Hercules crowned by the Muses

This is a small thing, oil on copper barely larger than a sheet of paper, made for a prince who liked puzzles. In 1568 Francesco de' Medici was fitting out a private study, and Giorgio Vasari with a team of painters filled it with little pictures whose subjects were devised by the learned prior Vincenzo Borghini. Each one hid a flattering meaning about Medici virtue behind a scene from myth. Here Hercules, the very image of strength earned through labour, is crowned by the Muses, learning joined to power, exactly the compliment a ruler liked to hear about himself. Allori painted it in the tight, jewel-bright manner these cabinet pictures called for, made to be held and examined at arm's length.