Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Cosimo I de’ Medici as Patron of Pisa
Pierino da Vinci Italian
Not on view
This allegorical marble relief—Pierino’s masterpiece—celebrates Cosimo’s many initiatives in Pisa, the key maritime port of the duchy. Wearing toga and mantle, the duke stands in the center, helping a female figure representing Pisa to rise, while expelling enemies laden with plunder. Behind the duke reclines the Arno river god. Luca Martini—Cosimo’s administrator and Pierino’s patron (Pierino’s portrait of him is displayed nearby)—is pictured holding a compass and an astrolabe, standing between two youths carrying giant vessels that may allude to Martini’s work on Pisa’s hydraulic system. The promise shown in this remarkable work was thwarted by Pierino’s death at twenty-three.
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