When Giovanni de’ Medici was elected Pope Leo X in 1513, he decided to modernize the Papal Apartments, located in the medieval core of the Apostolic Palace and previously set up by his predecessor Julius II. The renewal of this setting focused on the room of the Chiaroscuri, used in the sixteenth century for secret consistories or for solemn Papal meetings with the Cardinals, and on the Sala Vecchia degli Svizzeri, a sort of antechamber where the Cardinals received their robes. The aim of this paper is to understand the relationship between the coffered wooden ceiling designed by Raphael and the original decoration executed by the Sanzio workshop and, furthermore, the involvement of Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane in the ceiling’s construction.
