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The Creations in Florence for The Wedding of Francesco Medici and Joanna of Austria, 1565

The wedding of his son Francesco and Joanna of Austria (18 December 1565) marked fundamental moment in Cosimo's reign. In terms of urban development it was a moment of maximum effort, on the one hand for a series of lasting modifications made in the central part of the city, and on the other for a concerted operation to transfigure the urban environment (along the route the bridal couple would follow in Florence) which, albeit temporarily, became the ideal city.

A remarkable group of artists, architects, painters, sculptors, etc., worked on this project for two years. A first fundamental fact was the completion of the policy of strengthening the central part of the city. The court was transferred to the Pitti Palace and within five months, record time for any era, Vasari built the corridor that connects the Palazzo della Signoria to the Pitti Palace, that is the residence of the prince and the new residence of the duke (hence the various name changes for Palazzo Signoria, from Palazzo Ducale to Palazzo Vecchio), respectively, via the Uffizi, the Ponte Vecchio and the back of the buildings on what is now Via Guicciardini between the bridge and the Pitti Palace.

After the move from the edge of the city in Via Larga to the Palazzo Vecchio, the Medici conceived their residence as a functional system of space dialectically organized on two poles on both banks of the Arno, via the passageway over the bridge which is at the basis of Florentine history itself.

On the spatial-formal level, the complex and dynamically articulated world inside the ducal palace, the dynamic sequence of the paths of the Uffizi, the fact that the loggia at the end of the Uffizi overlooks the river and hills, the route running parallel to the river and then above the Ponte Vecchio, overlooking the interior of Sta Felicita, going around the Malefici tower, alongside side of Boboli, into the Pitti Palace and then through it to the next portion in the Boboli gardens all comprise an exceptional urban theme. It is rich in varied qualifications, without precedent and totally unique.

There is, obviously, an explanation for this dominant passion in the sixteenth century to work on the urban arrays for all special occasions (important weddings, baptisms and funerals). On the one hand there is the new political dimension of cultural activities and therefore, of the qualification of the urban setting; and on the other, in this way it was possible to achieve at least temporary transformations, expansions, and enlargements of the by now stable arrangement and size of the city.

Cosimo I had begun contributing to the many arrays of the early sixteenth century during his first year in power. On the occasion of Cosimo's marriage to Eleonora of Toledo (1539) Tribolo designed the wedding setting which included the triumphal arch at Porta al Prato, the decorations in the Medici Palace and an equestrian statue of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere in Piazza S. Marco.

The costumes and settings for the entertainments were also meticulously studied for this occasion. In 1563 Cosimo established the Palio dei Cocchi in the Sta Maria Novella square. The track was marked off by two pyramids; originally they were made of wood and canvas, but in 1608 new ones of mixed marble from Seravezza were put up at the corners on four bronze turtles by Giambologna. The racers had to complete three circuits of the square that was enclosed by tiers of amphitheater seats.

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