Studiolo of Francesco I

The Studiolo is a small painting-encrusted barrel-vaulted room in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy. It was commissioned by Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was completed for the duke from 1570 to 1572, by teams of artists under the supervision of Giorgio Vasari and the scholars Giovanni Batista Adriani and Vincenzo Borghini.

This small room was part-office, part-laboratory, part-hiding place, and part-cabinet of curiosities. Here the prince tinkered with alchemy and kept his collection of small, precious, unusual or rare objects. The walls and ceiling were decorated with paintings showing a similar variety of subjects, some showing exotic forms of industry and others mythology. The inset paintings are now all that remains in the room of the original contents. They are rather larger than what is normally meant by the term cabinet painting.

The late-Mannerist decorative program of paintings and sculpture was based on items encompassed by the collection. The object collection itself was stored in ~ 20 cabinets. In the center is a fresco of Prometheus receiving jewels from nature, commenting on the interplay of divine, nature, and humanity, that is the goal of both artistic and scientific interests.

Paintings

The Invention of Gunpowder by Jacopo Coppi

The walls were also covered with 34 paintings representing mythologic or religious subjects, or representing trades. The arrangement was such that paintings were somehow related to their neighbors, and emblematic of the objects in the cabinets below. The arrangement we see today is somewhat speculative; and the relationships are not always clear. For example, Tommaso d'Antonio Manzuoli's Diamond Mines hangs above Maso de Sanfriano's Fall of Icarus. The painting by Giovanni Battista Naldini of the House of the Dreams emphasized the relationship with the adjacent bedroom of the Prince. In addition, originally a portrait of Francesco's mother, Eleonora of Toledo by Bronzino, kept vigil.^[1]

While the Studiolo employed many of the best of contemporary Florentine painters, their work in this room, for most, does not represent their best efforts. The room itself is now more interesting as an example of an introverted and eccentric monarch; from an artistic viewpoint, the style of these paintings is the high point of Florentine Mannerism, as reflected in the affected and contorted crowds in the canvases. The pseudo-allegiance to the sciences couple with the sense that they illuminated the educated monarch, suggest a prescient hint of the encyclopedic philosophy of Enlightenment. However, Francesco ultimately was a poor representative of the inquisitive mind; at best this room served as a tinkerer's closet, a place for this personally awkward monarch to find seclusion from his wife, family, and court. Not long after the death of the Grand Duke, it was neglected and dismantled by 1590, only to be partially reconstructed in the twentieth century as a Renaissance oddity within the medieval palace. Lacking furniture or a closed door, this reconstruction fails to accurately recreate the claustrophobic feel of the original.^{[citation needed]}

Contributing artists to the Studiolo

Gallery

Statuary Niches and Portraits of Francesco's Parents
	Portrait of Cosimo	Bronze by Ammanati		Portrait of Eleonora of Toledo	Bronze by Giambologna	Vault fresco: Prometheus receives Precious Stone from Nature

Ovals of Studiolo
Atlanta and Hippomenes	Forge of Vulcan	Danae	Ulysses, Mercury, Circe	Ring of Polycrates	Darius’ Family before Alexander	Fall of Icarus	Alexander and Campaspe in Studio of Apelles
Neptune and Amphitrite	Hercules and Omphalus	Sack of a City	Juno takes Girdle of Venus	Hercules slays Dragon	Deucalion and Pyrrha	Jason and Medea	Lavinia at the Altar

Upper Rectangular Canvases of Studiolo
Alchemist's Studio	Jewelry Factory	Gathering Ambergris	Woolmaking Factory	Bronze Foundry	Mining
Diamond Mines	Pearl Fisherman	Thermal Baths at Pozzuoli	Perseus and Andromeda	Sisters of Phaeton	Moses parting Red Sea