International Workshop "The Patronage, Networks, and Legacies of Ottaviano de’ Medici (1482-1546)"

The Gallerie degli Uffizi, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut and The Medici Archive Project are partnering on a broader research initiative dedicated to Ottaviano de’ Medici (1482–1546), a crucial yet still overlooked figure in the political and cultural milieu of early sixteenth-century Florence. This overarching project is connected to the exhibition on Ottaviano’s collection at the Gallerie degli Uffizi (Fall 2027). Under this aegis, the three institutions are organizing an international workshop on 5 and 6 November 2026, which is conceived as a research-oriented and discussion-driven event. The principal goal of the workshop is to reassess the breadth and gravitas of Ottaviano de’ Medici’s political, economic, familial, artistic, and intellectual networks. Particular attention will be paid to his relations with the members of the Medici establishment, with court artists, as well as with all those figures that gravitated around epicenters of dissent and anti-Medici tenets. His role as cultural broker in between constituencies, collections, factions,  generations, and traditions will also be examined. Another goal of this workshop is to better visualize the extent to which Ottaviano’s contributions have shaped the cultural patterns, the collecting practices and political trajectories of the Medici principate. Equal importance will be given to mapping out Ottaviano’s archival legacy – which is still patchy and impressionistic – and his afterlife in early modern historiography. Finally the workshop seeks to clarify the formation and significance of his art collection, which will be the heart of the forthcoming exhibition at the Uffizi.
This two-day workshop will be hosted across three venues: on the first day at the Gallerie degli Uffizi (Auditorium Paolucci) and at the Kunsthistorisches Institut (Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai), and on the second day at the Medici Archive Project (Palazzo Alberti).

Organisers:
Anna Bisceglia (Gallerie degli Uffizi), Federico Giglio (The Medici Archive Project), Alessandro Nova (KHI), Mandy Richter (KHI), Lunarita Sterpetti (KHI/The Courtauld Institute of Art/Sapienza Università di Roma).

Programme

November 5

Venue: Gallerie degli Uffizi, Auditorium Paolucci, Piazzale degli Uffizi 6

09:30 Opening Remarks: Simone Verde (Gallerie degli Uffizi) with Federico Giglio (The Medici Archive Project), Alessandro Nova (KHI),  Lunarita Sterpetti (KHI/The Courtauld Institute of Art/Sapienza Università di Roma)

Panel One: Ottaviano de’ Medici in Context
10:00 Massimiliano Rossi (Università del Salento)
Ottaviano e l’ideologia vasariana del Principato dalla Torrentiniana alla Giuntina

10:30 Maria Ruvoldt (Fordham University)
Inventing Alessandro: Ottaviano de’ Medici and the Image of the First Duke of Florence

11:00 Response and Discussion: Patricia Lee Rubin (Institute of Fine Arts, New York / KHI)

11:15 Coffee Break

Panel Two: Artistic Patronage
11:30 Tommaso Mozzati (Università degli Studi di Perugia)
Il nostro agente in Toscana: Ottaviano e il mecenatismo mediceo fra i pontificati di Leone X e Clemente VII

12:00 Alessandra Giannotti (Università per Stranieri di Siena)
Ottaviano de’ Medici e Niccolò Tribolo: committenza e invenzione artistica nella Firenze di Alessandro e Cosimo I

12:30 Response and Discussion: Marzia Faietti (Alma Mater Studiorum Bologna / KHI)

13:00 Lunch

Venue: KHI, Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai, via dei Servi 51
14:30 Opening Remarks: Bianca de Divitiis (KHI) with Anna Bisceglia (Gallerie degli Uffizi) 

Panel Three: The Patron and the Artist: Andrea del Sarto
14:45 Alana O’Brien (La Trobe University / The Medici Archive Project)
Cultivating Connections: Ottaviano de’ Medici and the Artists of the Compagnia dello Scalzo

15:15 David Ekserdjian (University of Leicester)
Andrea del Sarto, Giorgio Vasari e la Sacra Famiglia Medici (Dulwich)

15:45 Gloria Antoni (Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Napoli)
Ottaviano de’ Medici, Raffaello e Andrea del Sarto: alle radici della strategia dell’immagine di casa Medici

16:15 Response and Discussion: Samuel Vitali (KHI)

17:00 Reception (for participants only)

November 6

Venue: The Medici Archive Project, Palazzo Alberti, via de’ Benci 10
9:30 Opening Remarks: Alessio Assonitis (The Medici Archive Project) with Mandy Richter (KHI) 

Panel Four: Politics and Historiography
9:45 Marcello Simonetta (The Medici Archive Project)
Cenni per la biografia politica di Ottaviano de’ Medici

10:15 Alessandro Lo Bartolo (Università di Pisa)
Medici among the Medici: Ottaviano, His Siblings, and the Rulers of Florence

10:45 Coffee Break

11:00 Paolo Celi (University of  Cambridge)
Ottaviano e Benedetto Varchi

11:30 Roberto Marvin Wellman (Independent Scholar, Rome)
Ottaviano de’ Medici nelle Vite di Giorgio Vasari. Un problema redazionale

12:00 Response and Discussion: Marco Ruffini (Sapienza Università di Roma)

12:30 Lunch

Panel Five: New Discoveries
14:00 Elizabeth Pilliod (Rutgers University)
Bronzino’s Crucifixion in the Collection of Ottaviano de’ Medici

14:30 Veronica Vestri (Deputazione di Storia Patria per la Toscana)
Documenti inediti su Ottaviano come mercante

15:00 Benedetta Gestri (Università di Firenze)
On the Estate of Alessandro de’ Medici: “il sumpto di molte partite de’ libri della Depositeria di Messer Ottaviano”

15:30 Response and Discussion: Bruce Edelstein (New York University, Florence)

15:45 Coffee Break

Panel Six: Beyond Florence
16:00 Federico Giglio (The Medici Archive Project) 
“Il triangolo no!” Ottaviano and Venice

16:30 Response and Discussion: Alessio Assonitis (The Medici Archive Project) 

16:45 Final Remarks: Towards an Exhibition 
Alessio Assonitis (The Medici Archive Project), Anna Bisceglia (Gallerie degli Uffizi), Federico Giglio (The Medici Archive Project), Alessandro Nova (KHI), Mandy Richter (KHI), Lunarita Sterpetti (KHI/The Courtauld Institute of Art/Sapienza Università di Roma) with the Academic Advisory Committee

Image Credits: Giorgio Vasari, Cena di San Gregorio Magno, detail, Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale © Musei nazionali di Bologna (su concessione del Ministero della Cultura)