Viewing Pope Paul III's Blog.
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| Post Date:9/8/2025 Last Updated:9/8/2025 |
| This medal of Pope Paul III may have multiple meanings. Most prominent is that through Jesus Christ good and eternal life triumph over evil and death. Jesus as guardian, protector and defender of His Church and Christianity is symbolized by the griffon and the devil by the snake. Michelangelo's depiction of a serpent can be referenced in the Temptation (Sistine Ceiling) and the damned in the fresco of the Last Judgement (Sistine Chapel).
Compositionally encircling and framing the battling griffon and snake is a gilded garland or wreath of laurel leaves that recall Michelangelo's victorious David sculpted nearly four decades earlier. The following is an excerpt from the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence website:
On September 8, 1504 the statue was revealed to the city, arousing everyone's admiration, also by virtue of the fact that Michelangelo had worked on a block of marble previously rough-hewn by two other artists, Agostino di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino, who had then abandoned the enterprise. Originally, some parts were gilded: a garland on the head, the trunk (or broncone) behind the right leg and the sling.
It is notable that Michelangelo again uses a garland as a symbol of victory.
The griffon is composed of a series of triangles which was a compositional device employed by visual artists particularly during the Italian High Renaissance and is evident in Michelangelo's Doni Tondo.
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