as evolved.

The lion at the left end of the facade is also a copy, the original
by Donatello being in the Bargello, close by; but the pedestal is
Donatello's original. This lion is the Marzocco, the legendary guardian
of the Florentine republic, and it stood here for four centuries and
more, superseding one which was kissed as a sign of submission by
thousands of Pisan prisoners in 1364. The Florentine fleur-de-lis on
the pediment is very beautiful. The same lion may be seen in iron on
his staff at the top of the Palazzo Vecchio tower, and again on the
Bargello, bravely flourishing his lily against the sky.

The great fountain with its bronze figures at this corner is by
Bartolommeo Ammanati, a pupil of Bandinelli, and the statue of Cosimo
I is by Gian Bologna, who was the best of the post-Michelangelo
sculptors and did much good work in Florence, as we shall see at the
Bargello and in the Boboli Gardens. He studied under Michelangelo
in Rome. Though born a Fleming and called a Florentine, his great
fountain at Bologna, which is really a fine thing, has identified his
fame with that city. Had not Ammanati's design better pleased Cosimo
I, the Bologna fountain would be here, for it was designed for this
piazza. Gian's best-known work is the Flying Mercury in the Bargello,
which we have seen, on mantelpieces and in shop windows, everywhere;
but what is considered his masterpiece is over there, in the Loggia de'
Lanzi, the very beautiful building on the right of the Palazzo, the
"Rape of the Sabines," a group which, to me, gives no pleasure. The
bronze reliefs under the Cosimo statue--this Cosimo being, of course,
far other than Cosimo de' Medici, Father of his Country: Cosimo
I of Tuscany, who insisted upon a crown and reigned from 1537 to
1575--represents his assumption of rule on the death of Alessandro in
1537; his triumphant entry into Siena when he conquered it and absorbed
it; and his reception of the rank of Grand Duke. Of Cosimo (whom we
met in Chapter V) more will be said when we enter the Palazzo Vecchio.

Between this statue and the Loggia de' Lanzi is a bronze tablet let
into the paving which tells us that it was on this very spot, in 1498,
that Savonarola and two of his companions were put to death. The
ancient palace on the Duomo side of the piazza is attributed in
design to Raphael, who, like most of the great artists of his time,
was also an architect and was the designer of the Palazzo Pandolfini
in t