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 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.
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 in Florence, 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 Pavia, 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. [1]
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 Gattamelata, 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. [2] A few decades hence, Ferdinando I would have his own equestrian monument in Piazza dell'Annunziata. [3]
Giambologna, also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small works in bronze and marble in a late Mannerist style.
Cosimo I de' Medici was the second duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first grand duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death.
An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin eques, meaning 'knight', deriving from equus, meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a difficult and expensive object for any culture to produce, and figures have typically been portraits of rulers or, in the Renaissance and more recently, military commanders.
The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius is an ancient Roman equestrian statue on the Capitoline Hill, Rome, Italy. It is made of bronze and stands 4.24 m tall. Although the emperor is mounted, the sculpture otherwise exhibits many similarities to the standing statues of Augustus. The original is on display in the Capitoline Museums, while the sculpture now standing in the open air at the Piazza del Campidoglio is a replica made in 1981 when the original was taken down for restoration.
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 Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political focus of the city. It is the meeting place of Florentines as well as the numerous tourists, located near Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo and gateway to Uffizi Gallery.
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 pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The wide arches appealed so much to the Florentines that Michelangelo proposed that they should be continued all around the Piazza della Signoria.
Pietro Tacca was an Italian sculptor, who was the chief pupil and follower of Giambologna. Tacca began in a Mannerist style and worked in the Baroque style during his maturity.
Pierre Franqueville, generally called Pietro Francavilla, was a Franco-Flemish sculptor trained in Florence, who provided sculpture for Italian and French patrons in the elegant Late Mannerist tradition established by Giambologna.
The Pasquino Group is a group of marble sculptures that copy a Hellenistic bronze original, dating to ca. 200–150 BCE. At least fifteen Roman marble copies of this sculpture are known. Many of these marble copies have complex artistic and social histories that illustrate the degree to which improvisatory "restorations" were made to fragments of ancient Roman sculpture during the 16th and 17th centuries, in which contemporary Italian sculptors made original and often arbitrary and destructive additions in an effort to replace lost fragments of the ancient sculptures.
The Equestrian Statue of Gattamelata is an Italian Renaissance sculpture by Donatello, dating from 1453, today in the Piazza del Santo in Padua, Italy. It portrays the condottiere Erasmo da Narni, known as "Gattamelata", who served mostly under the Republic of Venice, which ruled Padua at the time. It is the first full-size equestrian statue of the Italian Renaissance.
Prince Mihailo Monument is a monument of Prince Mihailo. It is located in the main Republic Square in Belgrade, Serbia, and was erected in 1882. It was the first public monument with representation of an equestrian figure of a ruler in Serbia. The monument is by Italian sculptor Enrico Pazzi. Reliefs on the monument were performed according to the drawings of architect Konstantin Jovanović. The monument was declared a Monument of Culture of Great Importance in 1979 and it is protected by Republic of Serbia, as the oldest and the most representative figural Serbian memorial.
The Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni is a Renaissance sculpture in Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Italy, created by Andrea del Verrocchio in 1480–1488. Portraying the condottiero Bartolomeo Colleoni, it has a height of 395 cm excluding the pedestal. It is the second major equestrian statue of the Italian Renaissance, after Donatello's equestrian statue of Gattamelata (1453).
The Fountain of Neptune in Florence, Italy, is situated in the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The fountain was commissioned by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1559 to celebrate the marriage of Francesco de' Medici I to Grand Duchess Joanna of Austria. Cosimo I de' Medici was the Duke of Florence from 1537-1569 and responsible for a vast number of architectural and artistic elements in Florence that still exist today.
The Equestrian Monument of Ferdinando I is a bronze equestrian statue by Giambologna, executed in 1602–1607, and erected in 1608 in the Piazza of the Annunziata in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.
The Equestrian monument to Vittorio Emanuele II is an equestrian statue of the former King Vittorio Emanuele II, located in the Piazza Vittorio Veneto, a small green spot at the east end of the Parco delle Cascine, located along the Arno River, just west of central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.
The Torrie Horse or Mattei Horse is a bronze Renaissance anatomical sculpture of a horse, created by Giambologna in Florence c. 1585.
The Loggiato is the semi-enclosed courtyard space between the two long galleries of the Uffizi Gallery located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the historic center of Florence, capital of Tuscany, Italy. Because the facade of the arcaded corridor parallel to the Arno River also continues the sculptural display of the cortile, it can also be included in the description.
Abduction of a Sabine Woman is a large and complex marble statue by the Flemish sculptor and architect Giambologna. It was completed between 1579 and 1583 for Cosimo I de' Medici. Giambologna achieved widespread fame in his lifetime, and this work is widely considered his masterpiece. It has been in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, since August 1582.
Italian Renaissance sculpture was an important part of the art of the Italian Renaissance, in the early stages arguably representing the leading edge. The example of Ancient Roman sculpture hung very heavily over it, both in terms of style and the uses to which sculpture was put. In complete contrast to painting, there were many surviving Roman sculptures around Italy, above all in Rome, and new ones were being excavated all the time, and keenly collected. Apart from a handful of major figures, especially Michelangelo and Donatello, it is today less well-known than Italian Renaissance painting, but this was not the case at the time.
