Cosimo I Triumphant over Siena

In 1589, Ferdinando I de’ Medici married Christina of Lorraine. When their wedding procession turned at the Canto de’ Carnesecchi in Florence, it passed through a triumphal gateway. This was an ephemeral construction, and no trace of it remained by 1600 when Giambologna unveiled his marble Hercules and the Centaur at the Canto de’ Carnesecchi. Still, the relief Giambologna eventually added to the side of the Equestrian Portrait of Cosimo I underscored the importance of gateways to the idea of ‘entrata’, the procession that established the advent of a new ruler.