ABSTRACT
The carefully choreographed urban sequence of Piazza della Signoria and Palazzo Uffizi takes urban design out of purely compositional terms and produces a spatial, three-dimensional and topographical assemblage. Formed predominately by background residential buildings, the Piazza della Signoria is dominated by the medieval Palazzo Vecchio (1288-1314), the Loggia dei Lanzi (1376) and, leading toward the Arno river, the Palazzo Uffizi Gallery (Giorgio Vasari, 1560-1574). The Piazza della Signoria itself could be seen as quadrilateral in plan with the Palazzo Vecchio superimposed to create essentially two squares. The resultant smaller square is further defined by the placement of a line of statuary that includes the equestrian statue of Cosimo I (Giovanni da Bologna), Hercules and Cacus (Baccio Badinelli), Judith (Donatello) and Bartolomeo Ammanati’s Neptune Fountain and, finally, Michelangelo’s David.
