Abstract

Princely architect, art connoisseur and much else besides, Don Giovanni de' Medici, natural son of Cosimo I, spent a lifetime seeking to cultivate the admiration of the Medici clan. His art acquisitions, his evaluations of the materials of art, and his works of military and civil architecture, all carried out in the midst of military engagements or preparations for them, left a lasting mark on Florentine culture. In examining these endeavours this paper attempts to add a new dimension to our understanding of the relation between art and warfare in a key period of European statebuilding.