Published in Games from Antiquity to Baroque

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Starting in 1540, Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574) commissioned a series of structural and decorative reforms in the old seat of the Republic of Florence, the Palazzo della Signoria, transforming it into the official residence of his principato. One of the first artistic commissions ordered by the duke was the chapel dedicated to his wife, Eleonora de Toledo (1522-1562), decorated in fresco by Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572) between 1541 and 1543. This chapel stands out as one of the earliest and most significant examples of the Florentine aesthetic language from the mid-16th century. Resulted from a series of artistic and theoretical developments that took place in the first half of the century, it is characterized by highly symbolic expressiveness whose content manifests in a polysemic manner, simultaneously incorporating various levels of meaning, including political, religious, and philosophical elements. In this sense, the present study analyzes the respective pictorial cycle considering the Neoplatonic aesthetic speculations circulating within Italian and Florentine culture, influencing contemporary conceptions of the nature of artistic beauty and its appreciation, linking this process to a broader attitude that characterized Medici patronage.