The Museum of Palazzo Vecchio

by Valentina Zucchi

The guide to the Museum of the Palazzo Vecchio accompanies visitors to one of the most important buildings of the Renaissance, the palace symbolizing civic power in the city of Florence. When Cosimo I rose to power in 1537, the edifice was profoundly transformed by Giorgio Vasari and became the place celebrating the enlightened Medici power and the unification of Tuscany.

The guide, complete with magnificent reproductions, brings you to the Salone dei Cinquecento, where you can learn about the unique fresco cycle illustrating episodes in the history of Florence, as well as the wars against Pisa and Siena. The tour continues with the rooms dedicated to the Medici family, the “Dei terrestri” or terrestrial gods, as Vasari defined them, and the corresponding rooms on the upper floor devoted to mythology and the “Dei celesti” or celestial gods. These are followed by the ducal apartments, including the Chapel of Eleonora, exquisitely frescoed by Bronzino, the Medici family’s favourite court painter, as well as other rooms, including the chancellery, where Machiavelli worked. The tour ends with the mezzanine, which holds the Loeser Donation, named after the bequest of the American scholar and art collector, and Arnolfo’s tower, which rises to a height of 95 metres to dominate the city, becoming one of its most unmistakable emblems. This structure also has great symbolic value as it stood over the tower-houses of Florentine families.

The guidebook also offers historical information on the studiolo of Francesco I de’ Medici and the works – now lost – by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo in the Salone dei Cinquecento, The Battle of Anghiari by the former and The Battle of Cascina by the latter.