ABSTRACT

The marble group of Victory, although an emblem of Michelangelo’s art at a certain stage of its development, is, generally speaking, less well known and less readily appreciated than other works of equal rank that came from his hand. There seem to be two main reasons for this relative neglect. First, in the place which the group has occupied almost continuously ever since the artist’s death it is impossible properly to see and study it. This place is, you remember, the giant niche in one of the end-walls of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, one of the largest halls in Europe. Once it was the presence-chamber of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, and it is decorated with Ammanati’s monumental interior architecture and Vasari’s grandiloquent battle-pieces and ceiling. There the group stands, raised by steps and a pedestal to a height of 10 feet and framed by large windows which blind the spectator who tries to escape the distortions of foreshortening by looking at the work from a reasonable distance. It is a setting that invariably strains the eye; I have often observed visitors moving to and fro in front of the niche and then, consciously or unconsciously, giving up their attempts. One may safely state that our knowledge of the group is drawn from the available reproductions—and some of these are baffling enough—rather than from an adequate study of the work itself.