Zum Bedeutungswandel der Herkules-Figur in Florence von Anfangen der Republik bis zum Prinzipat Cosimos.

Marlis von Hessert documents the shift in political power in Renaissance Florence from the commune to the Medici through an iconographic study of the Florentine use of the iconography of Hercules and his labors over a period of three hundred years. From at least the thirteenth century the appearance of Hercules on the communal seal was designed to represent the virtue and power of the autonomous republic. Among other examples of identification of Hercules with the commune the author points to the representations of Hercules sculpted on the Porta della Mandorla, the door on the left side of the facade of the Florentine cathedral. Von Hessert convincingly argues that the depictions of Hercules and three of his labors attributed to the 1390s and placed facing north were specifically designed to reflect Florence's determination to defend its freedom against Giangaleazzo Visconti. The thesis is reinforced by the analogy made by Goro Dati, who in his Storie di Firenze written after 1409, compared Florence's resistance to Giangaleazzo to Hercules' campaign against tyrants.

The usurpation of the Hercules image by the Medici began with the commission of Cosimo dei Medici to Pollaiuolo for a series of paintings depicting the labors of Hercules for the new family palace on the via Larga. Placed in the public reception room of the private palace, the paintings apparently initiated a subtle effort to identify Hercules' iconography with the Medici family. Throughout the century, traditional associations of Hercules with the commune both in art and literature continued to appear, but the rivalry of the Medici and their supporters, who wished to relate the half-god's achievements to those of Cosimo and Lorenzo the Magnificent, became increasingly intense.

Lorenzo's son, Giovanni, who assumed the papal name Leo X, played an especially important role in making Hercules the family's hero. As orchestrated by his advisor Aegidius da Viterbo, Leo's name drew to him the attributes of the lion and through the lion's pelt, those distinctive of Hercules. In his formal entry into Florence in 1515, for instance, he was led by triumphal decorations playing on the iconography of Hercules to the Piazza della Signoria where a monumental plaster statue of the hero by Bandinelli had been erected to balance Michelangelo's David.

The author is particularly impressive in her discussion of the efforts of Duke Cosimo dei Medici to legitimize his claim to the ducal throne. Descendant of a minor branch of the Medici family, by his patronage Cosimo made a determined effort to lay claim to Hercules by associating himself with the half-god on coins and medals and in sculpture and paintings. Late in his reign, however, von Hessert identifies a clear move on Cosimo's part to privilege his identification with Augustus over Hercules.

Given the breadth of her topic, omission of recent bibliography in certain areas is understandable. However, a cursory check of some of the Latin citations indicates a negligence which makes the reader uneasy. I could not find on the cited page (68-69) a curious passage from Pignorius' commentary on Mussato's Historia augusta. In the short passage quoted on 64, geminus should read geminos and quonquam is quondam. Similarly in the poem on 50, illo is illi. Nonetheless, despite these minor shortcomings, through her study of representations of Hercules von Hessert offers us an orginal and suggestive approach for understanding the rich interplay between political and cultural life in Renaissance Italy.

DUKE UNIVERSITY