Equity and Rigour

In 1564 Danti began the Medici coat of arms with allegories of Equity and Rigour and a commanding portrait of Cosimo I for the entrance of Vasari’s Uffizi. The svelte reclining allegories are still in place, but the large seated allegorical portrait of Cosimo I that was to have topped the group ended up as a fountain in the Boboli Gardens. Danti’s second attempt, the standing, strongly idealized portrait of Cosimo I as Augustus, must have been carved in the early 1570s and was replaced about 10 years later by the present much more straightforward portrait by Giambologna.

The photo shows the reclining allegories with the standing portrait of Cosimo I by Giambologna.