It seems to me that Perseus looks at the viewer while with his right hand holding the hilt of a sword with a saber tip and, at the same time, with his raised left hand holding Medusa’s head (fig. 2 DETAIL OF PERSEUS HOLDING THE HEAD OF MEDUSA The young Greek hero is beautifully represented naked (except for the complex decorated helmet, the shoulder-belt, signed by Cellini, and the winged sandals) as a triumphant victor standing on the contorted Medusa’s body spewing blood from her neck (fig. 1 DETAIL OF THE BODY OF MEDUSA AND HER NECK SPEWING BLOOD. ![]() Its posture and the general representation of this extreme act always catches my eye. Whenever I walk around in Piazza della Signoria in Florence, I feel totally enchanted by the beauty and majesty of this statue. Lastly, Cellini asked for 10.000 scudi for this statue but Cosimo I de’ Medici gave him only 3.500 scudi. In fact, if we look at the posterior part of the statue and precisely at the back of the helmet, it is possible to see a great optic effect which represents the face of a bearded and serious man representing the self-portrait of the same artist. Secondly, the statue seems to hide another work of art. Once the statue had cooled and before being placed in its final location in April 1554, a long process of polishing was undertaken which began in 1549. He states “ La fatica la m’era insopportabile e pure io mi sforzavo / The effort was unbearable but I pushed myself do it”. ![]() The statue was melted in one single casting with Cellini, in his autobiography ( Vita), explaining in detail how difficult this process was. Firstly, I would like to discuss the melting process. ![]() Here, I will discuss three facts concerning this work of art. The statue has a height of 5,19 metres including the base, which has its own (separate) elaborate design. I decided to take a picture of Benvenuto Cellini’s bronze statue of Perseus holding the head of Medusa located in Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence’s famous Piazza della Signoria, the city in which I am currently residing.īetween 15, Cellini worked under the commission of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici whose work represented the triumph of the Greek hero Perseus over Medusa which symbolically aimed to represent the power of the duke who had “cut off the head” of the Republic. Ms Teresa Frisina is an Italian archaeologist who is very passionate about Art History:
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