According to modern consensus ( Janson
1963, 201-2) this group (Plates 125, 126) was
made in the latter half of the 1450s. It may
have been the result of a Medici commission,
and its first known location was in the gar-
dens of the Palazzo Medici, where it served as
the centrepiece to a fountain. Three inscrip-
tions have adorned the group and, since they
can help us both with the group's meaning
and with its sources, I list them here:

REGNA CADUNT LUXU SURGENT VIRTUTIBUS
URBES CAESA VIDES HUMILI COLLA SUPERBA
MANU (REALMS FALL THROUGH LUXURY:
CITIES RISE BY THEIR VIRTUES. YOU SEE THE
PROUD NECK CUT BY A HUMBLE HAND)

possibly composed by Piero de'Medici; it
occurs in the copy of a letter to Piero on the
death of Cosimo, dated 5 August 1464.

SALUS PUBLICA. PETRUS MEDICES COS. FI.
LIBERTATI SIMUL ET FORTITUDINI HANC
MULIERIS STATUAM QUI CIVES INVICTO CON-
STANTIQJJE ANIMO AD REM PUB. REDDERENT
DEDICAVIT (PUBLIC SAFETY. PIERO, SON OF
COSIMO DENEDICI, DEDICATED THIS STATUE
OF A WOMAN TO BOTH THAT FORTUNE AND
LIBERTY WHICH THE CITIZENS OFFER TO THE
STATE THROUGH THEIR COURAGEOUS AND
CONSTANT HEART)

Relayed by Passerini from a codex, now
lost; and surely put in place sometime be-
tween 1464 and 1469, when Piero died

EXEMPLUM SAL. PUB. CIVES POS. MCCCCXVC.

Inscribed when the group was placed on
the Ringhiera of Palazzo Vecchio, after the
expulsion of Piero de'Medici, and still to be
seen. The spirit of this inscription is the
same as the cry which reportedly went up
when Charles VIII entered Florence on 17
November 1494: 'ben vegna el liberator et
restaurator de la liberta!' ( Commynes
1903, ii.164). And, as an anonymous tra-
veller has it ( Manuel 1826, 324), the Latin
inscription 'which contains so energetic a
lesson for those who seek to seize authority,
was no doubt made at the time of the
Republic'.

A fourth inscription, also to be seen today on
the base, is OPUS DONATELLI FLO; this has
led scholars to surmise that the group was in
fact made for Siena. Indeed, a document
referring to payment for bronze for a 'mezza
fighura di giuliatte' has been explained as
dealing with the Judith. Its date, September
1457, would fit well ( Janson 1963, 202-3).

The first three inscriptions refer, directly or
indirectly, to the triumph of Virtue over Vice.
The second and third, for example, exalt the
virtue of the Florentine Republic; and Janson
has made the happy suggestion that the 1495
inscription is an ironic echo of Piero's in-
genuous dedication. In this respect,
therefore, our group has several connections
with the bronze David. Not only are its
origins, original location and specific purpose
equally hazy, but it also takes its iconography
largely from mediaeval precedent while seek-
ing its forms in antique pagan example. Both
groups are examples of the courage of the
Jewish nation, aided by a benevolent deity,
and therefore easily transferable into a
Florentine context. Finally, as with the David,
the iconography of the group, at first glance
quite clear-cut, is in fact complicated; it is
susceptible to a whole series of interpreta-
tions -- and hence differing sources -- all of
which can be adequately supported by the

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