In a building in via dei Banchi at n.5, the great Neapolitan painter Salvatore Rosa lived for a period of time. Arrived in the city of Florence around 1640 was immediately taken under the protective wing of Cardinal Giovan Carlo de’Medici second son of Cosimo II.
He was a highly specific and anti-current figure of the Baroque era. He was able to dwell in the building that belonged to the Lapaccini in the first period and after the Buontalenti and Giraldi because of the Medici Cardinal’s prerogative. Salvatore Rosa and his friends founded the Academy of Buoce in the small garden known as “The Albergo delle Muse” inside the various surrounding properties of via dei Banchi-via del Moro-via del Trebbio-via dei Rondinelli. The home became a meeting place for several artists, playwrights, and poets, including Giovan Battista Ricciardi, Evangelista Torricelli, Carlo Roberto Data, and Andrea Cavalcanti.
In addition to having a successful career as a painter, he eventually made the decision to forego commissions or short sales in spite of his large earnings because he wanted the freedom to create art for himself without having to specify the subject or set a price that was frequently quite expensive. Perhaps because of his numerous paintings (he was also known as Salvatore delle Battaglie), the Palatine Gallery, which previously stood at the Casino degli Orti Rucellai (via della Scala and Orto Rucellai), was the target of hateful conflicts. Today, the gallery offers breathtaking views of the sea.
Salvatore Rosa, a very specific character, was also an advocate for the paintings’ simpler, more linear frames. Typically, it is a setting in gold, silver, and mecca fir that has been sculpted and lumped (a method based on lightening, relative to the base color the places emphasized). These kinds of frames are still referred to as Salvatore Rosa.
