St. John Plates

The history of any powerful family in the 17th and 18th Centuries will ultimately include a great deal of wealth, obsequiousness and guile in equal measure. The Medici, masters of Florence and Tuscany for centuries, were no exception to this. Their supreme power spurred many to appeal to them through donations, in kind or cash, hence they managed to acquire a treasure trove of artefacts verging on the obscene. One particular longstanding bequest to them has now become an exhibition at their former residence, the imposing Palazzo Pitti, a stone's throw away from my lodgings on the south side of the Arno. The exhibition is entitled 'Omaggio al Granduca: I piatti d'argento per la festa di San Giovanni' (Homage to the Grand Duke [of Tuscany]: The Silver Plates for the Feast of St. John), and enjoys a place in of one of the Palazzo's constituent musea, the Museo deli argenti (Silver Museum). The day I visited was a rather inclement Sunday afternoon, but Florence isn't the kind of place that ever leaves one scratching one's thumbs, and, being so close, I could hardly excuse myself for not making an outing there.

These said plates became a periodical bequest from the estate of the cardinal Lazzaro Pallavicini, who, after his death in 1680, declared that 'gli si dia ogn'anno vivente Sua Altezza un pezzo d'argento lavorato il cui valore ascenda a scudi trecento [...] neiorno di San Giovanni Battista' (that every year of His Almightiness a piece of worked silver be given whose value is greater than that of 300 scudi [...] on the Day of St John the Baptist). Over the years, until the extinction of the Medicean line in 1737, there were thus collected 58 silver ewers depicting the triumphs of Tuscany and its rulers. The collection was first kept in the Guardaroba - 'Cloakroom' - in the Florence's main administrative building, the Palazzo Vecchio. Aside from a brief sojourn in the 'Medal Room' in the Galleria degli Uffizi from 1789-91, they remained here for years until their popularity waned, at which point they were essentially lost due to the lack of interest in maintaining them. Today we would have no knowledge whatsoever of what they looked like, were it not for the Marquis Carlo Ginori, who had already made plaster casts of all 58 plates in his workshop in Doccia by the mid 18th Century. These may not be quite the same as the silver originals, but they at least provide a skeletal semblance of the intricate narratives that play out over the series. Below is the first ewer, made scarcely a few weeks after Pallavicini's death. It is supposed to celebrate Tuscany's rule over the seas, made clear by Neptune in the centre accompanied by a rock in the distance representing the lighthouse at the large port of Livorno.

Tuscany's maritime supremacy is represented by Neptune being crowned with a laurel wreath in the centre

Many of the plates refer to more specific events, though. One example of such an event leaving a legacy to the modern world is the following, where Medici Pope Leo X commissions the establishment of the Palazzo Sapienza in 1527, to become the Sapienza University of Rome. He is seen surrounded by architects showing him the designs of the University's iconic building, the Studium Urbis, as well as university subjects alluded to allegorically: a book and compass representing mathematics, for example.

It is difficult to see, but this shows Pope Leo X surrounded by architects for the new Sapienza University

Even the rooms in which these marvels are displayed are worth seeing for their sumptuous frescoed decoration alone. In the first room of the museum, La Sala di Giovanni da San Giovanni, there is an immense cycle of frescos around the walls begun by Baroque master Giovanni da San Giovanni himself, but then finished by Cecco Bravo, Ottavio Vannini and Francesco Furini. The room is dedicated to Lorenzo il Magnifico - one of the early Medici who was renowned for his patronage of the arts. His Florence is almost Athenian in its inclusion of Muses among its ranks, and one part caught my eye in which Michelangelo is even shown presenting a statue to him.

Lorenzo il Magnifico (centre) appears impressed with Michelangelo's marble bust in Vannini's spectacular fresco 

This is only a musing on one specific group of works, but I hope I've made clear that the cultural richness of Florence is simply inexhaustible. I admit that there is much from my afternoon visit I haven't included in this article, but to include all I saw would frankly be too much. I could go to this same museum every day and discover a new story behind a completely different artefact each time. I certainly have no excuse for running out of inspiration for this blog, that's for sure!