Art, religion, and diplomacy in the life of Costantino de’ Servi (1554 – 1622)

Nature as model: Salomon de Caus and early seventeenth century landscape design (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007); also Pagnini, ch. IV, pp. 206–09.

lxviii^ ‘Questo Serenissimo Principe mi mostra tanta familiarita e’ affetione con il desiderio grande che io resti’ [This most Serene Prince shows much familiarity and affection for me, together with a great desire that I might stay]. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 971, fol. 9 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in London, to the Grand duchess in Florence – 6 Aug 1611). Costantino had only arrived in London two months earlier, in June 1611.

lxix^ Both Gargano, ch. IV, and Pagnini, ch. IV, esp. pp. 210–11, discuss these jealousies at length.

lxx^ For Costantino’s salary, only confirmed in spring 1612, see Pagnini, ch. IV, p. 232. Salomon de Caus had been assigned since 1610 a yearly salary of £100, and Inigo Jones of £50 only; see Pagnini, ch. IV, p. 207 for both. It should however be noted that both Jones and de Caus were about twenty years younger than Costantino.

lxxi^ See S. Eiche, ‘Prince Henry’s Richmond: The Project by Costantino de’ Servi’ in Apollo: The international magazine of the arts 148:441 (1998); also Morgan, Nature as model, esp. ch. 4.

lxxii^ Pagnini (ch. IV, pp. 237–38) records that shortly before his death Prince Henry had instructed Costantino to travel to Italy in order to gather materials for the new Richmond Palace; clearly, the works had not yet started.

lxxiii^ See Gargano, ch. IV.

lxxiv^ See Pagnini, chs IV & V. Costantino seems to have been unable to speak English, which would have proved a major handicap in the absence of an Italian-speaking patron like Henry Prince of Wales.

lxxv^ Two letters survive from this stay: ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 1363, fol. nn (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in The Hague, to Andrea Cioli in Florence – 10 Nov 1615); and ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 1363, fol. nn (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in The Hague, to Andrea Cioli in Florence – 20 Nov 1615).

lxxvi^ ‘Costantino de Servi, servitore di Vostra Altezza passando di qua alcuni mesi or sono, mi fu raccomandato dalla principessa elettrice palatina come uno dei cari servitori lasciati dal già principe di Galles, suo fratello.’ [As Costantino de’ Servi, servant of Your Highness, was on his way through these lands a few months ago, he was recommended to me by the Princess Electress Palatine, as one of the dear servants left by the late Prince of Wales, her brother.] Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 4467, fol. 124r (letter from the Duke of Württemberg, in Stuttgart, to the Grand Duke of Tuscany – 2 Nov 1616), as quoted in Bardazzi, ch. 2.1.5.

lxxvii^ A copy of the passport is at ASF, Miscellanea Medicea, Filza 612, fol. 191. That Costantino did spend some time in Milan is confirmed by a later letter, where a passage reads ‘In fra Don Pietro di Toledo e’ qua’ [in between (being at) Don Pietro di Toledo’s and here (in Weimar)]. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 996, fol. 75 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Weimar, to Curzio Picchena in Florence – 5 Apr 1619).

lxxviii^ ‘Gli è piaciuto all’altezza vostra, invece di Giulio Parigi, favorirmi di Costantino de’ Servi, il quale arrivò qua appunto dopo una disgrazia avvenuta in questo palazzo di un fuoco appiccatosi di nascosto che ne levò più di metà delle fabbriche e altro.’ [Your Highness has been pleased, instead of Giulio Parigi, to have the courtesy to send me Costantino de’ Servi, who arrived here just after a disgrace happened to this palace: a fire that started secretly and ended up destroying more than half its buildings and yet other things.] Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, filza 4467, fol. nn (letter from Johann Ernst I of Saxe-Weimar, in Weimar, to the Grand Duke of Tuscany – 21 Nov 1619), as quoted in Bardazzi, ch. 2.1.5.

lxxix^ A first mention of the palace is found in ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 996, fol. 75 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Weimar, to Curzio Picchena in Florence – 5 Apr 1619); the full description of its size, spatial organisation, and decoration is given in ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 996, fol. 900 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Weimar, to Curzio Picchena in Florence – 25 Sep 1619).

lxxx^ A Florentine creditor of the de’ Servi had demanded immediate payment, and the sum sent home by Costantino arrived too late, greatly diminished in value by ‘vn conto de Cambi á 40 per Cento di Norimberga á fiorenza’ [an exchange rate at 40 percent from Nuremberg to Florence]; see ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 996, fol. 75 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Weimar, to Curzio Picchena in Florence – 5 Apr 1619).

lxxxi^ ‘nell popolo di San Saluadore In borgo ogni santi’. Verbatim from ASF, Decima Granducale, Filza 2379, item 865 (arroti del Quartiere Santa Croce – Gonfalone Carro – Anno 1618 – Spoglio di decima di ‘Costantino di Francesco di Costantino di Francesco de Serui’).

lxxxii^ ‘mi diedero stanza in casa del signor Costantino de Servi [...] qual mette capo con la parte di dietro nel fiume vicino al ponte della Carraia.’ Verbatim from Mantua, Archivio di Stato, AG, b. 1126, f. III, fol. 76 (letter from Gabriele Bertazzolo, in Florence, to the Mantuan court – 30 Sep 1608), as quoted in R. Piccinelli, Le Collezioni Gonzaga: Il Carteggio tra Firenze e Mantova (Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2000), pp. 226–28, letter n° 518.

lxxxiii^ ‘Dal purgatorio al paradiso mi ritrovo per grazia di Dio e della Maria Vergine poiché ho passato tanti pericoli dell’anima e del corpo essendo arrivato per passaggio a Neuburg’ [From purgatory to paradise I find myself by the grace of God and the Virgin Mary, for I have passed many dangers for the soul and the body before arriving in Neuburg]. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, filza 997, fol. 545 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Neuburg, to the grand-ducal secretaries – 24/12/1619), as quoted in Bardazzi, ch. 2.1.5.

lxxxiv^ The request to be appointed Capitano of Fivizzano, or indeed another public office with a similar revenue, was reiterated a number of times in ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 996, fol. 75 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Weimar, to Curzio Picchena in Florence – 5 Apr 1619).

lxxxv^ See Pagnini, ch. IV.

lxxxvi^ See ASF, Tratte, Filza 992, fol. 33 (lists of citizens appointed to various ‘uffici estrinseci’ [administrative posts outside Florence] from 1612 to 1642).

lxxxvii^ ‘Obiit die 27 Juni 1622’ [passed away on the day 27 June 1622]. Verbatim from ibidem: ASF, Tratte, Filza 992, fol. 33 (lists of citizens appointed to various ‘uffici estrinseci’ [administrative posts outside Florence] from 1612 to 1642).

lxxxviii^ His burial is not mentioned in the funerary registries of Florence for the year 1622: neither in ASF, Arte dei Medici e Speziali, Filza 257 (‘Libro dei morti’ [book of the dead, ie register of the deceased] for the year 1622); nor in ASF, Ufficiali poi Magistrato della Grascia, Filza 194 (‘Libro dei morti’ [book of the dead, ie register of the deceased] for the year 1622). This suggests he might have been buried in Lucignano; the local ‘Libri dei morti’ for the year 1622, however, exceptionally records only the date of death, and no further information about the burial, which cannot therefore be traced.

lxxxix^ ‘il maestro di Gostantino nella pittura’. Verbatim from Baldinucci, p. 210.

xc^ See Baldinucci, pp. 210–11.

xci^ ‘principi oltramontani’. Verbatim from Baldinucci, p. 211.

xcii^ I owe this identification to Pagnini, ch. III, p. 158.

xciii^ That Costantino was a pupil of Santi di Tito influenced by Pourbus has been repeated by Gargano, ch. IV; by S. Meloni-Trkulia, ‘De’ Servi, Costantino’, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 31 (Rome: Enciclopedia Italiana, 1991); by Bardazzi, ch. 2.1.5; and by Pagnini, ch. III.

xciv^ Florence, Biblioteca degli Uffizi, MS 71 (‘Inventario di tutte le fighure quadri, e altra Cose della tribuna cominciando da mandestra della porta da basso – dal 1589 al 1634’), fols. 6ff. See also Chapter I.

xcv^ See supra, Chapter I for a more detailed description of Costantino’s ever-expanding artistic remit.

xcvi^ See for example E. Cochrane’s monograph with the same title: Florence in the forgotten centuries, 1527-1800 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973).

xcvii^ For the Florentine artistic milieu, and its pre-eminence in Europe, see G. Spini (ed.), Architettura e politica da Cosimo I a Ferdinando I (Florence: Olschki, 1976); F. Diaz, ‘Il Granducato di Toscana: i Medici’, in G. Galasso, Storia d’Italia (Torino: UTET, 1976), vol. XIII, tomo I; S. Mamone, Il teatro nella Firenze Medicea (Milan: Mursia, 1981); and M. Fantoni, La corte del granduca: forme e simboli del potere mediceo fra Cinque e Seicento (Rome: Bulzoni, 1994).

xcviii^ See supra, Chapter I for details on Costantino’s employment at the Medici court.

xcix^ On the pietre dure, see Baldinucci, pp. 217–21; and also R.J.W. Evans, Rudolf II and his World: A Study in Intellectual History, 1576-1612 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), ch. 5.

c^ Baldinucci, pp. 217–21.

ci^ ‘non per istudio ma dalla natura dotato e inclinato al disegno’. Baldinucci, p. 208. See also supra, Chapter I.

cii^ Baldinucci, pp. 209–10. See also supra, Chapter I.

ciii^ On Santi di Tito’s training, see Giglioli, O.H., ‘Santi di Tito’, in Enciclopedia Treccani (Rome: Enciclopedia Italiana, 1936).

civ^ Baldinucci, p. 209.

cv^ In a letter from Prague written on 28 March 1604—ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 922, fol. 445 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Pisa – 28 Mar 1604)—Costantino wrote that ‘sebene io ho la pratica e’ la lingua non ci staro uolentieri [in questi paesi]’ [despite having both the habit and the (knowledge of) the tongue I will not gladly remain (in these lands)].

cvi^ ‘Laitemis chastello delo Illustrissimo Signore Pernestan mesegnior’. Verbatim from ASF, Carte Strozziane, Filza 301, fol. 77 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, at Litomyšl castle, to Giambattista Concini in Vienna – 27 Feb 1574).

cvii^ On Wratislaw von Pernstein, and his court at Litomyšl, see Evans, Rudolf II and his World, esp. ch. 4.

cviii^ ‘quanto alla stanza del signior e molto bella fabricha’. Verbatim from ASF, Carte Strozziane, Filza 301, fol. 77 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, at Litomyšl castle, to Giambattista Concini in Vienna – 27 Feb 1574).

cix^ ‘o adesso fornito unritratto pocho mancho dintereza della sua filiola […] e uo seguitando afare certi ritratti che amandato il Signore dietristano che io o da chopiare’. Verbatim from ibidem: ASF, Carte Strozziane, Filza 301, fol. 77 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, at Litomyšl castle, to Giambattista Concini in Vienna – 27 Feb 1574).

cx^ Evans, Rudolf II and his World. The quote is from the Dutch art historian Karel van Mander (1548–1606) and comes from p. 162.

cxi^ See Evans, Rudolf II and his World, esp. ch. 5.

cxii^ He was apparently responding to an explicit grand-ducal request to survey the Imperial artistic establishment. See ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 925, fol. 350 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Florence – 5 Oct 1604).

cxiii^ ‘un pittore fiamingo domandato Brugol’. Verbatim from ibidem: ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 925, fol. 350 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Florence – 5 Oct 1604). I owe the identification of this ‘Brugol’ as Jan Brueghel the Elder to Gargano, ch. IV, p. 163.

cxiv^ Again, these identifications are Gargano’s (ch. IV, p. 163).

cxv^ ‘il Ladeler che in taglia in Rame’. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 925, fol. 350 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Florence – 5 Oct 1604). On Sadeler, see Evans, Rudolf II and his World, ch. 5.

cxvi^ ‘Ce da poco in qua venuto, al seruitio di S.M. uno che lavora di ricamo’ [One who works in embroidery has come here into the service of His Majesty since not long ago]. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 925, fol. 350 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Florence – 5 Oct 1604).

cxvii^ ‘il Milanese domandato Miserone’. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 925, fol. 350 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Florence – 5 Oct 1604). This is identified by Gargano (ch. IV, p. 163) as either of the two Milanese brothers Gaspero and Gerolamo Miseroni.

cxviii^ ‘Quanto alle cose di Comesso, non ce altri che il Castuco’. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 925, fol. 350 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Florence – 5 Oct 1604). Again, the identification of this as Giovanni Castrucci is Gargano’s (ch. IV, p. 163).

cxix^ ‘si guarda damme con gran gelosia’. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 925, fol. 350 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Florence – 5 Oct 1604).

cxx^ The foremost example being Gargano, who treats him as one of the ‘Italians’ who might have influenced Shakespeare. His inclusion in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (cf Meloni-Trkulia, ‘De’ Servi, Costantino’) should also be mentioned.

cxxi^ ‘ditalia’. Many instances; see for example ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 996, fol. 75 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Weimar, to Curzio Picchena in Florence – 5 Apr 1619).

cxxii^ The authority of the Emperor over Tuscany, however, was little more than nominal compared to that of the Spanish King. See G. Spini, Cosimo I de’ Medici e l’indipendenza del principato mediceo (Florence: Vallecchi, 1980); C. Sodini, L’Ercole Tirreno: Guerra e dinastia medicea nella prima metà del ’600 (Florence: Olschki, 2001) and also Section II of Chapter III of this dissertation.

cxxiii^ ‘Farò ricordo come dall’anno 1568 fino a questo dì primo di maggio 1612 io Gostantino de’ Servi, ho per diverse parti del mondo viaggiato, sì da per me, come per comodo di altri principi.’ Costantino de’ Servi, lost London MS, as quoted in Baldinucci, p. 208.

cxxiv^ I have not been able to consult the original of the letter. Fortunately, Costantino himself copied it out in his letter to Ferdinando I asking for his permission to remain in the service of Rudolf II: see ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 920, fols. 273–74 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Ferdinando I in Florence – 20 Nov 1603).

cxxv^ ‘mi diletto di diuerse Cose In materia di Pittura Scoltura e’ Architetura’. Verbatim from ibidem: ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 920, fols. 273–74 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Ferdinando I in Florence – 20 Nov 1603).

cxxvi^ ‘so operare come ben comandare’. Verbatim from ibidem: ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 920, fols. 273–74 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Ferdinando I in Florence – 20 Nov 1603).

cxxvii^ ‘passaporto e’ breuetto del Re di francia con titolo di Ingegniere e’ soprantendente di dette Arti’. Verbatim from ibidem: ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 920, fols. 273–74 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Ferdinando I in Florence – 20 Nov 1603). The apparent interchangeability of the concepts of art and science, symbolised here by the replacement of ‘scienzie’ with ‘Arti’ on an afterthought, is very interesting.

cxxviii^ ‘il Gran Duca mio Signore’—that is, Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 920, fols. 273–74 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Ferdinando I in Florence – 20 Nov 1603).

cxxix^ This paragraph is based on G. Spini, (ed.), Architettura e politica da Cosimo I a Ferdinando I (Florence: Olschki, 1976), ‘Introduzione Generale’. On the Tuscan aristocracy and their relationship to the Medici court, see also M. Fantoni, La corte del granduca: forme e simboli del potere mediceo fra Cinque e Seicento (Rome: Bulzoni, 1994), esp. ch. I.

cxxx^ His real estate properties were recorded in a tax assessment document of 1618—ASF, Decima Granducale, Filza 2379, item 865 (‘arroti del Quartiere Santa Croce – Gonfalone Carro – Anno 1618 – Spoglio di decima di ‘Costantino di Francesco di Costantino di Francesco de Serui’)—and again after his death, in 1623—ASF, Decima Granducale, Filza 2386, item 95 (‘arroti del Quartiere Santa Croce – Gonfalone Carro – Anno 1623 – Spoglio di decima di ‘Francescho GiovanDomenico et Ferdinando di Gostantino di Francesco di Gostantino de Serui’). Their area was not always recorded, but it seems to have been comprised between 20 and 40 Florentine stiora, corresponding to 100 to 200 ares, or 1 to 2 hectares.

cxxxi^ On early modern ideals of courtly nobility, with particular reference to the work of Castiglione, see G. Hanlon, Early Modern Italy, 1550-1800 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000), ch. 3; and J.R. Snyder, Dissimulation and the culture of secrecy in early modern Europe (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009).

cxxxii^ ‘disegni e’ Modelli’. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 1363, fol. nn (Letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in The Hague, to Andrea Cioli in Florence – 20 Nov 1615).

cxxxiii^ ‘destreza e’ dimesticheza di Principi’. Verbatim from ibidem: ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 1363, fol. nn (Letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in The Hague, to Andrea Cioli in Florence – 20 Nov 1615).

cxxxiv^ ‘credo che la sappia che sotto protesto delle poce Virtu che Dio mi adato non mi e tenuto Portiera ne tauol[o di] Principi auendo tenuto sempre il mio decoro da Gentilomo e’ non altrimenti e come certifica le mia Pat[enti] e’ lettere di Principi’. Verbatim from ibidem: ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 1363, fol. nn (Letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in The Hague, to Andrea Cioli in Florence – 20 Nov 1615).

cxxxv^ Andrea Cioli was sent from Florence to replace Ottaviano Lotti, the Florentine resident at the English court, while the latter travelled to Rome to obtain the Pope’s approval for the planned marriage between Caterina de’ Medici and Henry Prince of Wales. During that same time, Costantino was serving Henry as his chief architect and art expert. See Pagnini, ch. II.

cxxxvi^ ‘Io aueuo dato delle pugnialate à uno che maueua chiamato Pittore [...], ma con il pome del pugniale á chi per inguria parue di auermi trattato auendomi cosi menato, e dissi che lo farei di nuouo quando in faccia mi sara porto tal parola maligniamente et non per ignioranza et che mai fui pittore senon per mio Capriccio et per sotisfare à principi e’ alli amici e’ non mercenariamente.’ Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 922, fol. 445 (Letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Pisa – 28 Mar 1604).

cxxxvii^ See Hanlon, Early Modern Italy, ch. 3.

cxxxviii^ ‘la sua Auaritia’. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 928, fol. 320 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Florence – 22 Mar 1605).

cxxxix^ ‘andrebono à pigliare qualsiuoglia galantomo senza rispetto alcuno’. Verbatim from ibidem: ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 928, fol. 320 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Florence – 22 Mar 1605). Note the use of the word ‘gentleman’.

cxl^ ‘ma per che io conoscho che egli é amico del Peza […] potria essere che non la racontassi troppo in fauor mio’. Verbatim from ibidem: ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 928, fol. 320 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Belisario Vinta in Florence – 22 Mar 1605).

cxli^ This paragraph draws on J. Martin, ‘Inventing Sincerity, Refashioning Prudence: The Discovery of the Individual in Renaissance Europe’, American Historical Review 102:5 (1997), pp. 1309–42.

cxlii^ I owe my understanding of confessionalization and its critics to U. Lotz-Heumann, ‘Confessionalization’, in The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013).

cxliii^ ‘Andando á Messa á Cappuccini’. Recurrent: see for example ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 920, Carte 273–74 (letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in Prague, to Ferdinando I in Florence – 20 Nov 1603). Bardazzi, ch. 2.1.5, identifies this as the Franciscan church built by the Italian community resident in Prague

cxliv^ ‘l’incomodita delle mia Messe e’ diuotione’. Verbatim from ASF, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 971, Carta 9 (Letter from Costantino de’ Servi, in London, to Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena in Florence – 6 Aug 1611).

cxlv^ ‘che dio guardi le poueri Cattolici che innocenti no