Santi Corsi - Interior Of The Hall Of Jupiter In Palazzo Pitti

Original oil on canvas signed lower right "S. Corsi" with an inscription below the signature "Lungarno Serristori 9."
A wax stamp is on the reverse of the canvas:" Direzione/delle/ Br. Gallerie/ e/ Museo Naz./ Firenze."

About 1880

Dimensions without frame: Height: 112.4cm Width: 85.7cm
Dimensions with frame: Height: 146cm Width: 125cm

Notes on the work

Our painting represents the interior of the Hall of Jupiter in the Pitti Palace in Florence at the end of the

at the end of the XIX century. The Italian artist Santi Corsi was a regular visitor. His studio at 9 Quai Lungarno Serristori is a fifteen minute walk away. He specializes in painting the rooms of the Palatine Gallery, leaving an exceptional testimony to the masterpieces collected over the centuries by the Medici family and the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

Santi Corsi chooses a subject charged with history. The Pitti Palace retains to this day the name of its first owner, the banker Buonaccorso Pitti, from whom Eleanor of Toledo purchased it in 1550. The sumptuous painted and sculpted decor dates from the embellishment and enlargement of the residence by her husband, Grand Duke Cosimo I, and continued by his successors. Bathed in light, the Hall of Jupiter is located on the second floor of the Pitti Palace. Its name comes from the theme of the ceiling paintings masterfully executed by Peter of Cortona from 1642 to 1644. The frescoes on the ceilings of the palace rooms represent the five virtues attributed to the Grand Duke.

The room of Jupiter personifies the triumphant royal majesty and crowned merit. It was used by the Medici as a throne room where public audiences were held. The three lunettes frescoes in the wide entablature of the ceiling vault - which can be seen in our painting - show the gods of Olympus accompanying the Grand Duke's ideal education from adolescence to adulthood. 

On the wall opening into the Saturn Room, the paintings cover the entire surface of the wall. From top to bottom, starting from the left, we first identify the Portrait of Alfonso I d'Este, currently attributed to Sebastiano Filippi. Below the portrait is the Holy Family accompanied by St. Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist by Rubens. Below we admire "La bella" executed by Titian.

Above the entrance to the Hall of Saturn, the Rendezvous of Hunters was wrongly attributed, until 1917, to Giovanni da San Giovanni. A 20th century search of the inventories of the Pitti Palace collections of 1637-1638 and 1668 led to the attribution of the painting to the Flemish painter Justus Suttermans who worked at the court of Cosimo II de' Medici. 

The most imposing is the work of Salvatore Rosa "The great battle". Then below is on the left "The three destinies" by Francesco Salviati around 1550 and to the right of it "the descent from the cross" by Fra Bartolomeo around 1511. 

Finally on the left wall in relation to the marble of Vincenzo Consani "Victory" 1867, enthroned in the middle of the room is hung "The Conversion of Magdalene" by Artemisia Gentileschi around 1620.