The Bargello Palace: The Invention of Civic Architecture in Florence. Amee Yunn. London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2015. 268 pp. €125.
ber 19 of that year. Benintendi was a staunch supporter of the Medici and related to them via marriage. These new observations set up the major contribution of the book, the argument that the cycle in the antechamber could be read in light of the politics surrounding Clement’s election. Specifically, Clement’s birth status was clouded as he was the child of Giuliano de’ Medici and his mistress. In contemporary political discourse some questioned whether Giulio was eligible to become pope. Benintendi is known to have supported Giulio’s election from an anecdote told by Benedetto Varchi, according to which he bet against another man that Giulio would be elected. Based on these facts Beuzelin draws attention to a theme of legitimacy in the paintings, starting with Franciabigio’s David and Bathsheba, in which a woman taken in adultery does in the end produce a legitimate heir (Solomon) and establish the house of David. The attempts by David to get Bathsheba’s husband Uriah to recognize the child highlight the theme of recognition, which is developed in the panel by Franciabigio, the Legend of the Dead King. This subject had no precedent in Florentine art, again suggesting that a patron who desired a collection of subjects to verify the legitimacy of Clement had to take recourse toNorthern prints and artists who could easily translate them into the imagery he required. In this episode Beuzelin equates the king, who intuits from beyond the grave how to find his true/good son among his many sons, with both Solomon and Pope Clement. This painting is followed by Pontormo’s Adoration of the Magi (the recognition of the Son) and Bachiacca’s Baptism of Christ (recognition of the Son by the Father). A series of complex and traditional iconographical associations underpinning the whole are also discussed. Sometimes the small illustrations hamper the telling of the story and the archival sources are elementary, but the new proposal does suggest a cohesive interaction among the paintings, something that has been lacking to date.