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Florence, Basilica di Santa Croce, February 2012

The monument was designed by Giorgio Vasari. The bust of the great artist was made by the sculptor Battista Lorenzi, who also sculpted the central allegorical statue of Painting. The Statues representing Sculpture (left) and Architecture (right) were done by Valerio Cioli and Giovanni dell'Opera respectively.

Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, February 2012

Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, February 2012

A fresco by Agnolo Bronzino on the ceiling of Eleonora di Toledo's chapel in the Palazzo Vecchio.

Florence, February 2012

Florence, February 2012

The obelisk in the Giardino di Boboli bears the cartouches of Rameses II and originally stood in the temple of Atum in Heliopolis. In the first century CE, under the emperor Domitian, it was brought to Rome and erected in the temple of Isis. In the sixteenth century it was bought by cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici and placed in the gardens of the Villa Medici (Rome). In 1788, under Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of the succeeding Lorraine Dynasty, it was transferred to the Giardino di Boboli in Florence.

The inscription on this side of the obelisk reads:
Horus, Kanakht Merymaat (Strong Bull, beloved of Maat), King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Wesermaatre Setepenre (the Justice of Re is Powerful, chosen of Re), Son of Re, Rameses Meryamun (Re has created him, beloved of Amun), Great Ruler, Victor of all foreign countries, Lord of the Two Lands, Wesermaatre Setepenre, beloved of Re-Harakhte.

New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty (13th Century BCE), from Heliopolis. Pink granite. H. 4.87 m.