The Expulsion of the Duke of Athens

Originally in a tabernacle in the courtyard of the Stinche prison, demolished in 1833, this detached fresco portrays St Anne, on whose feast day in 1343 the Florentines rebelled against the tyrant Gualtieri di Brienne, Duke of Athens. The empty throne on the right alludes to the loss of the city’s ruler. The scene must have been frescoed at the time of the rebuilding of the prison, burnt down by the Florentines after the prisoners had been liberated during the uprising that lead to the Duke’s expulsion.