AFTER THE ANTIQUE, 20TH CENTURY,

The Antique figure of Mercury is first recorded in 1536, when it was in the statue court of the Belvedere in the Vatican. Later in the century it was moved by Pope Julius III to Florence, where it spent several decades in the Palazzo Pitti before one final move to the Uffizi, where it remains today. The figure's hands, the much-debated attributes they hold and the winged helmet were all created during the Renaissance and, in fact, there is no reason to believe that the statue had ever originally been intended to represent Mercury. The earliest bronze copy of the fully-restored statue is recorded at Fontainebleau in 1585-6.