Perseus with the Head of Medusa

Perseus with the Head of Medusa is a bronze statue by the Florentine goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, made between 1545 and 1554 for Duke Cosimo I de' Medici and publicly unveiled on April 27, 1554, in the Loggia dei Lanzi on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, where it still stands. It shows the mythical hero Perseus holding aloft the severed head of Medusa, and its casting in monumental bronze was itself a statement, since bronze had not been used for large-scale sculpture in the city for roughly fifty years; Cellini conceived it partly as a response to nearby marble works such as Michelangelo's David. Beyond its technical achievement, the statue carried political meaning, presenting Medici rule over Florence through the mythological image of a hero vanquishing a monstrous enemy.