La copia del Marzocco di Donatello in Piazza della Signoria, Firenze [a]
The Marzocco, the heraldic lion symbolizing the city of Firenze, Piazza della Signoria, Firenze
The Marzocco is the heraldic lion that is a symbol of Florence, and was apparently the first piece of public secular sculpture commissioned by the Republic of Florence, in the late 14th century. It stood at the heart of the city in the P Piazza della Signoria at the end of the platform attached to the Palazzo Vecchio called the ringhiera, from which speakers traditionally harangued the crowd. This is now lost, having weathered with time to an unrecognizable mass of stone.
The best known rendition is by Donatello, made in 1418–20. Donatello’s Marzocco was placed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1812, but in 1885 it was moved to the Bargello, having been replaced by the copy we see to this day.
The term Marzocco denotes from the Latin word Marte or Mars, the Roman god of war.
Fontana del Nettuno, Neptune and the marzocco.
Behind Neptune, stands the equestrian statue of Cosimo I [d]
The original that had stood since (perhaps) 1377, and is now lost, appears to have been similar to Donatello's in design, though it was fully gilded and may have crouched over a submissive wolf representing Florence's great rival Siena.[1] It can be seen in the background of several paintings and prints, though by the time it was replaced it was so worn that (being only medieval, not classical) it was not considered worth keeping, and disappeared. About 1460 it was given a richly sculptural socle with double baluster-like motifs[2] at the corners. The ringhiera, once a platform from which the Signoria addressed the people, then a focus for popular tumult, was removed at the same time as the statue was replaced by Donatello's on a pedestal in 1812..
The obscure name Marzocco, unfathomable to some scholars, would by others derive from Marte (Mars), whose Roman statue, was known as the "Roman God of War"; noted by Dante[3] and carried away by a flood of the Arno in 1333, had previously been Florence’s emblem.[4] The lion is seated and with one paw supports the coat-of-arms of Florence, the fleur de lys called il giaggiolo, the iris. Marzocco was` invoked in the Florentine battle cry and figures in Gentile Aretino's poem "Alla battaglia":
"San Giorgio,[5] Marzoccho Marzoccho
suona percuoti, forbocta rintoccho
Palle palle,[6] Marzoccho Marzoccho
legagli strecti e pon lor buona taglia!"[7]
Marzocco and Neptunus, Piazza della Signoria, Firenze [2]
Symbol
The Marzocco was such a powerful symbol of the Florentine Republic that the republican Florentine troops in the Siege of Florence (1529–1530) were known as marzoccheschi, "sons of the Marzocco",[8] and pro-Medici besiegers of the city in 1530 held a funeral and ritually buried a representation of it, with bells tolling.[9] Prisoners of war from Pisa were forced to kiss it in 1364.[10] At Anghiari, subject to Florence from 1385, the 15th-century Palazzo del Marzocco faces the church; at Montepulciano stands the Marzocco column; at Volterra the Marzocco stands against the Palazzo dei Priori, seat of government; at Livorno the 15th-century Torre del Marzocco (illustration, right) guards the harbor entrance; and at Pietrasanta there are a 16th-century Marzocco fountain and the Marzocco column, erected in 1513 when Pope Leo X awarded the commune to Florence.
In the subjected territory of Pisa, when Charles VIII of France entered Sarzana in 1494, the Pisans took the Marzocco, emblem of their subjugation to Florence, and cast it into the Arno.[11] Live lions were kept at the commune's expense from the Middle Ages until they were banished in 1771.
At times the Marzocco would be crowned according to a motto by the writer of novelle Franco Sacchetti:
"Corona porto, per la patria degna,
Acciochè libertà ciascun mantegna."[12]
Donatello's Marzocco
Donatello's Marzocco was commissioned by the Republic of Florence for the apartment of Pope Martin V at Santa Maria Novella, where this traditional insegna of communal republican defense[13] stood guard atop a column at the foot of the stairs that led to the sale del papa ("Papal apartments") in the convent.[14] It is sculpted in the fine-grained gray sandstone of Tuscany called pietra serena. The Pope lingered at Florence after leaving the Council of Constance during the Western Schism. This staircase was demolished, perhaps by 1515.[15]
The Donatello Marzocco was moved to the Piazza della Signoria in 1812,[16]
Donatello, Marzocco, 1418-20, pietra serena, Museo del Bargello, Firenze
Map Marzocco, Piazza della Signoria, Firenze | Enlarge map
Loggia dei Priori
Opening hours
De galerij is dag en nacht vrij toegankelijk en wordt onderhouden door het Uffizi.
In the Piazza della Signoria, in addition to the Marzocco and the Neptune fountain, many more statues can be seen. In the center of the square is the equestrian statue of Cosimo I. In front of the Palazzo Vecchio is Michelangelo's David, one of the most famous statues of the Renaissance. Besides David are Donatello's Judith and Holofernes,Hercules and Cacus by Baccio Bandinelli and under the Loggia dei Lanzi are theRape of the Sabines Women (Giambologna, 1583), Hercules and the Centaur (Giambologna, 1599) and Perseus and Medusa (Benvenuto Cellini, 1554).
Piazza della Signoria, Firenze, fotogallerij
Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria
Palazzo Vecchio, Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria, Firenze
Fontana del Nettuno, Piazza della Signoria, Firenze
Hercules en Cacus (Baccio Bandinelli) en de Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria, Firenze
Michelangelo, David (replica), Piazza della Signoria, Firenze
Fontana del Nettuno e campanili Badia e Bargello. Accanto alla fontana, su un piedistallo, c'è il Marzocco, il leone che è un importante simbolo per Firenze
Fontana del Nettuno, Piazza della Signoria, Firenze
Ruiterstandbeeld van Cosimo I de' Medici op de Piazza della Signoria in Firenze
Baccio Bandinelli, la statua Ercole e Caco, con sfondo la Galleria degli Uffizi
Beautiful walk in one of the most authentic neighborhoods of Firenze, San Niccolò. The atmosphere of an authentic Florentine neighborhood still remains here.
Giardino Bardini, View east inbetween Porta San Niccolo and Piazzale Michelangelo
Bibliography
Johnson, Geraldine A Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction, 2005, OUP Oxford, ISBN 0192803549, 9780192803542, google books
McHam, Sarah Blake, Looking at Italian Renaissance Sculpture, chapter "Public Sculpture in Renaissance Florence" (Cambridge University Press, 1998; paperback edition, 2000)
Danielle Marie Deibel, The Piazza della Signoria: The Visualization of Political Discourse through Sculpture, M.A., Kent State University, 2017
In the Italian Renaissance, Florence was a known epicenter of artistic talent and influential patronage. This body of research focuses on the Piazza della Signoria, a public space located in the heart of Florence, and the first four sculptures placed within it by the Republic during the fourteenth to early sixteenth century. The formulation of the Piazza della Signoria, as well as the factionalism of the city-state, had a significant impact upon the Florentine government. Through displaying sculptures such as the Marzocco, Donatello’s David and Judith and Holofernes, and Michelangelo’s David, publicly for the first time, the Republican government could convey political messages openly to its citizens, each sculpture increasing the complexity of the overall program. Each of these works is discussed in depth and their political context emphasized, specifically in relation to the Medici exile of 1494. When the Medici returned, and were reinstalled into power in 1512, new sculptures were commissioned to temper the symbolism of the previously installed works, suggesting the success of these sculptures as images of Florentine liberty. Therefore, rather than engage with these sculptures individually, I deem it necessary to study them collectively, as they once were interpreted in the public realm.
[https://etd.ohiolink.edu | Thesis Combined.pdf (3.58 MB) View | Download]
Mary McCarthy, The Stones of Florence, Harcourt Brace International (1998), ISBN-10: 9780156850803 - ISBN-13: 978-0156850803
Mary McCarthy, De stenen van Florence, Het Spectrum, Schrijvers over de wereld, 1989, ISBN 9789027422071
Francesco Lumachi, Firenze, nuova guida illustrata, storica, artistica, aneddotica della città e dintorni. Firenze, Società Editrice Fiorentina 1929
Roberto Manescalchi Il Marzocco / The lion of Florence. In collaborazione con Maria Carchio, Alessandro del Meglio, english summary by Gianna Crescioli. Grafica European Center of Fine Arts e Assessorato allo sport e tempo libero, Valorizzazioni tradizioni fiorentine, Toponomastica, Relazioni internazionale e gemellaggi del comune di Firenze, novembre, 2005.
^ "Resembling pairs of handleless all'antica urns arranged like the bulbs of a Roman candelabrum", according to Paul Davies and David Hemsoll, "Renaissance Balusters and the Antique" Architectural History26 (1983:1–122) p. 4.
^ "Sound the trumpets! beat the drums! ...Bind them fast and hold them to a good ransom:" discussed and printed by Timothy J. McGee, "'Alla Battaglia': Music and Ceremony in Fifteenth-Century Florence" Journal of the American Musicological Society36.2 (Summer 1983:287–302).
^ Noted in Ulysse Robert, Philibert de Chalon, prince d'Orange, vice-roi de Naples(Paris: Plon-Nourrit) 1902:374; Benedetto Varchi, Storia fiorentina xlv remarks upon a severe skirmish with them, "una piuttosto battaglia che scaramuccia co'Marzoccheschi".
^ Richard C. Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence (Academic Press) 1980, p. 4 note 9, drawing upon Benedetto Varchi xi.
^ "A still earlier Marzocco stood on this site, which the Pisan captives were forced ignominiously to kiss in 1364. The origin of the name Marzocco is unknown." Augustus Hare, Florence (on-line text).
^ "I wear a crown worthy of my country, in order that everyone might maintain liberty", according to the translation in Susan and Joanne Horner, Walks in Florence: Churches, Streets and Palaces London, Henry S. King & Co., 1877 (on-line text).
^ Deliberations on the placement of the comparably Cock symbolic Michelangelo's David included suggestions that it displace the Marzocco, to be shifted to the doorway of Palazzo della Signoria: see Saul Levine, "The Location of Michelangelo's David: The Meeting of January 25, 1504" The Art Bulletin56.1 (March 1974:31–49) especially p. 42.
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