Thankfully, 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 and met with terrible reception by the public in 1534. The politics of the Medici and Florence dominate the Piazza della Signoria, specifically referencing the first three Florentine dukes. The Medici still dominated the theme of the pedestal as Perseus in the pedestal acts as an allegory to Duke Francesco Medici. However, it 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. 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.Ĭellini was the first to integrate narrative relief into the sculpture of the piazza. If one examines the sculpture from the back, you can see the self-image of the sculptor Cellini on the backside of Perseus' helmet. Cellini breathed new life into the piazza visitor through his new use of bronze in Perseus and the head of Medusa and the motifs he used to respond to the previous sculpture in the piazza. The bronze sculpture and Medusa’s head turns men to stone and is appropriately surrounded by three huge marble statues of men: Hercules, David and later Neptune.
The body of Medusa spews blood from her severed neck. Perseus stands naked except for a sash and winged sandals, triumphant on top of the body of Medusa with her snakey head 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 was turned to snakes and anyone that looked at her was turned to stone.
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