Florence Triumphant over Pisa

This group was commissioned from Giambologna for the Sala del Cinquecento (the Great Council Hall) of the Palazzo Vecchio. In preparation for the wedding of Francesco I and Joanna of Austria, Cosimo I de’ Medici had the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio decorated with scenes relating to Florentine military triumphs: the marble Victory which Michelangelo had abandoned when he had departed Florence three decades earlier would go against a wall showing the conquest of Siena, and the new statue by Giambologna the wall opposite, which Vasari’s team was painting with scenes showing the city’s triumph over Pisa.