THE LETTERS OF BARTOLOMMEO AMMANATI TO THE GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY'S PROVVEDITORI IN PISA
Bartolommeo Ammanati was one of the leading Mannerist sculptors and architects at work during the second and third quarters of the 16th century. He had a long and productive life and some of the finest works of the period were his. His training and early career were in Tuscany but after the Sack of Rome in 1527, and the consequent political upheaval in Florence, Ammanati moved to Venice. Over the next five years his contact there with Jacopo Sansovino led to an increasing polish and elegance in his work. After his return to Florence he was inspired by Michelangelo's work in the New Sacristy at San Lorenzo, and Michelangelo and Sansovino remained the enduring influences on Ammanati's style. Their effect on both his sculpture and architecture was discernable through much of his career, though transformed by a preoccupation with grace and virtuosity that was characteristic of Mannerism. In 1555, after periods at work in the Veneto and Rome, Ammanati was called back to Florence to serve Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. The 90 letters offered here arose from Ammanati's service with Cosimo and his son Francesco I between 1563 and 1584.
Cosimo de' Medici became Duke of Florence in 1537 and first Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1569; the stability and success of his reign and the power of the Medici were implicit in the transformation and enhancement of the city under his rule. Whatever he instigated -- whether large-scale public works, such as the new system of aqueducts, or more confined undertakings, such as the encouragement of gem-engravers -- he oversaw with a remarkable efficiency and eye for detail. His organisational rigour suffuses these letters.
Beyond employing Ammanati as a designer and sculptor, Cosimo turned to him for his supervisory and logistical ability. The stone - both white marble and mischio, a mixed coloured stone - that Cosimo wished to be used for his public projects was to come from quarries in the Alpi Apuane, particularly the Capitanato di Pietrasanta. Ammanati was appointed to arrange and oversee the ordering, quarrying, blocking out and transport of the stone and the payment of the workmen. There were four main building works in Florence at this time and Ammanati's positions as capomaestro at the Cathedral and director of the work at the Palazzo Pitti gave him access to different teams of workers - pickmen, manual labourers and stone-cutters - to be deployed as necessary. His technical proficiency and organisational skills had already been recognised in his appointment to reform the Arte dei fabbricanti, the builders' guild, in July 1562.
Ammanati provided measurements or models that were passed onto the workmen at the quarry. The stone was cut and, if necessary, roughly shaped; often under the supervision of Ammanati's trusted deputy Raffaelo Carli da Settignano. The pieces were then taken by road to Marina di Pietrasanta and from there by boat to Pisa and, if the final destination was Florence, on up the Arno to the port of Signa. Much of Ammanati's supervision was undertaken from Florence; Matteo Inghirami (1565-71) and Giovanbattista Carnesecchi (1571-82) ran the quarries (and lead and silver mines), and Giovanni Caccini and Francesco Busini, Provveditori of the Duke in Pisa, were responsible for communications and the transport of stone between Pisa and Florence. The letters that are offered here represent the relay of instructions and news between Ammanati and Caccini and Busini in Pisa. They relate to various projects, for most of which - since he was so widely responsible for Medici commissions in Florence - Ammanati was himself the architect, sculptor or engineer in charge: the Neptune fountain, the remodelling of the Palazzo Pitti, the Ponte Sta Trinita etc. The letters are grouped according to the principal project involved. Some of Ammanati's correspondence to Duke Cosimo has been published in Gaye's Carteggio, but these letters are entirely unpublished and provide a fascinating picture of the complexities and collaborations that went into the production of some of the greatest monuments of the Florentine Renaissance.
G. Gaye, Carteggio inedito d'artisti dei secoli XIV, XV, XVI (Florence, 1840)
Corinna Vasic Vatovec, 'L'impegno di Cosimo I de' Medici nel Reperimento dei Marmi e il ruol dell'Ammanati', Bartolommeo Scultore e Architetto 1511-1592 (Florence, 1995), pp.329-336
Luigi Zangheri,'I Marmi dell'Ammanati', ibid.
AMMANATI, Bartolommeo (1511-1592). Two autograph letters signed, three letters signed, and two letters written and signed in his name to Giovanni Caccini Provveditore in Pisa, one autograph letter signed to Francesco Busini in Pisa, and a copy of a letter [Giovanni Caccini to the ministri dell'Abbondanza] sent to Ammanati, Florence, 4 December 1562 - 4 March 1564(n.s.), primarily concerned with arrangements for paving the Ponte Vecchio, Pisa, but also for the transport and restoration of antiquities, and providing a new niche in the Duomo of Florence, altogether 6 pages, sizes 290 x 215mm - 310 x 220mm, 8 with integral address leaves with contemporary endorsements and cut to provide seal strip, copy with integral blank with contemporary endorsement, 3 with papered seals, 5 with traces of seals (small tear to one letter signed, slight discolouration mostly to folds of address leaves).
Details
AMMANATI, Bartolommeo (1511-1592). Two autograph letters signed, three letters signed, and two letters written and signed in his name to Giovanni Caccini Provveditore in Pisa, one autograph letter signed to Francesco Busini in Pisa, and a copy of a letter [Giovanni Caccini to the ministri dell'Abbondanza] sent to Ammanati, Florence, 4 December 1562 - 4 March 1564(n.s.), primarily concerned with arrangements for paving the Ponte Vecchio, Pisa, but also for the transport and restoration of antiquities, and providing a new niche in the Duomo of Florence, altogether 6 pages, sizes 290 x 215mm - 310 x 220mm, 8 with integral address leaves with contemporary endorsements and cut to provide seal strip, copy with integral blank with contemporary endorsement, 3 with papered seals, 5 with traces of seals (small tear to one letter signed, slight discolouration mostly to folds of address leaves).
Cosimo I spent long periods in Pisa and paid particular attention to the development of the city. The University was reopened, a palace was modified and a new church built for the use of the Knights of St Stephen, an order he had founded. The appointment of Giovanni Caccini as Provveditore was particularly in regard to drainage and waterways. The undertaking to pave the Ponte Vecchio at Pisa was part of this improvement and maintenance of the city, and these letters all deal with Ammanati's arrangements for the excavation and transport by barge of stone from the Monte Oliveto quarry.
Some of Cosimo's other concerns during this period surface in these letters. In 1561-1562 Ammanati had transformed a room in the Pitti Palace into an Antiquarium where 12 black marble niches were to contain antiquities and fragments of antiquities. The shipment of stone from Carrara discussed in the letter of 4 April 1563 included some to be used by the sculptor Valerio Cioli who was restoring antiques; payment was made for the carriage of antiquities on 26 February 1564(n.s.) and stone was required for restoration on 4 March 1564(n.s.).
The scheme for remodelling the niches holding statues of the Apostles in the nave of Sta Maria del Fiore is mentioned in the letter of 4 March 1564(n.s.); Ammanati had sent a drawing to the stonecutter of Serravezza, where the quarries for the 'mischio' were, so that he could provide the necessary coloured stone for the niche.
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Cosimo I spent long periods in Pisa and paid particular attention to the development of the city. The University was reopened, a palace was modified and a new church built for the use of the Knights of St Stephen, an order he had founded. The appointment of Giovanni Caccini as Provveditore was particularly in regard to drainage and waterways. The undertaking to pave the Ponte Vecchio at Pisa was part of this improvement and maintenance of the city, and these letters all deal with Ammanati's arrangements for the excavation and transport by barge of stone from the Monte Oliveto quarry.
Some of Cosimo's other concerns during this period surface in these letters. In 1561-1562 Ammanati had transformed a room in the Pitti Palace into an Antiquarium where 12 black marble niches were to contain antiquities and fragments of antiquities. The shipment of stone from Carrara discussed in the letter of 4 April 1563 included some to be used by the sculptor Valerio Cioli who was restoring antiques; payment was made for the carriage of antiquities on 26 February 1564(n.s.) and stone was required for restoration on 4 March 1564(n.s.).
The scheme for remodelling the niches holding statues of the Apostles in the nave of Sta Maria del Fiore is mentioned in the letter of 4 March 1564(n.s.); Ammanati had sent a drawing to the stonecutter of Serravezza, where the quarries for the 'mischio' were, so that he could provide the necessary coloured stone for the niche.
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