Archive note: this exhibition has ended. It was presented at the Museo di Palazzo Vecchio from 13 December 2019 to 15 March 2020.
Cosimo I de’ Medici and his ducal palace
In Cosimo’s Palace. Symbols of Power marked 450 years since the papal bull by Pius V naming Cosimo Grand Duke of Tuscany. The project retraced, room by room, the habits, meanings and functions of life in the Medici residence at Palazzo Vecchio.
Cosimo became Duke of Florence in 1537 and moved his court into the palace in 1540. The building was subsequently transformed and enlarged, with major works coordinated by Giorgio Vasari from 1555.
A special focus was placed on three symbols of power displayed in the Hall of the Audience: the Collar of the Golden Fleece, the Grand-Ducal Sceptre and the Grand-Ducal Crown. Goldsmith Paolo Penko created them following detailed study of written and iconographic sources; they were displayed on hand-woven silk velvet produced in collaboration with the Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio.
The project was curated by Carlo Francini and Valentina Zucchi and formed part of the celebrations for the five-hundredth anniversary of the births of Cosimo I and Catherine de’ Medici.
