[Florence] Palazzo Vecchio
The cubical building is made of solid rusticated stonework, with two rows of two-lighted Gothic windows, each with a trefoil arch.
Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (later to become grand duke) moved his official seat from the Medici palazzo in via Larga to the Palazzo della Signoria in May 1540, signalling the security of Medici power in Florence. When Cosimo later removed to Palazzo Pitti, he officially renamed his former palace the Palazzo Vecchio, the “Old Palace”
The building is crowned with projecting crenellated battlements, supported by small arches and corbels. Under the arches are a repeated series of nine painted coats of arms of the Florentine republic. Some of these arches can be used as embrasures (spiombati) for dropping heated liquids or rocks on invaders.
On the walls are large and expansive frescoes that depict battles and military victories by Florence over Pisa and Siena:
- The Taking of Siena
- The Conquest of Porto Ercole
- The Victory of Cosimo I at Marciano in Val di Chiana
- Defeat of the Pisans at the Tower of San Vincenzo
- Maximilian of Austria Attempts the Conquest of Leghorn
- Pisa Attacked by the Florentine Troops
The ceiling consists of 39 panels constructed and painted by Vasari and his assistants, representing Great Episodes from the life of Cosimo I, the quarters of the city, and the city itself. Toward the center is the apotheosis: Scene of His Glorification as Grand Duke of Florence and Tuscany.
In the niches are sculptures by Bandinelli: in the center the statue of the seated “Leo X” (sculpted assisted by his student Vincenzo de’ Rossi), and on the right a statue of “Charles V crowned by Clement VII”. The six statues along the walls that represent the “Labors of Hercules” are by de’ Rossi.
In the central niche at the south of the Hall is Michelangelo’s noted marble group The Genius of Victory (1533–1534), originally intended for the tomb of Julius II. The statue was placed in this hall by Vasari. In 1868 it was removed to the Bargello Museum, but was returned in 1921 by officials.
