Seeds, Marbles, and Spugni: The Many Presents of Ferdinando of Tuscany to Henri IV of France

• In Event: Medici Materials: From Substance to Artefact I

Abstract

Recent discoveries in the State Archives of Florence shed a new light on the role of the medicean techniques and materials in the interplay of diplomatic relationship between Tuscany and France, before Henri IV’ marriage with Marie de’ Medici. Between 1597–1601 works of art — including some engraved crystals by Billivelt and bronzes by Giambologna — were shipped from Florence to Paris with a large quantity of plants, marble stones, seashells and other materials. The whole was intended as a diplomatic present for Henri IV. Confronting this new documentation with our knowledge of artistic production at the court of France, we will address the notion of toscanità which may be easily retraced in the correspondence of the Italian agents, but becomes much more fuzzy, or even uncertain, when one considers the way the Tuscan techniques, materials and artworks were actually used, reworked or displayed in the French royal residences.

Author

• Emmanuel Lurin, Université Paris-Sorbonne