Initially attributed to Pier Francesco Fiorentino (Florence 1444/45 - 1497) the work is assigned, together with others, to an unknown Florentine author using the eponym of Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino (Perkins, 1928; Berenson, 1932). It is hypothesized that this painter, active in Florence in the second half of the fifteenth century, proposed valuable paintings derived from compositions by Filippo Lippi and Pesellino, in this specific case intended for domestic devotional use, given the presence of the wooden tabernacle and the small size . Artifacts therefore aimed at a notable such as the one present in Anghiari in the second half of the fifteenth century. The table is the close derivation of a Madonna with Child, San Giovannino and angels by the painter Francesco di Stefano, known as Pesellino, datable to around 1455 and now owned by the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo (USA). To testify the success of Pesellini's composition are given for example two very similar versions attributable to Pseudo Pier Francesco, one of which is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (USA).

The Master of San Miniato, recently brought back to the name of Lorenzo di Giovanni di Nofri (Bernacchioni, 1992), is a painter who in 1465-66 was a pupil of Neri di Bicci (Florence 1418/20 - 1492) and in 1472 he had a workshop on his own "to the song of the Servants" in Florence. Even the works of Lorenzo di Giovanni di Nofri, like those attributed to the Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino, are significantly affected by the experiences of Filippo Lippi (Florence 1406 - Spoleto 1469) and Pesellino (Florence 1422 c. - 1457). The work, complete with its wooden tabernacle, "well represents a Master's response to the request for devotional scenes from customers who wish to have images in line with traditional iconography but at the same time with reduced costs" (Dalli Regoli, 1988). The Child and the Virgin hold the pomegranate in their hands, the fruit symbol of the royalty but also of the passion of Jesus. Parts of golden decoration can be found in the edges of the robe, while the landscape with the sky is the graphic translation of the AVE REGINA CELORUM . This tabernacle is hypothesized to be a work of maturity, for some references to the forms of Verrocchio but above all for contacts with Francesco Botticini (Florence 1446-1498), with whom the author had shared the years of apprenticeship at Neri di Bicci ( Bernacchioni, 1992).

The painter Cristofano dell'Altissimo (Florence c.1522 / 1525-1605), a pupil of Bronzino, was sent to Como at the Musaeum of the intellectual Paolo Giovio (Como c.1483-Florence 1552) to copy the portraits there, being at that time of the only such collection. The painting on wood belongs to the prestigious series of portraits of illustrious men created by the will of the Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de 'Medici (Florence 1519-1574) starting from 1552. Now disappeared in its entirety in Como, the Uffizi collection of about 300 sixteenth-century portraits, which are added to others from later eras, represents the legacy of Jovian thought and the intention of Duke Cosimo to collect in Florence a "sum of the knowledge of near and far countries", originally creating, in the hall of cards geographic, the concept of a world where the Duke has "the fundamental role of the peacemaker and guide" (Barbolani 2019). Now the "Jovian series" is placed in the Uffizi Gallery, where its location was decided in 1591. The work exhibited here seems to have as its reference the portrait of Federico by Pedro Berreguete (Paredes de Nava 1450 - Avila 1504 ), instead of the equally famous representations by Piero della Francesca (Borgo San Sepolcro c.1410-1492) or the marble relief by Domenico Rosselli (Pistoia 1439 - Fossombrone 1497-98), while there is a copy of the same in oil on canvas at the Colonna Gallery in Rome.

The painting represents the lucky subject of the Urbino painter Raffaello Sanzio, who depicts Giuliano della Rovere as Pope Julius II in a sitting and three-quarter position. The numerous copies of the original (some of which are listed: at Palazzo Pitti in Titian's version, an oil on canvas at the Galleria Borghese in Rome, or another at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt), testify to the success of a subject whose original was identified in the painting on poplar wood at the National Gallery in London. Julius II is portrayed between October / December 1510 and March 1512 when he swore to grow a beard until the French were defeated, in a moment of severe physical weakness. The "warrior pope", whose military actions resulted in the nickname, was portrayed by Raphael as a tired and worried man, a surprisingly intimate image, which was exhibited after his death on December 12, 1513 in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. . The green background was an afterthought by Raphael himself, perhaps a choice inspired by Pope Sixtus IV's portrait of Justus of Ghent, a modification that emphasizes the motif of the two golden acorns on the chair, which allude to his surname and highlights the red, white and green colors repeated in the stones of the rings, the colors of the three theological virtues: charity, faith and hope.

Work considered by Bronzino in the early twentieth century and subsequently assigned to Alessandro Allori, it is then attributed to an anonymous Frenchman, the latter hypothesis being considered the only correct one. The young man in armor with his hand resting on his helmet has a posture that mirrors the much more famous portrait of Cosimo I de 'Medici made by Bronzino around 1545 and replicated in numerous copies. Precisely the position of the character could suggest the hypothesis that it may be a pendant. Interesting is how the shape of the plumed headdress and the armor with golden parts and rivets also of gold are treated, but with a systematic abundance of decorations and figures that today are enigmatic. The seal under the schooner of the armor depicts what looks like a Minerva inside a laurel wreath supported by two winged characters. Below, on the belly, a man in armor with a plumed helmet, sword at his side and spear. Precisely the armor, so rich and complex, together with the bearing of the character, introduces the theme of the transformation of the figure of the fifteenth-century man-at-arms, who in the sixteenth century tends to become a man of the court and confidant, for example as the well-known Baldassare Castiglione (Casatico, 1478 - Toledo, 1529).

These two paintings, one the counterpart of the other, represent two unknown battles, but the eastern shape of the clothes of a part of the figures would identify them as facts of arms between Christians and Turks. Tempesta, well known for his activity as an engraver, just starting from 1613 created the series of printed works of the "biblical battles" dedicated to Grand Duke Cosimo II together with the sheets of "Gerusalemme liberata" (CHIARINI 1989), subjects that allowed him to have a certain success in the Medici house and in the Florentine court. In fact, it is from the “biblical battles” that one finds the greatest compositional evidence and the reuse of the same scenes (BARTSCH 1983). The commission of these canvases can in fact be framed in an express desire to obtain "two battles" of the Tempest by Cardinal Carlo de 'Medici. These two works then appear to be in the possession of the Grand Duke Ferdinando in the year 1633.

These two paintings, one the counterpart of the other, represent two unknown battles, but the eastern shape of the clothes of a part of the figures would identify them as facts of arms between Christians and Turks. Tempesta, well known for his activity as an engraver, just starting from 1613 created the series of printed works of the "biblical battles" dedicated to Grand Duke Cosimo II together with the sheets of "Gerusalemme liberata" (CHIARINI 1989), subjects that allowed him to have a certain success in the Medici house and in the Florentine court. In fact, it is from the “biblical battles” that one finds the greatest compositional evidence and the reuse of the same scenes (BARTSCH 1983). The commission of these canvases can in fact be framed in an express desire to obtain "two battles" of the Tempest by Cardinal Carlo de 'Medici. These two works then appear to be in the possession of the Grand Duke Ferdinando in the year 1633.

The paintings depicting battles made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries refer to the sixteenth-century subjects of Leonardo Da Vinci, Giulio Romano, Giorgio Vasari and Tintoretto, just to name a few of the most memorable.

The young Courtois around 1636 left war-ravaged Burgundy and moved to Milan, where until 1639 he enlisted in a company of soldiers in the service of Spain. These three years constitute for Jacques the basis of his iconographic repertoire, as testified by the historian Filippo Baldinucci (Florence, 1624 - 1696), who asks him personally why his works appear "so true and not fake". The painter replies that he paints what he personally witnessed. In Italy also known as Giacomo Cortese, Jacques moves to Rome in 1640, where he spends a good part of his life, but previously staying in Bologna and later in Venice. He also worked in Florence for Prince Mattias de 'Medici (Florence, 1613 - Siena, 1667), commander of the Medici army during the last phase of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), who commissioned him some paintings, including the famous canvas depicting the Battle of Lützen now in Palazzo Pitti.

In the large canvas exhibited here, although considered by some to be of school and pertaining to the early works of Pandolfo Reschi (Chiarini, 1973), in addition to the earthy dismay in the faces of the knights, some of the characteristics of our the red scarves and feathers contrast with the blue ones, as a symbol of a systematic opposition between the Habsburgs and France (Lallemand-Buyssens, 2010), which characterized the fourth phase of the Thirty Years War in which the young Courtois had participated .