Palazzo Fenzi

Fenzi

The Fenzi Bank and family were key players in both the economical growth of the Italian industrial revolution and the expansion of the north Italian Railways between Florence and Livorno in 18th and 19th century Italy.-The Family:...

is a palace in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

Built in the 16th century for the Castelli family by Gherardo Silvani

Gherardo Silvani

Gherardo Silvani was an Italian architect and sculptor, active mainly in Florence and other sites in Tuscany during the Baroque period....

, it was later enlarged by the Marucelli family. In 1829 it was bought by Emanuele Fenzi

Emanuele Fenzi

Emanuele Fenzi , was an Italian a leading banker, iron producer, concessionaire of the Livorno–Florence railway and other railway enterprises, merchant for exportation of Tuscan products, and landowner...

 in order to house his bank and his family.

It is currently home to the History Department of the University of Florence

University of Florence

The University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...

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Interiors

Among many other Baroque architectural features such as ornate ceilings and marble sculptures, the Palazzo Fenzi has a wide variety of frescoes, some of which by the painter Sebastiano Ricci

Sebastiano Ricci

Sebastiano Ricci was an Italian painter of the late Baroque school of Venice. About the same age as Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Tiepolo, he represents a late version of the vigorous and luminous Cortonesque style of grand manner fresco painting.-Early years:He was born in Belluno, son...

. These frescoes were executed during his stay in Florence from 1706 to 1707, and are now considered as some of his masterpieces. During this period he first completed a large fresco series on allegorical and mythological themes in the Marucelli-Fenzi palace before going on throughout Italy and Europe . He was later to influence the Florentine Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

 fresco painter Giovanni Domenico Ferretti

Giovanni Domenico Ferretti

Giovanni Domenico Ferretti , also called Giandomenico d'Imola was an Italian Rococo style painter from Florence. According to the contemporary Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani, Ferretti was a pupil of the Bolognese painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi...

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Sources

• Cambridge Journals, Isabella Bigazzi and Zeffiro Ciuffoletti "Palazzo Marucelli Fenzi Guida storico-artistica" Fenzi Family Archive Trust "Il Possesso di Rusciano". A.G.M., Florence 1990