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- Inventory:
- inv. Bargello Marmi nn. 262-263
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The elaborate marble basement, with rectangular base, is made up of four slabs of marble, sculpted separately and then assembled. The width of the principal sides (east and west) also covers the depth of the side panels (south and north).
The reliefs on the pedestal reproduce heraldic arms and emblems that recall the Medici family and its principal members. At the bottom, the yoke in the centre is a device that refers to Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici, the falcons on the corners refer to Piero il Gottoso, while the cut stump of laurel - or ‘broncone’ - between the claws of the bird of prey refers to Lorenzo il Magnifico. Running around the upper register are the most famous emblems distinguishing the dynasty: on the two main sides (the front on the east and the rear at the west) are the six Medici balls inserted within a Greek-style shield surmounted by griffins’ heads at the sides and by a diamond tip in the centre, while the two side panels (north and south) feature a ring, again with a diamond, with three feathers threaded through it, and the scroll on which the motto ‘SEMPER’ would be written. Heraldic shields and diamond rings are interspersed by lions’ heads at the corners holding garlands in their mouths. The heads allude to the two lions that protect Florence, Pope Leo X Medici and the emblem of the Marzocco, the heraldic symbol of Florence. The garlands on the front and rear consist of fruits, berries and flowers, while those on the sides are made of laurel leaves. The plaques beneath the wings of the falcons on the shorter sides and the scrolls are without inscriptions.
Set upon the pedestal is an upper base, adorned at the corners with harpies with the heads and feet of lions and acanthus leaves at the extremities of their bodies.
In general, the emblems represented in the reliefs of the pedestal celebrate the Medici, thus establishing a continuity between the glorious past of the family up to its exile in 1494 and their return to power in 1512: the “golden age” of Lorenzo il Magnifico is followed by that inaugurated by his son, Leo X.
The smaller side panels, which are incorporated into the width corresponding to the front and rear sections of the pedestal, prove to be sculpted in a different marble and are of a more summary workmanship, without great attention to certain details and finishes.
- Historical information:
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Vasari (1568) refers the marble base to Benedetto da Rovezzano, with the assistance of Simone Mosca, specialised in sculptural decoration inspired by the vast repertory of antiquity. The pedestal was designed to support the statue of Orpheusby Baccio Bandinelli, which was placed in the courtyard of Palazzo Medici around 1519.
After their return from exile in 1512, the Medici - and in particular the sons of the Magnifico, Cardinal Giovanni and Giuliano, and their cousin Giulio - were engaged in rearranging the premises of Palazzo Medici and replacing the important sculptures that had previously stood in the courtyard and the garden. However, some of these masterpieces, such as Donatello’s David and the Judith, remained the property of the Signoria, which had confiscated them with the advent of the Republic in 1494.
Consequently, between 1515 and 1517 Cardinal Giulio commissioned from Giovan Francesco Rustici and later from Baccio Bandinelli a model for a bronze David to replace that of Donatello in the centre of the courtyard, although the work was never actually executed. Later, definitively abandoning the theme proposed in the fifteenth-century bronze, Cardinal Medici asked Baccio Bandinelli to sculpt in marble the Orpheus enchanting Cerberus, which was then placed on the new pedestal towards the end of 1519.
As confirmed by Vasari (1568), the marble base had been made by Benedetto da Rovezzano, present in Palazzo Medici from September 1512 - immediately after the return to the city from exile of Giovanni and Giuliano de’ Medici - engaged in sculpting coats of arms and relief friezes and in supervising the work of the masons and stonecarvers in the stables and the cellar (Rogers Mariotti 2001-2002). Again according to Vasari, Bandinelli summoned to sculpt the reliefs of the base Simone Mosca, an expert engraver of ornamental motifs.
According to a recent proposal (Rogers Mariotti 2001-2002, pp. 124-125), Benedetto da Rovezzano could have begun the pedestal between 1515 and 1517, that is while Rustici first and later Bandinelli were preparing the models for the David to stand in the courtyard of Palazzo Medici to replace that of Donatello. Work on the base was protracted at length, partly because between March 1515 and 27 September 1518 Benedetto sojourned for long periods in Loreto, collaborating with Andrea Sansovino, where from 1518 Baccio too was present. In the summer of1519, Baccio Bandinelli, who was completing the Orpheus, asked Simone Mosca - who was in those years engaged mostly in Rome with Antonio da Sangallo - to complete the Florentine pedestal previously entrusted to Benedetto, who was about to leave Florence for England (after September 1519).
Vasari also recounts that the Orpheus executed by Bandinelli was set upon the new pedestal when Giulio “was governing Florence” (Vasari 1568), that is at the end of 1519: in fact, with the death of Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino and captain of the Florentine Republic, which took place on 4 May 1519, the government of Florence was entrusted first, on a temporary basis, to Lorenzo’s secretary Goro Gheri, and later set under the direct control of Giulio in October.
Unlike the column made by Desiderio da Settignano on which Donatello’s David stood, the broad and massy pedestal selected by Bandinelli and made by Benedetto and Simone, ended up by obstructing the telescopic view which could previously be appreciated from Via Larga, through the courtyard of the columns and then the garden behind the building as far as the west entrance on Via Ginori. After having remained for centuries in the Florentine museums, in 1939 the pedestal and the upper base were reunited with Bandinelli’s Orpheus in Palazzo Medici, being displayed first at the exhibition Mostra medicea in 1939 and later replaced in their original position in the courtyard (Sframeli 2003).
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