Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE B: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title:
Perseus with the Head of Medusa
Image View:
Detail, the dragon, bronze relief panel at bottom of marble base; Perseus Freeing Andromeda
Creator:
Benvenuto Cellini (Italian sculptor, 1500-1571)
Location:
site: Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Location Note:
Piazza della Signoria; Loggia dei Lanzi
GPS:
43.769203 11.255658
Date:
1545-1553 (creation)
Cultural Context:
Italian
Style Period:
Mannerist (Renaissance-Baroque style); Renaissance
Work Type 1:
sculpture (visual work)
Classification:
Sculpture and Installations
Material:
bronze; marble
Technique:
casting (process)
Measurements:
5.5 m (height)
Subjects:
allegory; human figure; mythology (Classical); Cosimo I, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, 1519-1574; Medici family
Description:
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.oxfordart online.com/)
Collection:
Adjunct Module B: Italian Art
Identifier:
6A1-CELLINI-PBM-G08
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Perseus with the Head of Medusa