Manufacturing Heritage:
Hidden Histories of The Palazzo Strozzi
Christine Staton
Citation: Staton, Christine. “Hidden Histories of The Palazzo Strozzi.” The Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture, July 30, 2021.
CW: This article features images that some readers might find distressing.
Abstract: Engaging the lenses of art history and cultural heritage studies, this article evaluates the history and functions of the Palazzo Strozzi, a Florentine Renaissance palace re-purposed into an exhibition space and research institution in the twentieth century. This paper addresses the pivotal role of the Fascist regime in the transformation of the building. This article considers the Strozzi’s history, as well as the gaps in the history presented by the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi’s website, and aims to create a more complete, complex picture of its role throughout the twentieth century. Ultimately, this paper suggests that aspects of the Palazzo’s history have been purposefully omitted, due to their irreconcilable political nature.
Key words: cultural heritage, interpretation, display choices, Italian Renaissance, 20th and 21st century Italian history
Gregory Ashworth describes the process of history becoming heritage as “commodification.” Through this process, historic sites become “heritage products,” objects marketed to specific demographics. Inherently problematic for Ashworth, this production process is demand driven, and cannot avoid outside interference into any stage of the process. As Ashworth writes, “these consequences render feasible the creation of a specific European heritage in support of the predetermined political objective.”[1] As pertaining to the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (figure one), some agency clearly intervened in the palazzo’s reinterpretation into an exhibition venue and heritage site. Decisions were made, either by individuals or groups, regarding what information is communicated to the public, how it is presented, and how the site will be managed. The result is a heritage site removed from parts of its history.
Figure 1. Benedetto Maiano, Palazzo Strozzi, exterior facade, c. 1489-1536.
This study contextualizes the adaptive re-use of the Palazzo Strozzi, from a palatial residence to a heritage space and Florence’s largest art exhibition venue, within the political circumstances of its transformation. Significantly, the years of the Palazzo Strozzi’s transition from private to public space occurred between 1937 and 1940, immediately before and during the Second World War (1939-45), when Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party led Italy. The transformation of the Palazzo Strozzi played an integral role in the party’s broader agenda to capitalize on the medieval and Renaissance history of Florence. The history of the site now presented to the public through the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation’s website, however, omits this crucial part of its story. In this article, I consider these lacunae in the Palazzo’s history and the reasons why they exist. I suggest that moments in the palazzo’s history have been purposefully and decisively omitted, due to their irreconcilable political nature. I first review the history of the Palazzo Strozzi, from its construction to the modern day. Then, I trace the building’s transformation into a public space, a diplomatic visit from Adolf Hitler to Florence in May 1938, and the first art exhibition held at the Palazzo.
This article relies on two definitions of the term heritage. The first comes from David Lowenthal’s Possessed by the Past. “Heritage,” he writes, “clarifies the past to infuse them with present purposes.”[2] The second definition derives from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, hereafter UNESCO. UNESCO describes heritage as “our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations.”[3] While varied, both definitions stress both ownership and agency, which suggests that heritage is both a fabrication and possession of a particular cultural group. As the case of the Palazzo Strozzi illustrates, that same cultural group decides which chapters from its history to include in its “legacy,” which parts to celebrate, and which to dismiss.
Located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the historic center of Florence, the Palazzo Strozzi is a testimony to the Medieval and Renaissance hub.[4] Situated in the historic center, mere steps from the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Palazzo Vecchio, the Palazzo Strozzi is a prestigious specimen of High Renaissance architecture. The building is rendered in three stories with consistent rustication on each floor, and is capped with a monumental cornice. It incorporates a communal bench along the bottom of the façade. Arched bifora windows adorn this façade, while interior designs frame a central courtyard. Today, visitors to the Palazzo Strozzi likely enter through the Piazza Strozzi, passing high-end shops and cafes along the way.
Filippo Strozzi (1428-1491), a prominent Florentine banker, employed some of the most acclaimed architects and designers of his time to construct his family home, beginning in 1489.[5] The sculptor Benedetto da Maiano (1442-1497) conceived of the original design; Giuliano da Sangallo (1446-1516) built the wooden model of the Palazzo, which is now in the collection of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello; Simone del Pollaiolo, the architect known as il Cronaca (1457-1508), supervised the construction of the Palazzo and the addition of the massive cornice in 1534 or 1536, which remains unfinished today.[6]
The design of the Palazzo Strozzi emulated that of the nearby Palazzo Medici. The two differ only in minor details and scale.[7] Palazzo Medici set the standard for Renaissance city palaces in it being rendered in three floors, crowned with a monumental cornice, featuring rustication on all three floors, and employing the floorplan of an enclosed quadrangle. In this case, the Palazzo Strozzi has surpassed its precedent in scale and achieving a greater sense of symmetry in the floor plan. Intriguingly, these improvements were influenced by Lorenzo de’ Medici “the Magnificent,” the Florentine banker, art patron, and political leader (1449-92). Filippo’s initial plans were for a far more modest design, but Lorenzo encouraged him to expand it.[8] Filippo’s wealth is believed to have rivaled that of Lorenzo’s and has manifested itself in the grander scale of his Palazzo.[9]
The nineteenth century witnessed much urban development, both before and after the unification of the Italian peninsula. In recognition of the unification of Italy in 1861, Florence implemented a variety of improvement programs, like many other Italian cities.[10] In 1907, the last of the Strozzi family died and the Commune of Florence received the Palazzo in legacy, while the care of the Palazzo was given to the National Insurance Institute (Instituto Nazionale di Assicurazione; hereafter INA). [11] The history recanted here comprises the general content of the history presented to the public through the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation today. The main source of information derives from the current website. The further history described below is not visibly disclosed on the website. The timeline that the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation provides jumps from the foundation of the art exhibition space in 1937 and the renovations of 1940 to the state’s purchase of the building in 1998.[12]
The transfer of ownership from the Strozzi family to the City of Florence marks the Palazzo Strozzi’s transformation from private residence to public amenity. The Palazzo Strozzi evolved into part of the larger effort to renovate the city of Florence as Italy prepared for the diplomatic visit of Adolf Hitler, the Führer of Nazi Germany. Florence was the last stop on a week-long visit to Italy; Hitler arrived on May 9, 1938, after spending several days in Rome and Naples accompanied by il Duce Benito Mussolini and Italian King Victor Emmanuel III. In Rome, the first stop on the visit, a parade displaying Italy’s military prowess was given for the Führer, which represented young men from the pre-military schools and members of Italy’s African colonies. Then, in Naples, naval exercises were performed to exhibit Italy’s battleships. Rome’s cultural strengths were also on display as the city’s ancient monuments were illuminated during the night in homage to Italy’s guest (figure two).[13]
Figure 2. “Rome Floodlit in Honour of Herr Hitler: A Spectacular Welcome,” The Illustrated London News, May 14, 1938.
This act of spectacle was but one in a larger program surrounding the Führer’s visit. As Paul Baxa argues, “the spectacle of the Hitler visit, if not the primary cause in moving fascist Italy to an even closer union with nazi [sic] Germany, at least provided strong signals of a pro-nazi [sic] shift within the fascist regime.” The remarkable effort made by the Italian government to prepare the cities for Hitler’s visit (renovating the Rome train station and restoring buildings) demonstrates that Mussolini was seeking to impress Hitler with Italy’s infrastructure, military capacity, and – as seen particularly in Florence – its cultural supremacy.[14]
The visit to Italy came at a critical time. The Second World War would begin in just over one year and Mussolini was keen to forge a stronger alliance with Germany. Thus, this visit was Mussolini’s chance to present Italy as a desirable ally. The use of spectacle in the Fascist regime is well known in terms of propaganda but, in this case, was heavily administered to drive the Fascist foreign policy as it spoke as much to the rest of the world as to Italy “about the intentions of the Axis to remake the world in its own image.” A close alliance with the Germans would give Italy a higher status and more power in the upcoming war and the post-war world that the Axis envisioned.[15]
When this trip is examined from a cultural perspective, Hitler took a tour of Italy’s history and heritage. Starting in Rome, Hitler encountered the specialized way the Fascist regime interpreted classical antiquity. Hitler saw the version of Rome according to the myth of Romanità. Romanità was a product of both Mussolini’s interpretation of classical antiquity and the public and political use of this part of Italy’s history. The corollary was an oversimplified and water-downed glorification of the ancient, bygone era as a means to associate the current Fascist government with the great civilizations of the past. By the late nineteen-thirties, Romanità had become an integral element of the political program.[16] The tour of Italy’s history and heritage continued in Florence, where the medieval and Renaissance periods were put on display.
City officials prepared for the visit by restoring Florentine architecture to Renaissance standards, and by removing anything that the project’s head architect considered less aesthetically pleasing.[17] The streets and façades were decorated with flags that celebrated Italo-German unity and adorned a carefully constructed stage.[18] The political value of the Renaissance heritage of Florence was paramount to the staging and planning of this visit. Hitler was taken on a tour of the most prominent and prestigious medieval and Renaissance monuments and tourist attractions that the city had to offer. The stops included the Florence Cathedral, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens, the Galleria degli Uffizi, and the Piazzale Michelangelo (figure three).[19] These sites are destinations for any tourist and would likely have been on the tour route of any other diplomatic visitor to Florence. To Hitler, however, they may have been particularly meaningful.
Figure 3. Piazzale Michelangelo decorated in anticipation of Hitler’s visit to Florence in May 1938. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München/Bildarchiv.
Hitler had a lifelong interest in art, which presented Mussolini with a unique opportunity in this visit. Mussolini had little to no interest in art, but “he understood that capitalizing on Italy’s cultural heritage was strategic to maintaining the image of the country as a powerful nation, and in the eyes of the German leader, a desirable ally.” What Italy lacked in military power and resources, it made up for in cultural achievements. Mussolini and his advisers realized the way to establish their cultural superiority, Italy’s strongest and most prominent weapon and asset in the approaching conflict.[20] Among those assets was the Palazzo Strozzi.
Hitler’s motorcade rode down the Via degli Strozzi on their tour of the city, passing the Palazzo and the Piazza Strozzi. The restoration process funded by the INA had already begun. Other significant structures including the Palazzi Medici and Pitti had been restored, too, creating a unified and harmonious image of the city which glorified its Renaissance heritage. Here, the Palazzo Strozzi began its second transformation into something of a shell for the display of Florentine heritage. The facade of the Palazzo was decorated with banners that celebrated the era of the Florentine Republic and a plaster cast of Verocchio’s monument to the condottiero Colleoni.[21]
In this context, the Palazzo Strozzi converted from a Renaissance private residence to an art exhibition space open to the public. In any other political context, the Palazzo Strozzi might not exist as it does today. Without the efforts taken by the Fascist government to preserve and protect the Renaissance history of Florence, in the interest of allying with Nazi Germany, the Palazzo Strozzi may never have been renovated or re-adapted. At this moment, the Palazzo transformed into a heritage space and began the process of gaining a commercial, political, and even manufactured heritage value as it was presented in the fabric of the Medieval and Renaissance center of the city. A new Palazzo emerged: one engrained in – and emblematic of – the collective heritage of its local and historical community. When the restoration completed in 1940, the Palazzo took on yet another identity, one that it still holds today.
As WWII was in its early years, the Palazzo Strozzi opened its first art exhibition, Mostra del Cinquecento Toscano (Exhibition of Tuscany in the Sixteenth Century). Open to the public from April to October 1940, this state-sponsored exhibition displayed artworks made in Tuscany during the High Renaissance period (the sixteenth century or Cinquecento). It included artworks by some of the most recognizable artists of the Renaissance, including Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564), Raphael Sanzio (1483-1519), and Jacopo da Pontormo (1494-1557). Because the Palazzo Strozzi, as an institution, did not hold a collection of its own – and still does not today –it borrowed artworks from other collections, both private and public. While artworks were gathered from all over Italy and the world, most of them were housed in collections in Florence, and in the collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi in particular.[22]
The Cinquecento Toscano indicates an effort to make the Renaissance history of Florence a more relevant and accessible part of the lives of the Florentines and added to the development of heritage value to the city and to the Palazzo Strozzi. This marks the first time that the Palazzo Strozzi became accessible to the general public and demonstrated the contemporary “interest in and possession of the Medieval and Renaissance past” of the city.[23] Artworks that lived previously in exclusive private collections were on view in a public atmosphere in a location that had long been inaccessible.[24] Restricting the displayed artworks to those of the High Renaissance in Tuscany maintained the exhibition’s subject as the heritage and history of Florence and Tuscany. Containing the artworks on display to those of the High Renaissance of Tuscany maintained the subject of the exhibition as the heritage and history of Florence and Tuscany. This was the art of the Florentine and Tuscan people on display: the art of their own revered collections, such as those of the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Galleria dell’Accademia, by famous Florentine and Tuscan artists.[25]
The choice of the artistic period of the High Renaissance is telling of the political context. Hitler was known to be a lover of art, but he appreciated only specific styles and genres of art. He preferred artwork by the Old Masters and hyper-realistic, photo-like paintings and this was reflected in the state-sponsored Great German Art Exhibition (Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung; hereafter GDK), which was opened on July 18, 1937 and ran through the end of the Second World War in 1945.[26] This exhibition, which preceded and then succeeded the Cinquecento in Tuscany, set the artistic standards of the National Socialist state.[27] Only artworks that were officially approved were included in the GDK. There was a clear, “correct ideological reading of the artworks” which established Hitler as the “originator of the Third Reich, intent on reinstating Germany’s power and influence under National Socialist leadership.” The artworks in the exhibition were mostly genre paintings, portraits, landscapes, and still life.[28]
In direct contrast to the GDK, the Degenerate Art exhibition opened in Berlin the very next day, on July 18, 1937. This degrading exhibition targeted artworks predominantly by contemporary German and Austrian artists which the National Socialist state considered to be the source of “the artistic, sculptural, and painterly degeneration we have experienced.”[29] The display of the artworks intended to humiliate and devalue their artistic merit since they did not conform to the expectations of fine are set by the German government. The chosen artworks were created by some of the most recognizable names of the German and Austrian modern period, including Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Otto Dix.[30]
Like its German counterpart, the Italian government sponsored exhibitions aimed at appealing to a public audience. These exhibitions were used as Fascist spectacles which presented a more controlled image of the past to a larger audience. To make exhibitions more accessible to the public, the duration of exhibitions was made as long as possible and train fares were reduced to make it easier for people to physically reach the exhibition site. The political context of these exhibitions is in their nature as a “powerful vehicle for the transmission of ideology.”[31] Similar to the practices of Italy’s close ally, Germany, art exhibitions, like the Cinquecento Toscano were used to deliver a specific message to a mass audience. Cinquecento Toscano is among these political exhibitions in that “a carefully controlled body of knowledge was displayed to a new class of people.”[32] It presented the image of the Renaissance past of Florence as a part of the heritage of the city in 1940. The Fascist Italian government had a clear understanding of how art and heritage could be used to its benefit.
In art exhibitions, the institution holding the exhibition maintains significant power over what information shared with visitors, and how it is told. Certain individuals with the right agency choose which artworks to display, in which context to display them, and which aspects of the art are to be discussed. Similarly in Florence, as seen in the Cinquecento in Tuscany, those in charge of curating the exhibition made choices that celebrated the Renaissance specifically and took ownership of that time in Florence’s past by turning it into the collective imagery and heritage of the city and the region.[33]
The Palazzo Strozzi Foundation still holds exhibitions today. Two major art exhibitions are held annually. An exhibition held in 2017 bears a striking resemblance to the Cinquecento Tuscano, both in name and in content. The new exhibition, Cinquecento in Florence, focuses on the art of sixteenth-century Florence and repeats some of the same artworks that hung in the original exhibition. Pontormo’s Deposition was the most publicized work of the exhibition, appearing in the exhibition catalog and advertising posters and was also a major work of the Cinquecento Tosacano exhibition of 1940. There is no mention of the original exhibition in the various materials from 2017.[34]
Returning to Lowenthal’s definition of heritage, the case of the Palazzo Strozzi reminds us that all heritage is often curated and manufactured. Heritage may be derived from the history of a place or people, but history is objective in mission while heritage is naturally subjective. A place must undergo a process of becoming to emerge as a heritage site according to the tastes and agenda of the group to which that site belongs. The history of the Palazzo Strozzi, in the period of its re-purposing into an art exhibition space, is inherently political and the lack of public information about this period suggests that the heritage space is uncomfortable with this political history. Sites such as the Palazzo Strozzi that are associated with such uncomfortable political circumstances, or as anthropologist Lynn Meskell describes them as “a conflictual site that becomes the repository of negative memory in the collective imaginary” can either be embraced and used for more positive functions in a community, or it can be erased all together.[35] While the Palazzo Strozzi as a structure alone has remained consistent through its long history, and still stands to this day, its broader history has been re-contextualized in a more digestible way. Its associations with the Renaissance elevate the value of the Palazzo to the level of a protected heritage site.
There is a marked contrast between the contexts in which the Palazzo as a heritage site exists today and in which it existed at the time of its organization. The Foundation Palazzo Strozzi presents to the visiting public a purified version of its history and the role that it played in the city of Florence’s history both online and in the galleries. The institution is proud of the prestigious nature of the Palazzo’s Renaissance history, as seen in the patrons and architects of the Palazzo, and highlights that information at the forefront of their websites.[36] This, however, is not the whole history of the Palazzo. This is a common consequence of a historic site becoming a cultural heritage space. The politically loaded, uncomfortable history of a site is hidden from the story, thus leaving the visitors with an image of the site that is incomplete. As a heritage space, the Palazzo Strozzi shrouds the crucial years of its transformation in favor of more prestigious and digestible heritage. As this pair of images indicates, one taken at the time of Hitler’s visit and the other by me in September 2017 (figures three and four), heritage is something that is made: we decide what to display and what to discuss, leaving the rest of the history hidden in the archives.
Figure 4. From the Piazzale Michelangelo.
Figure 5. Author’s photograph, 2017, compared to the same location as it appeared in May 1938.
Endnotes
[1] Gregory J. Ashworth, “Heritage, Tourism and Europe,” Heritage, Tourism and Society (London, England; New York, NY, USA: Mansell, 1995), 73.
[2] Lowenthal, Possessed by the Past: the Heritage Crusade and Spoils of History (New York: Free Press, 1996), xv.
[3] UNESCO, “About World Heritage,” https://whc.unesco.org/en/about/.
[4] Historic Center of Florence, World Heritage List, UNESCO, accessed 27 August 2020, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/174. The Palazzo Strozzi is named in the list of palaces patronized by the prominent bankers and princes of the Renaissance, among the Palazzi Medici and Pitti.
[5] Guido Zucconi and Pietro Ruschi, Florence: An Architectural Guide (Venice: Arsenal,1995), 32.
[6] Zucconi, Florence, 73. Peter Murray, The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance (New York: Schocken Books, 1963), 75.
[7] Murray, The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance, 74-75.
[8] Eve Borsook, The Companion Guide to Florence (New York: Boydell and Brewer, 1997), 109.
[9] Zucconi, Florence, 73.
[10] Silvano Fei, Grazia Gobbi Sica, and Paolo Sica, Florence: An Outline of Urban History (Florence, Alinea, 1995), 127.
[11] Balzanetti Steiner, Florence in Drawings (Florence: Alinea, 2001), 34. It remains unclear why the National Insurance Agency was entrusted with the care of the Palazzo Strozzi.
[12] Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, “History of the Palazzo.”
[13] “The Fuhrer in Italy. Italy Displays her Naval Power to Herr Hitler,” Illustrated London News (London, UK), May 1938, 845-49.
[14] Paul Baxa, “Capturing the Fascist Moment: Hitler's Visit to Italy in 1938 and the Radicalization of Fascist Italy," Journal of Contemporary History 42, no. 2 (2007): 228.
[15] Baxa, “Capturing the Fascist Moment,” 229.
[16] Nelis, “Constructing the Fascist Identity: Benito Mussolini and the Myth of ‘Romanità,’” The Classical World 100, no. 4 (2007): 392-93.
[17] D. Medina Lasansky, Renaissance Perfected Architecture, Spectacle, and Tourism in Fascist Italy (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004), 85.
[18] Baxa, “Capturing the Fascist Moment,” 230; Lasansky, Renaissance Perfected, 85.
[19] Lasansky, Renaissance Perfected, 86.
[20] Lasansky, Renaissance Perfected, 85.
[21] Lasansky, Renaissance Perfected, 87.
[22] Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Mostra del Cinquecento in Toscano in Palazzo Strozzi.
[23] Lasansky, Renaissance Perfected, 77.
[24] Lasansky, Renaissance Perfected, 77.
[25] Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi (Florence, Italy). Mostra Del Cinquecento Toscano in Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze, Aprile-ottobre 1940-XVIII. Firenze: Marzocco, 1940.
[26] Neue Galerie New York, Ronald S. Lauder, Renée Price, Olaf Peters, and Bernhard Fulda, Degenerate Art: The Attack On Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937. 98. (Munich: Prestel, 2014).
[27] Lauder, et al. Degenerate Art, 91-2.
[28] Lauder, et al. Degenerate Art, 98, 95.
[29] Lauder, et al. Degenerate Art, 91. The quote comes directly from Hitler in his opening remarks of the GDK.
[30] Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War (New York: Knopf, 1994), 20.
[31] Lasansky, Renaissance Perfected, 74.
[32] Lasansky, Renaissance Perfected, 77.
[33] Mostra del Cinquecento Toscano was one of several exhibitions of Italian art objects supported by the Fascist state, both at home and abroad. See Andree Hayum, “Mussolini Exports the Renaissance: The Burlington House Exhibition of 1930 Revisited,” The Art Bulletin 101, no. 2 (2019); and Claudia Lazzaro and Roger J. Crum, Donatello among the Blackshirts: History and Modernity in the Visual Culture of Fascist Italy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015); Museo di Palazzo vecchio (Florence, Italy), and Alfredo Lensi. Mostra delle armi antiche ... [aprile-ottobre 1938]: catalogo. Florence: Tipocalcografia classica, 1938. The exhibition of arms and armor at the Palazzo Vecchio occurred simultaneously with the Mostra del Cinquecento Toscano.
[34] Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, “History of the Palazzo,” https://www-chicagomanualofstyle-org.libezproxy2.syr.edu/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html#cg-website; Plazzo Strozzi Foundation, “Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi,” https://www.palazzostrozzi.org/en/palazzo-strozzi-foundation/; Comune di Firenze, Mostra del Cinquecento in Palazzo Strozzi, 41.
[35]Lynn Meskell, “Negative Heritage and Past Mastering in Archaeology,” Anthropological Quarterly 75, no. 3 (2002): 558.
[36] Palazzo Strozzi, “History.”
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