The Palazzo Vecchietti is a Renaissance architecture palace located on Via degli Strozzi number 4, near Piazza della Repubblica in the quartieri of Santa Maria Novella, city of Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.
Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 14th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance architecture followed Gothic architecture and was succeeded by Baroque architecture. Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, the Renaissance style quickly spread to other Italian cities. The style was carried to France, Germany, England, Russia and other parts of Europe at different dates and with varying degrees of impact.
Piazza della Repubblica is a city square in Florence, Italy. It was originally the site of the city's forum; then of its old ghetto, which was swept away during the improvement works, or Risanamento, initiated during the brief period when Florence was the capital of a reunited Italy—work that also created the city's avenues and boulevards. At that time, the Loggia del Pesce from the Mercato Vecchio was also moved to Piazza Ciompi. The square's Giubbe Rosse cafe has long been a meeting place for famous artists and writers, notably those of Futurism.
Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated just across from the main railway station named after it. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church.
The palace was designed for the Vechietti family by Giambologna, a mannerist sculptor and architect whom the family had lodged and patronized. All the window pediments on the first two floors are interrupted superiorly. On the South corner with Via Vecchietti a coat of arms of the family, with 5 ermines on a blue background. The family were prominent fur merchants. Below at ground level at the corner is a gargoyle or devil flag-staff. Various traditions are attached to its placement. It appears to mimic the flag carriers of an aristocratic game called the Potenze Festeggiante. [1] [2] The palace ground floor in 2015 has a bank, and upper stories host a boutique hotel. [3]
Giambologna — — was a Flemish sculptor based in Italy, celebrated for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style.
Mannerism, also known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it. Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century.
