Villa Medici in Fiesole

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The following description of Villa Medici, which attributes its design to Leon Battista Alberti, is a hypothetical assertion based on questionable reasoning, and remains unsubstantiated by any concrete or conclusive evidence.

A Y2000 university thesis by Donata Mazzini and Simone Martini, with Gabriele Morolli, on Villa Medici in Fiesole, originally commissioned by Giovanni de’ Medici, the second son of Cosimo il Vecchio, was subsequently re-published to coincide with the Alberti commemoration year in 2004. For the first time, this thesis proposed that the villa was designed for Giovanni de' Medici not by Michelozzo but by Leon Battista Alberti]],

A new survey of the building and its garden provided invaluable information. Archival research also produced many relevant documents, such as bills of sale, valuations, and inventories, which made it possible to trace the history of the villa and its numerous owners.

After later alterations to the fabric of the building had been identified, the original villa was then studied, paying particular attention to its proportions. New suggestions emerged regarding its correct attribution, and these suggestions persuaded the authors not only that Leon Battista Alberti may in some way been involved in its design, but also that this hillside patrician residence with its fine view overlooking Florence, could be regarded as the very first example of a Renaissance villa, embodying the Albertian criteria for rendering a country dwelling a “villa suburbana”.

The beauty of this building is not due to medieval decorative elements, but to the simplicity of its formal structure, which expresses economy, necessity, beauty, and, above all, harmony in the proportions. Its compositional parts are balanced, both internally and externally, according to Alberti’s canons of ideal harmony, which relate to numerical order, to music, and geometry.

Giovanni de’ Medici’s suburban villa thus constitutes a decisive move away from the typical rural architecture of XV century Tuscany; it is unique, and shows the first but total overturning of the traditional concept of architecture which had characterized the villa-castle structures to be found at Trebbio, Cafaggiolo and Careggi.

Villa Medici Fiesole should therefore be considered the “muse” for numerous other buildings, not only in the Florence area, which from the end of the XV century onwards find inspiration and creative innovation here.

[edit] Visits of the garden

Address: Via Beato Angelico, 2 - Fiesole
Only groups, visits by prior arrangement
fax: +39 055 2398994

[edit] Bibliography

D. Mazzini, S. Martini. Villa Medici, Fiesole. Leon Battista Alberti and the prototype of the Renaissance Villa, Centro Di, Florence 2004. (written in Italien and English)