Audioguide of the Medici Park of Pratolino

The Medici Park of Pratolino, also known as Villa Demidoff, is located a short distance from Florence and extends over an area of approximately 155 hectares.
In 1568, Francesco I purchased a property from Benedetto Uguccioni, which was enlarged through subsequent acquisitions over the following decades. Francesco designated this area for the construction of a villa where he could retire with his mistress, the Venetian noblewoman Bianca Cappello, who was frowned upon by the Florentine court.
Bored and discontented with their marriages, the two in fact began a secretive love affair shortly after they met, only marrying in 1578, after the death of Francesco’s consort, Grand Duchess Joanna of Austria.
Francesco appointed Bernardo Buontalenti to design the Villa, who, together with sculptors, plumbing experts and other artists, transformed Pratolino into a veritable garden of wonders in which the Grand Duke and his guests, and above all his mistress, could amuse themselves.
However, their amorous idyll was to be short-lived: in 1587, after a dinner at the Villa of Poggio a Caiano, the two died in terrible agony within days of each other. After Francesco’s death, only Grand Prince Ferdinando took an interest in tending the park. After it passed to the Lorraine family following the extinction of the Medici dynasty, it was then sold to the Demidoff family in 1872.

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However, there are invaluable artworks that show the appearance of Pratolino and other Medici villas at the beginning of the 17th century. The Vedutista artist Giusto Utens painted 17 lunettes, three of which have been lost, showing how the main Medici villas looked and highlighting the details that made each property unique.
Although it only shows the south-facing half, our lunette illustrates the largest garden of all the family estates, featuring an abundance of water that fed the fountains and the avenue of spouts and activated the automata: extraordinary contraptions that aroused the awe of all who visited. The villa had a symmetrical structure, with the window frames standing out against the white plaster. The terrace was sumptuous and inside, the halls and royal apartments were exquisitely furnished and decorated with stucco and paintings. In 2014, the lunettes were transferred to the Medici Villa La Petraia, where they can still be admired today.

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Water games, a thousand fountains and automata activated by the force of water were de rigueur: indeed, Pratolino was the park with the greatest number of these features.
To assure sufficient water supply, Buontalenti had an impressive hydraulic plant built to bring water from Mount Scenario to the upper part of the grounds.
The garden in fashion at that time was the Italian-style garden and was characterised by strict geometry and symmetry; meticulously tended flowerbeds divided up the park in an orderly way, like reflecting mirror images. The use of perspective created spectacular avenues.
During the rule of the Lorraine government, the grounds were neglected and lost their characteristic geometric features. Indeed, many decorative elements were moved to the Boboli Gardens and some plots of land were rented out.
In 1814, Grand Duke Ferdinando III tasked Joseph Frietsch with the renovation of the park, which then lost its Renaissance garden appearance to become a romantic park.
This genre, also known as the English-style garden, derived from a sensibility that valued the concepts of the picturesque and the sublime, in vogue from the 18th century. The romantic garden rejected the geometrical partition of spaces and celebrated the force of nature, which took centre stage in the garden, no longer constrained by unnatural symmetries. The leafy trees, streams and winding pathways helped to create an evocative and exciting environment for the visitor.

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The giant is captured at the moment of the reawakening or birth of the mountain. With his left hand he is pressing down on a monster’s head, thus giving a fresh vigour to the flow of water that fed the large tank at his feet, today replaced by a fishpond. The immense statue was originally framed by a huge niche, made of sponge, that is, treated sea sponges, dried out and coated with plaster, and pumice.
Documents referring to the construction of the Colossus define him as the «Giant», «Apennine» and «River Nile». It has been hypothesised that initially Giambologna had the idea of creating an allegorical figure representing the River Nile, chosen for its symbolic connotations of abundance and prosperity. Probably as the work was being made, it was decided to transform the Giant into a representation of the Apennines, in the act of breaking free from the mountain behind, without wishing, however, to lose the river metaphor completely. Giambologna’s project also included an allusion to the Gigantomachia, the fight between the Titans from which Jupiter emerged triumphant. He is s shown seated on a throne in a fountain located in one of the highest points of the park.
The monster that the Colossus presses to the ground with one hand and from whose jaws gushed water, was greatly modified over time. The oldest sources describe it as the head of a lion, a dog or even a dragon. During late 17th-century works directed by Foggini, it was turned into a dolphin, a creature very dear to the Medici family and, by now eroded and indecipherable, it was subsequently transformed into the reptile we see today. The rocky wall from which the giant freed himself was demolished and a stone dragon was placed behind him. The reason why Ferdinando and Giovan Battista Foggini altered the original iconography is unclear, but it is possible that the elements of the sculpture group denote more than one concept: the fertility and prosperity that the mountain deity dispenses to the territory via water as well as the celebration of the power to which the allusion to the Gigantomachia refers, where the defeated giant bows before his lord Francesco I.
The Apennine sculptural group contained caves, chambers and inner passageways, which are almost completely destroyed. Unfortunately, it is not possible to visit the remaining rooms. The underground chamber still has its ancient floor in terracotta and some of the shells that decorated the walls. The lost Cave of Thetis was decorated with antique-style stucco and painting. The precious fountain at the centre of the chamber was supported by four dolphins, which held a basin decorated with bats and snails, on which stood the statue of Thetis, made of pearls and shells.
The body of the mountain contained the room of mines, a subject that Francesco I was particularly passionate about, and the Grotto of the «Coral flower» was adorned with a jasper vase and a branch of coral of considerable size from the Red Sea, from which water gushed. From this room one accessed the little room in the head, actually carved out from the head of the giant. Lo Zuccari, possibly based on information from Giambologna, recounts that Francesco I used to take refuge in this room and would fish through the giant’s eyes, which were glazed like windows at the time.

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Today access is by a stone staircase that starts at the Vecchia Posta avenue.
The chapel, hexagonal in shape, is surrounded by a vaulted loggia, resting on fourteen columns, covered by a large dome lined with lead slabs and closed off by a lantern.
At the side of the altar, in axis with the door, are the original cypress stalls, which frame an ancient copy of Andrea del Sarto’s Passerini Assumption by Giovan Battista Marmi, now kept in the Palatine Gallery of the Pitti Palace.
After their purchase of the property, the Demidoffs restored the Chapel without modifying it, and added some commemorative plaques to deceased family members. In 1855, it became the burial place of Prince Paolo Demidoff, whose body was later transported to Russia. In the loculus lay Annina, a lady-in-waiting to the last Princess Demidoff, Maria, who was buried outdoors near the Chapel itself.
The chapel and sacristy are decorated with oil paintings of religious subjects, commissioned by the Demidoff family. Some of these were done with the grisaille technique, that is, monochromes where the volume, light and shadow are created with various shades of grey.

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The Demidoffs did not commission a copy of Bandinelli’s ancient work, but rather a reconstruction based on the oldest literary descriptions. The Fountain of Jupiter depicted the Father of the Gods in the act of hurling a golden thunderbolt from which flowed water that landed in the adjacent tank. He was accompanied by his typical attribute, the eagle, made of black marble, which stood out against the white of the fountain. The statue rested on a pedestal of sponges and the niche that housed it was framed by four half-pilasters on top of which four ancient marble busts were placed. Baccio Bandinelli’s sculpture was originally meant to represent the Eternal Father and was intended for Florence’s Cathedral. However, it was Francesco I’s wish that it be taken to Pratolino. The Grand Duke thought that the figure of Zeus, governor of the universe and of the creatures dwelling in it, was ideally suited to the natural features of the park.
In 1764, the fountain was badly damaged and in 1824, a decision was made to take it to Florence. After a lengthy restoration it was placed in the Boboli Gardens.

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The vaguely marine figure of the Mask, which gives its name to the fishpond, probably represented the Tyrrhenian Sea: at its sides, there were two small doors. The rest of the wall was covered with natural sponges from Livorno. Bordered by balustrade parapets, it was accessible by two symmetrical ladders set against the northern embankment. During the redesign of the park by Frietsch, it was filled with earth and rubble and remained so until the Demidoffs had it reopened; the current Mascaron was then inserted.

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Probably during the rule of the same Grand Duke, the sponge was split into two halves, each over 2 metres high, which were inserted into a pair of circular tanks.
During the reign of Ferdinand II of Lorraine, this part of the park was «a crossroads of avenues, and in it, on either side, there were two large sponge posts that serve as ornaments at two ends of the avenues».

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It is located on the side of a little hill, close to the Red Fountain, which has now disappeared, and it was accessed from the Pallottolaio Fountain (Pallottolaio means bowling green). The whole front facade was decorated with sponges carved into human and animal forms, a very fashionable feature at the time, and A laurel bower led to the entrance where three steps with water games led to the inner room, decorated with “a bronze Cupid, which with ingenious artifice turn round, and wets spectators with spurts of water”. In the rectangular apse there was a basin with a dolphin spraying water at the level of the visitors’ faces.

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What was once the accommodation for courtiers, jesters and pages, hence the name Paggeria, is located to the north of the storeroom building from which it was divided by a lawn.
Around 1828, Leopold II tasked Pasquale Poccianti with a project to make the building suitable for housing courtiers. In fact, when the Lorraines sold the Pratolino estate to the Demidoffs in 1872, the Paggeria still had its original Buontalenti appearance, and it was Paolo Demidoff who tasked architect Minucchi with redesigning it to make it a suitable residence for the noble family.
In 1880, the owners, wishing to further expand the villa, commissioned Emilio De Fabris to design a hall to be used as a gallery, reception room, library and billiard room, but the prohibitive costs prevented this from being implemented. It was only the project of Emilio Caramelli and Luigi Fusi that met with the prince’s satisfaction: the large red room, still visible today, was finally built, extending the building of the old Paggeria. In 1886, De Prato described the new Villa Demidoff as a gallery rich in masterpieces; however, in 1969, the then owner, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, decided to have all the furnishings sold by Sotheby’s auction house, thus dispersing the family’s opulent furniture and superb works of art.

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Depicted in some engravings by Stefano della Bella and recorded in the manuscript of the Vatican Library, it was part of the park’s large set of grottoes. By 1577, the wall facing had already been raised and the sculpture depicting the Mugnone (personifying a local river), sculpted by Giambologna, had been placed there. On either side of the allegorical figure, two celebrated automaton theatres had been placed: the first represented Fame, with a dragon drinking , the second portrayed the god Pan with the nymph Syrinx. These have been lost over the centuries.
After being destroyed, like the rest of the Villa, during work directed by Frietsch, the grotto structure was completely buried, and it was only a few years after the war that Princess Maria Demidoff unearthed the Mugnone sculpture and had it reassembled.

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Completed in 1580, it was shown in its original appearance by Utens’ lunette. In 1875, it was restored by the Demidoffs and adapted as a swimming pool; on that occasion, it was enclosed by a new cast-iron railing supported by stone pillars, the stone staircase was rebuilt, and the sponges of the inner fountain were restored.
It currently houses the work Cupid and Psyche by contemporary artist Marco Bagnoli.

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The design envisaged a vast hall on the ground floor, covered by vaults and divided into three sections by a row of columns that formed a long corridor in the centre and the eating trough area on the sides. A staircase gave access to the upper floor, where there were twenty-three rooms, the servants’ quarters; another flight of stairs led to a loggia that was open and gave access to another series of rooms. On the north side there was once the farrier’s workshop, directly connected with a smaller stable for mules. A little to the north of the stables was a large cistern, which provided the building with water.
Giuseppe Frietsch carried out conversion work during his time as director of the Park Administration, revolutionising the distribution of space in the old building by demolishing the internal structures: on the first floor, he had a single room, with a neo-Gothic structure, made into a barn, and on the second floor, the rooms became a storeroom. The servants’ quarters were built by extending what was once the mules’ stable and the farrier’s workshop.

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The water, sprayed from fountains six feet apart, fell into the opposing stacks, forming a unique water arbour under which it was possible to walk without getting wet.
At the end of the avenue, other water features adorned the park near the Washerwoman’s Pool.
Restored by Alfonso Parigi and Ruggeri, this avenue, known as the Stradone delle Fontane, is still there today with its amazing size. It is crossed by a small iron aerial bridge, which stands where there were once two ladders.
Frietsch’s work gave it a romantic appearance with the demolition of almost all the artefacts that enriched it, and today only portions of the wall with niches, benches and other ornamental motifs survive.

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Part of the building housed the common stable, a coach house and a royal coach house. This portion of the building was probably destroyed during the works directed by Frietsch.
Connected by an internal and an external staircase, the upper floor housed the quarters of various craftsmen and workers.
Presumably this was the building that housed the innkeeper when he visited the villa in 1602. Between 1787 and 1788, it served as the canvas workers’ workshop; the inn’s current appearance is attributable to the work of Giuseppe Frietsch, while the exterior decorations were commissioned by the Demidoff family, who wished to restore the building to its original beauty.

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