Twenty Renaissance tapestries, depicting the Parables of Joseph, are returning to the Palazzo Vecchio after an agreement signed on Monday between Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella and President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.
One of the Medici tapestries, which will be displayed at Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio
Ten of the tapestries, which were commissioned by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici and woven between 1546 and 1553, currently reside in the Palazzo del Quirinale, the President’s Palace in Rome, while the other ten are housed in the Uffizi Galleries. The agreement, which was signed also by Secretary-General of the Presidency of the Republic Ugo Zampetti and by Secretary-General of the Ministry of Heritage, Culture and Tourism Carla Di Francesco, ensures that all twenty will be shown on rotation, four at a time, in the Sala dei Duecento of Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio.
The cycle tells the story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis, and were woven by Flemish artists Jan Rost and Nicholas Karcher to designs by Agnolo Bronzino, Jacopo Pontormo and Francesco Salviati. The story of Joseph, who once in a position of power forgave his treacherous brothers, was pertinent to the Medici family, which had twice been hounded into exile.
Restorer at work (the tapestry is not one of the 20 to be returned to the Palazzo Vecchio)
Between 2015 and 2016 the tapestries were reunited for the first time since the nineteenth century in a touring exhibition called “Prince of Dreams: Joseph in the Medicean Tapestries of Pontormo and Bronzino”. The new agreement will ensure their place in Florence for at least the next three years.
