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Florence: A Medici Dystopia

40 images Created 27 Oct 2010

In the home city of the de' Medicis - that banking and political family dynasty that ruled Tuscany from the late-14th to the mid-16th centuries - the Renaissance is a thing of the past.

Within the Uffizi galleries the Renaissance era seems a sugary coating in the city's heritage when outside, amid the bitterness of an Italian street, we see what a dystopia modern Florence really is.

Where any souvenir kiosk graces a street corner, the most featured genitalia in history - more than the brothels of Pompei - the modest uncircumcised genitalia from David's 17 feet tall marble statue shaped between 1501 and 1504 by Michelangelo is now printed on to boxer shorts exactly where the opening slot conveniently lets a bloke wee away his Peroni in the via Corti.

The face of a young Francesco I de' Medici adorns a construction screen, sporting a single marker penned tear while blue cable piping sprouts like an industrial Triffid from the underground concrete society. It is as if the spirits of the dynasty are posthumously mourning the slow death of their great city that once led every aspect of European thinking.

By the death of Cosimo III in 1723, Tuscany was arguably both morally and fiscally bankrupt and today, without tour group gratuities, hotel surcharges and the covert ristorante coperto, Florence would decline all over again.

This is an excerpt of a blog post at England's Pleasant Pastures:
http://wp.me/p3fbj-be

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  • A reproduction of the painting called 'Portrait of Francesco I de' Medici ' which was painted by Agnolo de Cosimo Bronzino in 1551, now adorns a construction hoarding screen, with plastic blue piping in a Florence side street, the original hanging in the Uffizi. Born in Florence, he was the son of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleonora di Toledo, and served as regent for his father starting in 1564. He went on to become grand Duke of Tuscany and marry his Venetian mistress, Bianca Cappello, after aptly disposing of her husband, a Florentine bureaucrat. Francesco and Bianca died on the same day. Although the original death certificates mention malaria, it has been widely speculated that the couple was poisoned.
    florence_italy28-22-10-2010.jpg
  • Dog and owner pause near construction netting during walk near Piazza Michelangelo to view Florence skyline
    florence_italy122-23-10-2010.jpg
  • Modern Italian mother and child and Agnolo de Cosimo Bronzino's painting of the Medici Eleanora of Toledo and son Giovanni C1545...Eleonora di Toledo (1522 - 1562), the daughter of Don Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, the Spanish viceroy of Naples. Her face is still familiar to many because of her solemn and distant portraits by Agnolo Bronzino. She provided the Medici with the Pitti Palace  and seven sons to ensure male succession and four daughters to connect the Medici with noble and ruling houses in Italy. She was a patron of the new Jesuit order, and her private chapel in the Palazzo Vecchio  was decorated by Bronzino, who had originally arrived in Florence to provide festive decor for her wedding. She died, with her sons Giovanni and Garzia, in 1562, when she was only forty; all three of them were struck down by malaria while traveling to Pisa.
    florence_italy165-24-10-2010.jpg
  • A street beggar has been noticed by a young Italian boy who points out the poor kneeling body to his parent. A stick lies on the ground with a paper cup to collect any spare change offered and a cash customer stands entering his pin number into the automated bank dispenser, his back to the underclass of society. This has become normal for what has become the modern face of Italian society in this once-grand medieval city. The city lies on the River Arno and is known for its history and its importance in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, especially for its art and architecture. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, Florence has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages.
    florence_italy171-24-10-2010.jpg
  • David and Hercules & Cacus statue copies and Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria.
    florence_italy62-22-10-2010.jpg
  • An Italian couple walk along a side street near Florence's Piazza Santa Croce. Graffiti lines the far wall and the man partner looks at the writing and scrawls sprayed by markers and aerosol as he seemingly pulls his lady friend or wife along the road.
    florence_italy89-22-10-2010.jpg
  • Agnolo de Cosimo Bronzino's exibition posters and QVC Tv channel street promo at Piazza Strozzi..Eleonora di Toledo (1522 - 1562), the daughter of Don Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, the Spanish viceroy of Naples. Her face is still familiar to many because of her solemn and distant portraits by Agnolo Bronzino. She provided the Medici with the Pitti Palace  and seven sons to ensure male succession and four daughters to connect the Medici with noble and ruling houses in Italy. She was a patron of the new Jesuit order, and her private chapel in the Palazzo Vecchio  was decorated by Bronzino, who had originally arrived in Florence to provide festive decor for her wedding. She died, with her sons Giovanni and Garzia, in 1562, when she was only forty; all three of them were struck down by malaria while traveling to Pisa.
    florence_italy158-24-10-2010.jpg
  • Dropped or discarded passport portrait of an Italian man lies on the ground next to a smoked cigarette butt.
    florence_italy119-23-10-2010.jpg
  • A European tour group admires renaissance statue copies in Florence's Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria. Standing beneath the taller piece entitled 'Rape of the Sabine Women' is by the Flemish artist Jean de Boulogne, better known by his Italianized name Giambologna and the visitors to this medieval city tour the cultural landmarks beneath gothic arches and replica artworks. The Rape of the Sabine Women is an episode in the legendary history of Rome in which the first generation of Roman men acquired wives for themselves from the neighboring Sabine families. The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. It consists of wide arches open to the street, three bays wide and one bay deep.
    florence_italy46-22-10-2010.jpg
  • Agnolo de Cosimo Bronzino's exibition posters over modern Italian women in Piazza Strozzi..Agnolo de Cosimo Bronzino's painting of the Medici Eleanora of Toledo and son Giovanni C1545. Eleonora di Toledo (1522 - 1562), the daughter of Don Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, the Spanish viceroy of Naples. Her face is still familiar to many because of her solemn and distant portraits by Agnolo Bronzino. She provided the Medici with the Pitti Palace  and seven sons to ensure male succession and four daughters to connect the Medici with noble and ruling houses in Italy. She was a patron of the new Jesuit order, and her private chapel in the Palazzo Vecchio  was decorated by Bronzino, who had originally arrived in Florence to provide festive decor for her wedding. She died, with her sons Giovanni and Garzia, in 1562, when she was only forty; all three of them were struck down by malaria while traveling to Pisa..
    florence_italy75-22-10-2010.jpg
  • Michelangelo's David's genitalia appear on tourist aprons souvenirs on sale in Piazza Michelangiolo above the city of Florence. Reproduced on trinket clothing, the penis is positioned at the front. It is said that the genitals were created smaller to imply that David was not allowing himself to make decisions with pleasure in mind. "David" is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo. It is a 5.17 metre (17 feet) marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence but soon came to symbolise the defence of civil liberties in the Florentine Republic, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the Medici family.
    florence_italy124-23-10-2010.jpg
  • Piazza Michelangiolo
    florence_italy123-23-10-2010.jpg
  • A homemade blackboard urging tourists to enter an Irish Bar stands in the road of a Florence side-street. Apparently beer and alcohol helps ugly people have sex and has done so since Neolithic times. A rough illustration of bottles line the bottom of the writing and in the background we see young men walking away into the distance. It is evening and customers are eating in an outdoor restaurant tent as the blue glow from the bar spreads onto the pavement.
    florence_italy149-23-10-2010.jpg
  • Decaying medieval gate house once near city walls, now in Piazza Guiseppe Poggi on Florence's south bank.
    florence_italy120-23-10-2010.jpg
  • Woman passes road island in Florence's Via de Bardi on south bank of city, near Ponte Vecchio.
    florence_italy118-23-10-2010.jpg
  • The reflections of renaissance statues of Hercules and David are seen reflected in builder's van parked adjecent to the Piazza della Signoria in Florence's Piazza degli Uffizi. A 16th century portrait of a medieval nobleman or official rises above the vehicle and a yellow compressor is seen behind. Top left is the Uffizi art gallery that houses many national treasures but this is a scene of an urban dystopia where construction forever interferes with the cultural idyll that visitors from around the world come to see. The white marble sculpture Hercules and Cacus is to the right of the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy. The Hercules and Cacus is a work by the Florentine artist Baccio Bandinelli (1525-1534) and the David is Michelangelo's replica, now also in the Uffizi.
    florence_italy58-22-10-2010.jpg
  • Italian ATAF bus service passes close medieval wall in side street near Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
    florence_italy117-23-10-2010.jpg
  • Tourists ride in a horse drawn carrage past scooters and bikes along river Arno north bank in city of Florence.
    florence_italy92-22-10-2010.jpg
  • Restaurant menu and illustration showing tourists sitting on terrace overlooking Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
    florence_italy126-23-10-2010.jpg
  • Tourists enjoy food and drink in outdoor restaurant tent on Florence, Italy.
    florence_italy151-23-10-2010.jpg
  • Two female tourists walk beneath the perfect nude male example of Michelangelo's David statue in Piazza della Signoria. It is said that the statue's genitals were created smaller to imply that David was not allowing himself to make decisions with pleasure in mind. "David" is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo. It is a 5.17 metre (17 feet) marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence but soon came to symbolise the defence of civil liberties in the Florentine Republic, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the Medici family.
    florence_italy53-22-10-2010.jpg
  • Tourists pass-by renaissance paintings on construction hoarding in Florence's Piazza degli Uffizi. .
    florence_italy129-23-10-2010.jpg
  • An Asian tour group admires renaissance statues in Florence's Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria...The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. It consists of wide arches open to the street, three bays wide and one bay deep. The arches rest on clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals. Rape of the Sabine Women by the Flemish artist Jean de Boulogne, better known by his Italianized name Giambologna
    florence_italy135-23-10-2010.jpg
  • Among medieval statues, a guitarist and street busker perform for passing tourists in Florence's Piazza degli Uffizi. Dressed in white to echo the medieval figures of city officials that stand in porticos of the main Uffizi building, a man will hug any visitor who wishes to have their photo taken alongside, for the price of a few Euros. Meanwhile, to his right, the musician plays classical songs on his acoustic instrument where its sound travels around this street corner, his notes rebounding from the solid stone walls and pillars.
    florence_italy59-22-10-2010.jpg
  • Young lovers pass an expensive wedding dress on display in the window of the bridal shop Atelier Aimee on Florence's Borgo degli Albizi street. Arm in arm the couple walk on by, unable to afford such an extravagant item of clothing for their future wedding day. Contemporary graffiti adorns the far wall below old frescoes that may be medieval but the only colour in this scene is from the lit shop window and dress and of the people.
    florence_italy145-23-10-2010.jpg
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