Piazza della Signoria - Table of Contents................ Architecture Around the World

Statue of Cosmo I
Piazza della Signoria
, Florence, Italy

Erected:
1594
Artist:
Jean Boulogne, a Flemish sculptor, who was known in Italy as Giambologna.
Commissioned by Cosimo's son, Ferdinando, the third grand duke of Tuscany (reigned 1584-1609).
See also:  Two statues in the Loggia della Signoria
Material:
Bronze


Cosimo I de’ Medici became head of the Florentine Republic in 1537 at the the tender age of seventeen and conquered his way to being named the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1569. Cosimo was also famous for the creation of the Uffizi, designed for him by Giorgio Vasari, which gathered all of the city’s administrative offices and public services under one roof, a rather innovative idea at the time.

The Medici were great patrons of the arts and statuary was one of their favorite modes of conceptual and political communication. Cosimo’s son, Ferdinando I de’ Medici commissioned Giambologna, most famous for his Rape of the Sabine Women [in the
Piazza della Signoria Loggia] and many Medici fountains, to create an equestrian statue of Cosimo.

The bronze statue, like Giambologna’s statue of Ferdinando, is reminiscent of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. The Roman emperor was most famous for his philosophical work, the Meditations. This image would indicate not only the Medici’s power and deep roots in Italy, but their learnedness.
- Florence in War and Flood (online April 2929)   








Note feathered visitor






Feathered visitor








Plinth





Plinth   ...   Bas-relief



Six balls:  Medici family coat of arms   ...   The number of balls varied with time



Cosimo I's entrance into Siena as a ruler (1557) after his victory over that republic   ...   Three details below:


Left



Center



Right







Photos and their arrangement © 2020 Chuck LaChiusa
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