![]() Cellini chose to represent the sad side of the story of Andromeda however, he created a focus on the Medici, like Perseus, saving the unsmiling Andromeda. Similarly, Andromeda acts as an allegory for Florence, while Perseus is the collective Medici swooping down to save the city. The third duke is directly related to the sculpture's relief panel on the base as the Perseus can be seen as a symbol for Duke Francesco and Andromeda as his Habsburg bride, Giovanna. Fortunately, the public received the sculpture well, as Cosimo watched the reception from a window in the Palazzo Vecchio. The next sculpture to be revealed was Cellini's Perseus and Cosimo I was very cautious about the public's reaction to the piece. Duke Alessandro I was the first Florentine duke, and Hercules and Cacus was revealed during his time, meeting with a terrible reception by the public in 1534. The politics of the Medici and Florence dominate the Piazza della Signoria, specifically making reference to the first three Florentine dukes. The base of the sculpture, Perseus' feet on the slain Medusa's headless corpse The Medici still dominated the theme of the pedestal as Perseus in the pedestal is an allegory for Duke Francesco Medici. However, the present pedestal may not have been Cellini's original intent, as the relief was still being worked on and installed when the bronze sculpture above had already been revealed. Weil-Garris also focuses on the pedestal beneath the sculpture in the round. Perseus added to the cast of Olympian gods protecting the Medici. As the Perseus was installed in the Loggia, it dominated the dimensions of later pedestals of other sculptural works within the Loggia, like Giambologna's The Rape of the Sabine Women. Background External videoĬellini was the first to integrate narrative relief into the sculpture of the piazza. The sculpture is thought to be the first statue since the classical age where the base included a figurative sculpture forming an integral part of the work. Examining the sculpture from the back, one can see a self-portrait of the sculptor Cellini on the back of Perseus' helmet. Cellini's use of bronze in Perseus and the head of Medusa, and the motifs he used to respond to the previous sculpture in the piazza, were highly innovative. ![]() The bronze sculpture, in which Medusa's head turns men to stone, is appropriately surrounded by three huge marble statues of men: Hercules, David, and later Neptune. Perseus stands naked except for a sash and winged sandals, triumphant on top of the body of Medusa with her head, crowned with writhing snakes, in his raised hand. The subject matter of the work is the mythological story of Perseus beheading Medusa, a hideous woman-faced Gorgon whose hair had been turned to snakes anyone who looked at her was turned to stone. When the piece was revealed to the public on 27 April 1554, Michelangelo's David, Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus, and Donatello's Judith and Holofernes were already installed in the piazza. The second Florentine duke, Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, commissioned the work with specific political connections to the other sculptural works in the piazza. It is located in the Loggia dei Lanzi in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy. The sculpture stands on a square base which has bronze relief panels depicting the story of Perseus and Andromeda, similar to a predella on an altarpiece. Perseus with the Head of Medusa is a bronze sculpture made by Benvenuto Cellini in the period 1545–1554. Perseus with the Head of Medusa, in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence
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