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 the Via San Gallo, No. 74.  The Palazzo we are now admiring for its blend of massiveness and beauty is the Uguccione, and anybody who wishes may probably have a whole floor of it to-day for a few shillings a week.  The building which completes the piazza on the right of us, with coats of arms on its facade, is now given to the Board of Agriculture and has been recently restored.  It was once a Court of Justice.  The great building at the opposite side of the piazza, where the trams start, is a good example of modern Florentine architecture based on the old:  the Palazzo Landi, built in 1871 and now chiefly an insurance office.  In London we have a more attractive though smaller derivative of the great days of Florentine building, in Standen’s wool shop in Jermyn Street.