- Gonfaloniere
The Gonfaloniere was a highly prestigious communal post in
medieval andRenaissance Italy , notably inFlorence . The name derives from "gonfalone ", the term used for the banners of such communes.In Florence, he was one of the nine citizens selected by drawing lots every two months, who formed the government, or Signoria. As "Gonfaloniere di Giustizia" he was the temporary standard-bearer of the
Republic of Florence and custodian of the city's banner, which was displayed from the yardarm of a portable cross. To distinguish him from his other eight colleagues, his crimson coat, lined with ermine, was further embroidered with golden stars. Each of Florence's neighborhoods, or "rioni", had its own "priore" who might be selected to serve on the council, and its own "gonfaloniere di compagnia" selected from the first families of each quarter.Other central and northern Italian communes, from
Spoleto toPiemonte , elected or appointed "gonfalonieri." The Bentivoglio family ofBologna aspired to this office during the sixteenth century. A century later, however, whenArtemisia Gentileschi painted a portrait ofPietro Gentile as a gonfaloniere ofBologna in1622 , with the "gonfalone" in the background, the office had merely symbolic value.External links
* [http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/gonfaloniere.html Portrait of Pietro Gentile as a gonfaloniere of Bologna] by
Artemisia Gentileschi , 1622.
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