To know what this was like one has but to go to S.Trinita on a very fine morning and look at Ghirlandaio's fresco of the granting of the charter to S.Francis.The scene, painted in 1485, includes not only the Signoria but the Loggia de' Lanzi (then the Loggia dell' Orcagna)--both before any statues were set up.
Every facade of the Palazzo Vecchio is splendid.

I cannot say which I admire more--that which one sees from the Loggia de' Lanzi, with its beautiful coping of corbels, at once so heavy and so light, with coloured escutcheons between them, or that in the Via de' Gondi, with its fine jumble of old brickwork among the stones.

The Palazzo Vecchio is one of the most resolute and independent buildings in the world; and it had need to be strong, for the waves of Florentine revolt were always breaking against it.

The tower rising from this square fortress has at once grace and strength and presents a complete contrast to Giotto's campanile; for Giotto's campanile is so light and delicate and reasonable and this tower of the Signoria so stern and noble.

There is a difference as between a beautiful woman and a powerful man.