Episode 12: Florence – Speaking Statues in Piazza della Signoria

Buongiorno! I’m Dr. Rocky Ruggiero. Join me in rebuilding the Renaissance and making art and history come to life.

Welcome to the Rebuilding The Renaissance podcast, your guide to the art and history of Italy from the glory of Rome to the magnificence of the Renaissance. Now here’s your host, Dr. Rocky Ruggiero.

Buongiorno, everyone. The subject of this podcast is the collection of statues in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. Right there in front of, and then adjacent to the Palazzo Vecchio. I’ve called the podcast Speaking Statues, because, as I mentioned in the last podcast, every one of those statues represents a chapter in the history of the city of Florence. In other words, it’s not just random decoration, each one there, representing a different moment in Florence’s history. In fact, we also talked about how reluctant Florence was in putting statuary out in front of the building. The reason they were reluctant was because of the political instability. I jokingly mentioned how a rioting mob could have used all five tons of Michelangelo’s David as a battering ram to actually get inside of the building. So, one by one, the sculptures appeared, and the first of the statutes is the one that no one really ever notices.

If you’re looking at the facade of the Palazzo Vecchio, to the left hand corner, almost directly in front of the left hand corner of the facade, you will see this small gray statue of a lion. Now, the name of the statue is the Marzocco, M-A-R-Z-O-C-C-O, and the original is actually in a museum called the Bargello in Florence. The statue that’s out in the piazza is a copy, and the original was brought indoors for reasons of conservation. The original was actually carved by Donatello. Now, it’s not just some Narnia lion that they put outside or what have you. That specific symbol of the lion, with it’s paw resting upon a shield, upon which is a red fleur de lis, upon a white backdrop. Now you’ll notice that red fleur de lis all over the place in Florence.

The reason is because it’s the flag of the city. We mentioned before that Florence was a city-state. It was a city and it was its own country as well, and all countries have flags. Florence’s flag is, in fact, the red fleur de lis, with the white backdrop. In fact, if you look at that balcony on Palazzo Vecchio, those three flags. You have the European Union flag on the left, the blue one with the gold stars, the Italian flag in the center, and then the flag of Florence as well, and so that lion with its paw upon the flag of Florence upon the shield, is actually the mascot for something called the militia of Florence. In other words, it symbolized the civic militia in the city. Consider that standing armies were a rarity in most of Europe. Really the only two countries that had standing armies were England and France at this time, and the reason is because they were perpetually at war.

Most of the time, historians claimed that it was too expensive to maintain a standing army, when in reality it was also very expensive to maintain one. So if the city of Florence was in trouble, they would start gonging that bell up there in the tower of Palazzo Vecchio, and people would pour into the piazza with their pitchforks and their meat cleavers, ready to defend their city with their lives. Now, consider that that statue was put into the piazza in the year 1416. In other words, about 120 years after the building was constructed. So it took that long, over a century, for the city to stabilize politically enough to actually begin to introduce statues into the piazza. Now consider, once they put it out there, no one trashed it, no one vandalized it, no one put the statue in a catapult and hurled it against the building or what have you.

So they thought that they would try again. The next statue that was inserted into the urban space is the one just to the right of the Marzocco Lion. It is the bronze statue of that woman lifting the sword in her right hand, standing over a seated male figure with his back to us. That statute is a copy as well, of an original that is now inside of the Palazzo Vecchio. It depicts the subject of Judith and Holofernes, H-O-L-O-F-E-R-N-E-S. Judith and Holofernes. The original was actually made by Donatello in the year 1454 and in fact, the original location of the original statue was in the garden of the Medici palace. We’ll be talking a bit more about how the Medici in the 15th century were commissioning some of the more avant garde pieces, including this one.

So the statue actually stood in the courtyard of the Medici palace until the year 1494, when a fire breathing Dominican friar by the name of Girolamo Savonarola convinced the people of Florence to cast the Medici out of the city, and to reform the city into a theocracy. But we’ll save this for another podcast. Anyway, when that happened, the people of Florence sacked the Medici palace. They took the statue, and they actually placed it where the copy of Michelangelo’s David is today. So it came out into the piazza in 1494. Now, if you’re not familiar with the story, the story of Judith is apocryphal. She is described as a very beautiful widow from the town of Bethulia. The story goes that the town of Bethulia was being assaulted and assailed by an Assyrian army, and the city was helpless to resist the overwhelming numbers.

So Judith took matters into her own hands. The story goes that she actually pretended to defect over to the enemy Assyrian camp. They took one look at her and said, come on in. They introduced Judith to their general, whose name was Holofernes, who invited Judith back to his tent, where she proceeded to seduce, inebriate, and then decapitate the general. Now remember the rules of ancient warfare. You kill the king, you kill the general, you defeat the army. An army without a head was no longer an army. So single handedly, Judith took down the entire Assyrian army. Now, interesting, and it’s worth mentioning that you see this subject depicted quite often. Botticelli does a version, up on the Sistine ceiling Michelangelo also shows Judith, and usually what you see is the moment after the decapitation. In other words, Judith and her hand servant leaving the tent of Holofernes with his disembodied head.

Donatello has gone a bit Quintin Tarantino on us in his interpretation, because what you see is that total physical and sexual dominance of Judith over the male figure of Holofernes. First in their physical relation. She stands over him, and if you look at that left leg, she’s actually straddling Holofernes. Her leg goes over his shoulder as well. Then Holofernes head at a very suggestive height on her anatomy. You see essentially where it is, and that left foot of Judith squishing out that hand, almost like a cigarette butt or what have you. It’s the right hand of Holofernes. So the hand that would reach towards her, the hand that desired her, that she’s actually squishing out or what have you. Then that unnatural turn of Holofernes head, you see the way his head tilts to the left and it extends a little too far back.

No one’s that flexible. The reason is that if you could actually get up to the statute and walk around it as you are supposed to do, unfortunately now because of that hedge that they’ve put there, you can’t get up and around, but if you could, what you would see is a large gash in the neck of Holofernes. Because the story recounts that she struck him once, only to realize she had not gone all the way through. She, in Donatello’s interpretation, is in this second moment of essentially decapitation and hacking as she’s about to cut the head of the general off. The moral of Judith and Holofernes is one of an underdog. How does a woman take down an entire army single handedly? The answer is through her wit, through her guile, through her beauty, and what have you as well.

So the story of Judith and Holofernes stands as one of the celebrated underdog stories. Florence loves the underdog subject. Because the city saw itself as an underdog. We’ll talk about how Florence was an economic, was a political, was obviously a cultural power, but Florence was never a military power. Time and time again, it was somehow able to withstand attacks and aggressions by these overwhelming forces, and somehow miraculously always came out on top. That’s why the story of Judith was so appealing to them. So the statue of Judith and Holofernes stood where the copy of Michelangelo’s David is today for 10 years. The problem with it was that it is essentially a woman dominating a man. Of course, every person who worked in the building was a man. It’s not the best, say, image for morale to have a woman decapitating a male figure.

So as soon as Michelangelo’s strapping, 17 foot, male, Calvin Klein model, nude was completed, the David was actually put where the copy stands today, and we’ll talk about the whole history of the David in a separate podcast, because obviously it deserves its own spotlight or what have you. But consider that when that happened, the statue of Judith and Holofernes went inside the building. It was actually put into the courtyard of the Medici palace, where it remained for about a decade or so. Then in 1509, the city of Pisa, which was actually ruled over by Florence, successfully rebelled and the city of Florence blamed the bad luck on the statue of Judith. So they took the statue out of the courtyard, and put it in the third arch. In other words, if you’re looking at the Loggia of the Signoria, the three arched structure to your right where all the statutes are, where today you see the Rape of the Sabine, in the arch furthest to the right, is where the Judith and Holofernes statute was inserted.

But when that statue of the Rape of the Sabine, which we’re going to talk about in just a sec, was completed in 1583, the statue of Judith and Holofernes was moved to the position in which you see it today. The reason it can now exist happily out there in the piazza is because, in the meantime, another sculpture appeared, and that is the statute in the first of the three arches. In other words, the furthest to the left in the Loggia della Signoria, you will see a bronze statue of Perseus, the mythological hero with the disembodied head of Medusa in his left hand. Now that statute, which is one of the most celebrated of the Renaissance, was cast by a sculpture named Benvenuto Cellini, C-E-L-L-I-N-I. Now, many of you ask me for reading suggestions and what have you. If you’re looking for a great primary source, Benvenuto Cellini’s so-called autobiography, which was written in the 16th century, is one of the best.

Because it is perhaps one of the most sensationalized pieces of literature of all time. In other words, instead of simply depicting himself as an artist, Cellini really pumps up his biographical information, talking about his extraordinary artistic ability and how Michelangelo said he was the greatest after himself, after Michelangelo, how he was the swashbuckling womanizer who single handedly saved Rome from barbarian invasion and what have you, and it gives you a great idea of what life was like. In fact, I empathize with Cellini because, instead of writing a biography, well, it’s Tuesday morning and I’m sitting here recording a blog, I think I’d probably pump it up and put some heroic action as well. Anyway, Cellini was a very talented goldsmith by profession. In fact, if you walk across the Ponte Vecchio, you will see a bust of Cellini about halfway across with all those locks.

I think awfully a lock to it as well. The Perseus and Medusa is essentially his defining piece. It is the original, by the way, the Perseus and Medusa is still the original, standing out there in the piazza. If you look at that sash running across the chest of Perseus, you’ll actually see the signature of the artist. Cellini, taking a page out of Michelangelo’s book, who signed his early Saint Peter’s Pieta across the sash of the Virgin Mary, and Cellini doing essentially the same thing. What you see is essentially a statue that restores chi to Piazza della Signoria. In other words, Donatello’s statute was an image of a woman cutting off the head of a man. Cellini’s statue is instead an image of a man cutting off the head of what is technically a woman The Gorgon, Medusa. You see, of course, that masculinity, emphasized with that very phallic sword sticking out of Perseus’ right hand.

So when that statute came out in 1545, I think essentially everyone was perfectly okay with the very gory image of Judith and Holofernes as well. So the Marzocco, the gray sandstone lion, Donatello, 1416. The Judith and Holofernes, bronze statue, Donatello, 1494. Michelangelo’s David, coming out into the piazza in 1504. For now, all I want you to know is that where the statue, the copy I should say, stands today is where the original statue of David stood for 369 years. From 1504 until the year 1873, Michelangelo’s David stood where the copy stands today. In 1873 it was moved into a museum called the Academia Gallery, which is where the original now stands. So just to recapitulate here, during the time of the republic, I’ll be emphasizing over and over again that the 200 most important years in Florence’ history are the years that fall between 13 and 1500 A.D.

During which time all of the rock stars were active. Everyone from Dante all the way through big Mike, through Michelangelo himself. If you think about it, those statues that we just discussed reflects this. You had a Donatello, you had a Donatello, and you had a Michelangelo statute put in front of City Hall. Not bad, but, and we’ll be talking about this at length later on, in the year 1531, the Republic of Florence came to an end. So I’m saying 13 to 1500, I’m actually rounding up and rounding down. The exact years would be 1267, the formation of the Republic, to 1531, when that Republic capitulated into the hands of the Medici family. 1531, the Medici become monarchs of the city of Florence, the democracy is definitively over. Now we have monarchy in its stead, and when this happens, the quality of the artwork in Florence goes straight downhill.

Case in point, the large white marble statue to the right of Michelangelo’s David, the copy of Michelangelo’s David, depicts the mythological subject of Hercules. Hmm? Defeating a foe named Cacus, C-A-C-U-S. The sculpture was carved by an artist named Baccio Bandinelli. Who? Exactly. In fact, if you look at the base of the statue, you’ll see Bandinelli’s signature in those two pink plaques. I always ask people, have you heard of Donatello? Of course, everyone says, yes. Have you heard of Michelangelo? Everyone says yes. I said, have you heard of Bandinelli? Of course, people look at me with confusion. I know who Bandinelli is because it’s my job. I’m an art historian, and Bandinelli is a important high Renaissance sculptor, but he’s not a household name. He’s not one of the rock stars.

So the second wave of renaissance artists in Florence, you might even say third wave, the first in the 1400’s, the 2nd in the 1500’s, is not up to par with what we’re used to. The statue of Hercules is an original. It’s not a copy, which is also indicative of the fact that it’s not as important as the others in the piazza. If it were, it would probably already have been replaced. When that sculpture was unveiled in the year 1534, and by the way, that block had originally belonged to Michelangelo. Michelangelo had been commissioned to carve that into a Hercules, but he was just so busy that he never got around to it, which is why the commission then fell to this lesser sculptor named Bandinelli. When the sculpture of Hercules was unveiled, the people of Florence nicknamed it the Sack of Potatoes, as in French fries.

The reason is because Hercules is so overly muscular that they claim it looks like he swallowed a couple of sacks of potatoes, which are now bulging out through his skin. Now, if you consider this, look at Michelangelo, even the copy of Michelangelo’s David, where you essentially have the embodiment of classical elegance and proportion. Where no one part of of David’s anatomy over at shadows or overpowers the other. That track and field type of physique. You look at Hercules, and it’s like steroids gone bad or something like that. But the new reality in Florence is this, if the Duke likes it, then we all like it. You follow? If we don’t like it, we pretend we like it because, of course, it advances us socially and economically as well. It is now one taste.

Whereas earlier during the time of the Republic, there were plenty of people running around with plenty of money in their pockets, using art and architecture as an instrument of socio economic status. Commissioning the Ghiberti’s versus the Brunelleschi’s. The Leonardo’s is versus the Michelangelo’s. Now instead, one artistic taste dominating the city. The next sculpture that comes in. You move your eyes all the way to the left, that large white marble statue standing in that large stone basin. It’s the sculpture essentially projecting off of the left hand corner of the Palazzo della Signoria, and the subject of the sculpture is Neptune, as in the Roman god of the sea. Hence, the fountain around him. When operating, there’s actually water flowing. They don’t really turn it on anymore, because the water was producing mold and algae all over the piece, and there was just this consistent process of restoring the sculpture or what have you.

Anyway, the sculpture and the fountain itself, were all carved by an artist name Bartolomeo Ammannati. Bartolomeo Ammannati, and the year of completion was 1574. Now, if you look carefully at the face of Neptune, then look carefully at the face of the figure on the bronze horse. Just past it there an equestrian monument to Duke Cosimo, the first Di Medici, and you’ll notice that the face of Neptune is actually the face of the Grand Duke Cosimo Di Medici. In other words, when you’re Duke, you can do stuff like that. You can fancy yourself as a god. So it is his face onto the body of Neptune and what have you. When the sculpture of Neptune was unveiled in 1574, the people of Florence nicknamed it il Biancone. Bianco is the Italian word for white. One, o-n-e, is a majoritive suffix.

It makes the noun that you add it onto larger. So biancone would literally translate as big white fellow, or as I define them to my students, big white dude. Because he looks more like an NFL linebacker than he does a classical statue. But again, if the Duke likes it, I’m sure he did with his face on that particular body, then we all do. Although interestingly here, Ammannati didn’t take the criticism well. He apologized publicly and he actually went back to work on the statue of second time. For almost an entire year, hoping to Photoshop some of those things that annoyed the public in Florence. When he unveiled it again a second time, we’re told that the people of Florence show their distaste for the statue by climbing up onto the basin itself and urinating into the fountain. We’re told women would take their clothes and wash their clothes in the basin, that people walking by with horses and other livestock would actually stop to have them drink from the fountain.

In other words, their form of protests was in treating the fountain as a public fountain, versus a work of art. If you consider it, when you have a bar and a standard as high as Florence did, again, everyone from the Dante’s to the Leonardo’s and Michelangelo’s, it’s hard to accept anything of lesser quality. So you can take our democracy from us, but you cannot take our artistic taste. I think this essentially is what the Florentines were trying to say. In fact, one of my favorite things in the Piazza della Signoria, if you’re looking just between the Neptune Fountain and the sandstone lion, there’s a white marble plaque attached to the wall. It’s dated July of 1720, that’s the year. Essentially the plaque is a public decree saying that if anyone is caught peeing, washing clothes, watering horses, or doing anything else defamatory to the statue, you will be fined a certain amount of money.

I love that because it’s this great standard to use. It’s this great meter by which to measure the history. The plaque is 300 years old, that was put up there in 1720, and it’s just someone forgot to take it off. So it’s as mundane as a no parking or no loitering sign on a building. It’s just that the no loitering sign has been up for a full three centuries. All right. Last statue. If you go all the way back, I’ve mentioned it already to the third arch furthest to the right of the loggia, where you have this white marble statue of three figures. A man crouching down at the base, a man standing over him, and lifting up a woman. This is Giambologna’s famous Rape of the Sabine, from the year 1583. If you go back to one of my earlier podcasts, the foundation myth of Rome, you’ll actually hear the myth of the Rape of the Sabine, what it means. But consider that Giambologna, who was probably the most important sculptor in Florence after Michelangelo, when he had originally created that statue, there was no subject.

There was no mythological nor historical subject or what have you. It was simply a case of one upmanship, because Michelangelo had carved a statue of two figures from a single block. It’s the statue of Victory now inside of the Salone dei Cinquecento inside of Palazzo Vecchio. So what Giambologna was doing was saying, look, if he can carve two figures in one block, I can carve three figures for one block. In this true mannerist, serpentine composition, where essentially there is no front nor back to the statue. You just move around, and it continues to move your eye 360 degrees around the piece. But when he presented it to Duke Cosimo, the first Di Medici, he was so unnerved by the fact that there was no subject to the statute that he forced Giambologna to assign one. So Giambologna says, I don’t know, we’ll just make it a rape of the Sabine.

There you go. That is what the sculpture became, and it’s been sitting out there in the arch. That, in fact, is the original. Hopefully, both the Perseus and the Rape of the Sabine will be moved indoors quite soon, because you’ll see they’re in quite bad shape. But that was really the last major piece. The other statutes that you see in the loggia, the back row consists of ancient Roman statues of maidens, the Hercules and Centaur, another Giambologna. The central piece of the dying soldiers, a pastiche of a Renaissance soldier and an ancient Greek dying figure. Then finally the rape of Policena on the far left hand side, which is a 19th century, neoclassical style sculpture as well. But that loggia really stands as testimony in the sense that the Medici creating this let them eat cake atmosphere where yes, we have taken democracy from you, but look, we’ve just transformed this political stage into a free outdoor museum.

So obviously things have changed quite drastically from the medieval days of Florence. Anyway, stay tuned. In our next podcast, we’re going back into the Middle Ages and talking about the figure, the historical figure who was probably responsible for this movement that we call the Renaissance. It’s not an artist, not who you think it is. You’re going to be quite surprised. So stay tuned for more.

For more information on lectures and programs in the United States, art history tours in Italy, and for online video lectures, visit rockyruggiero.com.