Palazzo Vecchio - Salone Dei Cinquecento

Salone Dei Cinquecento

This most imposing chamber has a length of 52 m (170 ft) and is 23 m (75 ft) broad. It was built in 1494 by Simone del Pollaiolo, on commission of Savonarola who, replacing the Medici after their exile as the spiritual leader of the Republic, wanted it as a seat of the Grand Council (Consiglio Maggiore) consisting of 500 members. Later the hall was enlarged by Giorgio Vasari so that Grand Duke Cosimo I could hold his court in this chamber. During this transformation famous (but unfinished) works were lost, including the Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo, and the Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was commissioned in 1503 to paint one long wall with a battle scene celebrating a famous Florentine victory. He was always trying new methods and materials and decided to mix wax into his pigments. Leonardo had finished painting part of the wall, but it wasn't drying fast enough, so he brought in braziers stoked with hot coals to try to hurry the process. As others watched in horror, the wax in the fresco melted under the intense heat and the colors ran down the walls to puddle on the floor. Michelangelo never even got past making the preparatory drawings for the fresco he was supposed to paint on the opposite wall—Pope Julius II called him to Rome to paint the Sistine Chapel, and the master's sketches were destroyed by eager young artists who came to study them and took away scraps. The surviving decorations in this hall were made between 1555 and 1572 by Giorgio Vasari and his helpers, among them Livio Agresti from Forlì. They mark the culmination of mannerism and make this hall the showpiece of the palace.

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
• Maximillian of Austria Attempts the Conquest of Leghorn
• Pisa Attacked by the Florentine Troops

The ceiling consists of 39 panels also 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 and towards the center is the apotheosis : Scene of His Glorification as Grand Duke of Florence and Tuscany

On the north side of the hall, illuminated by enormous windows, is the raised stage called the Udienza, built by Bartolommeo Bandinelli for Cosimo I to receive citizens and ambassadors. Above are frescoes of historical events; among these, that of Boniface VIII receiving the ambassadors of foreign States and, seeing that were all Florentines, saying: "You Florentines are the quintessence".

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".

There are also numerous bombastic Medicean tapestries on the walls, including Stories of the Life of St. John the Baptist, taken from the frescoes of Andrea del Sarto.

The six statues along the walls that represent the "Labors of Hercules" are by Vincenzo de'Rossi.

In the central niche at the south of the Hall is Michelangelo's famous marble group the "Genius of Victory" (1533–1534), originally intended for the tomb of Julius II. The statue was taken from the Bargello Museum.