The Expulsion of the Duke of Athens

The Expulsion of the Duke of Athens by Orcagna, painted around 1343, commemorates the overthrow of Walter VI of Brienne, who briefly seized tyrannical power over Florence in 1342–1343. This rare example of contemporary political subject matter in trecento painting was created for the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence's seat of government, as a civic monument celebrating the restoration of republican liberty. Orcagna, the leading Florentine artist of the mid-fourteenth century, was equally accomplished as painter, sculptor, and architect.

This fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio combines narrative figural composition with architectural elements in a style that bridges Giottesque monumentality and the more decorative tendencies of mid-trecento Florence. The crowded composition and emphatic gestures serve the work's propagandistic civic function.