Ceiling of the Hall of Jupiter

In January 1642 Galileo died at his villa in Arcetri, on the hill just south of the Pitti Palace, still under the house arrest the Roman Inquisition had imposed on him nine years earlier. By May of that year three stucco workers from Rome were on Grand Duke Ferdinando II's payroll here, decorating a suite of palace rooms named after the planets. The planets were an old Medici compliment. In 1610 Galileo had named the four moons he found circling Jupiter the Medicean Stars, in honour of Cosimo II, Ferdinando's father.

This is Jupiter's room. At the centre of the vault the god crowns a young Medici prince, who has been brought to him by Hercules, the hero handing over his club, and the museum reads four of the female figures as probably those four moons. Down below, this was the audience chamber, where the Grand Duke received visitors from his throne, and the hooks that once held the canopy over it are still in the room.