most impressive element of all, developing harmoniously on the second and third floors, opening into three flights; unfortunately, it no longer exists.
Vasari's intervention was above all in the ceilings: the ground floor rooms were completed with cross or circular vaults, while those on the upper floors were furnished with ordinary wooden ceilings, with the exception of the two larger rooms prepared for group activities: the Weapons Room—today called Sala Azzurra—and the Fencing Room—today called Salone degli Stemmi, on the second and third floors respectively, which were adorned with elegant panelled ceilings.
The scenographic solution for the façade
The intention of transforming the existing medieval structures into a building with a harmonious and coherent appearance was achieved thanks to the opportune invention of new façades, especially those facing the square. Completed between 1562 and 1567, Vasari's device superimposed a coherent and rational design over the old disorder: the regular windows with stone frames, the panels with their graffito decorations by Tommaso di Battista del Verrocchio and Alessandro Forzori di Arezzo, the chiaroscuro and the plastic relief of architectural and sculptural elements all give an appearance of regularity and symmetry.
In particular, the central axis is emphasised by the monumental staircase with two flights leading up to the main entrance, a staircase built on a model by Michelangelo but then replaced in the 19th century. The symmetry is evidenced on the first floor by the two coats of arms of the Order of Knights at the far ends of the façade which respond to the Medici family/Knights of St. Stephen coat of arms placed over the curvilinear tympanum of the main door. Across this stage which Vasari had organized was displayed the “proclamation by images” of the civil, military and religious virtues of the Grand Duke, who was Grand Master of the Order. From 1588 to 1718, this celebratory programme was gradually enlarged with the portraits of the Grand Dukes —Cosimo I, Francesco I, Ferdinando I, Cosimo II, Ferdinando II and Cosimo III—placed in elegant niches under the windows of the top floor.
The transformation of Vasari's work
In the centuries which followed, a great deal of attention was given to ennobling the materials used in the façade. The original sandstone of some elements was therefore replaced with marble, such as the balcony and frame of the main door and the external staircase, redesigned in neoclassic form in 1821.
But the most important transformations were to the interior, which had to be adapted to the new uses of the Carovana building. Thus at the end of the 18th century the Armoury Hall on the ground floor, which had functioned as a deposit for arms since the Middle Ages, was divided, and the arches of the loggia at the rear of the building were closed with glass panels. The internal staircase by Vasari was also demolished and substituted with a new one.