Cosimo de´Medici returning to Florence from exile in 1434
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: 29,6 x 28,1 cm
Inventory numberNMH 139/1863
Other titlesTitel (sv): Cosimo de' Medici återvänder till Florens 1434 efter ett knappt års landsförvisning Titel (en): Cosimo de´Medici returning to Florence from exile in 1434
DescriptionDescription: Numbered in pen and brown ink at lower right: 99 (Sparre) and 52 (struck out) and at upper left: 43 Bacchiacca's previously unknown squared "modello" is the only fully realized extant design for one of the elements for the wedding festivities of 1539 for Cosimo I de' Medici and Eleonora da Toledo.Vasari described the apparato in detail, which included Eleonora's processional entrance, a banquet, a pageant with music, and a comedy with "intermezzi". For Antonio Landi's commedy, "Il Commodo", twelve paintings were commissioned of the leading artists of the time. These depicted events from Medici history and politics and were installed in two rows of six, on opposite sides of the sedond courtyard of the old Medici palace in the Via Larga. Bacchiacca contributed two scenes. The subject of the present modello, the return to Florence in 1434 of the founder of the Medici line, Cosimo the Elder, was the first of the entire series. Bacchiacca's second painting was "The Journey of Lorenzo the Magnificent to Naples". According to Vasari, the scenes were eight "braccia" high by five "braccia" wide, with borders of another one and two-thirds "braccia" wide. Bacchiacca's "modello" gives no hint of the borders, which in all likelihood were designed by an assistant. It is furthermore trimmed to an almost square shape, consequently much of the sky above the city walls of Florence has been lost. Bacchiacca was renowned for his representations of animals, and the present scene contains one of his characteristic horses (identical to that in other works by the artist, for example see "God naming the Beasts", Christie's, London, 1 july 1966, lot 101; or British Museum 1860-6-16-74, a cartoon for a story of "Mucius Scaevola") [Bjurström, It. Drawings, cat. no. 1103]
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