Villa di Poggio a Caiano

Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano

The Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano, also called Ambra, is one of the most famous Medici villas and is located in Poggio a Caiano (Prato). Today it is state owned and it houses two museums: one of the historic apartments (ground floor and first floor) and the Museum of Still Life (second floor).

The villa is perhaps the best example of architecture commissioned by Lorenzo il Magnifico, in this case to Giuliano da Sangallo towards 1480.[citation needed] It is no coincidence that this is a private building, where there are elements that later modeled for the future developments of the type of villas: internal and external penetration through filters such as loggias, symmetrical distribution of environments around a central salon ("Centrifugal" space), dominant position in the landscape, conscious recovery of classical architectural elements (such as the barrel vault and the ionic temple façade).[1]: 137 

  1. ^ Pierluigi De Vecchi and Elda Cerchiari, The Times of Art, Volume 2, Bompiani, Milan 1999. ISBN 88-451-7212-0