Entry of Charles VIII into Florence

The painter’s most celebrated work shows the invasion of Florence in 1494 under Charles VIII of France. Commissioned by Leopoldo II, grand duke of Tuscany, it alludes also to the more recent French occupation under Napoleon.

In the centre of the scene, the King advances triumphantly astride his horse, greeted by a bow from the gonfalonier. In the foreground on the right, a group of important Florentines including Machiavelli, Pier Capponi and Savonarola plot the city’s revenge; on the left, worried citizens observe the scene. In the close foreground, a small still life summarizes the contrasting feelings surrounding the event: flowers and stones lie scattered on the ground in the King’s path.

The canvas confirmed Bezzuoli as one of the leading figures of historical Tuscan Romanticism, with a language inspired by the bright colours of the sixteenth-century Venetian painting as well as the lively expression of emotions more characteristic of seventeenth-century painting.