Vatican Museums

This room, much larger than the previous ones and therefore reserved for use on public occasions such as official banquets, audiences and consistories, is located in the medieval wing of the Apostolic Palace built by Nicholas III (1277-1280). The name of the room most likely derives from this function, rather than from the series of pontiffs painted by Giotto and mentioned in the Lives, which according to Vasari occupied the lunettes corresponding to the Latin inscriptions still present: Stephen II, Adrian I, Leo III, Sergius II, Leo IV, Urban II, Nicholas III, Gregory XI, Boniface IX, and Martin V.
The original ceiling with wooden beams collapsed in 1500 following a violent storm, vividly described in the diary of the master of ceremonies, Johannes Burckhard; the pope was overcome by the rubble, leading even to the announcement of his death, but was instead protected by one of the beams and remained miraculously unharmed.
The flat cover was substituted by a false vault, decorated at the time of Leo X (1513-1521) with frescoes and stucco by the pupils of Raffaello Perin del Vaga and Giovanni da Udine: at the centre there is the coat of arms of the patron, surrounded by dancing angels, while the other sections include grotesques, the twelve signs of the zodiac, the constellations and the seven planets known at the time.