The Scrittoio della Calliope in the Palazzo Vecchio: a Tuscan museum

On 13 June 1559 a group of objects – ancient, modern, exotic – were taken to the newly created Scrittoio della Calliope of Cosimo I de’ Medici. The scrittoio was part of the new wing of the Palazzo Ducale in Florence, added by Giambattista Tasso and Giorgio Vasari and decorated with an elaborate programme of invenzioni. Some of the pieces in this room had been found with the Chimera in Arezzo in 1553 and were considered Etruscan because of their place of discovery. These objects were complemented in the scrittoio installation by exotic pieces from the far corners of the known world, together with a number of works of all’antica art and of Christian art by modern Tuscan artists. In this investigation of the scrittoio's contents, and the relationship of the different groups of objects to each other, it will be shown how the idea of an artistic and political continuity between ancient Etruria and modern Tuscany was presented in visual form in the Scrittoio della Calliope. (pp. 699–709)