The Colonna dell'Abbondanza is a monumental column located in the
Piazza della Repubblica in
Florence, region of
Tuscany, Italy.
History
While the open Piazza we see today dates to the 19th-century clearing of the Mercato Vecchio in Florence, a column at the site was erected in the 15th century, at the intersection of the Roman grid roads, the
Cardo and
Decumanus Maximus, thus once forming the center of Ancient Roman Florence.
It is likely a monument at the site was present in Ancient Florence, this column, made from gray granite from Elba, was erected initially in 1430–1431 by the civic officers of the neighborhood. At the summit, originally was placed a
pietra serena statue by Donatello, depicting an allegory of ''la Dovizia'' (Abundance), holding a
cornucopia, a theme befitting the surrounding marketplace.
Attached to the column were two chains: one rung the open and close of market, while the other was used to chain swindlers and insolvent debtors for
public shaming. In this it served a similar role to the
Column of the Vicariate
The Column of the Vicariate or Colonna della Vicaria was a simple white marble column on a pedestal that formerly stood outside the Castel Capuano along Via dei Tribunali in Naples, Italy. It was used by the government first as a place for punish ...
in Naples.
Weather-worn, the head of Donatello's statue fell and was destroyed, the statue was removed in 1721, and replaced by a marble statue by
Giovanni Battista Foggini
Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Foggini (25 April 1652 – 12 April 1725) was an Italian sculptor active in Florence, renowned mainly for small bronze statuary.
Biography
Born in Florence, the young Foggini was sent to Rome by the Medici Gran ...
.
During the clearing of the Piazza between 1885 and 1895, the column was dismantled, and the components stored in various sites. Only in 1956, under the engineer
Giulio Cesare Lensi Orlandi Cardini, and funded by the local Azienda del Turismo, the column was reassembled with a bronze copy of Foggini's statue by
Mario Moschi.
The column is sites some two meters from its original position.
Palazzo Spinelli
Repertorio delle Architettura Civili di Firenze, entry on the column.
References
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