![]() By then, their family palace had become a secondary ele- ment within an urban ensemble which emphasized the two adjacent, Medici-allied public institutions: the Studium Urbis and the French national church. Antonio’s urban design sketch, which shows his shrunken palace within an extended grid of existing but beautified streets and piazzas, depicts a situation in early spring 1515 when Medici ambitions were being refocused. In particular, detailed analyses show that Antonio the Younger made two designs: a “twin” palace scheme, and a later, modified – and previously unrecognized – “shrunken” palace project. This article demonstrates that the Uffizi sheets in fact depict three dif- ferent palace designs, each carefully planned to capitalize on previous structures and ancient monuments, and each dependent upon but smaller than the last. Based on reconstructions and hypotheses created by Christoph Frommel and Manfredo Tafuri in the mid-1980s, current literature still accepts that these Sangallo sheets depict only two schemes, both appropriating a huge area between Piazza Navona and today’s via della Scrofa. These Uffizi drawings, both made during the first two years of Leo’s papacy, have been repeatedly cited as important examples of High Renaissance palace design and urbanism, and of Medicean aspirations. Within this detailed context are set the famous drawings produced after the cardinal was elected pope in March 1513: the Medici palace designs by Giuliano da Sangallo (GDSU 7949 A) and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (GDSU 1259 Ar,v). Utilizing archeological, legal and cultural materials, both written and drawn, this article provides a comprehensive history of relevant properties: a chronicle of owners and transactions – including previously unpublished 1509 Medici contracts – and maps of their precise topographic boundaries. Because even basic facts affecting this project have remained unclear, the neighborhood’s specifics are here re-examined. Originating from a fine Renaissance house built up and improved by two different curial administrators amongst the medieval and ancient remains of the baths of Alexander Severus, the building and grounds of the future palace were rented in 1503 by Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici (later Pope Leo X), and subsequently purchased and expanded by his family. ![]() ![]() This architectural and urban study revises the history of Rome’s Palazzo Medici (later Palazzo Madama) in the Campo Marzio, from the 1470s through 1521. ![]()
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