Frescoes in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence (1683-85)

The Palazzo Medici (later Medici Riccardi) was the symbol of the economic power of the Medicis who were the virtual lords of Florence in the 16th-17th centuries. In 1659 Ferdinando II de' Medici (1610-1670), the Grand Duke of Tuscany, sold his family's venerable and imposing palace, built by Michelozzo in the fifteenth century, to Gabriello Riccardi (1606-1675) and his nephew Francesco Riccardi (1648-1719). The Riccardi family had moved to Florence from Cologne in the fourteenth century, and in the sixteenth century attained great wealth from banking and commerce.

A number of architects contributed to the remodeling of the palace which took thirty years. The most spectacular intervention into the original fabric was the construction, beginning in 1670, an east-west gallery wing. In 1676 the library was built directly beside the gallery. In 1684-89 another new wing was built to the north.

The new owners' pride in the tradition-rich history of their palace is expressed in the painted decoration of the newly created rooms. In the Great Hall of the building, called the Gallery (Galleria Riccardiana), the ceiling was covered by frescoes in 1683-85 by the Neapolitan painter Luca Giordano, in order to show off the glories of the Medici family. Baroque civilization entered Florence with Pietro da Cortona in Palazzo Pitti and with Luca Giordano in Palazzo Medici Riccardi (1683-85).