Hall of Ulysses (Sala di Ulisse)

At the time of the Medici, the Hall of Ulysses (Sala di Ulisse) was the grand duke’s bedroom. From about 1775, when the Hapsburg-Lorraines succeeded as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, the room was part of the apartment of Maria Theresa of Habsburg-Lorraine (eldest daughter of Pietro Leopoldo) and, after the Napoleonic interlude, was used, with the nearby rooms, as part of the Palatine Gallery.

In this period, after 1814, Grand Duke Ferdinando III of Hapsburg-Lorraine commissioned Gaspare Martellini to paint on the ceiling the Return of Ulysses to Ithaca (alluding to the return of the Grand Duke after the exile in the Napoleonic period), with a frieze decorated at the corners below with allegories of Loyalty, of Fortress, of Hercules and Apollo. In this room, Il Cigoli‘s Ecce Homo (1607) was selected, during the Napoleonic looting, to be sent to Paris along with the other works of art.

Ceiling fresco

In our museum itinerary, the first painting we encountered was the Madonna dell’Impvecchia (Madonna of the Implanted, ca. 1514), a noteworthy work by Raphael which was made during the artist’s stay in Rome. The Virgin and Child in Glory with Six Saints (1527-1528) is the first work of Andrea del Sarto‘s gallery.

Virgin and Child in Glory with Six Saints (Andrea del Sarto, 1527-28)

Also interesting is the Death of Lucrezia (ca. 1475), one of the gallery’s rare fifteenth-century works and an early painting by Filippino Lippi who decorated a pair of wedding chests made perhaps in collaboration with Botticelli.

Love the Winner (Orazio Riminaldi, ca. 1624)

Other works in the Hall of Ulysses include:

• Male Portrait (Workshop of Tintoretto, late 16th century)
• Faith (Francesco Furini, ca. 1633-1640)
• Landscape with Bathers (Agostino Carracci)
• Temptations of Saint Anthony the Abbot  (Salvator Rosa, ca. 1645)
• Male Portrait (Bernardino Licinio, 1537)
• Portrait of Claudia Felicita as Galla Placidia (Carlo Dolci, 1675)
• Male Portrait (Cristofano Allori , ca. 1605)
• Charity (Guido Reni, ca. 1605)
• Female Portrait (School of Anthonis Mor, late 16th century)
• Male Portrait (Giulio Campi, ca. 1525-1530)
• Portrait of a Clergyman (Tintoretto)
• Temptations of St. Jerome (Giorgio Vasari, 1541)
• Saint John the Baptist in the Desert (Cristofano Allori, ca. 1612-1615)
• Portrait of Simone by Marco Moroni (Giovan Battista Moroni, ca. 1570)
• Christ Led Out of the Praetorium (Pietro Ciafferi)
• Diana and Atteone (Agostino Tassi, ca. 1640)
• Nymph with Satyr (copy from Annibale Carracci, 17th century)
• Love the Winner (Orazio Riminaldi, ca. 1624)
• Female Portrait (Giovan Battista Moroni, ca. 1560)
• Sermon of St. John the Baptist Alessandro Allori, 1604)
• Santa Lucia (School of Carlo Dolci, 17th century)
• San Paolo (Bartolomeo Schedoni, ca. 1610)
• Holy Family (Workshop of Domenico Puligo, third decade of the 16th century)
• Male Portrait (Bergamo school of the 16th century)
• Madonna and Child (Carlo Dolci, ca. 1680)
• Vision of Saint John the Evangelist in Patmos (Carlo Dolci, ca. 1550)
• Saint Catherine of Alexandria (Francesco Curradi)
• Supper at Emmaus (Cristofano Allori, ca. 1610)
• Ecce Homo (Carlo Dolci, ca. 1670)
• Portrait of the Prelate Marco by Giovanni Moroni (Giovan Battista Moroni, ca. 1570)
• Madonna of the Conception (Tintoretto, ca. 1570)
• Male Portrait (Gregorio Pagani, ca. 1600)
• Portrait of a Young Man (Florentine school of the seventeenth century)
• Portrait of Andrea Frizier (Tintoretto, ca. 1575)
• Portrait of the Bishop Giuliano Argentino (Venetian school (?) of the 16th century, ca. 1537-1549)
• Self-portrait  (Hans von Aachen, ca. 1585-1595)
• Male Portrait  (Frans Pourbus the Younger, ca. 1595)
• Male Portrait  (attributed to Antonio del Ceraiolo, ca. 1520-1530)
• Table (Florentine manufacture of the century XVIII, 1792)
• Table (Florentine manufacture of the century XVIII, 1792)
• Mirror (Florentine manufacture of the century XVIII, 1790-1800) 

Saint John the Baptist in the Desert (Cristofano Allori, ca. 1612-1615)

Hall of Ulysses: First Floor, Palatine Gallery, Pitti Palace, Piazza de’ Pitti, 1, Florence, Italy. Tel:+39 055 294883. Open Tuesdays-Sundays, 8:15 AM – 6:50 PM. Admission: Palatine Gallery (€8.50), Silver Museum (€6.00), Gallery of Modern Art (€8.50), Costume Gallery/Porcelain Museum/Boboli Gardens/Bardini Garden (€6.00).

How to Get There: Take the C3 or D bus to the Pitti stop.