Palazzo Vecchio: Invitation to Cosimo's Palace - Japanese

Cosimo, son of the famous leader Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, became Duke of Florence in 1537 at the age of eighteen. By entrusting him with the government of the city at such a tender age, the Florentine aristocracy, including the Guicciardini family, were convinced that they would be able to control him. However Cosimo soon revealed his skills as a great and determined politician, astute in governing the State, in which he managed to abolish the permanent condition of civil war brought about by rivalry between the factions. In 1539 he married Eleonora, second-born of Don Pedro of Toledo, viceroy of Naples, and in 1540 the couple moved into Palazzo della Signoria which became the first palace of the Medici family. The union between the two turned out to be very solid: Cosimo was a faithful husband and the Duchess followed him on his travels whenever possible. Nevertheless, the Ducal family was afflicted by constant mourning and only three of their eleven children ever reached adulthood. Eleonora died in 1562, and Cosimo in 1574 at the age of fifty-five, after being crowned Grand-Duke of Tuscany. The tour of the monumental Quarters, which highlights the characteristics of the palace created at Cosimo’s will and, above all, the connection between Art and Power, comes to an end in the Theatre of the Civiltà del Rinascimento a Firenze (The Renaissance in Florence) Museum where the public is received in audience by Duke Cosimo or Duchess Eleonora, impersonated by animatoractors with a sound historical preparation. The open dialogue between the actors and the visitors highlights the deep-seated differences between
sixteenth-century Florence and today’s society, restoring to the artworks of the Museum the cultural context that originally generated them.