CAPÍTULO XXI LA CORTE SUPREMA
CONFLICTOS, CUESTIONES Y CONTIENDAS DE COMPETENCIA 1 Conflictos de competencia
The previous section argued that the renovation project for Montepulciano’s Palazzo Comunale in 1440 might have reflected Florence’s military crisis under the Milanese force. However, if the reinforcement of Montepulciano’s seat of government was a defensive measure, it is striking that the renovation plan was put on hold in the first half of 1440 when the conflict between Florence and Milan climaxed,resuming only after the Milanese troops had suffered a catastrophic setback at the Battle of Anghiari.479 By situating Michelozzo’s commission in the aftermath of the Battle of Anghiari, this section argues that when the Poliziani resumed the façade project in October 1440, Milan’s conclusive defeat may have turned the commission into a memorial monument commemorating Montepulciano’s fidelity to Florence, as well as creating an impregnable and outward facing Florentine imagery on the state’s border.
After their victory on the battlefield on 29 June 1440, the two Florentine commissioners, Bernardetto d’Antonio de’ Medici and Neri di Gino Capponi, instantly sent a letter to Cosimo de’ Medici, informing him that their tactics in the battle field had ‘crushed him [Niccolò Piccinino] and scattered all his people.’480 The significance of Florence’s victory in Anghiari was immediately recognised by contemporary Florentines. Not only was a great celebratory procession organised in only two days, taking place on 1 July, during which the campanile of the Duomo was lit as though for the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, but the two
Authority of Cosimo il vecchio," 228-9.
479 No evidence survived referring to the progress on the façade renovation between 2 March and 16 October 1440. For a summary of the building history of Montepulciano’s Palazzo Comunale, see Vol. 2, Appendix 1.
480 Spencer notes that in the letter both commissioners emphasised their sacrifice for and dedication to their patria, requesting rewards for them and their families. ‘N.[iccolò] P.[ccinino] venne a ore 19 ½ qui da Borgho chon tutte le sue gienti per rompere noi, et noi abiamo rotto et frachassato lui.’ For the transcription and translation of the letter of Neri and Bernardetto, Spencer, Andrea del Castagno and his Patrons, 18-9, 152-3.
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commissioners Bernardetto de’ Medici and Neri di Gino Capponi also received great honours from the Florentine government on their return.481
News of Florence’s victory at Anghiari arrived in Montepulciano within a few days, and the town, as a subject commune belonging to the Florentine dominion, fully realised the importance of this battle. In their letter of congratulation, sent on 2 July 1440 to the Dieci committee, the Poliziani passionately expressed their loyalty: 482
Magnificent priors and our most honoured lords. Upon hearing of Tuscany’s great victory ensuring the preservation and health [of the region] against the tyrant Duke of Milan and Niccolò Piccinino, we wish to express to your Magnificence our most ardent joy and utmost delight (con ardentissima iocundita et letitia grandissima ci rallegriamo).483 Even though the night before your envoy arrived here we celebrated with fireworks and a great feast this victory which had been communicated to us by the podestà, by the priors of Fojano and by Paolo da Ghiacceto, Captain of Arezzo, via his own horseman. That evening we had fireworks and had the bells rung, and tomorrow we will have a procession to give thanks to God and St Peter and St Paul who secured such a great victory against the tyrant, which will result in his final extermination, for the glory and eternal fame of the glorious Florentine people and for the preservation, union, health and peace of the whole of Italy. Although your envoy was to have been given 30 florins, we had him given 2, reserving the greater gift for when he will bring us news of the present or future death
481 The Florentine government rewarded them with a pennon, a horse, and shield with the Florentine emblem, and a helmet to celebrate their military success. Ibid., 19.
482 ASM, "Copialettere," vol. 3, 82v, 2 July 1440. The Full text, Vol. 2, Appendix 3, Doc. 3.
483 In his La grazia divina, Giovanni Rucellia adopted the word ‘letitia’ to praise God: ‘O Signor, speranza de' santi e torre di loro fortezza, vita dell'anima mia, per la qual vivo senza la qual muoio, lume degli ochi miei, per lo qual vegio senza 'l quale intenebrischo, allegrezza del cuore mio, letitia dello spirito mio: amarotti di tutto ’l cuor mio e con tutta l’anima mia e con tutte le merolle ed interiore mie, però che i prima tu m’ai amato.’ Cited by Francis William Kent, Alessandro Perosa, and Nicolai Rubinstein, eds., Giovanni Rucellai ed il suo Zibaldone, vol. 1 & 2 (London: Warburg Institute, 1960), vol. 1, 119. The term letìzia (or letìcia, letiza, litìzia) was commonly used in the context of religious practice and experience, or describing one with great pleasure, joy and happiness. Battaglia, Grande dizionario della lingua Italiana, vol. 8, 975-6.
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of N.[iccolò] P.[iccinino], true enemy to your Magnificence, would be a better gift. We are ever ready at your service your Magnificence. In the territory of Montepulciano, 2 July 1440.
While hosting feasts and processions to celebrate military achievements was customary in Italian communes, the 1 July feast in Montepulciano may have even greater significance, since it was held on the same day as Florence held its own,484 almost like a live broadcast of the celebration in Florence.485 Also, inviting the Florentine officials to the event, as well as ringing the bell simultaneously as did in Florence symbolically united the Poliziani to its dominant city. By engaging local townspeople in the celebration of Florence’s military achievement, the feast of 1 July in Montepulciano can be understood as a medium through which the dominant city conveyed and implemented its control over the town. At the same time, it was a way for Montepulciano to express its allegiance to and pride in their dominant city.
The Poliziani’s letter of congratulations draws our attention to the commune’s awareness of the rhetorical debate about tyrants and republics informing the armed conflicts and shifting of power after the Battle of Anghiari. For instance, the Poliziani congratulated Florence for its successful military operation against its ‘true enemy’ Niccolo Piccinino (ala magnificentia vostra vero inimico) and for victory over the tyrant, the Duke of Milan. This rhetoric has its roots in the development of Florence’s republican identity during the late fourteenth century in response to Gian Galeazzo Visconti’s interference, as Baron notices. 486 It is the contrast with
484 To celebrate the victory in Anghiari, the Florentines illuminated Brunelleschi’s newly completed dome as though in the festival of San Giovanni. Kent, Cosimo de' Medici and the Florentine Renaissance: The Patron's
Oeuvre, 279; Spencer, Andrea del Castagno and his Patrons, 19. In her study of the ritual on the festival of San
Giovanni in Florence, Chrétien notices that it was commonplace to light up major public buildings such as the Palazzo dei Priori and the Palazzo del Podestà. Also, firework displays were introduced in Italy after the fourteenth century. Heidi L. Chrétien, The Festival of San Giovanni: Imagery and Political Power in
Renaissance Florence (New York: Peter Lang, 1994), 42.
485 The analogy comparing events in different cities as a live broadcast is suggested by Nevola, See Nevola, Siena:
Constructing the Renaissance city, 64.)
486 Baron, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of
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the tyrannical Duke of Milan, whose conduct harmed his subjects, that the republican characteristics of the Florentine Commune and its role as the protector of liberty were highlighted. From this perspective, Florence’s defeat of the Duke in Anghiari not only substantially reduced Milan’s military strength, but more importantly it legitimised the Florentine Republic’s military campaign and its territorial pursuits. In addition, by assimilating Florence’s reputation with its military success, the rhetoric surrounding Florence’s victory at Anghiari defines Florentine rule in the region as peaceful and righteous. The rhetoric adopted in this letter thus testifies to the Poliziani’s awareness of the diplomatic and military struggles between Florence and Milan, most likely as a result of the town’s shifting allegiance in 1390 and of the key role its submission to Florence played in the long-term conflict between Florence and Milan.
Bearing in mind the Poliziani’s cultural and political simulation with Florence, it is probably not by chance that four months after the Battle of Anghiari, when the Poliziani intended to resume the façade renovation, they turned to the Florentine architect Michelozzo for the design of the façade.487 On the one hand, Michelozzo had a good reputation in Montepulciano, having finished the new façade for the church of Sant’Agostino (Figure 109), as well as a monumental tomb for the town’s aristocrat Bartolomeo di Francesco Aragazzi (Figure 110), which is considered to be one of the first humanistic tombs in Italy.488 On the other hand, Michelozzo was Florence’s state military engineer, who was appointed to inspect and repair the Florentine càssero in 1432, for which the Florentine commune still owed Michelozzo 44 florins in 1457.489 Furthermore, Michelozzo was Cosimo’s favourite architect and one of the Medici’s
487 Saalman, "The Palazzo Comunale in Montepulciano: An Unknown Work by Michelozzo," 21-3; App. I, doc. 7, 38.
488 Rufus Graves Mather, "New Documents on Michelozzo," The Art Bulletin 24, no. 3 (1942): 226-31.
489 The payment was documented in Michelozzo’s catasto in 1457. Document published by Ferrara and Quinterio,
Michelozzo di Bartolomeo, doc. 22, 43-4. ASF, Catasto 825, Portata 1457, Quartiere S. Giovanni, Gonfalone
Drago. Between 1430 and 1440, Michelozzo was commissioned by the Florentine authority as the consultant for fortifications at least four times in Lucca, Lago di Castigliano, Castellina de Greve. He was also invited to
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amici who accompanied Cosimo into exile in 1433. The appointment of Michelozzo for the new façade testifies to Cosimo’s influence on, if not his direct intervention in, the local commune. It is not impossible that the architect took the Poliziani’s commission as a chance to express Cosimo de’ Medici’s personal contribution to the Florentine state’s successful military operations at Anghiari,490 just as the ways in which Uccello’s painting of the Battle of San Romano, and Andrea del Castagno’s fresco of Niccolò di Tolentino commemorate Bernardetto d’Antonio de’ Medici’s success in warfare.491 That the palace’s nature as a monument is suggested by a 1544 survey of the town’s defensive scheme.492 Of more than thirty fortifications and public and private towers listed by the architect, the Palazzo Comunale and its stone tower (in conci) were not mentioned.