page_title: Palazzo Vecchio
section_title: Salone dei Cinquecento
hierarchical_section_title: Palazzo Vecchio / Salone dei Cinquecento
caption_attribution_description: English: The Salone dei Cinquecento, in the Palazzo Vecchio, in Florence. Français&#160;: Le Salone dei Cinquecento (Salon des Cinq Cent) du Palazzo Vecchio, à Florence.
context_page_description: The Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the Piazza della Signoria, which holds a copy of Michelangelo's David statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi.
  Originally called the Palazzo della Signoria, after the Signoria of Florence, the ruling body of the Republic of Florence, this building was also known by several other names: Palazzo del Popolo, Palazzo dei Priori, and Palazzo Ducale, in accordance with the varying use of the palace during its long history. The building acquired its current name when the Medici duke's residence was moved across the Arno River to the Palazzo Pitti.
context_section_description: The Salone dei Cinquecento ('Hall of the Five Hundred') is the most imposing chamber, with a length of 52 m (170 ft) and width of 23 m (75 ft). 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. Da Vinci had finished painting part of the wall, but it was not 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. A legend exists that Giorgio Vasari, wanting to preserve Da Vinci's work, had a false wall built over the top of The Battle of Anghiari before painting his fresco. Attempts made to find Da Vinci's original work behind the Vasari fresco have so far been inconclusive.
  Michelangelo never proceeded beyond the preparatory drawings for the fresco he was commissioned 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
  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.
  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 as a place 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". 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.
caption: Salone dei Cinquecento
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4272", "Image ImageLength": "2848", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 450D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2011:05:21 10:18:56", "Image Artist": "Guillaume Piolle", "Image Copyright": "Guillaume Piolle", "Image ExifOffset": "316", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "610", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "34879", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/2", "EXIF FNumber": "10", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:07:04 16:14:28", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1", "EXIF ApertureValue": "415241/62500", "EXIF FocalLength": "17", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3972", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2648"}