Detail View: ADJUNCT MODULE B: ITALIAN ART: Perseus with the Head of Medusa
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Collection:
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ADJUNCT MODULE B: ITALIAN ART
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Preferred Title:
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Perseus with the Head of Medusa
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Image View:
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Detail, carved marble base with figure of Mercury
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Creator:
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Benvenuto Cellini (Italian sculptor, 1500-1571)
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Location:
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site: Florence, Tuscany, Italy
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Location Note:
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Piazza della Signoria; Loggia dei Lanzi
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GPS:
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+43.769203+11.255658
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Date:
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1545-1553 (creation)
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Cultural Context:
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Italian
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Style Period:
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Mannerist (Renaissance-Baroque style); Renaissance
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Work Type 1:
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sculpture (visual work)
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Classification:
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Sculpture and Installations
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Material:
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bronze; marble
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Technique:
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casting (process)
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Measurements:
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5.5 m (height)
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Subjects:
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allegory; human figure; mythology (Classical); Cosimo I, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, 1519-1574; Medici family
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Description:
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A major public work commissioned by Cosimo I de' Medici; the creation of the statue is discussed in Celini's memoirs, the Vita. The bronze statue is raised on a marble pedestal, a kind of Mannerist reinterpretation of an antique altar. Out of the sides of the pedestal are hollowed four niches in which stand bronze statuettes of Mercury, Danaë, Jupiter and Minerva. There is also a rectangular, inset, bronze relief of Perseus Freeing Andromeda (all these subsidiary works now Florence, Bargello; replaced with copies). The Perseus is part of a group of sculptures in the Loggia dei Lanzi, and the piazza, meant to symbolize Florentine civic pride. (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/)
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Collection:
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Adjunct Module B: Italian Art
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Identifier:
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6A1-CELLINI-PBM-F08
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Rights:
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© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.
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