ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 traces Florence’s revitalization under the reign of Granduke Ferdinand I and considers how his interest in water was marked by his experience as a Cardinal in Rome. This chapter chronicles how water informed his entry into Pisa as Granduke as well as his wedding to Christine of Lorraine in 1589, and especially two naval battles, or naumachiae, one along the Arno in Pisa and the other in the Pitti courtyard in Florence. The chapter presents a varied European context for naval spectacles on water and considers the multi-faceted portrayals of Turks in Habsburg-related imagery and accounts of the Battle of Lepanto. The Pitti Naumachia serves as a culmination of the Medici’s efforts to harness the forces of water in the realms of art and festival, and broke new ground in this robust international genre. This study stresses that water put this event on the map, an ambitious idea of Ferdinand’s made possible by Cosimo’s aqueducts. The book returns full circle to Ammannati’s Neptune Fountain, as new documentary material is presented that chronicles a restoration of both aqueduct and fountain, from the source of its waters at the Fonte alla Ginevra to its various statues.
