Painted landscapes from another age: what the Vasaris frescoes in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, tell about urban fortifications

Abstract

Palazzo Vecchio is a cultural-historical centre full of elements from different periods able to offer multiple ideas and reflections. Inside there are objects, rooms and environments that document many years of history interacting with many other realities and contexts. The Hall of the 500, the large audience hall restored by Giorgio Vasari commissioned by the grand duke Cosimo I, shows in its sumptuous wall paintings the views of cities, places and landscapes, captured in scenes of war and siege. It is possible to observe the city walls of Pisa, the Towers of Siena and Livorno, the military fortifications of Porto Ercole and San Vincenzo, the Mediterranean coasts and the inland valleys. Different places, conquered by the Medici family, which branch off throughout Tuscany and characterize the territory. These places today appear transformed and modified, in part or not, in the landscape and urban fabric. In some cases, it is still possible to find the remains of the sixteenth-century defensive buildings, while in others there is no longer any trace, or at most only few remains. Instead, they are legible in the paintings that identify their elements and characteristics. The opportunity arises for a comparison between real and painted architecture. From this point of view, the frescoes in the hall not only have value as artistic works but also as historical sources and documents able to tell through painting the conformation of the sites represented with well-defined details and historical reliability. Comparing the paintings with today's urban and landscape fabric, analogies and discrepancies appear, present, missing and added objects that allow to reconstruct the analyzed structures, and also to catalogue them according to the level of knowledge acquired with a good degree of reliability of the source. 
With these assumptions it was possible to model the painted defensive structures in 3D, using not only the frescoes but also writings, drawings and archive plans and also to catalogue it. A map was then edited to identify the level of knowledge achieved with each model. The aim is to increase knowledge of historical and cultural structures to enhance the city's cultural heritage.