Donatello's bronze david and judith as metaphors of medici rule in Florence

Donatello's bronze David and Judith and Holofernes should be considered a de facto pair. As recently confirmed, they were the only two modern freestanding sculptures displayed in the outdoor spaces of the Medici Palace from about 1464-66 to 1495. The related discovery of an inscription praising David as a tyrant slayer accords with a similar inscription once on the Judith and Holofernes. This new evidence is combined with a demonstration of how the two sculptures evoke John of Salisbury's writings and the Athenian statues known as the Tyrannicides to establish the Medici as defenders of Florentine liberty.