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HAA 263: History of Interior Design


April 21st, 2015
Reading Response #2: The Florentine Casa
This weeks reading The Florentine Casa enhances a deeper understanding of the
Italian residential properties termed palazzos. By definition, a palazzo is an impressive and yet
understated three story building in Italy. Far from the Gothic architecture featured in the Late
Medieval periods, the palazzo comes to embody a much more refined and simpler exterior
aesthetic. A key feature of the palazzo is its three stories and their respective methods of
masonry: the ground floor presents rusticated stone work; the first floor features stones that have
chisel cut faces; the second floor wears ashlar masonry. What is so captivating to myself and
historians alike is how almost every design characteristic of a palazzo can be examined to
discover a certain function.
Considering the large size of palazzos and the Italians inclination for social gatherings, it
is reasonable to assume that the palaces were built with both family living and social interaction
in mind. A great indicator of this purposeful design is how well the interior assimilates and
impresses visitors inside the palazzo while not disregarding the fact that a family lives inside
these palatial palaces. The design of palazzos succeed in creating this harmonious interaction
between family life and social welcomings with the creation of the sala and camera.
Leading up the sala principale1, a visitor must have walked up through a staircase and
into a ricetto. In true palazzo fashion, the ricetto did not only serve form but function. The
ricetto welcomed individuals who wished to gain entrance into the sala principale. Whats
particularly interesting of the sala principale is how comparably less decoration was present than
in the camera and scrittoio. Other than a couple of benches to welcome guests, furniture was
scarce. Wall decorations followed a similar design motif, only being limited to family crests

1 The main sala found on the first floor of the palazzo

above doors and fireplaces. Perhaps, the notion for this meager decoration served as an
introduction to the decorations that followed in the important camera.
While many translations simplify the camera to mean bedroom, old inventories of palazzos have
come to reveal that the camera serves a much more complicated purpose than just sleeping.
Political and business transactions were often times welcomed in the camera.2 Virtually every
camera also featured at least one painting of the Virgin and Child. 3 A great example of how even
paint decorations in palazzos can follow form and function is the painted sequence of Virgin and
Child by Andrea del Sarto in the Borgherini Palazzo. 12 panels were arranged in such a way
where only a visitor entering from the sala would have been able to make out the sequence. The
carefully calculated arrangement of the 12 panels (form) was created only to impress visitors
(function).
Out of the three packets presented in the class so far, I will admit that this packet has been my
favorite in its ability to portray palazzos as very calculated design pieces. These careful
calculations are explicit in how the design of the typical palazzo followed form and function by
creating an interaction between home life and social life while at the same time impressing
visitors. One fact that I enjoyed and excluded in the analysis above that embodies such a notion
is that the floor above the piano nobile was built in order to retain the unique exterior
proportions. It was not necessary to build this floor as historians note that many of these rooms
were not of great importance, but it was necessary for palazos to retain their unique proportion
which leads into the palazzos captivating characteristic: each design served a purpose.

2 One inventory of Francesco Noris house includes: over 40 books in French and Italian, a nautical map, a device
for loading a crossbow, a table for writing, and account books

3 Wollheim, Marta, and Brenda Preyer. "The Florentine Casa." In At Home in Renaissance Italy. London: V & A,
2006.

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