Design for a Narrative Frieze: A Commander Addressing His Troops 1535 - 1607

Alessandro Allori designed this narrative frieze, a commander addressing his troops, using pen and brown ink with brown wash, heightened with white gouache, over black chalk on light brown paper. Allori lived and worked in Florence in the late 16th century. As a design for a frieze, this drawing would have been intended to be part of a larger decorative scheme, perhaps in a palace or other public building. The subject matter, a military commander addressing his troops, would have been appropriate for a space where civic values and ideals were celebrated. The visual codes of the image, such as the classical armor and weaponry, evoke the Roman Empire, which was often used as a model for Florentine statecraft. The composition, with the commander at the center and the troops arrayed around him, reinforces the hierarchical social structure of the time. To fully understand this work, one would want to examine the history of Florence, and its institutions of power.