Ceiling decoration

Giorgio Vasari and assistants decorated the ceiling of the Sala di Cosimo il Vecchio in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. In the centre the scene of Cosimo’s Return from Exile in 1434 is depicted, while other episodes from the life of Cosimo the Elder are around.

The decoration of large halls with the deeds of the nobility and their ancestors was intended to inspire the viewer’s admiration. The depiction of such events from the recent past has a long tradition. Most such cycles in the first half of the sixteenth century, however, are dedicated to a single person or event. By contrast, from the middle of the century onward this genre was increasingly devoted to the representation of dynasties. The first steps in this direction were taken by a family that did not belonged to the old aristocracy, but knew enough to exploit skillfully the memory of its ancestors for propaganda purposes - namely the Medici in Florence during the years of that city’s transition from a republic to a principate. Duke Cosimo I openly exploited the depiction of the history of the older Medici in the Palazzo Vecchio to justify his own position. This decoration occupied Vasari and his workshop from 1556 to 1571, with interruptions, and its final version comprised more than a hundred individual depictions of historical themes.