“Cosmos, the World of Cosimo”: The Iconography of the Uffizi Façade

Abstract

The original sculptural program of the Uffizi façade embodied an ambitious statement of the political significance of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574). Completed shortly before the Grand Duke's death in 1574, the façade originally included Vincenzo Danti's Cosimo I as Augustus/Hercules, flanked by the sculptor's reclining figures Equity and Rigor. Through the central statue's allegorical references to putative historical and mythological founders of Florence, the iconography of the façade promoted Cosimo and his rule as the fulfillment and culmination of a particularly Florentine destiny. The classical treatment of Danti's statue, however, gave additional significance to Cosimo's identification with Augustus as a quasi-imperial figure. With Danti's statue positioned above a dome suggestive of the globe and enframed by an architectural motif derived from the iconography of late Roman imperial display, the façade presented Florentines with an image of their ruler as a world power.

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Notes on contributors

Roger J. Crum

Roger J. Crum is an Andrew W. Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh and, as of September, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellow to the Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence. His dissertation concerns quattrocento Medici patronage, and his research interests include Italian art from 1300 to 1600, artistic patronage, and the relationship between Renaissance art and humanism [mailing address: Department of Fine Arts, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260].