Towards a history of the Villa Gamberaia: tssues of patronage

Abstract

The architectural character of Gamberaia and its garden during the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries is inseparable from the vicissitudes of three Florentine families: the Lapi, the Cerretani and the Capponi (figures 1&3)1 Within Florentine society, as it had been reshaped by the values associated with the consolidation of grand-ducal absolutism, each of these families had a very different place as regards origins, activities and socio-cultural status. Yet the relationships between these families grew increasingly close over the decades, passing from professional contacts (mercantile and banking) at the outset to solid ties of patronage and clientele which, in the end, became ties of friendship. In all likelihood, this situation goes far to explain the acquisition of the large estate of Gamberaia in 1610 by Zanobi Lapi, who had just completed the restructuring of the family residence in Via Larga.2 In fact, Settignano was at the time dominated by the presence of the Capponi and Cerretani. The latter, in particular, were the owners of the large villa called Belvedere or Belritorno, and they promoted a renovation of the church of S. Maria, where between 1602 and 1604 they financed the construction of a chapel and the pulpit by Bernardo Buontalenti and Gherardo Silvani (figure 4).3