The History of Cyrus in Vizzani Palace, an iconographic interpretation

Abstract

This article focuses on the frescoed frieze in Palazzo Vizzani, the one with The History of Cyrus the Great. It presents a relatively rare theme in the visual arts of the sixteenth century which appeared only in some series of tapestries commissioned by powerful aristocratic patrons for their residences. This is due to the fact that this character (Cyrus the Great) was associated with the genre literary of the 'Mirror of Princes'. The link can be traced back to the Ciropedia of ancient Greece, in which Xenophon described Cyrus the Great as a perfect monarch, a figure that is considered an idol by many sovereigns of the classical era and even of the Renaissance. However, another Greek writer, Herodotus, created a completely different Cyrus in The Histories, which is also the main literary source inspired the pictorial frieze in Palazzo Vizzani. The figure of Cyrus turns out to be more complicated and controversial in The Histories, it's not so much a perfect sovereign, but more like a tragic hero of ancient Greece. It is worth noting that the story of his life is in accordance with the tradition of 'the fate of the illustrious condottieri' in medieval literature, in which the fate of the protagonist is thought to be dominated by unpredictable Fortune. For this reason, I proposed that 'the concept of Fortune' is the key to interpreting the profound meaning of this frieze.