Rethinking the reinstallation of the studiolo of Francesco I de' Medici in the Palazzo Vecchio

The Studiolo of Francesco I in the Palazzo Vecchio is a testament to the changing styles at the end of the Cinquecento, and has been called a perfect example of Mannerist art. This dissertation considers the original invenzione of the Studiolo as intended by Don Vincenzo Borghini and Giorgio Vasari, and provides compelling new evidence to challenge the current re-installation of the room.;Dismantled prior to Francesco's death in 1587, the Studiolo was rediscovered and renovated more than three hundred years later by Giovanni Poggi and Alfredo Lensi. In 1976, Scott Schaefer became the first scholar to question Poggi's and Lensi's installation. Critical thinking regarding the Studiolo changed five years later with Michael Rinehart's discovery of additional notes written by Borghini, who devised the room's visual program in 1570. The recent exhibition, Magnificenza! The Medici, Michelangelo, and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence, has once again renewed interest in the small room. One of the exhibition's curators, Larry Feinberg, has offered an alternative rearrangement of the Studiolo 's works, based on Rinehart's findings. Despite these attempts, aspects of the original invenzione have been overlooked, including the importance of thematic relationships, the influence of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Copernicus' De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. .;This dissertation concentrates on the correlation between the Studiolo's iconography and the theme of the four elements. The analysis offers a new arrangement of the room based on reinterpretations of its small end walls. Moreover, these findings provide insight into the diverse array of artists working on the commission, as well as Borghini's and Vasari's collective vision for Francesco's Studiolo..