This dissertation explores the primary sites of collecting and display commissioned by Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (r. 1564-87). These sites ─ Francesco's studiolo in the Palazzo Vecchio and the nearby Uffizi Gallery ─ established precedents for the physical layout of newly emerging museums in early modern Europe, as scholars have suggested. But, as this dissertation asserts, Francesco's communication of authority through these sites significantly contributed to the changing expectations in the 16th century of a ruler's proper engagement with culture. Displaying objects connoting knowledge, taste, and wealth, these sites demonstrated Francesco's privileged access to such objects and his mastery over the scientific processes involved in their creation. Emphasizing the prince's knowledge, this approach contrasted with earlier rulers' reliance on images of direct military power and laid the groundwork for the merging of personal and private space that would come to characterize the full expression of absolutism across Europe. Chapter One examines the multi-faceted assertions of authority in Francesco's portraits, a strategy reflecting his embrace of images and spaces to communicate personal and political identity. Chapter Two addresses his private studiolo, which represented Francesco's participation in scientific, contemplative, and collecting activities among ruling elites. Chapter Three examines the subtle but profound shift in the meaning of the collection when, in 1583, Francesco created the Galleria degli Uffizi, a significant contribution in the history of European museums. Established independent of the prince's residence, the new museum represented Francesco's most powerful expression of cultural politics, as dignitaries visited the impressively decorated gallery and experienced first-hand its political assertions. The dissertation concludes by examining the impact of Francesco's museological precedents on other Italian rulers. Sites in Florence and Mantua demonstrate the continued attractiveness of Francesco's cultural expressions of authority to 17th-century rulers, as new expectations of a ruler's engagement with the arts emerge. Princely galleries become an increasingly common demonstration of authority, with many examples emulating the Uffizi's design. The conclusion affirms Francesco's legacy in binding the demonstration of artistic and scientific knowledge to political authority in the early Seicento.

Giorgio Vasari naît le 30 juillet 1511 ; il s'éteint le 27 juin 1574. À la fin de l'année 1554, il entre au service de Cosme Ier de Médicis, duc de Florence, et se voit rapidement confier la responsabilité des travaux de transformation du Palais de la Seigneurie en Palais Ducal. L'artiste livre les clefs de lecture du cycle pictural déployé sur les plafonds et les murs du célèbre monument florentin, connu sous le nom de Palazzo Vecchio, dans une oeuvre peu étudiée : Ragionamenti del Sig. Cavaliere Giorgio Vasari, pittore et architetto aretino, sopra le invenzioni da lui dipinte in Firenze nel Palazzo di loro Altezze Serenissime. Rédigé entre 1558 et 1567, mais publié à titre posthume seulement en 1588, ce texte met en scène Giorgio Vasari et le prince François Ier de Médicis, fils aîné de Cosme Ier et d'Éléonore de Tolède. Sous une plume ekphrastique, au sein de laquelle le mot et l'image s'unissent, l'artiste compose un dialogue distribué sur trois journées et conduit dans trois lieux emblématiques du palais : le Quartier des Éléments, le Quartier de Léon X et la Salle des Cinquecento. L'intérêt de cet ouvrage réside dans les différents niveaux de lecture comme dans les différents "dialogues" qu'il suppose. Si la réécriture de certains épisodes mythologiques, mis en relation directe avec l'histoire de la dynastie médicéenne, participe du dessein officiel de l'oeuvre, à savoir la glorification ducale, le mythe prélude, en raison de son appartenance à un univers ésotérique, à une lecture dérobée du texte vasarien qui, au-delà de servir le règne médicéen, révèle une aura mémorielle nous invitant à appréhender I Ragionamenti de Giorgio Vasari comme un édifice de la Mémoire. / Giorgio Vasari was born on 30 July 1511 ; he died on 27 June 1574. At the end of 1554, he starts to be on the service of Cosimo I de' Medici, the Duke of Florence and he quickly sees himself entrusted with the transformation works of the seigneurial palace into a ducal one. The artist delivers the reading guides of the pictorial cycle deployed on the ceilings and the walls of the famous Florentine monument known as Palazzo Vecchio, in Ragionamenti del Sig. Cavaliere Giorgio Vasari, pittore e architetto aretino, sopra le invenzioni da lui dipinte in Firenze nel Palazzo di loro Altezze Serenissime, a little-known and little-studied work. Written between 1558 and 1567, but only posthumous published in 1588, this text stages Giorgio Vasari and Prince Francesco I de' Medici, the elder son of Cosimo I and Eleonora di Toledo. Under a descriptive hand, in which the word and the image unite, the artist composes a dialogue spread over three days and lead in three emblematic places of the palace: the Elements Area, the Leo X Quarter and the Cinquecento Room. The interest of this work lies in the different reading levels as in the different "dialogues" that it means to suggest. If the rewriting of some mythological episodes, directly viewed in relation to the history of the Medici dysnasty, contributes to the official aim of the work - namely the ducal glorification - the myth preludes, owing to its belonging to an esoteric world, a hidden reading of the Vasarian text that, beyond serving the Medici reign, reveals a memory aura inviting us to comprehend Giorgio Vasari's Ragionamenti as an edifice of Memory.