On top of the sarcophagus, the bier of the effigy is supported by lions whose shape mimics Trecento consoles. The lions may be based on the Florentine "Marzocco", as if to mark John XXIII in the same manner as a conquered city-state. As Donatello's "Marzocco" for the papal apartment in Santa Maria Novella conveyed Florence's ambivalence towards Martin V (as both a source of prestige by visiting, and a potential adversary of the Republic), the lions supporting the bier contextualize the tomb monument's support for John XXIII's claim to the papacy by cementing it as a Florentine claim. Yet, any iconographical interpretation of the lions must be taken with a grain of salt as lions are symbolically promiscuous, and are also seen as supports on earlier tombs, such as that of Lapo de' Bardi (d. 1342) in the Bargello.