Category: Italy

Cellini’s Perseus and Medusa sculpture is a valuable masterpiece. But he got the short end of the stick when Cosimo I de’ Medici only paid 3,500 gold crowns for it.

The Rape of the Sabine Women was one of the most consequential episodes from Rome’s pseudo-historical foundation story. Two thousand three hundred years later, a sculptor of immense talent set the story on fire again through a sculpture that captured the drama, dynamism, and passions of the kidnapping event.

Probably, no block of marble had a more tortuous journey from quarry to piazza than Baccio Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus. A sculpture with 2 stories to tell – one is a Herculean myth. The other is its entanglement within the momentous upheavals in Florence’s transformation from a republican to a monarchical state. 

We see a lot of the demi-god Hercules in ancient and Renaissance potteries, paintings, and sculptures. He was so popular because he was the epitome of strength, virility, and wit. But did you know that Hercules suffered from bouts of temporary insanity in which dead bodies tended to pile up? 

You can thank the Medici for the delightful works of art and architecture that have made Florence a significant tourist destination since the 17th century. If you are visiting Florence, Italy, it pays to know “just enough” about the Medici to appreciate their impact on 21st century tourism.