Entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio

The Palazzo Vecchio ("Old Palace", formerly Palazzo della Signoria) is the town hall of Florence. In 1504 Michelangelo's (1475–1564) marble statue of David was placed to the left of the entrance to the Palazzo della Signoria. It is likely to be from this date too that a decision was made to set a second complementary sculpture on the other side of the portal. In an ambitious attempt to gain the commission for the second marble sculpture in the Piazza della Signoria, the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli (1493–1560) produced a colossal stucco statue of Hercules for this entry.

Firenze / Florence - Piazza della Signoria - View East on Michelangelo's David, Entrance of Palazzo Vecchio & Baccio Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus, colour photograph, 2010, photographer: Txllxt TxllxT; source: Wikimedia Commons, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Firenze_-_Florence_-_Piazza_della_Signoria_-_View_East_on_Michelangelo%27s_David,_Entrance_of_Palazzo_Vecchio_%26_Baccio_Bandinelli%27s_Hercules_and_Cacus.jpg,  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en.