Loggia dei Lanzi

This guide to the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence centers on sculptor Benvenuto Cellini's race in the 1550s to cast his bronze Perseus for Duke Cosimo de Medici, who wanted a message sent to a wary Florence. It follows Cellini through a fever that left him bedridden while his workshop assistants failed to notice the molten bronze beginning to seize during a storm. Casting a bronze this size in one single pour was almost never attempted, since the whole piece could shatter if the metal cooled even slightly before the mold filled.