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Ponte Vecchio - Photo (c)
Rita Crane
(photo for sale)
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The art of the goldsmith
The production of handcrafts
in Florence has always gone hand in hand with the
production of art, and the most outstanding example of
this centuries-long cooperation and cross fertilization
for mutual enrichment is without doubt the art of the
goldsmith. Melting, engraving and crafting have been
conducted on the Ponte Vecchio since 1593 when Ferdinando
I dei Medici decreed that the shops of the gold and
silversmiths and jewelers be moved from the area of the
new San Lorenzo market to the Ponte Vecchio.
From the end of the 14th century, silversmith production
in Florence was of two different kinds. There were the
Grand Duchy shops whose products – mainly for the
continual flow of orders from the Court – were
extravagant, experimental, highly refined, and open to
ideas from abroad; and there were the workshops of the
Ponte Vecchio, whose more traditional kind of product was
for a more mundane public and the nascent bourgeoisie.
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