The late medieval public image rarely appeared freestanding; instead, it was routinely enclosed within an architectural framework. But why did images – especially public images – require such forms of visual protection? This talk reconsiders the late medieval ‘fear of the freestanding image’, focussing on the revival of honorific public statues of the living, such as Alberto d’Este in Ferrara (c.1392). How did such images signal safety, security and permissibility? What, who or which location authorised an image to exist?