Tribute of the Nations to Paul III

At almost exactly the same time as the Medici cycles in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, the family cycles of the Farnese were painted in Rome and Latium. Vasari’s fresco of the deeds of Paul III in the Sala dei Cento Giorni is the first large Farnese cycle. With its rich variety of personifications, antique busts, and inscriptions relating to Paul III’s influence as the ideal pope, it is the paragon of rhetorical, panegyric painting.