ful mag cover
FUL magazine is the result of the work of the cultural association FUL – Firenze Urban Lifestyle which aims to disseminate Florentine urban culture, portraying the city not only as an open-air museum but in its current liveliness and fervor, in search for the best artistic and artisan talents.
The desire to depict the city in a new key has led us to a long-term collaboration: 4 covers, one for each season of the year starting from Spring 2023, one for each district of Florence: Santa Croce, Santo Spirito, Santa Maria Novella and San Giovanni.
The protagonist of the second issue is the Boboli Garden, located in the Santo Spirito district.
The Boboli hill had been used as a quarry for pietraforte since the Middle Age; the Boboli amphitheater was built on the hollow that has been created and Palzzo Pitti itself was built using material from the same quarry.
The fact that the quarry was located inside the current Boboli garden is particularly curious because, it is as though Palazzo Pitti was already underground and sufficient to “turn it” up.
The protagonist of the theatrical scene is the Nano Morgante, the most celebrated of the five dwarfs of the Medici court. Born with dwarfism, Morgante, nicknamed ironically like the giant of the homonymous poem by Luigi Pulci, was a very intelligent and lovable man, highly rispected by Cosimo I de Medici, that he chose him as his personal adviser.
Nonetheless, he was admired and derided at the same time as evidenced by the epitaph written on the occasion of his death “Un nano ch’ebbe nome di gigante giace sepolto in questo ricco avello, ch’ebbe natura, colore e sembianze d’uomo, di bestia, di paese e d’uccello; fu così contraffatto e stravagante e tanto brutto che pareva bello; onde e con ragione si potrà dirgli tu sol te stesso e null’altro somigli”.
The scene is represented under the eyes of Cosimo I de Medici and Eleonora di Toledo, who bought the property which became the residence of the Medici family, allegorically represented as a goat and a peacock, and the various elements of the the Garden itself, such as the artichoke, the lemon, the roses and the six balls (or bezants), five red and one blue, which reflect the Medici family coat of arms.
