It was a forgotten tradition, for more than a century now. Until today. When on the Arengario of Palazzo Vecchio at 11, exactly four days after the feast of San Giovanni, the Marzocco will return to be “crowned”. It was the star of the Florentine goldsmiths, Paolo Penko, who created the golden crown for the proud lion of Piazza della Signoria. Because “to show that that was a solemn and happy day”, as Benedetto Varchi wrote half a millennium ago, “they had garlanded the Marzocco, put the golden crown on his head”. Municipality of Florence, Society of San Giovanni Battista, Historical Parade of the Florentine Republic and Historical Football, together with the master goldsmith Penko, will revive this ancient tradition today. The crown will remain on the lion’s head – a symbol of popular power and therefore of the Republic – for the entire week of St. John, because tradition has it that the ceremony ends four days later with the deposition of the crown, on June 27. Crown which will then be kept in the “Traces of Florence” museum.
«At the ceremony for the delivery of the Crosses of St. John, last year – remembers Penko – we found ourselves in front of the Corona del Marzocco which is located in the antechamber of the mayor’s room and there the lighting came: let’s do it! “. A year of research and work, which this time saw Penko delegate everything to his two sons Alessandro and Riccardo. But there was a problem: “There is no precise reference model – continues the goldsmith – and so we based ourselves on traditional tales that speak of a crown not of gold but of brass, jeweled in the ancient way with false stones , red and white enamels, which are the colors of Florence, and obviously lily ». For this reason “it does not have a great value in terms of money, but it has a lot for tradition”.
Tradition recalls Donatello because his is the most famous representation of a lion associated with the Marzocco, a symbolic statue of the city, which was commissioned to him in 1418 to embellish the papal apartments of Martin V in Santa Maria Novella, on the occasion of the papal visit in 1419. Then in the nineteenth century we begin to see the Marzocco represented in Piazza della Signoria where we see it even now. And the copy present today was restored in 2016 thanks to the flag-wavers of the Calcio Storico Fiorentino and the Historical Parade of the Florentine Republic who will animate the celebrations this morning.
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
June 20, 2021 | 10:46
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
.