Cellini’s work appears to have endured the public arena fairly unscathed. His Perseus and Medusa (1545-54) represents the pinnacle of location and symbolism defining a work of art when interpreted by the Florentine public. Cellini adopted Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes and Michelangelo’s David as his models and aimed to “thrice exceed” the excellence of both. The artist perhaps benefitted from a different a social change in the appreciation of sculpture. Cellini was working in a style that had moved away from high Renaissance perfection and look more towards the psychological implication of the work known as Mannerism. Mannerism is ultimately most notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial (as opposed to naturalistic) …show more content…
Politically and literally, the Piazza della Signoria sits in the centre of Florence and this meant that it was a place for sculptural symbolism to either unite people in celebration or divide people in consternation. This was amplified through the prevalence and traffic of such a significant public space where the coercive and consensual dimensions of political hegemony were most apparent and most likely to inspire reaction. However, once one accepts that symbols are not inherently meaningful but rather allow people to impute meaning to them, one can appreciate how the known repertoire of symbols within the Florentine community constituted an ideal medium for the creation of communality on account of its ability to accommodate multiple senses simultaneously.Arguably, subtleties in the quality and accomplishment of the art form were overlooked by the contemporary Florentine citizen as the intention of the artist did not translate into the piece for a public audience. The duty of public sculpture was to improve the aesthetics of communal areas but also to send a message. Renaissance Florentines, however could impart their own views on to every sculpture and rarely was a significant piece universally accepted for its symbolism or even its style. . Consequently, it remained a "place of invention" for the individual and society, an empty space at the heart of the city where both self and community were continually called into being and sculpture could reflect, or refract, the city