The Mediterranean in Florence. The hall of Bona and Preveza in Palazzo Pitti and its restoration.

The fresco cycle covering the walls of the Room of Bona illustrates some of the most important feats of Ferdinand I's reign, which sealed his contribution to the political stability of Europe and the entrance of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany among the group of continent's great powers. It depicts military scenes (the conquest of the city of Bona in Algeria and the battle of Prevesa, a city of present-day Greece), a view of the port of Livorno, a key place for Tuscan military policy, and, on the vaulted ceiling, the celebration of Cosimo I flanked by Minerva and the Glory of Princes, and surrounded by six other female allegories recalling the virtues of a good ruler (Magnificence, Glory, Wisdom, Command, Mercy and Good Fame).

According to the image policy of the time, the Medici magnificence was displayed to the illustrious visitors who used to stop here before being admitted in front of the Grand Duke. The Hall was in fact a sort of antechamber, significantly belonging to the so-called "apartments of foreign princes". The fresco cycle, by Bernardino Poccetti, who was the last representative of the great Florentine Mannerist decoration, had been obscured by yellowish patinas resulting from previous restorations; the walls also showed extensive damage, caused by cracks, plaster detachment and paint loss. The Opificio's intervention was able to recover the structural stability of the room and the balance and brightness of the paintings. To achieve this result, were required a series of meticulous thermographic and georadar surveys, as well as photographic campaigns in the different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and chemical-physical analyses; these were followed by restoration operations directed by Cecilia Frosinini and Renata Pintus and conducted by a pool of expert restorers led by Mariarosa Lanfranchi and Paola Ilaria Mariotti.