DATINI's PALACE/2
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Gerini painted also the fourteen figures painted in the courtyard, the seven vices and seven virtues which adorned the loggia, together with the four philosophers impressed into the lunettes (all frescoes which are, by now, extremely deteriorated), as well as some other paintings the traces of which have completely disappeared.



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At the same time, Agnolo di Taddeo Gaddi and Bartolomeo di Bertozzo were working on some simpler ornamentation: the lily-motif on the vaults, the "corbels" between the lunettes and the figures in the loggia, the "bench covers", the columns, the window splays and the marble which was more or less all over the place. They also did the bedroom ceilings, the rafters, the wooden urns and listels.

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They decorated one of the rooms as well, the one "above the wine vault" with the "tree-painted walls" and the ceiling bearing "yellow lilies on a dark background and four painted scallops with arms ".



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These extensions and the restructuring did not, however, come to a halt, while the building was enhanced with the acquisition of adjacent edifices. In 1399, on bringing this unceasing building to an end, Datini calculated that that the overall cost of his homestead stood at over 6,000 florins.

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The work, carried out in several bouts over the years and which, in actual fact, terminated only shortly before his death, with the frescoed wall decoration and the richness of the furnishings which are widely documented in the DATINI's ARCHIVE, gradually transformed the palazzo into a residence of prestige. More than once was it used, not only by Datini but also by none other than the Prato municipal authorities, to accommodate prominent personages visiting the city.


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After Datini's death, the external façade was entirely frescoed at the expense of the Ceppi institution with scenes from the merchant's life. Today only a few fragmentary sinopias remain.


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© Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica "F. Datini"