Allegory of the Fine Arts under the Protection of Wisdom and Nature

After purchasing in 1659 the Palazzo Medici from Ferdinando II de’ Medici by Gabriello Riccardi, 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.

Anton Domenico Gabbiani painted three ceilings in the new rooms, the Allegory of the Fine Arts under the Protection of Wisdom and Nature; the Fall of Icarus; and the Triumph over Error. The painted decoration of two additional rooms complete the pictorial program of Gabbiani’s ceilings. The quadratura-framed ceilings of these rooms, depicting Hercules at the Crossroads, and Jupiter Subdues the Giants, were painted by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini and his cousin Tommaso Nasini. The concept behind this pictorial program is that virtues triumph over vice.