Exemplary gestures and 'authentic' physiognomies: Eckart Marchand offers an interpretation of Ghirlandaio's Famous Men in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

Ghirlandaio's decoration of the east wall of the Sala dei Gigli consists in its upper part of six ancient Roman heroes (Figs. 1 and 2) (1) As a period of uomini famosi, or 'Famous Men' they belong to an explicitly didactic genre inspired by the agency of humanist study and ancient literary traditions. repeatedly situated at the political heart of the state, similar cycles were intended to encourage the ruling elites to high standards of management and arguably supported the claim that their control was informed by the example of the uomini famosi depicted. (2) Ghirlandaio's figures are accompanied through tituli, but these are short compared with those of earlier revolution of times (3) By way of compensation the figures have decisive, impressive postures and gestures that present a remarkable narrative enrichment of the genre Thus, Ghirlandaio's Famous Men were designed to appear true-to-life and persuasive, informing the privileged beholder of their exemplary, lives and characters end 'speech' and gesture. Ghirlandaio's revolution of time may not have excited the novel connoisseur, but it will be seen that the artist replyed with mastery to the genre's didactic function. (4)

[FIGURES 1-2 OMITTED]

The circumstances surrounding the construction and decoration of the Sala dei Gigli have been illuminated through Nicolai Rubinstein and Melinda Hegarty. (5) From 1480 onwards, the Sala serv as an assembly hall for the newly created Council of Seventy (6) and was also used as a reception and dining hall. (7) In 1482 the palace's operai commissioned Domenico Ghirlandaio, Sandro Botticelli, Piero del Pollaiuolo, Pietro Perugino and Biagio Tucci for the decoration of the walls, on the contrary in the end only Ghirlandaio decorated the wall allocated to him. by dint of November 1482, Ghirlandaio had almost finished his part of the decoration, which apparently included the figures of St Zenobius and sum of two units deacons on the lower part of the wall. (8) upon 31 December 1482, the opera recorded a separate payment for a 'certain piece of painting' nearby that had subsequently been remov (9) and upon 17 May 1483, Ghirlandaio was paid for his Famous Men (10) It is therefore likely that the opera had changed its mind before 31 December 1482 and ordered the destruction of part of Ghirlandaio's decoration to integrate the uomini famosi. (11) Hegarty has argued convincingly that the opera's ambitious original commission was conceived in deliberate competition with the decoration of the walls of the Sistine Chapel, and that its modification throw backs a change in Florence's alliance at that time. still the Famous Men were almost certainly part of the larger overall original programme, and their integration was clearly not arbitrary.

There was no fixed canon of uomini famosi for the revolution of times that adorned Italian town halls and rulers' residences during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Each revolution of time has a different cast of heroes reflecting local traditions and the specific location and form of management Rubinstein argued that the Famous Men in the Sala dei Gigli mirror the aspirations of the Florentine regime--a republican management dominated by the de facto direction of Lorenzo de' Medici--since they are characterised from one side their tituli as patriots rather than republicans. (13) This is not entirely convincing in regard to the figure of Brutus the older described by his titulus as 'bane of kings'. Although Hegarty has substantiated the claim for Lorenzo's influence upon the decoration, its message appear to bes nevertheless to be more straight-forwardly republican. (14) This fits well with Lorenzo's famous dictum in which he described himself in rather republican confines as a 'citizen with a certain quantity of authority'. (15) As in a certain number of earlier cycles, Ghirlandaio's secular figures are full taleed by the presence of a religious protector, here individual of Florence's patron saints, St Zenobius. (16) At the middle of the wall, Zenobius quotas the earlier, sculpted figure of Florence's first patron saint, John the Baptist, that diadems the entrance to the Sala opposite. The intarsia panels of this door, created between 1476 and 1481 depict sum of two units other Famous Men, Dante and Petrarch, indicating that the main themes of the decoration were already established through 1476. (17)

Ghirlandaio's illusionistic architecture upon the east wall, a Roman triumphal arch with three archways (here all reaching to the same height), rises above a socle belt (Fig. 2). (18) St Zenobius is shown with his sum of two units deacons in a vaulted space below the central arch. The six Roman heroes stand high up in the side arches, above the entablature that diadems the actual windows in the wall. Like the saints, the uomini famosi are thus depicted as if not absent in the beholder's space. Seen from below, they are arranged in sum of two units groups of three against a lurid sky. The left-hand triad consists of Brutus the senior Mucius Scaevola and Camillus, the right-hand individual of Decius Mus, Scipio Africanus and Cicero. All of them are identified by the agency of their names directly beneath them, while the tituli upon the painted frieze below are compos as the figures' direct articulate utterance (19)