Statue Cosimo I Giambologna Piazza della Signoria n02

The Equestrian Monument of Cosimo I is a bronze equestrian statue executed by Giambologna from 1587 to 1594, and erected in 1594 in the

Piazza della Signoria Piazza della Signoria () is a w-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio. It is the main point of the origin and history of the Florentine Republ ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

, region of

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

, Italy.

History

This statue follows the Classical Roman tradition of Equestrian statues as the monument to a ruler's power, evident from the Statue of Marcus Aurelius in ancient Rome and the

Regisole The ''Regisole'' ("Sun King") was a bronze classical or Late Antique equestrian monument, highly influential during the Italian Renaissance but destroyed in 1796. It was originally erected at Ravenna, in what is now Italy, but was moved to Pavia ...

in Ferrara, and continued in the Renaissance by examples such as

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Florence, he studied classical sculpture and used this to develop a complete Renaissance s ...

's Statue of Gattamelata (1453) in Padua and

Verrocchio Andrea del Verrocchio (, , ; – 1488), born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, was a sculptor, Italian painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence. He apparently became known as ''Verrocchio'' after the ...

's Statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni (1488) in Venice. This monument was commissioned by Cosimo's son Ferdinando I from the sculptor Giambologna, who also completed the

Rape of the Sabines The Rape of the Sabine Women ( ), also known as the Abduction of the Sabine Women or the Kidnapping of the Sabine Women, was an incident in Roman mythology in which the men of Rome committed a mass abduction of young women from the other citi ...

in the adjacent

Loggia dei Lanzi The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. It consists of wide arches open to the street. The arches rest on clustered pi ...

. The Cosimo statue stands in front of the north corner of the

Palazzo della Signoria A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

, the northernmost of the row of statues, adjacent to the Fountain of Neptune (1563) by Ammannati, that had been commissioned by Cosimo himself. Together this duo celebrates the land and sea ambitions of Cosimo. The base of the statue has reliefs with scenes from the life of Cosimo, including his coronation in Rome as Grand-Duke in 1570 and his entrance into Siena as a ruler (1557) after his victory over that republic. The posture of the trotting horse in this statue is similar to those of prior statues, with right leg raised, however unlike Marcus Aurelius, Cosimo uses stirrups and his horse shows the restraint of the bridle, albeit without much tension. Cosimo, like Gattemalata, holds a military baton, armor, and sheathed sword. Some sources state the man and horse were cast separately, and the combined weight of the two was 23 thousand pounds. A few decades hence, Ferdinando I would have his own Equestrian monument in Piazza dell'Annunziata.Corografia dell'Italia
Volume 3, by Giovanni B. Rampoldi, 1837, page 1085.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Equestrian Monument Cosimo Cosimo Monuments and memorials in Florence Bronze sculptures in Italy Outdoor sculptures in Florence Sculptures by Giambologna 1590s sculptures Statues of monarchs Sculptures of men in Italy