ABSTRACT
The Loggia dei Lanzi, originally a ceremonial gallery for government officials, was built on the south side of the Piazza della Signoria at right angles with the Palazzo Vecchio. Officially, Cellini's statue was to commemorate Cosimo I's move from the Palazzo Medici to the Palazzo Vecchio in 1540, and it became one of the numerous metaphors of his power in the Piazza della Signoria. Benvenuto Cellini was the first to restore patriarchal order in this public gallery when he planned his Perseus and Medusa more in direct competition with Donatello's Judith and Holofernes than as a pendant to it. Unlike the Perseus and Medusa, the Rape of a Sabine was not the product of a Medici commission. What most distinguishes Giovanni da Bologna's (also known as Giambologna) Rape of a Sabine is its effectiveness in disguising the brutality of the scene that it represents.
