Two 'Trionfi,' famous for their taste and
beauty, were given by rival companies in Florence, on the election of
Leo X to the Papacy. One of them represented the three Ages of Man, the
other the Ages of the World, ingeniously set forth in five scenes of
Roman history, and in two allegories of the golden age of Saturn and of
its final return. The imagination displayed in the adornment of the
chariots, when the great Florentine artists undertook the work, made
the scene so impressive that such representations became in time a
permanent element in the popular life. Hitherto the subject cities had
been satisfied merely to present their symbolical gifts--costly stuffs
and wax-candles-- on the day when they annually did homage. The guild
of merchants now built ten chariots, to which others were afterwards to
be added, not so much to carry as to symbolize the tribute, and Andrea
del Sarto, who painted some of them, no doubt did his work to
perfection. These cars, whether used to hold tribute or trophies, now
formed part of all such celebrations, even when there was not much
money to be laid out. The Sienese announced, in 1477, the alliance
between Ferrante and Sixtus IV, with which they themselves were
associated, by driving a chariot round the city, with 'one clad as the
goddess of peace standing on a hauberk and other arms.
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