For anyone who’s been away from Florence for, say, the last couple of years, beware that you may feel a little shaky when first walking into The Met’s new exhibit The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512-1570. Not full-blown Stendhal syndrome (dizzy spells, disorientation, etc.) but still you may realize that you’ve been missing something both grand and familiar, a certain feeling that you get when you visit Florence, however briefly.

You’re greeted at the door by not one but two Cellini busts of Cosimo I de Medici, one in marble and the other in larger than life-size bronze. (Articles don’t have endnotes, but I’d add that the bronze statue was once partially gilded and placed high above the gates of a fortress on the island Elba, renamed Cosmopolis.)