Florence Triumphant over Pisa
by GIAMBOLOGNA, Marble, height 262 cm
This group was commissioned from Giambologna for the Sala del Cinquecento (the Great Council Hall) of the Palazzo Vecchio. In preparation for the wedding of Francesco I and Joanna of Austria, Cosimo I de’ Medici had the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio decorated with scenes relating to Florentine military triumphs: the marble Victory which Michelangelo had abandoned when he had departed Florence three decades earlier would go against a wall showing the conquest of Siena, and the new statue by Giambologna the wall opposite, which Vasari’s team was painting with scenes showing the city’s triumph over Pisa.