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The Grand Duke and the Counter Reformation, 1570 in Florence

When compared to the decade between 1555-1565, the final years of Cosimo's reign saw much less building and construction. Cosimo had obtained the title of Grand Duke in 1569. The most important works were sponsored by Francesco and most of these were carried out in the suburban areas (Villa di Pratolino;Casino Mediceo, etc.) and other parts of the region (Logge del Vasari in Arezzo and works in Leghorn, Pisa and other cities).

Three years earlier in the Piazza del Mercato Vecchio, Vasari had built the long and narrow Loggia del Pesce, for fishmongers to show their goods. Today it stands in Piazza dei Ciompi, but has no actual purpose. The absolutist policies of Cosimo I focused his construction activities on "government" buildings, leaving little room, as it were, for religious buildings. In fact, he seemed to prefer rebuilding existing structures according to methods which, rather than creating something new, aimed at bringing even religious buildings into line with the forms and goals of the regime (see Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, Santa Maria del Fiore and Santa Maria del Carmine).

Cosimo I, however, "if for nothing other than political reasons, had seconded the initiatives of the Counter Reformation, especially in the artistic-monumental field". The Jesuits came to Florence in 1546. Censoring of heretic writings began in 1549; the first Index Librorium Prohibitorum was accepted in Florence, albeit with much moderation, in 1559 and books were burned in Piazza San Giovanni and Piazza Santa Croce. The law against extravagance was issued in 1562; and in 1582 Ammannati wrote his letter condemning nudity in art in 1582.

Vasari's destructive "modernizations" in Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella (1566) and Santa Maria' del Carmine (1568) also fit into this context. Old choirs were destroyed frescoes were eliminated or painted over in order to place out-of-proportion altars on the walls. From Vasari's words in The Lives attributing the idea and desire for these actions to the Prince, it seems that he realized the doubtful nature of these undertakings.

In the 1568 edition he described some already destroyed masterpieces as still extant. The Counter Reformation led to profound crisis for some artists, bringing about that typical inner conflict between rigor and taste that marked so many works of that period.

In Ammannati's activities the spiritual crisis was resolved in a personal reformation of the language and concept of architecture as evident in the plans for the Jesuit church and convent in Via Larga (plans: 1568; work started: 1579). It was a singular project in scale and qualification. The stark rigor preached by the counter reformation ideology was transformed from Ammannati's highly sensible architecture into an intellectualistic simplification full of tensions that were repressed, subtly declined and resolved.

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