Self Directed - Historical Research Florence
- Serena Toovey
- Apr 22, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 14, 2020
In July 2019, I went on a trip to Florence. I made an effort to find and take photos of horse statues as I already knew what I wanted my project to be about. The photos below are from the Piazza Della Signoria, the Ufizzi Gallery and the Boboli Gardens.
1st Photo: Neptune's Fountain in Florence
The work of Bartolomeo Ammannati in Piazza della Signoria is known as the Biancone. Right in the centre of Florence's Piazza della Signoria, just under the Palazzo Vecchio, we find the beautiful fountain of Neptune, sculpted by Bartolomeo Ammannati and Giambologna between 1563-65 to celebrate the opening of a new aqueduct. The statue is also known as the Biancone (great white) on account of the brilliance of its marble.
The colossal figure of the sea god on a chariot drawn by four horses is ringed by three young Tritons and four figures that represent the ocean spirit Doris, her daughter Thetis the Nereid, and two other marine divinities. These effigies only serve to highlight the central figure, Neptune himself, who stands predominant over the other statues.
It's worth noting the resemblance between the face of Neptune and that of Cosimo I de' Medici, which alludes to Florence's rule of the sea.
On the front of the pool we find a bronze inscription, testifying to the place where, in May 1498, Girolamo Savonarola, Domenico Buonvicini and Silvestro Maruffi were hanged and burned. It is in this exact spot that the preacher's memory is celebrated every year, on the anniversary of his death.
2nd Photo: Equestrian Monument of Cosimo I
The Equestrian Monument of Cosimo I is a bronze equestrian statue erected in 1594 in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.
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 in Ferrara, and continued in the Renaissance by examples such as Donatello's Statue of Gattamelata (1453) in Padua and Verrocchio'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 in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi. The Cosimo statue stands in front of the north corner of the Palazzo della Signoria, 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, armour, and sheathed sword.
3rd Photo: An example of Roman art in the form of a marble centaur from the 2nd century on display at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
I couldn't find much information on this statue but I found this interesting PDF on Monsters at the Ufizzi. https://uffizi-production-b8df82a1.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/production/attachments/1537451946686019-Monsters-EN.pdf
4th & 5th Photo: Pegasus State in the Boboli Gardens
The statue of Pegasus was made by by Aristodemo Costoli (1803-1871), an italian sculptor who spent his entire career in the city of Florence. His students included Girolamo Masini, Augusto Rivalta and his son Leopoldo Costoli. This piece is located next to a slope covered with lawns that leads from the Boboli Gardens back to the level of the Palazzo Pitti, the Ducal palace of Cosimo I de’ Medici, the first of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Palazzo Pitti was originally built by one of the Medici family’s competitors to exceed in every way their Palazzo Medici, but it was later bought by Eleonora di Toledo de’ Medici. The hill behind the Palazzo Pitti, excavated for stone to expand the buildings, was then turned into the Boboli Gardens, a segmented strolling garden with statues, fountains, grottoes, water tricks and other features which became the most often copied of the Italian Formal Gardens. Boboli’s design influenced formal gardens in the rest of Europe. The formal garden was started by Niccolo Tribolo, but he died the next year and the work was assigned to Bartolomeo Ammannati, a student of Bartolommeo Bandinelli who closely followed the style of Michelangelo (which may have greatly annoyed Baccio Bandinelli, who was fiercely jealous of Michelangelo and Cellini).
6th Photo: A graceful statue, depicting a woman riding a half-fish horse, in the Uffizi museum in Florence. Florence is the capital of Tuscany. Also featured in the PDF.
After my trip, I did some research and found that the Ufizzi Gallery did an exhibition on Riding Through Time back in 2018.
Curated by Lorenza Camin and Fabrizio Paolucci and hosted in the 18th century Limonaia in the Boboli Garden in Florence from 26 June to 14 October, the exhibition sets out to explore this age-old bond through a selection of items, often overlooked in exhibitions to the benefit of more eye-catching works, illustrating the myriad facets of a relationship that impacted every aspect of daily life.
This links with what I am researching at the beginning of my project, the relationship between horse and rider and the domestication of animals.
They also held a Traditional Horse Parade through the Boboli Gardens. This would have been amazing to see.
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