La collezione de' MEDICI: statuaria italiana antica

Speranza

In 1560, during the course of two triumphal visits to ROMA, Cosimo de' Medici was able to acquire MANY statues, some of which were numbered among the most admired antiquities in Italy:

--- the dying Alexander.
--- the wild boar
--- the ERCOLE ed ANTEO (a subject of special significance to Firenze and the de' Medici).
which came (like the MERCURIO before them) from the Belvedere, and which Cosimo transferred to the courtyard of the Palazzo PITTI, recently bought by his wife;
and two of the three fragmented versions of "PASQUINO", one of which was (MUCH LATER) to be converted into PART OF A FONTANA and placed by the Ponte Vecchio (where it became very well known uunder a bewildering variety of names).