30.7.11
This is not the only statue in Florence depicting Grand Duke Cosimo 1 as Sea God Neptune ( or Poseidon as he is sometimes called) but because of it’s position in the Piazza della Signoria this biancone (big white one) by Bartolomeo Ammannati is easily the most photographed.
Ammanati Sculpture of Grand Duke Cosimo as Neptune
Famously Michelangelo scoffed at Ammanniti for this Mannerist monstrousity by writing “Ammannati, Ammanato, che bell’ marmo hai rovinato” (Ammannati – what a great piece of marble you have ruined!)
But why did Cosimo want to be seen as the God who controls water?
Simples! It was his project and his engineers who had diverted some tributaries from the Apennines into the centre of Florence – thus bringing more fresh drinking water – and equally importantly – more fresh water for his wife Eleanor of Toledo’s water features and to maintain her flowers and lemons in the Boboli Gardens!
Cosimo wanted his people to remember this munificence – and be grateful!
Florentine mothers were grateful – they used to bring their unwed daughters to the Piazza to show them what a man looked like beneath his clothing!
