Episode 215 - Cellini's "Perseus with the Head of Medusa" (Florence)

Bon Jardinam! I'm Dr. Rocky Regiro. Join me in rebuilding the Renaissance and making art and history come to life. Welcome to the Rebuilding the Renaissance podcast, your guide to the art and history of Italy, from the glory of Rome to the magnificence of the Renaissance. And now here's your host Dr. Rocky Regiro. Bon Jardinam! Atutti! Today's podcast keeps us in the vein of mannerist art produced in the city of Florence around the middle of the 16th century, because we are talking about one of the most celebrated sculptures of the Renaissance, and that is Benvenuto Chilini's Perseus with the head of Medusa, which was created over a nine-year period between 1545 and 1554. The sculpture is made of bronze and can still be found today in C2, and that is in the arch furthest to the left of the Loja della Signoria, better known as the Loja de Lanzi, which of course is that three art structure located right next door to Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. It was a 16th century free sculptural gallery. You may remember our discussion about these sculptures in Piazza della Signoria and how in fact the Loja was once used as a political stage for swearing in new republican governments for welcoming ambassadors and dignitaries to the city, but that once the city fell under Medici rule, it was transformed into an outdoor sculpture gallery and filled with sculptures that were either owned by or commissioned by the Medici family, one of which is the sculpture that we're talking about today. In fact, the commission for the bronze Perseus was given to Benvenuto Chilini by Duke Cosimo I Dementici. Now if you're not familiar with the sculptor Chilini, C-E-L-L-I-N-I, the reason is because Chilini was actually a goldsmith by profession and I would say that in addition to this single sculpture, the Perseus with the head of Medusa, his other best known work is a very beautiful but quite small salt cellar that is located in the Louvre in Paris. In fact, a majority of Chilini's notoriety is not because of his art but because of his book. He actually wrote and published a book known as the Auto Biography, which indeed is his own account of his own life. It is a highly entertaining work. It is a primary source, so a must if you are a fan of the Italian Renaissance, then you must read Chilini's Auto Biography. And in fact, I've always kind of admired Chilini for his audacity because instead of writing a rather mundane account of his life, he completely sensationalizes it. And so he talks about himself as the greatest artist in Florence after Michelangelo. He talks about his sexual triumphs over women. He talks about single-handedly holding off an army from invading Rome in 1527 by manning a cannon at the top of the Castell Sathangelo. So folks, this is not boring reading. Run out, pick up Benvenuto Chilini's Auto Biography and you'll not only find out a lot about him, you'll also find out a lot about the actual casting process of this sculpture. Chilini goes into great detail about how he actually made the purses with the head of Medusa, how he felt ill during the casting process, but somehow miraculously was able to recover and put the whole thing together. Now Chilini was active as a goldsmith in Rome. He also spent some time in France, as I just mentioned with the assaults, but he finally settled down in the city of Florence after attracting the attention of Duke Cosimo. So in 1545, he was given the commission from Duke Cosimo to create this particular statue and in fact encountered difficulty in the casting of a figure this size in bronze by means of a novel and experimental technique. In fact, that is why it took him all of nine years to pull the whole thing off. Now if you're not familiar with the subject, Perseus, who of course was the son of dinai. You may remember the myth, of course, of Jupiter taking the form of a golden shower and procreating with dinai. And in fact, the prophecy was that the son of dinai would eventually kill her father, Cretius, the king of Argos. And Perseus, of course, one of the most celebrated heroes of mythology, who was given the incredibly difficult task of retrieving the head of Medusa. Not Medusa, of course, the Gorgon, whose stare would turn anyone into stone. If you looked at Medusa, you would turn to stone. And Perseus was given the task of having to retrieve her head. Well, he asks for divine assistance and found it when he was told that he could actually look at her in a reflection. And so Perseus used a highly polished shield to guide him, eventually beheading the Gorgon. And in fact, is what you see represented in the statue, her head held high in Perseus's left hand, her decapitated body down below. And according to the myth, the drops of blood that fell from her neck spawned the birth of Perseus, the winged horse. Now how was Chalini going to represent the birth of Perseus? Well, he doesn't in rather clever way, because if you look at Perseus's feet in the statue, you'll actually see wings there at his ankles. So not confusing with hermies, but suggesting, of course, the ability of flight on the part of Perseus, because eventually he would adopt the winged horse that was born out of the decapitation of the Gorgon, itself. Now consider that the commission for this sculpture was motivated by two things. The first was to restore Chi to Piazza del Aesignoria, because as many of you know, for a long time, there had been a sculpture of a woman decapitating a man. And that of course was Donatello's Judith and Halleferney's statue, which had been moved around. Now we have a man decapitating a woman, a Gorgon albeit, but a woman none the less. And so the idea essentially of this kind of gender balancing, if you will, in the Piazza del Aesignoria. And in fact, the sculpture was always destined for the loja. And this is important. It's not as if it was put there, like the David that was supposed to go on top of the cathedral ends up at City Hall, the Judith and Halleferney's that was once in the garden of the Palazometri ends up at City Hall. Here instead, Cosimo and Chalini knew from the very beginning that the sculpture was destined to stand exactly where it stands today. I want you to realize everyone that that sculpture that you're looking at out there in Piazza del Aesignoria is indeed the original one. And so the idea here of a bronze male figure triumphant over a defeated female enemy, a counterpoint to the bronze female triumphant over the defeated male enemy that we saw in the Judith and Halleferney's. In fact, Chalini even goes so far as to use the cushion base. Remember in Donatello's Judith and Halleferney's statue, they're actually on what appears to be a cushion, but is more likely a wine skin. Well, Chalini didn't pick up on the nuance, and so he used a cushion instead down below. And iconography that would be suitable for Judith, because of course she was in Halleferney's tent when she killed him, but nonsensical here in the context of Persia's and Medusa. So clearly, there's a direct line between these two statues, right? And the overall effect, of course, is one of a sort of strong man image. We talked about this in the Hercules and Caucus statue, you know, the story essentially of Hercules beating Caucus into a bloody pulp, and that the statue was commissioned by Clement VII, essentially reminding the people of Florence to obey his nephew as Duke or the club would be employed. And it's sort of the same thing here, because when you look at Chalini's statue of Persia's and Medusa, it really doesn't take an oversensitive person to note that rather phallic symbol of the sword projecting out from the statue in Persia's right hand. It is a rather threatening sword there in the piazza, the same kind of imagery, but here with a different meaning, a strong man image in one, of course, of Persia's defeating his enemy. And that "Cosimo" perhaps the man, of course, paying for it would retain power by doing the same thing. In other words, whatever it took to, of course, achieve victory. Now, the sculpture itself is, again, a very successful expression of what we call "manorist style sculpture," manorist style art in general, because the modeling of the figure clearly shows attention to anatomy. So Chalini doing his homework. He's not someone who simply tries to represent the male form, but looks very carefully, of course, at the science of anatomy and then reproduces it here. You could see how, again, standing outside, and so depending on what time of the day you're there, clearly Chalini was conscious of the play of light on the surfaces of the statue, much in the tradition of Michelangelo's marble nudes, this idea of a kind of chiaro scudo that's created to really bring certain areas of the sculpture to light. The proportions of the statue are actually heavier than earlier models. In fact, if you happen to be in Florence, you can go over to the bargello and to see two of the bozzetti or small scale models that Perseus made for. They're undisplayed in the ground floor hall of the bargello. One of them is made of wax and the other is made of bronze, and you could actually see how Chalini was working out the structural engineering, because in one of them, the head of Medusa projects out in a kind of more perpendicular position to the body of Perseus. Clearly, it wasn't working. The sculpture was falling forward. In the other bozzetto, you actually see that the head is raised up more in a kind of vertical line with the body, and clearly that allowed for the figure to stand. That was, in fact, the composition that Chalini opted for in his final sculpture. Yet, the proportions of the body that we see in the final sculpture are heavier than the ones we see in these smaller models. How is it that this statue then can be described as a highly successful manorist work? In other words, it sounds very much like what let's say Michael Ancelo would do. Well, the answer is very simply because there is no attempt to evoke horror by Chalini. That notion of the sort of moment of brutality, like Donatello's, where we actually had Judith cleaving away at Hollafer and his exposed neck. Instead, here we have the Dundeeed and the elegance of the pose and of the body and what have you almost sublimates the violence that was performed just before. And this, of course, is a product, a direct product of the perfection of the workmanship of Chalini. His ability as a Goldsmith and as a sculptor, which essentially kind of hinders the possibility of the drama. It's so perfect that that drama again becomes somewhat sublimated. In fact, the body of Medusa under Persia's feet is quite sensual. I mean, she's in a bit of a rather complicated pose, but clearly there is a suggestion here of eroticism in the piece. And remember, before she was turned into the hitist Gorgon, Medusa was an incredibly beautiful woman, so much so that she attracted the attention of Poseidon, who was rejected and so decided to turn her into the hideous beast instead. If you look at Persia's hair, you can see the affectation with which it is created. In fact, his curls kind of echoing the writhing serpents that make up Medusa's hair, the torrents of blood gushing from the severed head, but somehow not really bothersome, like a graphic detail would normally be. And the reason is because of the sort of ornamental shapes that he has used to create them. And in the true tradition of Michelangelo, who by the way, Chalini said, had said that Chalini was the greatest sculptor after himself, right out of the horse's mouth. When Michelangelo signed his pietà way back in 1498 on the sash that runs through the breasts of the Virgin Mary, so too did Chalini sign this statue. If you look carefully at the sash that runs down from Persia's upper right shoulder to lower left hip, you will actually see the name Benvenutess Chalini's written across the strap to be sure, of course, that credit was given where Chalini thought credit was due. And so again, for an outdoor sculpture, in the main urban space of Florence, writing your name was a guarantee, of course, of no-it-or-right. And if this was not enough, there is a bit of a tradition in Florence that if you walk behind the statue. Now remember, if you are in Florence, be sure to go up onto the actual platform of the loja and to look at it from behind because what you'll see is the distinct impression of a face formed by the helmet, the rear of the helmet. You have to be standing behind the statue, looking up at it, and the helmet with the hair that comes out from underneath it clearly forms the image of a face, and that face is allegedly a self-portrait of Benvenutess Chalini. So signature on the front of the statue and self-portrait, albeit at somewhat caricatured one, on the backside instead. So be sure to walk around. Now as I mentioned, it is an original statue that has been standing outside for the last five centuries. And I remember getting to Florence in the 1990s and actually seeing the perseus with the head of Medusa inside of the Uffizi. It was being restored and so they brought it in temporarily for that restoration. They actually offered visitors the opportunity to climb up on this walkway and look at it from up above. It was a fantastic experience. But then after the restoration, the sculpture was returned to its original location, which is where you see it today. Now the problem with that of course is that it is deteriorating rapidly. When you look at the statue, you'll see these large areas of bright green. And that is essentially the result of oxidation. That is the result of sulfuric acid and acid rain coming into contact with the bronze, which is largely copper, and causing irreversible oxidation. The red lights are blinking everywhere. The alarm bells are sounding everywhere. Folks, this statue and all of the original statues in this piazza, including the rape of the Sabine, including the Neptune fountain, including the Hercules and Caucus, including all those sculptures in the back need to be brought indoors ASAP. Because the quantity of industrial pollution right now is increasing exponentially the rate at which these sculptures are deteriorating. Now I know for a fact that there is a plan already to bring the persius and the rape of the Sabine indoors, but unfortunately the funding to do this is lacking. Because remember, it's not just bringing them inside. It is also eventually replacing them. Because there is a binding national law in Italy about the cultural topography of public spaces. In other words, if you modify a cultural urban space, in other words, if you remove something, you need to put a copy in its place to restore at least visually what it looked like. And this is not cheap. The last estimate that I heard for simply removing, restoring, and replacing the two statues, the persius and medusa, and the rape of the Sabine was hovering around 3.5 million euro. Now I'm not sure if that figure still stands or not, but it gives you an idea of just how expensive it is to of course maintain all of this culture. And if you're standing in front of the statue or looking at a recent photographic reproduction, you may notice this sort of odd wiring. There are these wires that run along the top edge of the sword that run around the body of medusa down below. And that wiring was something that was introduced way back in 1998 by an organization that I am a proud member of, called Friends of Florence. And it was a very ingenious way to prevent pigeons from roosting on top of these statues. Of course outdoor statues are a perfect place for pigeons to come and rest. Because these wires would produce a mild electric current, which of course would make it quite uncomfortable for those pigeons to sit and roost. Well, it worked quite well, quite effectively for a long period of time, until the attention of certain animal rights activists was gained. And in fact, when they found out, of course, that these electric currents were aimed directly at the pigeons, they protested. And we were essentially instructed to turn the voltage down to such a small level that unfortunately they don't work anymore and very often when you're in Florence, you'll actually see pigeons sitting on top of these outdoor statues and unfortunately defecating all over them. And remember, of course, that pigeon poop is very high in nitrogen and essentially has the same effect that the sulfur in acid rain does. So unfortunately, it appears that the only solution we have today is to get these sculptures indoors and to do it as soon as possible. Okay, so that ends our discussion of this great mannerous sculpture of the Persians with the head of Medusa. And in my next podcast, we'll continue with our discussion of mid 16th century art looking at another of Michelangelo's masterpieces, which is the Pauline Chapel located in the Vatican. It is right around the corner from the assisting chapel. Few people have actually ever entered into its hallowed walls, but we will discuss the great fresco cycles that Michelangelo produced for the so-called Pauline Chapel shortly after completing his last judgment. So stay tuned for plenty more. For more information on lectures and programs in the United States, art history tours in Italy and for online video lectures, visit rockyragero.com.