THE SCULPTURE OF
GIOVAN ANGELO MONTORSOLI
AND HIS CIRCLE
THE SCULPTURE OF
GIOVAN ANGELO MONTORSOLI
AND HIS CIRCLE
MYTH AND FAITH IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE
Edited by Alan Chong and Lorenzo Principi
with contributions by
Kurt Sundstrom and Sergio Ramiro Ramírez
This book is published in conjunction with the exhibition
The Sculpture of Giovan Angelo Montorsoli and His Circle:
Myth and Faith in Renaissance Florence, presented at the
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire,
October 13, 2018, to January 21, 2019.
This catalogue is made possible by a generous grant from
Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo.
The exhibition is sponsored by
M. Christine Dwyer and Michael Huxtable, and by
Thomas Silvia and Shannon Chandley.
Copyright 2018 by the Currier Museum of Art
Manchester, New Hampshire
www.currier.org
All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-0-929710-44-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018958013
Exhibition curators: Alan Chong, Lorenzo Principi,
and Kurt Sundstrom
Published by the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester
Designed by Geoff Kaplan, General Working Group
Copyedited by Kristin Swan
Printed by Pristone, Singapore
INTRODUCTION
6
MONTORSOLI’S TERRACOTTA JOHN THE BAPTIST
THE INFLUENCE OF MICHELANGELO AND ANDREA DEL SARTO
Lorenzo Principi
12
THE BAPTIST AND MARS
IDENTITY SHIFTS IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE
Kurt Sundstrom
26
COPIES, RESTORATIONS, AND CARICATURES
MONTORSOLI AT THE VATICAN
Alan Chong
42
MONTORSOLI AND THE HAPSBURG COURT
Sergio Ramiro Ramírez
62
THE IMPACT OF MICHELANGELO’S NEW SACRISTY
Lorenzo Principi and Alan Chong
78
CATALOGUE
JOHN THE BAPTIST
HAPSBURG COURT
NEW SACRISTY
APOLLO BELVEDERE
HERCULES
LAOCOON
BENEDETTO DA MAIANO
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION
CONTRIBUTORS
92
124
129
138
140
144
162
168
186
190
191
192
fig. 1
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli, Prophet Jeremiah, 1542–47.
Marble, height 156 cm. San Matteo, Genoa.
7
INTRODUCTION
Alan Chong
This exhibition presents a newly discovered terracotta of John the Baptist (fig. 2) by Giovan
Angelo Montorsoli in the wider cultural context of the 1530s, a period of fevered artistic and political
upheaval in Florence. Recently acquired by the Currier Museum of Art, the sculpture measures more
than four feet (130 cm) tall. In its musculature and intense gaze, it reflects Michelangelo’s influence on
Montorsoli, absorbed while working at the New Sacristy (Medici Chapel) of San Lorenzo. But the terracotta was not made under Michelangelo’s scrutiny, which allowed Montorsoli greater artistic freedom. The
Baptist strides forward in a manner distinct from other works of the period, and the sculpture demonstrates
Montorsoli’s deep understanding of ancient art, gained through his restoration of celebrated sculptures at
the Vatican. The subject of the terracotta is significant, as John the Baptist, the object of artistic obsession
for centuries, was the patron saint of Florence and thus a contested figure in the ongoing battle for control
of the city. Finally, the sculpture dates to the period when Montorsoli also produced important work for
the Hapsburg court, and through it for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the dominant political force in
Italy in the 1530s and 1540s. The exhibition thus considers Montorsoli’s work in relation to expansive
themes that reveal networks of meaning. We consider the subject of John the Baptist in sixteenth-century
Florence, the influence of Michelangelo’s New Sacristy, the impact of ancient sculpture both artistically and
conceptually, and Montorsoli’s response to the Hapsburgs.
We should not underestimate the political turmoil in Italy around 1530. The struggle between France
and the Holy Roman Empire for hegemony in the peninsula led to the Sack of Rome in 1527 and the
virtual imprisonment of Pope Clement VII, the leader of the Medici family, which was quickly expelled
from Florence. A head-spinning reversal then took place when Emperor Charles V formed an alliance
with the pope, which led to imperial armies restoring Medici rule in Florence and the emperor marrying
his daughter Margaret of Austria to Alessandro de’ Medici, the city’s new hereditary
ruler. These events brought chaos to the arts in Italy. Several artists died during the
Sack of Rome or saw their work destroyed. The projects funded by the papacy and
the Medici family ground to a halt. Michelangelo even joined the Republic of Florence
in their fight against the Medici, his erstwhile patrons. His artistic importance and
friendship with Clement VII led to a pardon, and Michelangelo returned to work on
the shrine to the Medici family – the New Sacristy – until the pope’s death in 1534.
Montorsoli emerged as an artist amidst all this chaos. He was born in 1499, just
north of Florence, with the name Angelo di Michele da Poggibonsi; he later took the
surname Montorsoli, after a village northeast of Florence. After an apprenticeship and
work as a stonecutter at the New Sacristy, in 1530 he entered the Servite order at the
church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence. He became a priest in 1532 with the
name Giovan Angelo, and was often called Frate or Fra (friar). However, his religious
career was diverted a few months later when he was called to Rome to restore the
ancient sculptures at the Vatican, namely the Apollo Belvedere, Hercules and Telephos,
and Laocoon. Montorsoli’s reimagined limbs and gestures, which remained in place for
the next several centuries, greatly influenced the perception of these ancient works. In
July 1533, Montorsoli, now excused by the pope from his duties as a priest, returned
to Florence to work on the New Sacristy with Michelangelo. He was assigned the
task of carving the marble figure of Saint Cosmas that flanks Michelangelo’s Virgin
and Child. The agonized pose and grimace of Cosmas (fig. 3) are strongly dependent
on ancient sculptures like the Laocoon. Giorgio Vasari carefully described the collaborative process of making the sculpture, lending insight to our consideration of the
malleable materials of clay and plaster. Montorsoli made a large terracotta model of
Cosmas that was retouched by Michelangelo, who made the head and arms himself.
Montorsoli also assisted Michelangelo with the marble statues of the dukes in the
New Sacristy “in executing certain difficult undercuttings.”1
fig. 2
Montorsoli, John the Baptist, 1530s. Terracotta,
height 130 cm. Currier Museum of Art,
Manchester. cat. 8.
8
fig. 3
Montorsoli, Saint Cosmas, 1533–37/38.
Marble, height 202 cm. New Sacristy,
San Lorenzo, Florence.
fig. 4
Montorsoli, Apse of the church of
San Matteo, Genoa, 1542–47. Marble
and stucco.
Michelangelo’s permanent departure from Florence in 1534 deprived Montorsoli of a mentor and
protector. He thus became an itinerant artist, working in Paris, Bologna, Genoa, Naples, and Messina,
before returning to Florence at the very end of his life.2 With his major projects scattered, Montorsoli lost
an intimate identification with his native Florence, where today only Saint Cosmas in the New Sacristy is
easily visible. His most public monuments – the two grand fountains dedicated to Orion and Neptune in
Messina, Sicily – have been ravaged by weathering and the devastating earthquake of 1908. These factors
partially explain why Montorsoli is not better known.
Vasari’s description of Montorsoli’s sojourns in various cities is full of drama and political intrigue. The
artist abandoned his appointment at the French court because of condescending court officials who acted
against the interests of the king. His work in Naples was interrupted by the Turkish invasion of Puglia.
INTRODUCTION
9
fig. 5
Montorsoli, Bust of Charles V (detail),
And his marble sculpture of Hercules and Antaeus was ruined through the political maneuvering of the
sculptor Baccio Bandinelli, which caused Montorsoli to leave Florence in disgust, to return only when his
rival had died. In Genoa, Montorsoli received generous commissions and reportedly established a close
relationship with the ruling prince, Andrea Doria. He produced work for the cathedral and for the Doria
church of San Matteo (figs. 1, 4).
Montorsoli also worked extensively for Spain, although he never visited the country. His remarkable
portrait of Charles V (fig. 5) was commissioned by Andrea Doria as a gift to a Hapsburg courtier, and two
fountains designed by the artist were also sent to Spain. Montorsoli’s Fountain of Orion in Messina, Sicily
(fig. 6), begun in 1547, is also an integral part of the Hapsburg world. Created to permanently celebrate
Charles V’s victory in 1535 over the Ottomans at nearby Tunis, the fountain proclaims the supremacy of
1539–41. Marble. Museo Nazionale
della Certosa di San Martino,
Naples. cat. 11.
10
fig. 6
Montorsoli, Fountain of Orion,
Messina, 1547–53. Photograph of
1867.
fig. 7
Medal of Giovan Angelo Montorsoli, ca. 1556.
Lead, diameter 4.5 cm. Museo regionale
interdisciplinare di Messina. A. 4319-431.
Obverse: Emblem of the Servite Order.
the Hapsburgs and confirms their rule of Sicily. After a decade of successful work in Messina, a medal was
struck in Montorsoli’s honor (fig. 7).3
Montorsoli has been well served by scholars, beginning in 1568 with Giorgio Vasari, who devoted to
the artist one of the longest biographies in his Lives of the Artists (fig. 8). This may have been because
Montorsoli’s career served Vasari’s primary goals of celebrating both the “divine” Michelangelo and the
magnanimity of Medici patronage in Florence. As Michelangelo’s principal follower in sculpture, Montorsoli
disseminated the master’s style throughout Italy. In addition, Montorsoli was a founder and the main funder
of the Accademia del disegno in Florence, a society of eminent artists established in 1563 under Duke
Cosimo I de’ Medici. Montorsoli’s figures of Moses and Saint Paul were placed in the painters’ chapel
at Santissima Annunziata, and he designed the seal of the Accademia and carved the design onto the
marble slab covering the crypt of the chapel (fig. 9).4 Pontormo was the first artist to be buried there, and
Montorsoli himself was interred under the plaque on September 1, 1563.
More recent studies of Montorsoli include Carla Manara’s dissertation of 1959 on Montorsoli’s work
in Genoa. Sheila ffolliott published a nuanced study of the artist’s fountains in Messina in connection
with triumphal entries, and Birgit Laschke in 1993 provided a substantial survey of Montorsoli’s work.5
Still missing is a full consideration of Montorsoli’s collaborative network, which included the sculptors
Silvio Cosini, Niccolò Tribolo, Bartolomeo Ammannati, and a substantial workshop. The discovery and
restoration of ancient sculpture in Rome around 1500 has been extensively surveyed, although a number
of inaccurate claims persist.6 The role of John the Baptist in Florentine art has yet to be comprehensively
studied.7
We hope that this book provides avenues for understanding several aspects of Montorsoli’s John the
Baptist. Lorenzo Principi advances the work’s attribution and dating here for the first time. The sculpture
responds to a long tradition of representations of the saint, visible in public settings in Florence. At the
same time, it departs from previous poses and gestures – he strides forward, and rather than pointing to
a cross, toward heaven, or to Christ, Montorsoli’s figure grips the cross like a lance. As Kurt Sundstrom
suggests, this seems no less than a reference to ancient warrior gods like Mars, the Baptist’s predecessor
as patron of Florence. Thus, Montorsoli is not simply a restorer of antiquities or a borrower of ancient
styles; he responds to the universal ideal of a divinity as protector of one’s homeland. Sergio Ramiro
INTRODUCTION
11
fig. 8
fig. 9
Portrait of Giovan Angelo Montorsoli.
Montorsoli, Tomb Cover, 1562. Marble,
Woodcut from Vasari 1568.
110 × 94 cm. Cappella dei pittori,
Santissima Annunziata, Florence.
Ramírez considers Montorsoli’s work for the Hapsburg court, especially through the rich imagery of
fountains, although many of the artist’s creations in this genre were ephemeral constructions, and others
have been damaged or lost. Montorsoli’s great Eagle Fountain, which once adorned Madrid’s Casa de
Campo, unfortunately remains in storage.
Another goal of this exhibition has been to highlight little-known works of sixteenth-century Italian
sculpture in American museums, many rarely exhibited and previously attributed incorrectly. For example, a
work by Francesco da Sangallo in the Chrysler Museum of Art has never been publicly shown. Besides the
terracotta by Montorsoli, Lorenzo Principi presents new attributions to Benedetto da Rovezzano (cat. 2),
Sandro di Lorenzo (cat. 16), Zaccaria Zacchi (cat. 26), and Silvio Cosini (cat. 27). Other works have only
recently been correctly attributed (cats. 4, 9, 10, 17). Despite being the subject of scholarly endeavor for many
generations, Italian Renaissance sculpture continues to hold many uncertainties of connoisseurship, patronage,
and interpretation. One indication of this is the fact that no fewer than five sculptures exhibited here have
been attributed (incorrectly) to Michelangelo in the recent past. May such mysteries and ambiguities continue
to delight all audiences.
1.
Vasari 1966, vol. 5, pp. 493–94.
2. On the concept of the traveling artist in the
Renaissance, see Kim 2014.
4. For the drawing of the Accademia seal, see Laschke
1993, figs. 177–79.
5. Manara 1959; ffolliott 1984; Möseneder 1979;
Laschke 1993.
3. Inscribed: IO. ANGELUS MO/NTURSULI
FLORENT. Reverse: emblem of the Servite order, 6. Brummer 1970; Haskell and Penny 1981; Bober
“NON TIMEBO MALA QUONIAM TU MECUM and Rubinstein 2010; Rome 2006.
ES.” Sarica 1997.
7. Lavin 1955; Lavin 1961.
fig. 1
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli, John the Baptist,
1530s. Terracotta, height 130 cm. Currier
Museum of Art. cat. 8.
13
MONTORSOLI’S TERRACOTTA JOHN THE BAPTIST
THE INFLUENCE OF MICHELANGELO AND ANDREA DEL SARTO
Lorenzo Principi
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli (1499–1563) is generally regarded as a talented pupil of
Michelangelo, an assiduous imitator of the monumentality, pathos, and muscular terribilità (or “ferocity”) so
closely associated with the master. Through his work in Genoa, Naples, Messina, and Bologna, Montorsoli
was considered the standard-bearer of Michelangelo’s style.
Michelangelo must have believed deeply in Montorsoli’s ability, as it is through him that Montorsoli
was summoned to Rome in 1532 to restore the celebrated ancient sculptures in the Vatican, namely the
Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoon, and Hercules and Telephos (see essay by Chong). Michelangelo likewise
entrusted Montorsoli with important work in the New Sacristy (known as the Medici Chapel) in Florence,
in particular the Saint Cosmas, which Montorsoli carved to stand beside Michelangelo’s own Virgin and
Child.1 Montorsoli worked on the figures of the two dukes for the New Sacristy,2 and in August of 1533
was named supervisor of the Medici tombs. In 1539 or 1540, the artist moved to Genoa, where he became
official sculptor to the powerful Doria family. There, he carved a monumental statue of Andrea Doria and a
Saint John the Evangelist for the city’s cathedral; between 1542 and 1547, Montorsoli designed and executed
marble and stucco sculpture for San Matteo, the Doria church in Genoa (see p. 8).3
A recently discovered work by Montorsoli, a terracotta representing John the Baptist (fig. 1), sheds
new light on the artist’s work in Florence in the 1530s, in particular his response to Michelangelo’s art.
The sculpture is remarkable for its monumentality, suggestion
of movement, and sense of space. Cloaked in a camel-skin tunic
and a flowing mantle, the Baptist is portrayed with a severe frown,
bristly beard, and intensely concentrated gaze. He strides confidently forward. In his left hand, he grasps a staff surmounted by
a cross, while his muscular left arm anchors the composition. The
statue is composed of at least five pieces of separately fired clay.4
Montorsoli’s modeling of the legs and the left arm was inspired
by ancient art, in particular the Apollo Belvedere, which he had
recently restored. The earliest Renaissance analogies are with the
work of Jacopo Sansovino (1486–1570), one of the most influential sculptors of the sixteenth century. There are similarities
between the terracotta Baptist and Jacopo Sansovino’s two statues
of Saint James in Florence’s cathedral (1511–18) and in Rome
(see fig. 24), but Sansovino’s work lacks Montorsoli’s emphasis
on musculature.
Such athleticism also appears in Montorsoli’s Saint John the
Evangelist in the cathedral of Genoa (fig. 2). This work shares
with the Currier Museum’s John the Baptist a minutely chiseled
beard, thick eyebrows, rounded and incised pupils, and a flattened
jaw that grows more fleshy at the sides of the mouth (figs. 3–6).
Circular, flattened, and elongated folds, which seem to be blown by
the wind, define the cuffed sleeves of both figures (figs. 7, 8). The
folds of their drapery are depicted with a thin and tubular hollow
that ends with a rounded profile (figs. 11, 12).
The physiognomic traits of the sculpture in the Currier
Museum appear in other works by Montorsoli, such as the bust
of Charles V in Naples (fig. 9), whose visage is marked by the
same technical and stylistic characteristics found in Saint John the
Evangelist. The face of the Baptist shares with Montorsoli’s Saint
fig. 2
Montorsoli, Saint John the Evangelist,
1540–41. Marble, height ca. 250 cm.
Cathedral of San Lorenzo, Genoa.
14
fig. 3
Detail of fig. 7.
fig. 4
Detail of fig. 8.
fig. 5
Detail of fig. 7.
fig. 6
Detail of fig. 8.
fig. 7
Montosoli, Saint John the Evangelist,
1540–41. Marble. Cathedral of San
Lorenzo, Genoa.
fig. 8
Montorsoli, John the Baptist, 1530s.
Terracotta. Currier Museum of Art. cat. 8.
fig. 9
Montorsoli, Bust of Charles V (detail),
1539–41. Marble. Museo Nazionale della
Certosa di San Martino, Naples. cat. 11.
fig. 10
Montorsoli, Saint Andrew (detail),
1542–47. Marble. Church of San Matteo,
Genoa.
MONTORSOLI’S TERRACOTTA JOHN THE BAPTIST
15
fig. 13
Detail of fig. 8.
fig. 11
fig. 12
fig. 14
fig. 15
Detail of fig. 8.
Detail of fig. 7.
Detail of fig. 23.
Detail of fig. 16.
Andrew in San Matteo, Genoa (fig. 10) facial proportions, wispy
hair, and beard patterns. The Saint Cosmas in the New Sacristy
displays the same protrusion above the arch of the eyebrows and
irregular nose with a pronounced bump at its center.
The Baptist’s pose is closely related to the David in San Matteo,
Genoa, where the lightly flexed left arm creates a right angle, while
the right arm points downward, parallel to the body. The sharpedged folds in the Baptist’s garments resurface in Saint James the
Greater on the tomb of Sannazaro, and in the John the Baptist in
San Matteo (figs. 13–15). The drapery of this last work provides
a striking analogy to the mantle of the terracotta, which descends
from the shoulder in delicate but full folds (figs. 8, 16). In
Montorsoli’s figures of the Baptist, there is a marked similarity in
the manner in which the heavy, rigid camel skin falls; such surfaces
are often treated with a network of light scratches, as can be seen
in the terracotta Baptist as well as in the marble sculptures of the
saint in San Matteo (fig. 16) and in the Santissima Annunziata
(1562–63).5
The powerful arms of the Currier Museum’s Baptist betray a
direct link to the tradition of muscularity in Florentine art. The
pronounced veins are another typical characteristic of Montorsoli’s
sculpture, recurring in the Triton and Saint John the Evangelist
(figs. 17, 18, 19), as well as the Prophet Jeremiah in San Matteo.6
Montorsoli’s careful depiction of the sinews and blood vessels in
these hands shows his familiarity with anatomy. In fact, Vasari
records that in Genoa, Montorsoli made anatomical dissections
with the help of medical friends who provided him with “many
anatomical specimens of human bodies.”7
The sculpture in the Currier Museum provides a useful model
for attributions to Montorsoli. He was above all a formalist who
gave priority to disegno, witnessed in the importance of line in his sculptures. The facial expressions of his
figures have an intensity that can be interpreted as sullen or grim, while the upper portions of his heads
are powerful and rugged. The arms have a tense power, as robust hands clutch an object – often a mantle.
fig. 16
Montorsoli, John the Baptist, 1542–47.
Marble, height 146 cm. Church of San
Matteo, Genoa.
16
fig. 17
fig. 18
fig. 19
fig. 20
Detail of fig. 1.
Montorsoli, Triton (detail), 1540–43.
Detail of fig. 2.
Montorsoli, Sheet of Studies (detail), 1530s.
Marble. Villa del Principe, Genoa.
Pen and brown ink on paper, 27.4 × 20 cm.
See p. 68.
Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi,
Florence. 14526 F.
fig. 21
Montorsoli, Moses, 1535–36.
Painted terracotta and stucco,
height 143 cm. Cappella dei pittori,
Santissima Annunziata, Florence.
fig. 22
Montorsoli, Saint Paul, 1535–36.
Painted terracotta and stucco,
height 155 cm. Cappella dei pittori,
Santissima Annunziata, Florence.
The larger surfaces of drapery are frequently modeled with thick, clearly defined lines that produce subtle
shading. Montorsoli tended to work his material deeply, notable especially in his marble sculptures, as
already noted by Vasari, who praised Montorsoli’s carving of marble. Vasari stated that the artist had helped
Michelangelo with the statues of the two Medici dukes in the New Sacristy by “making certain difficult
pierced undercuttings.”8
The terracotta sculpture of John the Baptist is unique in Florentine sculpture from the first half of the
sixteenth century, because large standing terracotta figures finished on all sides were nearly always glazed
(predominantly by the Della Robbia or Buglioni workshops). Remnants of gesso (plaster) undercoating
with lead white (see cat. 8) indicate that Montorsoli’s Baptist was painted, though in the early sixteenth
century, terracotta sculptures of this size were rarely polychromed. Montorsoli modeled two other sculptures in terracotta and stucco in the 1530s – figures of Moses and Saint Paul made between 1535 and
August 1536 for the Santissima Annunziata (figs. 21, 22).9 These were painted white to simulate marble,
and it is likely that the John the Baptist was similarly treated. The remnants of gesso would appear to
contradict the idea that the Baptist was a model for a work in marble or bronze; the terracotta is more likely
to be a finished work in itself.
No other works by Montorsoli besides
these testify to his activity as a modeler.
However, Vasari describes a number of
ephemeral works made around this period,
such as clay figures of Faith and Charity for
a fountain that the artist created when the
entire Servite order met in a general chapter,
held at Budrio, Emilia, on April 29, 1535.
These were said to be life-size and painted
to imitate white marble.10 The artist also
produced decorations for the triumphal entry
of Charles V into Florence in April 1536,
and made a Neptune in stucco for Genoa
(1543–47).11
In 1767, Ignazio Enrico Hugford
(1703–1778), an English painter and dealer
living in Florence, displayed three terracottas
MONTORSOLI’S TERRACOTTA JOHN THE BAPTIST
by Montorsoli in the exhibition of the Accademia del disegno, held at the Santissima Annunziata. The
works, which represented Christ, Saint Peter, and Saint Paul, are now lost, but they may have been
connected with one of Montorsoli’s sculptural projects – for example, the cathedral of Messina (1550), the
high altar of the Servite church in Bologna, or an uncompleted project for Santissima Annunziata (the last
two, 1558–62).12 Hugford seems to have had a special interest in Montorsoli since he also owned a drawing
that bears old inscriptions identifying the artist as Montorsoli.13 The drawing shows two cornucopias, tree
branches with detailed color indications, the head of an eagle, and a seminude figure in a mantle whose
composition and heavy folds of drapery recall the terracotta John the Baptist (fig. 20).14
Provenance
We know nothing of the original setting of the terracotta John the Baptist. However, the work appears to
be connected with a transaction of 1791, when the Florentine painter Tommaso Gherardini (1715–1797)
sold two terracotta sculptures to Giovanni degli Alessandri, who would become president of the Accademia
di belle arti of Florence in 1799, and director of the Uffizi in 1811.15 The receipt states that Gherardini
received 35 lire for “two statues about two braccia [117 cm] high in terracotta by Montorsoli, one depicting
Saint John the Baptist and the other Saint Paul.”16 It is unlikely that this attribution was proposed simply to
make the works more saleable, as Montorsoli was not an artist to whom works were commonly attributed
in the eighteenth century. Gherardini probably had information about the creation and original context
of the sculptures.
The two works are again recorded with the Alessandri family in 1828 when an inventory was drawn
up of the oratory of San Francesco in the Villa Petroio near Vinci, which the family owned. They are
described as “two white wood bases with gilded molding that support two statues, one depicting Saint John
the Baptist and the other Saint Paul, the two situated in the middle of the two walls of the chapel, and
which are in terracotta.”17 The two sculptures were valued at 80 lire. In 1879, Archbishop Eugenio Cecconi
made note of them: “I observed in the middle of the church two statues in gesso or stucco, one on each side,
representing Saint Paul and Saint John the Baptist.”18 It seems that the sculptures had been replaced with
plaster copies. In addition, we know that a painting by Jacopo da Empoli of Saint Francis had been removed
from the same villa by 1877, and replaced by a copy.19 Two terracotta reliefs depicting the Adoration of the
Magi and the Preaching of John the Baptist from the villa appeared on the London art market in 1965 and
were later attributed to Girolamo Ticciati (1671–1744).20 They must have been two of the “five bas reliefs
in terracotta with stucco frames representing holy acts” listed in the 1828 inventory.
The original context of the terracotta Baptist
While stylistically datable to the 1530s, a peripatetic decade for the artist, the John the Baptist in the
Currier Museum was likely made in Florence, where Montorsoli was based at Santissima Annunziata. The
sculpture shares a similarity of style and material with the figures of Moses and Saint Paul that Montorsoli
made for the church. It is also very likely that the Baptist was paired with a figure of Saint Paul, as they are
recorded together in the Alessandri collection between 1791 and 1828, as noted above. These two saints
form a natural pair as holy figures who come immediately before and after the Apostles – John the Baptist
as the precursor of Christ, and Paul as a founder of the wider church. John and Paul were often added to
series depicting Christ and the Apostles. The Compagnia di San Giovanni Battista dello Scalzo in Florence
possessed a pair sculptures of John the Baptist and Saint Paul in the late sixteenth century.21 We could
imagine that Montorsoli made the terracotta figures of John the Baptist and Saint Paul for Santissima
Annunziata or its subsidiary spaces, or perhaps for a patron connected with church.
Montorsoli in Florence
The probable Florentine provenance and the close affinities with Montorsoli’s work of the 1530s and early
1540s allow us to date the terracotta Baptist to the artist’s activity in Florence in the 1530s, an especially
intense and eventful phase of his life. In October 1530, Montorsoli became a Servite monk at the monastery
of Santissima Annunziata in Florence, and in March 1532 he was ordained as a priest.22 In July of that year,
he began his collaboration with Michelangelo.23 In September, he moved to Rome to restore antiquities at
17
18
fig. 23
Montorsoli, Saint James the Greater,
1536/37–41. Marble, height 155 cm.
Church of Santa Maria del Parto, Naples.
the Vatican, where he remained until the early summer of 1533.24 On July 25, 1533, Sebastiano del Piombo
writes that Montorsoli “was at work on the figure of Duke Giuliano” in the New Sacristy in Florence.25 In
August, Montorsoli was made “overseer [soprastante] of the double tombs of the sacristy.”26 He remained
in Florence until the end of September 1534, when, on the death of Pope Clement VII, Michelangelo left
Florence permanently, interrupting work on the Medici tombs. After finishing a wax portrait of Duke
Alessandro de’ Medici for the Annunziata church in the autumn of 1534, Montorsoli joined Michelangelo
in Rome, where he assisted with the tomb of Julius II.27
Between the end of 1534 and the beginning of 1535, he travelled to France at the behest of Cardinal
François de Tournon, who wanted to introduce an Italian sculptor to the court of Francis I.28 However,
Montorsoli was so disillusioned by the Parisian court that he immediately left to visit Lyon, Provence,
Genoa, Venice, Padua, Verona, and Mantua. In April 1535, he attended the general chapter of his order
in Budrio.29 Between May 1535 and the summer of 1536, Montorsoli worked in Arezzo on the tomb of
Angelo d’Arezzo in the church of San Pier Piccolo.30 He prepared ephemeral decorations for the triumphal
entry of Charles V into Florence in April 1536, and in August completed statues of Moses and Saint
Paul in terracotta and stucco for the Annunziata.31 He may have visited Urbino in the same month, and
shortly afterward went to Naples in hopes of receiving the prestigious commission for the tomb of Jacopo
Sannazaro.32 He worked on that project in Naples until July 1537, when the Turkish invasion of Puglia
forced him to move to Carrara or Florence.33 In October 1537, Francesco Ferrucci del Tadda, a friend and
collaborator of Montorsoli’s, sent architectural elements for the tomb from Carrara to Naples.34 At the
end of the summer of 1537, Maria Salviati, the mother of Cosimo I, asked Montorsoli to finish the figure
of Saint Cosmas for the New Sacristy, and shortly after, in April of 1538, to
carve a Hercules and Antaeus for a fountain at her Villa di Castello.35 In April
and May the sculptor went to Carrara to extract marble for the fountain and to
continue work on the Sannazaro tomb.
While he was working in Florence and Carrara, Montorsoli was asked
(perhaps around April or May 1538) to make a monumental portrait of Andrea
Doria in Genoa, a commission that had been given to Baccio Bandinelli in the
1520s but was never completed. According to Vasari, this brought Montorsoli
and Bandinelli into a heated conflict. Bandinelli convinced the ducal majordomo,
Pierfrancesco Riccio, that Montorsoli’s marble Hercules and Antaeus was not
going well (an opinion disputed by Vasari). Feeling badly treated, Montorsoli
decided to leave the work unfinished and move to Genoa, where he is first
recorded on March 27, 1539.36 However, in December 1538 he was already in
contact with the Lombard sculptor Giovan Maria da Passalo who was working
in Genoa.37 Montorsoli remained for the most part in Genoa until 1547.38
Between October and December 1541, he installed the Tomb of Sannazaro
in Naples.39 There is no evidence that Montorsoli was ever in Florence in
the 1540s, a decade when he was receptive to influences from Michelangelo,
Sansovino, Cosini, and Tribolo.
Montorsoli and Michelangelo: A reassessment
The terracotta Baptist provides an opportunity to reassess Michelangelo’s influence on Montorsoli, especially on sculptures made for cities more resistant to
the celebrated artist’s style. For example, Montorsoli’s Saint James in Naples (fig.
23) possesses a pictorial treatment of drapery, a wistful expression, a delicacy
of the hair, and subtly spiraling locks of the beard that betray a strong debt to
the work of Jacopo Sansovino (fig. 24).40Appreciation of the complexity of
Montorsoli’s sculptural language allows us to move beyond the idea that he was
wholly dependent on Michelangelo. In this respect, attention to Giorgio Vasari’s
biography of Montorsoli helps in a reassessment of his sculpture.
Vasari seems embarrassed at first to recount Montorsoli’s beginnings, before
the artist fell under Michelangelo’s influence. Lacking information on works
made in the 1520s and early 1530s, Vasari begins with a description of the Saint
MONTORSOLI’S TERRACOTTA JOHN THE BAPTIST
Paul and Moses in the chapel of Santissima Annunziata, made in 1535
to 1536, when the artist was already more than thirty years old. Vasari
then offers a vague list of Montorsoli’s early travels, his friendship with
Francesco Ferrucci del Tadda, an apprenticeship with Andrea di Piero
Ferrucci, work at Saint Peter’s in Rome, and the tomb of Raffaele Maffei
in Volterra, a collaboration with Silvio Cosini.41 Finally, we come to the
New Sacristy in Florence, where Montorsoli most likely started work
in October 1524.42
Vasari’s account becomes clearer once Montorsoli joins the Servite
order in October 1530. The artist, we are told, aspired to a religious life
because of an earlier sojourn at the hermitage of Camaldoli, and his
decision to become a brother in the order of the Jesuates (Gesuati).43
Montorsoli’s subsequent association with the church of Santissima
Annunziata indelibly marked his career. Vasari specifically states that
as Montorsoli was preparing to become a priest, he studied the works
of Andrea del Sarto at the church as inspiration.44 Painted between
1509 and 1514, Sarto’s frescoes in the Chiostrino dei Voti, the entrance
atrium, depict the life of Saint Filippo Benizi, as well as the Birth of the
Virgin and the Journey of the Magi (fig. 25). Sarto’s art had considerable effect on sculptors, including Jacopo Sansovino and Silvio Cosini,
in addition to Montorsoli. The spiral form and subtle contrapposto of the terracotta John the Baptist, as
well as its dense drapery (realized in broad crests that converge on the surface of the fleece), all testify to
the influence of Andrea del Sarto, in particular, the Madonna of the Harpies made for the church of San
Francesco dei Macci in 1517 (fig. 26). Sarto’s rendering of John the Evangelist, on the right, is an important
source for Montorsoli in its controlled muscular energy beneath the billows of heavy drapery. With one
foot on the dais, the figure has a sense of movement, while the powerful forearm is a dominant feature, just
as in Montorsoli’s terracotta.
The John the Baptist should also be examined within the pictorial impulse of Florentine sculpture at
the beginning of the sixteenth century, as led by Giovanfrancesco Rustici and Jacopo Sansovino, under the
influence of Leonardo da Vinci.45 Sansovino’s sculptures share with Montorsoli’s terracotta the rendering of
heavy drapery, the turn of the shoulder, and the hand that grasps the cloak to facilitate forward movement.
Many of these features are also found in Andrea del Sarto’s work, not least in the Annunziata frescoes,
which is unsurprising since Sarto and Sansovino were close friends.46
fig. 25
Andrea del Sarto, The Journey of the Magi
(detail), 1511. Fresco. Chiostrino dei voti,
Santissima Annunziata, Florence.
19
fig. 24
Jacopo Sansovino, Saint James the Greater,
1518–20. Marble, height ca. 260 cm.
San Giacomo degli Spagnoli, Rome.
20
fig. 26
Andrea del Sarto, Madonna of the Harpies,
1517. Oil on wood, 207 × 178 cm.
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
Such affinities demonstrate that during the 1530s, Montorsoli looked intently at the work of the
preceding generation. At the same time, the influence of Michelangelo can be strongly felt, especially in
the Baptist’s sullen and threatening countenance, and most of all in the powerful arms – all reminiscent of
Michelangelo’s sculptural program in the New Sacristy. The hypothesis that the John the Baptist was a model
for a work in marble seems highly improbable, and it is more likely to be an independent object. However,
Vasari reminds us that the media of terracotta and marble were closely associated, in the description of
Montorsoli’s work on the Saint Cosmas (fig. 27). Montorsoli, we are told, “made a large model of this figure,
which Michelangelo retouched in many parts, then Michelangelo made the head and the arms in clay, which
are kept today in Arezzo by Vasari among his most prized possessions, in memory of the man,” that is,
Michelangelo.47 The arms modeled by Michelangelo must have struck Montorsoli profoundly because they
are directly linked to the Medici tombs, in particular Day, in which the arm is powerfully flexed (fig. 28).
This gesture appears in many of Montorsoli’s sculptures, in particular the Saint Cosmas and the Baptist.
The intervention of Michelangelo in the making of the Saint Cosmas was therefore providential, as much
for the sculpture itself as for Montorsoli’s later career. Vasari states: “And in truth, whether it was his own
study and diligence, or the assistance of Michelangelo, it proved in the end to be an excellent figure [ottima
figura] and the best that Montorsoli ever made of the many he produced in his entire life, so that it was
MONTORSOLI’S TERRACOTTA JOHN THE BAPTIST
21
fig. 27
fig. 28
Montorsoli, Saint Cosmas (detail),
Michelangelo, Day, 1526–31. Marble,
1533–37/38. Marble. New Sacristy, San
length 285 cm. New Sacristy, San Lorenzo,
Lorenzo, Florence.
Florence.
truly worthy to be placed where it was.”48 Is it because of Montorsoli’s close collaboration with Michelangelo,
or because of his own diligence that his statue of Saint Cosmas was superior to any of his later work?
Perhaps both are true, but in the absence of the model by Montorsoli, or of the head and the arms made
by Michelangelo, it is impossible to know how much the intervention shaped the outcome. Nonetheless,
as Vasari anticipated, the Saint Cosmas remains Montorsoli’s masterpiece, and one can certainly agree that
it represents an ottima figura – an excellent figure – even if this judgment betrays Vasari’s exaltation of
Michelangelo above all else, a bias that underlies the entire project of the Lives of the Artists.
We do not know if Michelangelo or Vasari ever saw the terracotta John the Baptist, but perhaps they
would have concurred that, even if it is less rhetorically Michelangelesque than Saint Cosmas, it is of
exceptional quality, worthy of comparison to Montorsoli’s best work as yet another ottima figura.
22
1. There is presently a consensus that the sculpture to
the left of the Virgin (from the viewer’s perspective) is
Saint Cosmas by Montorsoli, although in the past there
was some disagreement about this. For example, Gilbert
1961 and Verellen 1979 suggested that the sculpture
on the left was in fact Saint Damian by Raffaello da
Montelupo. Confirmation that Montorsoli’s work is on
the left is furnished by the second state of Cornelis Cort’s
engraving of the group (Sellink 2000, no. 219; see cat. 13
for the first state of 1570). This print, published in Rossi
1711 (Sellink 2000, pp. 145, 147, incorrectly states it is
from 1621), identifies the statue on the left as “S. Cosimo
/ Scultura di Agnolo da Montorsoli” and that on the right
as “S. Damiano / Scultura di Raffaello da Monte Lupo.”
2. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 493: “nel condurre la statue
del duca Lorenzo e Giuliano si servì molto del frate nel
rinettarle e fare certe difficultà di lavori traforati in sotto
squadra.” This is also implied in a letter from Sebastiano
del Piombo to Michelangelo, July 25, 1533 (Poggi 1965,
vol. 4, no. CMXIII).
3. The statue of Andrea Doria was initially entrusted
to Baccio Bandinelli, who between 1529 and 1536–39
had two blocks of marble excavated, the second of
which is today in the square of the cathedral of Carrara
(F. Loffredo in Florence 2014, pp. 574–75).
4. The sections appear to be: the head; from the right
shoulder to the waist; the left arm and shoulder; from the
waist to the knees; and the lower part of the legs and the
base. See under cat. 8.
5. The Baptist in the Santissima Annunziata: Laschke
1993, fig. 172. See also the relief of the Baptism of Christ
in San Matteo, probably executed with a collaborator; the
statue on the altar of the church of the Servites, Bologna;
and a relief in the same church: Laschke 1993, figs. 75,
144, 162.
6. The attribution and dating of the Triton in the Villa
del Principe are based on a letter from Anton Francesco
Doni to Montorsoli of June 3, 1543 (or August 9, 1543),
recording “il dignissimo mostro marino, che getta in tanta
copia l’acqua nel bel giardino del Principe” (Doni 1543,
pp. 2r–2v; Doni 1970, pp. 92–96). Vasari 1966, vol. 5,
p. 501, also records that Montorsoli “avendo in ultimo
fatto, dalla parte dinanzi di detto palazzo [Villa del
Principe], un vivaio, fece di marmo un mostro marino di
tondo rilievo, che versa in gran copia acqua nella detta
peschiera.” The correspondence between the description
and Montorsoli’s style led Laschke 1993, pp. 62–64,
153, 161, no. 11, and others to classify the Triton as by
Montorsoli. The attribution can also be confirmed thanks
to similarities with the three putti playing at the top of
the Fountain of Orion in Messina; Laschke 1993, fig. 111.
Doubts regarding the attribution have arisen from
a record in the Doria-Pamphilij archive, Rome (Filza
mandati 1581, no. 220), which states that in April 1581,
6 scudi “to the account for the figure that goes above the
fountain” (a buon conto et per capparro della figura che va
sopra la fontana) were paid to Giovan Giacomo Parraca
da Valsoldo (ca. 1546–1597). Another account indicates
that the payment was for “del satiro.” These records suggest
(Merli and Belgrano 1874, p. 57) that the current Triton on
the fountain might be a later copy by Parraca. However, the
Triton on the Villa Pallavicino delle Peschiere attributed to
Parraca is quite different from that at the Villa del Principe.
The attribution of the Peschiere sculpture to Parraca is
based on a 1562 commission by Tobia Pallavicino for
several unspecified works for his villa, which might have
included the fountain (Poleggi 1972, p. 138).
Montorsoli’s Triton immediately enjoyed great
popularity in Genoa as well as in Spain. The fountain
of the Peschiere copies that model, and Parraca may
also have used the same model for three figures in the
Triton Fountain (Fuente de los Tritones) in the gardens
of the Palacio Real, Madrid, which came from the
Palacio de Aranjuez (see the essay by Ramiro, note 33).
In Genoa, other replicas of Montorsoli’s work include a
late 16th-century fountain with Tritons and Nereids at
the Villa Imperiale Scassi a Sampierdarena (Giannattasio
and Quartino 1982, pp. 38, 40, fig. 3; Magnani 2005, fig.
170); a fountain at the Villa Balbi Durazzo Gropallo
Castelbarco allo Zerbino (A. Lissoni in Cazzato et al.
2002, pp. 91–92), as Giacomo Montanari kindly pointed
out to me; and the two Tritons above the cornice leading
to the grotto of the Villa Di Negro Rosazza of 1556–66
(Magnani 2005, p. 52, pl. IV). Furthermore, Montorsoli’s
Triton is reproduced in a drawing by Gerard ter Borch
the Elder of 1614–16 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, RP-T1887-A-1180). The statue by Montorsoli was so well
known in Genoa that Federico Peschiera (1814–1854)
copied it in his Rinaldo in the Garden of Armida (Galleria
d’Arte Moderna, Genoa).
7. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 499: “molte notomie di corpi
umani.”
8. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 493: “fare certe difficultà di
lavori traforati in sotto squadra.”
9. Laschke 1993, p. 159, nos. 2, 3; Pizzorusso 2013, pp.
219–20, 224.
10. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 495: “fece in un dì et una notte
due figure di terra grandi quanto il naturale, cioè la Fede
e la Carità; le quali, finte di marmo bianco, servirono
MONTORSOLI’S TERRACOTTA JOHN THE BAPTIST
per una fonte posticcia, da lui fatta con un gran vaso di
rame, che durò a gettar acqua tutto il giorno che fu fatto il
Generale, con molta sua lode et onore.”
momento della sua morte, Sept. 20, 1828: “Due basi di
legno bianche con filettatura dorata che sostegno due
statue, uno esprimente S. Gio. Battista e l’altro San Paolo,
situate ambedue nel mezzo delle due pareti della cappella,
quali sono di terracotta.”
11. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 496, on the decorations for the
entry of Charles V on Apr. 28, 1535. Stucco Neptune:
ibid., p. 501: “Fece un gran Nettunno di stucco, che sopra 18. Archivio Arcivescovile di Firenze, Cancelleria
un piedistallo fu posto nel giardino del principe.”
arcivescovile, Visite pastorali, Documenti di visite pastorali, 47, ins. 36, cc. 122–25: “Ho osservato a metà della
12. Fleming 1955a, p. 206, no. 44; Borroni Salvadori chiesa due statue di gesso o stucco poste uno per lato e
1974, p. 105: “Nostro Signore, S. Pietro e S. Paolo.” On rappresentanti S. Paolo e S. Giovanni Battista.”
Hugford, see Fleming 1955 and Fleming 1955a. The
connection with Montorsoli’s projects was suggested by 19. Paci 1877, pp. 15–16. On the removal of the paintLaschke 1993, pp. 147, 168, no. 18A.
ing by Empoli, see Ferretti 2000, p. 18, note 5. On the
paintings depicting Saint Francis at the Mount of Vernia
13. The recto is inscribed: F Gio Angelo Montorsoli; the and Saint John Gualberto Forgiving His Enemy, see
verso: F. Gio. An.lo. Petrioli Tofani 2003, p. 156, note 29; Marabottini 1988, p. 284, nos. P23a–b.
Petrioli Tofani 2014, pp. 1141, 1144, no. 25. Hugford also
provided the portrait drawing of Montorsoli, derived from 20. Colnaghi 1965, nos. 11, 12. The reliefs later belonged
Vasari 1568, for Serie 1773, after p. 56.
to Arthur M. Sackler (Avery 1981, nos. 35, 36) and John
Winter; his sale: Sotheby’s, London, Dec. 10, 2015 (lots
14. Another drawing related to Montorsoli’s work in 35, 36).
clay is a sketch of his Saint Paul in the Annunziata, which
is not a preparatory study but a record of the finished 21. There are other references in Florence to terracotta
work. Uffizi, inv. 14367 F. Laschke 1993, p. 159 [as a later sculptures of these subjects. Two terracottas of John the
drawing by an unknown hand]; Petrioli Tofani 2003, p. Baptist and Saint Paul were in the “luogho vecchio” of
the Compagnia di San Giovanni Battista dello Scalzo
151 [uncertain]; Petrioli Tofani 2014, p. 1027, no. 12.
(Baccioni 1708, p. 48; Dow 2006, p. 118). The Baptist was
15. On Tommaso Gherardini and his collection of said to have been modeled in terracruda (unfired clay) and
Renaissance sculpture, see S. Coltellacci in Dizionario presented to the Scalzo in 1584 by Valerio Cioli (O’Brien
biografico degli italiani (Rome, 2000), pp. 616–18; and 2011, pp. 217, 221, docs. 1a, 1b). No mention is made of
Tormen 2015, pp. 107–8, 110, 111, 114. On Giovanni the artist of the Saint Paul. It is highly unlikely that these
sculptures are the pair sold to Giovanni degli Alessandri
degli Alessandri, see Bertini 2005 and Gioli 2012.
in 1791, as the style of Valerio Cioli is far removed from
16. Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Alessandri 117, Montorsoli’s terracotta. The last indication of the works’
Ricevute di Giovanni di Cosimo degli Alessandri, presence in the Scalzo is an inventory of 1783, just before
1790–1791, receipt of Jan. 7, 1791: “Io sottoscritto ho the Leopoldine suppression (Dow 2014, p. 86). These
ricevuto dall’Illustrissimo signore Cavaliere Gio. degli statues, together with an image of the Virgin, formed part
Alessandri lire trentacinque per valuta fissata d’accordo di of a cycle of twelve clay sculptures of the Apostles.
due statue alte circa braccia 2 di terracotta del Montorsoli
In addition to the statue by Cioli, another clay figure
esprimenti una S. Gio. Battista e l’altra San Paolo. / A me of the Baptist was in the Scalzo, modeled in 1590 by
sottoscritto dico in contanti £. 35 / Tommaso Gherardini.” Carlo di Cesare Terra (O’Brien 2011, pp. 215, 256, doc.
The expenditure by Giovanni degli Alessandri is also 42c), a little-known sculptor, very probably identifiable
recorded in his account book for the fiscal year 1790–91; with Carlo di Cesare del Palagio, a Giambolognesque
Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Alessandri 499, Entrata e artist active in Bavaria, where he also made ephemeral
uscita di Giovanni degli Alessandri, 1787–1791, c. 97s: “A decoration. Both names are associated with temporary
spese diverse. Fiorini 5 portò contanti il signor Tommaso decorative projects. Carlo di Cesare Terra is recorded in
Gherardini pittore per valuta di 2 statue di terracotta del Florence in 1588 in connection with scenery decoration
Montorsoli alte braccia 2.” One florin equals seven lire. at the Teatro Mediceo (Testaverde Matteini 1991, pp. 63,
Davide Gambino kindly informed me of the documents 177–79, 185), and in 1590 is recorded at again at the
relating to Alessandri.
Scalzo (O’Brien 2013, p. 415, note 430). Carlo di Cesare
del Palagio was probably in Florence in 1589 to make
17. Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Alessandri 55, ins. decorations for the marriage of Ferdinando de’ Medici
4, Stato patrimoniale di Giovanni degli Alessandri al and Christine of Lorraine (Diemer 2004, vol. 1, p. 43).
23
24
A third terracotta of John the Baptist (height 75
cm) remains above the door of the Scalzo. Dow 2014,
pp. 85–86, fig. 3.9, claims that this is the work by Carlo
Terra, but this cannot be the case as it was evidently made
in the first quarter of the 16th century. In fact, the work
can be connected with two similar glazed terracottas:
one attributed to Master of the John Statuettes was with
Alexandre Imbert and Seligmann, Rey and Co., New York
(Riccetti 2014, pp. 50, 55, fig. 3); the other, dated 1504, is
in the altarpiece by Benedetto Buglioni in the church of
Santa Maria Assunta in Fabbrica di Peccioli (Gentilini
1992, vol. 2, pp. 396–97, 456).
22. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 492; Casalini 1974, p. 301
note 38.
23. A letter from Sebastiano del Piombo in Rome to
Michelangelo in Florence, on July 15, 1532, indicates that
Montorsoli had already worked with Michelangelo but
that he had not yet arrived in Rome (Poggi 1965, vol. 3,
no. DCCCLXXXI).
August 2 (Setton 1976, vol. 3, pp. 431–32; vol. 4, p. 585).
34. Campori 1873, pp. 317, 332–33.
35. Saint Cosmas: Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 497; Laschke
1993, p. 16. Villa di Castello: Wright 1976, pp. 165–67,
626–31.
36. Alizeri 1870, vol. 5, pp. 327–28.
37. This can be deduced from a record of a lost document in the notes of Pietro Andrei (Archivio di stato
di Massa): an act drawn up by Leonardo Bernoccio on
Dec. 14, 1538: “MDXXXVIII Ind. XI. 14 Decembris
Maestro Giovanni Maria Passallo, lapicida habitator Ianue,
a nome del magnifico Gregorio Pallavicino, genovese,
come da instrumento per mano et cetera riservata [rectius
tamen] scriptura obligationis nuper facta inter magistrum
Jacobum Mariam et dictum Antonio nomine magistri
Fratris Angeli lapicide sculptoris et cetera.”
38. The last reference to Montorsoli’s presence in
Genoa appears in a letter of June 17, 1547, written from
Rome to Cosimo I, where Montorsoli states “ò dato fine
all’opra del Signor principe d’Oria in Genova” (I have
finished the work for Prince Doria in Genoa) (Archivio
di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato, filza 383, c.
25. Sebastiano del Piombo, Rome, to Michelangelo, 63r; published by Gaye 1839, vol. 2, p. 365, no. CCLV;
Florence; Poggi 1965, vol. 4, no. CMXIII: “in opera su Laschke 1993, p. 18).
la figura del Ducca Juliano.” On July 17, Sebastiano had
written that Montorsoli was already at work in the Medici 39. Principi 2014, p. 116.
Chapel; ibid., no. CMX. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, pp. 493–94,
confirms Montorsoli’s work on the figures of the dukes.
40. On the Sansovino-like quality of the Saint James in
Naples, see Manara 1959, p. 25 note 17.
26. Sebastiano del Piombo to Michelangelo, Aug. 16,
1533; Poggi 1965, vol. 4, no. CMXXV.
41. The starting date of the Maffei tomb is established
by a contract of Jan. 21, 1529, between Mario Maffei,
brother of Raffaele and a certain “Johannino da Firenze
27. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 494.
scarpellinus,” identified by D’Amico 1987, pp. 479–82,
as Montorsoli. However, this cannot be a reference to
28. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, pp. 494–95.
Montorsoli, since he assumed the name Giovan Angelo
only on his ordination on Mar. 3, 1532. For example, he is
29. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 495.
called “Angelo dell’Ordine degli Iniesuati” when welcomed
into the Servite order (Casalini 1974, p. 301 note 38). The
30. Laschke 1993, pp. 35, 159.
“Johannino” mentioned in the Maffei contract is more
31. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, pp. 495–96. On the Annunziata likely to be Giovanni di Sandro de’ Rossi da Fiesole, a
sculptures, see Laschke 1993, pp. 34–35, 156, 159, collaborator of Cosini’s (Dalli Regoli and Turchi 1991,
nos. 2, 3.
p. 47; Campigli 2014, pp. 84–85). It is not possible to
say when the commission passed from this Johannino to
Silvio Cosini, but the latter was probably already at work
32. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 496. Laschke 1993, p. 16.
on the tomb in the summer of 1529 (D’Amico 1987, p.
33. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, pp. 496–97. Laschke 1993, p. 52. 482 note 54), and in a letter of Nov. 11, 1531, Cosini is
In late July 1537, Khaireddin Barbarossa landed in Castro, mentioned explicitly. Work must have been concluded
south of Otranto, and news of this reached Rome on shortly after Nov. 13, 1532, when Silvio was engaged
24. Laschke 1993, p. 13. A papal brief from Clement
VII dated July 12, 1533, to the superior general of the
Servites, Girolamo da Lucca, excused Montorsoli from
his monastic vows.
MONTORSOLI’S TERRACOTTA JOHN THE BAPTIST
on the final phase of stuccoes for the tomb. Regarding
Montorsoli’s work on the Maffei tomb, Campigli 2005,
p. 141 note 421, proposed an attribution to Montorsoli
of the third pilaster on the left, a structure that is not
attributable to Cosini, as earlier noted by Del Bravo 1992,
p. 19 note 9.
42. Ciardi et al. 1988: “Un sepolcro per un vescovo,” note
12: Montorsoli seems to be identifiable with the “Agnolo”
paid for twelve days of work at the rate of 16 soldi per
day between Oct. 8 and 15, 1524 (Bardeschi Ciulich and
Barocchi 1970, pp. 150–51, nos. CXLII–CXLIII). This
identification is also suggested by the presence of Cosini
and Francesco del Tadda in the same documents. On
Montorsoli as one of the stonecutters for the workshop
of San Lorenzo, see also Laschke 1993, pp. 12, 23–24;
and Campigli 2006, pp. 101–2.
43. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 492. On Montorsoli’s time
with the Jesuates in Florence, see Laschke 1993, pp. 12–13.
44. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 492: “L’anno poi 1531,
avendo in quel mentre apparato le cerimonie e ufficii di
quell’ordine, e studiato l’opere d’Andrea del Sarto che
sono in quel luogo, fece, come dicono essi, professione;
e l’anno seguente, con piena sodisfazione di quei padri e
contentezza de’ suoi parenti, cantò la sua prima messa con
molta pompa et onore.” On Montorsoli’s interest in Sarto,
see Cherubini 2005, p. 138.
45. On the “gusto pittorico,” see Bode 1892, text vol., pp.
165–66; Ciardi Dupré 1963, p. 30.
46. Vasari 1966, vol. 4, p. 346; Cecchi 1986, pp. 47–50;
Boucher 1991, vol. 1, pp. 3–23, 27–28.
47. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 494: “fece un modello grande di
quella figura, che fu ritocco dal Buonarroto in molte parti:
anzi fece di sua mano Michelagnolo la testa e le braccia di
terra, che sono oggi in Arezzo tenute dal Vasari fra le sue
più care cose, per memoria di tanto uomo.” A letter from
Vasari to Pietro Aretino of July 15, 1535 or 1538, testifies
to the arrival in Venice of a “testa d’uno de gli avocati della
gloriosa casa de i Medici” (Gottschewski 1909; Gilbert
1961, p. 19; Verellen 1979, p. 275), which Vasari had
sent to Aretino. This is probably a copy of the model
made by Michelangelo for one of the saints in the New
Sacristy. Critics have debated whether this is related to
Saint Cosmas or Saint Damian; it is recorded, according
to Gilbert 1961, in a drawing in the Ringling Museum,
Sarasota (SN705), which is attributed to Tintoretto or
Palma il Giovane (Smith 1981; Marciari 2002, pp. 117,
120, figs. 9–10). This drawing would appear to be a copy
of the Michelangelo model sent by Vasari to Aretino.
48. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 494: “E nel vero, o fusse lo
studio e la diligenza di lui, o l’aiuto di Michelagnolo, ella
riuscì poi ottima figura e la migliore che mai facesse il frate
di quante ne lavorò in vita sua; onde fu veramente degna
di essere, dove fu, collocata.”
25
fig. 1
fig. 2
fig. 3
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli,
Hercules and Telephos
Apollo Belvedere (detail of left arm
John the Baptist, 1530s. Terracotta,
(detail of right arm restored by
restored by Montorsoli). Musei
height 130 cm. Currier Museum of Art,
Montorsoli). Musei Vaticani, Rome.
Vaticani, Rome.
Manchester. cat. 8.
27
THE BAPTIST AND MARS
IDENTITY SHIFTS IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE
Kurt Sundstrom
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli’s sculpture of John the Baptist (fig. 1), now in the Currier Museum
of Art, compels our attention both for its invention and its close connection with life in Florence. We know
nothing about its original location or who commissioned it, but the energetic style of the terracotta allows
us to date it to the 1530s, when the artist spent most of his time in Florence. Montorsoli likely made John
the Baptist during one of two extended stays in the city, either between 1530 and 1532, or 1533 and 1539.
Montorsoli entered the Order of the Servites on October 7, 1530, and took up residence in the church of
Santissima Annunziata. He remained in Florence until September 1532, when he departed for Rome on
Michelangelo’s recommendation and at Pope Clement VII’s request. At the Vatican, Montorsoli restored
celebrated ancient statues. At the same time, he assisted Michelangelo on the Tomb of Julius II. In July
1533, Montorsoli returned to Florence, again at the pope’s request, so that he could work with Michelangelo
on the New Sacristy. Montorsoli was assigned the task of carving the marble sculpture of Saint Cosmas.
Clement VII’s death on September 25, 1534, led to Michelangelo’s permanent departure from Florence at
the end of the year, and work on the New Sacristy was left to assistants.1 At the end of 1537 or beginning
of 1538, Montorsoli completed the Saint Cosmas.2 After an extended stay in Genoa, and following a conflict
with the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli in 1547, Montorsoli left Florence for Messina, not returning for any
length of time until after Bandinelli died in 1560.
The stylistic similarities between John the Baptist and Montorsoli’s additions to the ancient sculptures
in the Vatican suggest that they were done in the same period. On the Hercules and Telephos, the restored
section of Hercules’s right arm begins above the elbow, where the seam is clearly visible (fig. 2). The articulation of the veins from the right forearm to the hand in both the Baptist and Hercules has a similar soft
and smooth, fleshy quality. It may be coincidental that the arms fall in similar positions, but the definition
of the musculature and the anatomical precision in the sculptures are
nearly identical.
A tantalizing detail occurs in Montorsoli’s replacement of the left arm
of Apollo Belvedere (fig. 3). Here Montorsoli rendered the grip of the bow
as materially integrated with Apollo’s hand. This is also his design for the
raised arm of John the Baptist, where the closed fist encircles an equivalent
length of the cross shaft, rendered together seamlessly in clay. As far as I
am aware, there is no precedent for this assembly in a sculpture of John the
Baptist. In all sculptures that include a cross, the hand or crux of the arm
is not engaged materially with the shaft, but fashioned separately.
Montorsoli’s formulation may have been based on the work of Antico,
the court sculptor in Mantua, who created a bronze statuette of Apollo
Belvedere around 1498 (fig. 4). Even though Antico created his Apollo
for the Mantua court, his design probably circulated in Rome before
Montorsoli began his restoration of the marble. It may be significant that
Antico and Montorsoli made their Apollo and John the Baptist figures by
modeling wax or clay, rather than carving stone, and in both cases formed
tubular openings within integrated grips to receive separate objects (a bow
for the Apollo and a cross for the Baptist).3
While Montorsoli is not known for working in clay, his John the
Baptist is an important example created during a resurgence of terracotta
that began in the middle of the fifteenth century. Terracotta works
were cheaper to produce, which allowed the middle class to adorn their
homes with works of art. Terracotta was also used to produce veristic
portraits, theatrical religious tableaux, and preparatory studies for larger
fig. 4
Antico, Apollo Belvedere, ca. 1498. Bronze, partly
gilded and silvered, height 41.3 cm. Liebieghaus
Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt. 1286.
28
fig. 5
Michelozzo, John the Baptist,
1452. Terracotta, height
213 cm. Santissima
Annunziata, Florence.
works or works in bronze or marble.4 The costlier media of
marble and bronze were still preferred for large sculptures and
prestigious public commissions. There were exceptions, of course,
one of the most important being the life-size terracotta of John
the Baptist made by Michelozzo around 1452 for the church of
the Annunziata in Florence (fig. 5). Michelozzo’s figure was
an extraordinary technical achievement, unprecedented at the
time, which made clear that terracotta was a viable medium for
monumental, three-dimensional sculptures. This work elevated
the medium’s popularity in Florence.
Although Montorsoli must have walked past Michelozzo’s
sculpture daily, it had little influence on his own image of
John the Baptist, aside from the choice of medium. In fact, the
numerous public representations of the Baptist in Florence have
little in common with Montorsoli’s sculpture. Since depictions
of the Baptist are often closely tied to that city’s social and civic
institutions, it is natural that his visage was adapted according
to location, function, and the political climate at the time a given.
Modifications of standard forms often signal a shift in meaning
that is tied to contemporaneous events.
At the time Montorsoli began shaping his Baptist, the
Florentine Republican government had been under assault by
supporters of the Medici family for more than two decades. After
a long period as Florence’s dominant family, the Medici consolidated their power in 1512, but the Republic
was briefly restored beginning in 1527. Troops of the Holy Roman Empire sacked Rome that year and
imprisoned Pope Clement VII. However, as leader of the Medici family, Clement quickly formed an alliance
with Emperor Charles V to secure the help of the imperial army to restore Medici control of Florence.
It is likely that Montorsoli conceived his sculpture of John the Baptist in response to these fast-moving
political events. The war between Republican Florence and the Holy Roman Empire from 1527 to 1530
proved disastrous for the city’s economy. Florence was besieged by the imperial army, which made obtaining
sustenance difficult. City finances were so strained that in the early months of 1530, the governing body,
the Signoria, passed a resolution that all silver and gold in private hands were to be given to the mint to
pay mercenaries and purchase weapons.5 These dire conditions continued for several years, even after the
city’s capitulation in August 1530. The possibility of acquiring costly materials like marble and bronze
was inconceivable, but clay was readily available, and the expediency of creating a work in terracotta must
have appealed to Montorsoli. Clay allowed the artist to model and fire a sculpture within weeks, thereby
responding to the quickly changing social and political conditions in Florence.6
Civic patrons: John the Baptist and Mars
It is revealing that Montorsoli chose this particular moment to depict John the Baptist, the city’s patron
saint, who was traditionally regarded as the protector of the Florentine Republic. As hope for the restoration of the Republic began to fade with the appointment of Alessandro de’ Medici as duke of Florence
in 1532, images of John the Baptist became less common. The process of moving from a republic to a
hereditary monarchy was slow but inevitable. Later in 1532, the Signoria
was abolished. This body had governed the city since the late thirteenth
century and had been the heart of Florentine life. Its demise represented
the end of the Florentine Republic, which had existed in varying forms since
1115. The most conspicuous declaration of Medici supremacy occurred on
the city’s coin, the florin (fig. 6). According to the Republican Galeotto
Giugni, Duke Alessandro “changed the shape of the coins, and removed
the people’s sign, and in place of it in one part put up his family arms . . .
and in the other where there had been carved the image of the precursor to
Christ, Saint John the Baptist, there he had stamped the image of Saints
fig. 6
Gold florin of the Florentine Republic, ca. 1252–1303. Obverse: John
the Baptist; reverse: lily of Florence. Gold, diameter 1.95 cm. British
Museum, London. 1885,0405.20.
THE BAPTIST AND MARS
Cosmas and Damian, the patron saints of the House of Medici, so that no memory remains of the ancient
republic or of freedom.”7 With the removal of John the Baptist from the florin in 1534, representations of
the saint as the symbol of civic pride begin to wane. The last gasp from the Florentine Republic came in
1537, when the young Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici defeated a rebellion hoping to restore the old republic at
the Battle of Montemurlo.
If Montorsoli created his figure of John the Baptist around 1533, before the complete dismantling
of the historic Florentine Republic the following year, it would be among the last depictions of the city’s
patron saint produced in Florence during the sixteenth century. While political turmoil may account for the
disappearance of the Baptist as a civic symbol, it could also offer an explanation for the unusual rendering
of the terracotta in the Currier Museum, which falls well outside long-established artistic traditions. To
better understand the sculpture, it will be necessary to trace the iconographic development of John the
Baptist and the reasons behind the saint’s appeal to Florentines.
John the Baptist recognized Christ as the Messiah and baptized him, and therefore is often called
the Precursor.8 According to legend, Florence adopted John the Baptist as its patron saint in the fourth
century, when the city converted to Christianity.9 However, his symbolic role in civic and religious life was
not cemented until centuries later. Florence initially also relied on the protection of local saints, such as the
early Christian martyrs Saint Zenobius, the first bishop of Florence, whose relics were housed in its first
cathedral, and Saint Reparata, to whom the cathedral was dedicated. Early Florentine Christians believed
that invoking an indigenous saint would be more efficacious. As Florence rose to economic and artistic
prominence in the thirteenth century, John the Baptist became a more recognizable symbol; regional saints
like Reparata were no longer regarded as appropriate personifications of a mighty city.10
Mars had been the protector of Florence in antiquity, and the selection of John the Baptist to succeed
Mars as the city’s patron saint was logical. Just as Mars was second only to Jupiter, the Baptist was considered the right hand of Christ – the saint and savior often appeared together in depictions of the Holy
Family. John was invoked as the protector of agriculture, as Mars had been, with his feast occurring on the
northern solstice, like the Mars-linked festival that called for a fruitful harvest.11 Both John the Baptist and
Mars were revered for their courage and warlike character. As humanist thought spread through Italy, such
connections between pagan and Christian figures became acceptable.
At the same time, Florence claimed ancestry as an important ancient Roman colony. This assertion was
buttressed by the belief that an ancient temple dedicated to Mars lay beneath the city’s baptistery (in fact, it
was probably built on a tower of the ancient city walls).12 Giovanni Villani, a contemporary of Dante, wrote
that Pope Sylvester reconsecrated the temple of Mars to John the Baptist in the early fourth century.13 An
ancient equestrian statue of Mars on a column was thought to have stood in the middle of the Baptistery.
After it was moved to the Ponte Vecchio, it was swept away in the flood of 1333.14 Dante, in the early
fourteenth century, makes explicit reference to Florence’s ancient bond to Mars:
O hear them round my ruin! I was born
in the city that tore down Mars and raised the Baptist.
On that account the God of War has sworn
Her sorrow shall not end. And were it not
That something of his image still survives
On the bridge across the Arno, some have thought
Those citizens who of their love and pain
Afterwards rebuilt it from the ashes
Left by Attila, would have worked in vain.
Dante, Inferno, 13.142–5015
Giorgio Vasari memorialized this on the ceiling of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio
by depicting the statue of Mars atop a column within the foundation of the Baptistery (fig. 7).
The Baptistery and the statue of Mars on the Ponte Vecchio marked two of the city’s boundaries in the
Middle Ages, and the spirit of Mars as war god never disappeared from the Baptistery. The war carriages
(carracci) that bore the city flags and an altar into battle in Dante’s time were housed in the Baptistery, as
29
were the standards of cities subject to Florence.16 The city’s militias gathered at the Baptistery and the statue
of Mars in times of crisis, as Dante reminds us.
30
Of men who could bear arms there were counted then,
Between Mars and the Baptist, the fifth part
Of what may be mustered there from living men.
Dante, Paradiso, 16.46-4817
Both the pagan god Mars and the biblical John the Baptist were used to champion not only Florence, but
also its Republican government. The relationship between the figures is significant to our understanding
of civic and spiritual life in Florence, and by extension to Montorsoli’s sculpture.
fig. 7
Giorgio Vasari and workshop,
Foundation of Florentia, a Roman
Settlement (detail), 1563–65. Oil
on wood. Salone dei Cinquecento,
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.
Depictions of John the Baptist in Florence
fig. 8
John the Baptist Enters the Wilderness,
ca. 1275–1300. Mosaic. Ceiling of
the Baptistery, Florence.
In the sixteenth century, perhaps no other figure, religious or secular, was laden with more inherent meaning
for Florence than John the Baptist. So ubiquitous was his image that one could barely walk down a street
without seeing the city’s patron saint. Representations of the Baptist in Renaissance Florence varied greatly,
ranging from his birth, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood to his imprisonment, death, and burial.
From Ghiberti to Michelangelo, every major Florentine sculptor took up the subject. From 1252 to 1534,
an image of the Baptist appeared on
all Florentine coins (see fig. 6), which
circulated widely throughout Europe.
John the Baptist featured prominently
in the city’s annual celebrations, and
even today the most important holiday
on the Florentine calendar remains
June 24, the nativity of the saint.
Occasionally, narrative images of the
Baptist referenced the city’s political,
social, religious, economic, and civic
life. Florentine citizens could easily
decipher the particular meanings and
nuances inflected by various artists.
Beginning in the thirteenth
century, images of the young Baptist
were commonly used for inspirational
THE BAPTIST AND MARS
and spiritual instruction in homes, whether elite or modest. While bronze and
marble were the preferred media of the aristocracy, the emerging merchant-class
demand for affordable images helped revive the techniques of terracotta, stucco, and
papier-mâché (cartapesta). Not only were these media less expensive, they could also
be used in combination with molds to produce large numbers of images. Driving the
demand for depictions of the young John the Baptist were the writings of Giovanni
Dominici (ca. 1356–1419), who recommended that parents display images of the
Christ Child and the young John the Baptist as religious and moral examples for
their children (see cat. 1). Born in Florence, Dominici knew well the importance of
John the Baptist to the city. His Regola del governo di cura familiar of 1403 outlined
five rules for the raising of children.18
In public settings, the young Baptist is most often shown at the age when he is
about to enter the wilderness, or is already living there. One of the earliest depictions
in Florence of this scene is on the mosaic ceiling of the Baptistery (fig. 8), where
the saint is shown wearing a camel shirt under a wool garment, holding in one hand
a reed cross and in the other a banner. He strides into the landscape, leaving the
comfort of an open countryside for rough, mountainous terrain spotted by trees.
The landscape forecasts the difficulties he will soon endure. It was in this rugged
environment that the Baptist adopted the austere life of a hermit. This vignette in a
vast mosaic illustrating the Book of Genesis and the lives of innumerable Christian
figures established the prototype for later Florentine images of the Baptist entering
the wilderness (see cat. 2). Influential fifteenth-century examples include a sculpture
by Antonio Rossellino (see p. 97) and paintings by Filippo Lippi in the Palazzo
Medici (1459) and Domenico Ghirlandaio in Santa Maria Novella (fig. 9).
The most visually impressive and technically accomplished representations of the
adult Baptist are the monumental sculptures commissioned to adorn the exteriors
of important economic and ecclesiastical buildings in Florence. The greatest density
of major Baptist imagery occurs, not surprisingly, on the Baptistery, then as now the center of religious life
in Florence. Until 1874, all Catholic citizens of the city were baptized in the Baptistery. On its exterior, a
set of doors and three groups of sculptures recount the life of John the Baptist, while inside a figure of the
saint sits enthroned in the chancel.
Perhaps the most amazing feat of technical skill in the fourteenth century was the production of the
Baptistery’s doors by Andrea Pisano, who depicted scenes from the life of John the Baptist (fig. 10).19
When the massive bronze doors on the south portal were unveiled on the Baptist’s feast day, June 24, 1336,
it was the most expensive art project in Florence’s history. Not only the patron saint of the city, John the
Baptist was also the patron of the Cloth Guild, called the Calimala, which commissioned the work.20
In successive centuries, the Cloth Guild continued to fund images of the Baptist for Florence. Between
1412 and 1416, Lorenzo Ghiberti made an over-life-size statue
of the saint for the exterior of Florence’s economic hub, the
Orsanmichele. More than eight feet tall and made in four pieces, the
figure (fig. 11) was the largest bronze cast since the fall of ancient
Rome. It was also the first bronze since antiquity to be cast using
the lost wax method. The work’s strong ancient references, in style
and in technique, reinforced the claim that Florence and its citizens
were the equals of ancient Rome.
In the early sixteenth century, the Cloth Guild planned
monumental sculptural groups to be placed above the doors of
the Baptistery. Andrea Sansovino’s Baptism of Christ was begun in
1505 (fig. 12), and Giovanfrancesco Rustici’s Preaching of the Baptist
was executed between 1506 and 1511 (fig. 13). Six decades passed
before the third portal group was commissioned for the Baptistery
– Vincenzo Danti’s Beheading of John the Baptist (fig. 14). By then,
after the fall of the Republic and the establishment of Medici rule,
public commissions of representations of John the Baptist were
31
fig. 9
Domenico Ghirlandaio, John the
Baptist in the Wilderness, 1485–90.
Fresco. Cappella Tornabuoni, Santa
Maria Novella, Florence.
fig. 10
fig. 11
Andrea Pisano, Histories of John the Baptist,
Lorenzo Ghiberti. John the Baptist,
1336. Bronze. Museo dell’Opera del
1412–16. Bronze, height 255 cm.
Duomo, Florence. Door from the south
Orsanmichele, Florence.
portal of the Baptistery.
32
fig. 12
Andrea Sansovino, Baptism of Christ,
1505. Marble, height 282 cm and
260 cm. Above the east portal of the
Baptistery, Florence; now in the Museo
dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence.
fig. 13
Giovanfrancesco Rustici,
Preaching of John the Baptist, 1506–11.
Bronze, height 265 cm. Above the
north portal of the Baptistery, Florence;
now in the Museo dell’Opera del
Duomo, Florence.
fig. 14
Vincenzo Danti, Beheading of John the
Baptist, 1569–71. Bronze, height 243 cm.
Above the south portal of the Baptistery,
Florence; now in the Museo dell’Opera
del Duomo, Florence.
THE BAPTIST AND MARS
rare.21 The precise motivation for this exceptional choice, made under the Medici government, is unknown,
but Danti’s sculptural group may allude to the death of the Florentine Republic, for which John the Baptist
stood. In 1569, the very year in which Vincenzo Danti commenced the Beheading of John the Baptist,
Cosimo de’ Medici was created Grand Duke of Tuscany by Pope Pius V. He was no longer merely ruler of
Florence, but a monarch who could claim dominion over a large portion of Italy. It is in this context that
Danti’s massive bronzes were unveiled on the evening prior to the vigil of the feast day of John the Baptist
in 1571.22
33
Andrea del Sarto’s Holy Family with the Young John the Baptist
In painting, the young Baptist most commonly appears in association with the
Virgin and the Christ Child. He is shown about the same age as the Christ Child,
with attributes such as his camel hair garment, banner, reed cross, and wool mantle.
Typically, John gestures toward the cross or the Christ Child. Such images in public
ecclesiastical spaces were intended for devotional purposes. On occasion, private
commissions took liberties with traditional representations.
Artists sometimes employed the image of John the Baptist as an instrument of
propaganda, but always in a pro-Florentine context. An extraordinary example of
such artistic invention is Andrea del Sarto’s painting of the Holy Family (fig. 15), in
which the artist and patron chose to use this standard subject to highlight political
unrest and the social struggles of the day. Andrea del Sarto’s composition was created
shortly after the ouster of the Medici and restoration of the Florentine Republic in
1527. Commissioned by Giovanni Borgherini, an ardent supporter of the Republic,
the painting echoes the political hopes and aspirations of his patron. In a highly
unusual gesture, Christ passes the orb, the symbol of his power over the world, to
John the Baptist – and by extension to the Florentine people.23 The absence of any
reference to an individual ruler or prince is marked. Unfortunately for Borgherini
and other opponents of the Medici, the Republican movement ended not long after,
when Florence was besieged by imperial troops from October 1529 to August 1530. With the capitulation
of the city, Pope Clement VII installed his nephew Alessandro de’ Medici as ruling duke of Florence.
Borgherini was forced to beg for pardon in September 1530, which happened to be the month of the
Andrea del Sarto’s death.
Montorsoli’s John the Baptist
It was while the Florentine Republic was in the final stages of collapse that Montorsoli created his terracotta
sculpture of John the Baptist (fig. 16). Many elements of the work are commonly encountered in other
depictions of the saint: he wears a camel skin, holds a staff with a cross, and gathers his wool overcoat with
his right hand. The similarities end there. He is not baptizing, preaching, or waiting for the executioner’s axe
to drop. He is not an emaciated hermit living in the wilderness; rather, his muscular build and aggressive
posture convey a sense of power. Florentine sculpture before 1530 rarely shows figures striding. The only
time the Baptist ever appears striding is as a child, and in almost every case, whether painted or sculpted,
he is shown moving laterally. Montorsoli’s illusion of breaking into the viewer’s space is unprecedented. And
finally, nowhere in the cannon of John the Baptist imagery is the staff rendered so thickly.24
Montorsoli’s sculpture, then, does not fall within the expansive parameters of John the Baptist iconography. The terracotta does not seem meant to inspire devotion. Is it possible that this determined figure
was not intended for a religious context?
The striding deity
Montorsoli’s John the Baptist stands apart from tradition most dramatically in his heroic, striding posture.
The stance is not a classical contrapposto weight shift, but rather a variation upon the ancient Greek
invention of serpentinata (serpentine form) and rythmos, as seen in the Discobolus. Instead of centering
the figure’s weight on a vertical axis, Montorsoli projects the statue’s bulk beyond its core. This sense of
fig. 15
Andrea del Sarto, The Holy Family with
the Young John the Baptist, ca. 1528–29.
Oil on wood, 135.9 × 100.6 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York. Maria DeWitt Jesup Fund,
1922, 22.75.
34
fig. 16
fig. 17
fig. 18
Montorsoli, John the Baptist, 1530s.
Mars Gradivus. Roman, 2nd century.
Silver Altar from the Baptistery, Florence (1337–1483),
Terracotta. Currier Museum
Marble, height 360 cm. Musei
with the central figure of John the Baptist (1452) by
of Art.
Capitolini, Rome. From the Forum of
Michelozzo. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence.
Nerva, Rome.
unstable weight distribution creates the illusion of forward thrust. The bending of the knees and the staff
supporting the body together enhance this sense of movement. Montorsoli’s figure shares some features of
Jacopo Sansovino’s Saint James (see p. 19) in the activated torso of the upper body, with the left shoulder
pushed forward and the right shoulder twisting back. By comparison, however, the legs of Montorsoli’s
Baptist bend more powerfully and demonstrably advance.
Montorsoli’s striding Baptist derives from ancient representations of Mars Gradivus, or Mars the
Strider, who was an important cult figure in ancient Roman art (fig. 17). The Striding Mars protected
Rome, its citizens, and its soldiers; and according to Livy was one of the gods by whom a general or soldier
might swear an oath.25 More specifically, the conjunction of civic protection and Mars was a well-established
theme in ancient Roman propaganda. As previously noted, in Renaissance Florence the civic protector’s
evolution from Mars to the Baptist was well known, making it possible that Montorsoli deliberately adopted
aspects of the war god’s physique. Given the familiarity of the Baptist’s predecessor, it is also likely that a
Renaissance audience would have recognized the terracotta’s Mars-like features.
During the final years of the Florentine Republic, the Baptist was invoked to propagate a message of
civic unity just as Mars Gradivus had been in ancient Rome. Florence’s militia was reinvigorated during the
imperial siege of the city. The ceremony to induct new militia members took place between the Baptistery
and the Duomo. There, young men swore allegiance to Florence and took up arms. In 1529, the ritual took
place during the Feast of John the Baptist, and the Baptistery’s Silver Altar (fig. 18), with its central figure
of the Baptist by Michelozzo, was moved outside for the oath ceremony.26 The following year, the council
of Florence codified this practice, which continued until 1534.27
Along with his striding posture, Montorsoli’s Baptist further diverges from traditional Florentine
depictions of the saint in the sculpting of the face. Rather than an emaciated hermit, the visage seems to
be a deliberate evocation of a mature ancient warrior. Through the Baptist’s martial expression, powerful
stride, and muscular anatomy, Montorsoli has blended warrior and saint.
The most conspicuous departure from tradition and the strongest reference to Mars in the terracotta is
Montorsoli’s substitution of the simple reed cross with a thick, lance-like instrument. As far as I am aware
there is no iconographic precedent for this. Although we cannot be certain of what the figure originally held
fig. 19
Detail of the left hand of fig. 16.
THE BAPTIST AND MARS
35
fig. 20
fig. 21
Roman, Mars and Rhea Silvia, ca. 230–40 BC.
Silver denarius of Severus Alexander. Rome,
Marble, 125 × 245 cm. Palazzo Mattei, Rome.
232–35. Reverse: “Mars Ultor.” Silver,
diameter 1.9 cm. Currier Museum
of Art.
(the present cross is a replacement), the opening modeled into the terracotta hand of the
figure (fig. 19) makes clear that the shaft was thicker than tradition dictated. The gesture
is even more important: Montorsoli’s figure firmly grips the instrument as though he were
holding a weapon such as a lance or a pike. This contrasts starkly with earlier representations
of the Baptist where a thin reed cross might lean against his arm or be gently held.
The Baptist’s gesture as crafted by Montorsoli directly recalls figures of Mars from
ancient Rome.28 The feature can be seen in the sculpture of Mars Gradivus, although it
has lost both the top and lower part of the spear, and on a sarcophagus of Mars and Rhea
Silvia from the third century (fig. 20). The gesture can also be seen on Roman coins, which
could be found everywhere in Italy. A denarius minted in the reign of Severus Alexander
(222–35) shows Mars holding a spear in the same manner (fig. 21). Andrea Mantegna
included exactly this type of figure in his painting of Parnassus made for Isabella d’Este in
1497 (Musée du Louvre, Paris).
This blurring of past and present helped to make emphatic the relationship between
Renaissance Florence and the ancient Roman Republic. It is very likely that Montorsoli’s
Baptist/Mars was intended to stir pro-Republican citizens toward reclaiming the city’s
glorious past. Montorsoli’s contribution to the dual nature of John the Baptist by tapping
ancient representations of Mars (which reminded viewers of the saint’s ancient precursor as
city patron) reflects the new historical insightfulness of Renaissance art.
The role of John the Baptist as symbol of the Florentine Republic was quickly suppressed
by the new Medici regime under Duke Cosimo I as the Palazzo Vecchio was remade to
celebrate the new regime. Before the Medici dukes came to power, the palazzo had celebrated the Florentine Republic, but the subsequent transformation of the building was so
comprehensive that within a few decades, the only major wall painting to survive the Medici
ascendancy was the fresco in the Sala dei Gigli by Domenico Ghirlandaio.29 This room
had been used to greet important dignitaries, and was the most suitable site to celebrate
the virtues of Republican government. Donatello’s marble David (now in the Bargello) was
fig. 22
Benedetto da Maiano, Doorway in the Sala dei
Gigli with John the Baptist, ca. 1478–80. Palazzo
Vecchio, Florence.
36
fig. 23
fig. 24
fig. 25
Giorgio Vasari, Duke Alessandro
Giorgio Vasari, Duke Cosimo I
Francesco Salviati, Mars, 1543–45. Fresco.
de’ Medici as Mars, 1555–62.
de’ Medici as Augustus, 1555–62.
Sala delle Udienze, Palazzo Vecchio,
Fresco. Sala di Leone X,
Fresco. Sala di Leone X,
Florence.
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.
installed there in 1416. Sixty years later, the Signoria purchased Andrea del Verrocchio’s bronze David from
Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici, and installed it a few feet from Donatello’s statue. In 1476, Benedetto
da Maiano was asked to fashion a doorway between the Sala dei Gigli and the Sala delle Udienze (fig. 22).
Atop the portal facing the Sala dei Gigli, Benedetto placed his marble sculpture of John the Baptist.
When Duke Cosimo I took up residence in the Palazzo Vecchio, a new artistic program was devised to
suppress Republican imagery and celebrate Medici rule.30 Strikingly, a fresco by Giorgio Vasari begun in
1555 in the Sala di Leone X depicts Alessandro de’ Medici, the first Medici duke of Florence, in the guise
of Mars (fig. 23). Like Montorsoli’s sculpture of John the Baptist, Duke Alessandro grasps a lance in a
commanding gesture. This image is adjacent to Vasari’s full-length portrait of Duke Cosimo himself (fig.
24), which also includes references to Mars. Depicted on the shield to Cosimo’s right is the sign of Capricorn,
long associated with Mars and the Emperor Augustus. Marzocco the lion, one of the oldest symbols of
the Florentine Republic, can be seen literally bowing at the feet of the duke. In this audacious painting, the
Medici usurped the traditional symbols of Florence to support the family’s claims to hereditary rule in the
manner of the ancient Roman emperors.
In the midst of all these changes undertaken in the mid-sixteenth century, Benedetto da Maiano’s John
the Baptist was left in place. But even this image did not survive unaltered, for its context had shifted. In a
stunning effort to dilute John the Baptist’s Republican connotations, the Medici commissioned Francesco
Salviati to paint a large figure of Mars in the adjacent room (fig. 25). The new work was positioned so that
it could be clearly seen through the doorway under the statue of John the Baptist. Salviati’s fresco co-opted
an image of Republican government in exaltation of Duke Cosimo I. The Medici propagandists were also
keen to draw parallels between the duke and Augustus, since both rulers took power from republican
forms of government. Cosimo I claimed Florence by declaring himself the new Augustus, a claim literally
embodied in Vincenzo Danti’s marble portrait of the duke in the guise of Augustus, made around 1572
for the facade of the Uffizi (fig. 26).31
37
fig. 26
Vincenzo Danti, Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici as
Augustus, ca. 1572. Marble, height 280 cm.
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
fig. 27
Michelangelo, Apollo-David, 1530–34.
Marble, height 147 cm. Museo
Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
Ancient rulers had long appropriated characteristics of gods into their portraits to legitimize their
authority. Danti’s statue of Cosimo I as Emperor Augustus would have reminded Florentines of similar
statues of Roman emperors, and even of Christlike depictions of religious figures such as Saint Francis,
who was actively promoted as another Christ (alter Christus). These images remind us that Montorsoli’s
incorporation of pagan features into a sculpture of John the Baptist is not without precedent.
Michelangelo’s hybrid figure of Apollo/David
While Montorsoli was making his terracotta Baptist/Mars, his teacher Michelangelo was creating his own
fused figure. In 1530 and 1534, Michelangelo began work on a marble sculpture (fig. 27) for Baccio Valori,
but left it unfinished in 1534. Giorgio Vasari in 1550 identified it as “Apollo drawing an arrow from his
quiver,” while the 1553 inventory of the Medici collection called it an “incomplete David.”32
Scholars have generally argued that the sculpture either represents David or Apollo.33 A roughly defined
rectangle on the figure’s back resembles a quiver, while the mound beneath the right foot could be the head
of Goliath (or the python killed by Apollo). The right hand reaching over the shoulder might be drawing
an arrow, but it also resembles the pose of Michelangelo’s earlier David who holds his slingshot in a similar
way. Another suggestion is that the sculpture was in the process of being transformed from an Apollo into
a David, and that the confusion has arisen only because the work was not finished.34 These views seem at
odds with the Renaissance’s delight in hybridity – in adding ancient references to religious subjects – and
Michelangelo’s own interest in unfinished sculpture as worthy of appreciation. It is not unreasonable to
consider that the multiplicity of the figure was intentional, especially since Apollo and David share many
features, including their physical type.
Moreover, the sculpture might echo the opposing political views of the artist and patron. Michelangelo
fervently supported the Republican cause, even designing fortifications for the defense of Florence against
38
fig. 28
Florentine Arch for the Triumphal Entry of
Prince Philip into Antwerp, 1549. Print from
Grapheus 1550.
fig. 29
Bartolomeo Ammannati, Mars Gradivus,
1559. Bronze, height 215 cm, Galleria
degli Uffizi, Florence.
Medici forces. On the other hand, Baccio Valori supported the Medici, who installed him as the city’s governor in 1530. Valori’s support wavered, however, and he later joined the Republican rebellion, which was
soundly defeated in 1537 at the Battle of Montemurlo. Valori was executed and Duke Cosimo took possession of Michelangelo’s unfinished sculpture. Even if we are uncertain of its precise identity, Michelangelo’s
figure certainly combines aspects of both David and Apollo, just as Montorsoli’s Baptist blends its subject
with references to Mars, and Andrea del Sarto’s John the Baptist (cat. 5) incorporates attributes of Bacchus.
The Baptist vanquishes Mars
A triumphal decoration from 1549 is the only known instance in which Mars and John the Baptist appeared
together in the same sculpture. Florentine citizens in Antwerp erected a temporary triumphal arch to
celebrate the entry of Prince Philip, later King Philip II. Curiously, the arch made minimal reference to
the Holy Roman Empire, the protector of both Florence and Antwerp. The figure on top of the arch is
described as a carved golden statue of John the Baptist standing over Mars, “whom Florence once held as
an idol, with a temple dedicated to him, and in the place of Mars they adopted St. John the Baptist as their
patron.”35 The image of the patron saint of Florence subjugating their former pagan god is most unusual.
The published illustration of the triumphal arch only shows the Baptist holding a lamb, while just to the
right Marzocco holds the Florentine standard (fig. 28). This image of John the Baptist triumphant was
intended for non-Florentine audiences, who would have been most familiar with the saint as the symbol of
Florence. Nonetheless, as the sixteenth century progressed under Medici rule, it was Mars who prevailed
over John the Baptist in Florence.
THE BAPTIST AND MARS
39
fig. 30
Giambologna, Mars Gradivus, ca. 1580.
Bronze, height 39.5 cm. Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
The Medici dukes of Florence continued to commission major works representing Mars for political
self-aggrandizement. Among the most celebrated are the monumental Striding Mars of 1583 by Bartolomeo
Ammannati (fig. 29) and Giambologna’s bronze statuette of the same subject, known in several casts from
around 1580 (fig. 30). In these works, Mars, with his inherent references to ancient Rome, became a vehicle
for celebrating the princely power of the Medici.
The evolving political landscape in sixteenth-century Florence, culminating in the overthrow of the
Florentine Republic, profoundly influenced art of the time. Montorsoli’s John the Baptist was made around
1533 at the moment when the Medici consolidated their authority. The image can be regarded as an
assertion of the traditional power of the Republic, which could trace its descent from the ancient Roman
Republic. In addition, the sculpture evoked the golden age of Florence, which gave rise to the sculptural
decoration of important civic buildings like the Baptistery and Orsanmichele – fruits of the city’s wealth
and might. The fusing of two symbols of Florence – the pagan Mars and the Christian Baptist – into a
single sculpture is a remarkable gesture brought about by political circumstances. Montorsoli’s sculpture
thus embodies a duality of identity that can often be found in Renaissance art. The quiet resolve of the
Baptist is combined with the military might of Mars. The pagan god is no longer an idolatrous threat to
the Christian faith, but a reminder of Florence’s ancient glory. That Montorsoli’s Republican advocacy was
in the end unsuccessful gives the work its own pathos, especially as such heroic figures of John the Baptist
had no successors.
40
1. In a letter to Febo dated December 1534, Chronica de origine civitatis florentiae regarding the city’s
Michelangelo says that he intends to leave Florence the foundation (see Chellini 2009 and Pina 2014). Literary
following day. Parker 2014, p. 71.
evidence suggests that Pope Nicholas II, a Florentine,
consecrated the structure, which was dedicated to John
the Baptist and known as the Chiesa di San Giovanni, on
2. Laschke 1993, pp. 31–33, 149, 156.
November 6, 1059; major construction ended in 1128.
3. Antico’s Apollo Belvedere is known in three versions. Modern excavations have shown that the Baptistery may
He also used the same method to attach a separately cast have been built on the remains of a Roman guard tower
bow in his Cupid (Bargello), probably made by 1496 as or another Roman building (Toker 1976). Archaeological
a wedding gift to Isabella d’Este (Washington and New evidence suggests that there were two churches before the
York 2011, pp. 7, 191). It is possible that Montorsoli saw building of Santa Reparata, the earliest from around 780.
Giovanni Battista Bregno’s monument to Benedict Pesaro, Santa Reparata was replaced with the present Duomo in
for which Baccio da Montelupo provided the marble 1412 (see Verdon et al. 2000, p. 25).
statues of Neptune and Mars (1503), located on the wall
leading to the sacristy of the Basilica of the Frari. It had a 13. Nuova cronica, 2.23; Villani 1991.
similar type of tubular opening to attach an object. Mars’s
hand is fashioned to accommodate a shield or pike in the 14. When Florence adopted Christianity, the equestrian
same manner as Antico’s Apollo and Cupid. Montorsoli statue of Mars was moved to a tower along the Arno.
would again chose this method of attachment with his When Totila (Dante mistakenly writes Attila) destroyed
sculpture of the Apostle Paul (1558–62) in Santa Maria Florence in 542, the tower and statue fell into the Arno. It
dei Servi, Bologna.
was believed that the only way for Florence to rebuild was
to retrieve and repair the statue. Once done, it was placed
on the Ponte Vecchio.
4. Houston and London 2001, pp. 1–31.
15. Translation by Ciardi 2003, p. 109. The original
reads:
raccoglietele al piè del tristo cesto.
6. X-ray fluorescence testing by Mary Kate Donais has
I’ fui de la città che nel Batista
detected traces of gesso, which suggests that the sculpture
mutò ’l primo padrone; ond’ ei per questo
was originally painted white in imitation of marble, or
possibly a color to mimic bronze. No traces of polychrome
sempre con l’arte sua la farà trista;
have been detected. Most polychromed sculptures do not
e se non fosse che ’n sul passo d’Arno
have deeply incised pupils like Montorsoli’s Baptist, but
rimane ancor di lui alcuna vista,
instead have flat surfaces that can be easily painted. See
further under cat. 8.
que’ cittadin che poi la rifondarno
sovra ’l cener che d’Attila rimase,
7. Quoted in Robey 2013, p. 19 note 69.
avrebber fatto lavorare indarno.
8. Voraigne 1993, vol. 1, pp. 331–32.
16. Trexler 1991, pp. 75–78.
9. It is likely the transformation occurred shortly after
313, when Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as 17. Ciardi 2003, p. 733.
Tutti color ch’a quel tempo eran ivi
the Roman Empire’s official religion.
da poter arme tra Marte e ’l Batista,
eran il quinto di quei ch’or son vivi.
10. Chretien 1994, p. 23, believes that the waning of
Zenobius and Reparata was because they were associated
with feudal lords and thus not suitable for the emerging 18. Dominici 1860, p. 131.
Republic.
19. One set of doors and three groups of sculptures
recount the life of John the Baptist on the exterior of
11. Chretien 1994, p. 21.
the Baptistery. Inside, John sits enthroned in the chancel
12. The earliest octagonal baptistery, which predates opposite the Virgin and Child, and below Christ.
the cathedral dedicated to Saint Reparata, dates from
the late 4th to early 5th century (Villani, Nuova cronica, 20. The Opera di San Giovanni, the entity appointed to
1.60; Villani 1991). Both Villani and Dante relied on the maintain the Baptistery, came under the direction of the
5.
Cropper 1997, p. 40.
THE BAPTIST AND MARS
Arte di Calimala, the guild of cloth finishers, sometime
between 1157 and 1193. It was common practice to unveil
major civic commissions on John the Baptist’s feast day.
21. Vasari tells us that the three 14th-century groups
previously installed above the doors were removed from
the Baptistery at the beginning of the 16th century (Vasari
1966, vol. 5, p. 477). Levin 2005, pp. 218–19, interprets
this to mean that the refurbishment of all three portals
was planned from the outset by the Cloth Guild.
una solenne messa, alla quale elle si trovasse.) Donato
Giannotti was secretary of the Council of Ten and leader
of the short-lived Republic in 1527. For Giannotti’s plea
for the introduction of a city militia, see “Discorso di
armare la città di Firenze, fatto dinanzi ai magnifici signori
e Gonfaloniere di giustizia l’anno 1529” in Giannotti 1974,
pp. 167–80.
28. Kleiner 1981.
29. Rubinstein 1987, p. 29.
22. The Cloth Guild meeting on December 3, 1506,
describes the original three statues that would be replaced
by Rustici as “awkward and badly made . . . so abraded that
in some parts they have begun to fall to ruin” (Levin 2005,
p. 205). The sculptures by Andrea Sansovino and Rustici
replaced Tino di Camaino’s versions of the same subjects,
and there is reason to believe that a comparable replacement was also intended for the sculptures representing the
Theological Virtues over the third portal (ca. 1321–23).
That plan was amended in the 1560s, when Danti was
commissioned to represent the subject of the Beheading
of John the Baptist instead.
23. Gilbert 1977.
30. Sarah Dillon has questioned whether Benedetto
da Maiano’s John the Baptist was originally installed over
the door in the Sala dei Gigli; it is documented in the
Palazzo Vecchio in the 16th century (Dillon 2018). For
a discussion of the Palazzo Vecchio before the fall of the
Republican government, see Rubinstein 1995, pp. 47–79.
For connections to antiquity: Rubinstein 1987. Around
1549, when the court moved to the Pitti Palace, the
Palazzo della Signoria was renamed the Palazzo Vecchio.
31. Dimitrios Zikos in Florence 2008, pp. 312–15.
32. Vasari 1966, vol. 6, pp. 62, 63. Also Varchi 1564,
pp. 28–29 [as Apollo].
24. Although the staff is not original to the sculpture, it
conforms to the diameter of the terracotta section of the 33. Surveyed in Bambach 2017, pp. 180–86.
shaft in the Baptist’s hand. The left hand has broken off
just above the wrist; this clean break has been repaired. 34. Bambach 2017, pp. 180, 183.
X-ray fluorescence testing by Mary Kate Donais shows
that the clay composition of the hand is consistent with 35. Grapheus 1550.
the rest of the sculpture. This indicates that the repair was
made with original pieces of the hand, and it is therefore
largely original in design. See cat. 8.
25. Livy, History of Rome, book 2, chapter 45: “He
invoked the wrath of Father Jupiter and Mars Gradivus
and other deities if he broke his oath. The whole army
took the oath, man by man, after him.” Also book 2,
chapter 46. See Titus Livius, History of Rome, translation by Rev. Canon Roberts (New York, 1912); online:
www.perseus.tufts.edu.
26. See Cropper 1997, p. 44.
27. Donato Giannotti suggests the following procedure:
“I would like this ceremony to be one in the following
way. In the feast days of John the Baptist, on a certain
designated day, the Signoria should have a solemn mass
sung in Santa Reparata, at which they should be present.”
(Questa cerimonia vorrei si facesse in questo modo. Ne’
giorni della festa di San Giovanni, vorrei che la Signroia,
in uno giorno deputato, faciessi cantare in Santa Reparata
41
fig. 1
Apollo Belvedere. Roman copy of a Hellenistic bronze.
Marble, height 224 cm. Musei Vaticani. Photograph by
James Anderson, 1850s.
43
COPIES, RESTORATIONS, AND CARICATURES
MONTORSOLI AT THE VATICAN
Alan Chong
The discovery of several nearly complete ancient sculptures around 1500 created a sensation
in the art world. Giorgio Vasari credited them with changing the course of art history by inspiring the
so-called “modern manner,” that is, the High Renaissance of Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian. The
Laocoon, Apollo Belvedere, Hercules, Belvedere Torso, Venus, and Cleopatra, “through their sweetness and
roughness, with their corporality drawn from the greatest beauties of nature,” banished the earlier “dry,
crude, and harsh manner.”1
In 1532, Pope Clement VII asked Michelangelo to recommend a young artist who could restore the
ancient sculptures gathered in the Vatican’s Belvedere Court. Michelangelo suggested Giovan Angelo
Montorsoli, his assistant on the not-yet-complete Medici Tombs in the church of San Lorenzo, Florence,
and the tomb of Julius II. Between September 1532 and July 1533 Montorsoli restored the most celebrated
of the ancient discoveries – the Apollo Belvedere (fig. 1) and the Laocoon – and “in addition gave directions
for restoring the Hercules.”2 Because Montorsoli’s reconstructions were in place until the mid-twentieth
century, these gestures exerted great influence on artists and connoisseurs for more than four hundred years.
Since the critical histories of these sculptures have been comprehensively examined,3 it might be useful to
reconsider their early restorations, which have been confused by a number of false connections. We will
also consider the process of copying, emulating, and parodying ancient art.
Apollo Belvedere
A Roman copy of a Hellenistic bronze, the Apollo Belvedere was discovered in 1489 and acquired by
Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II.4 Engravings by Agostino Veneziano and
Marcantonio Raimondi (figs. 2, 3) show that the statue as found was missing its left forearm as well as
the right hand, which seems to hover above the stump around which the python coils.5 In 1508, the statue
was moved into the Vatican and three years later raised onto a plinth, as shown by Raimondi.6
The first three-dimensional reimagining of the Apollo is Antico’s elegant bronze (see p. 27), the earliest
Renaissance sculpture to recreate an ancient marble. Antico made his model when he was in Rome in
1497 and cast the bronze for the Mantua court. We know this because Antico’s model was actually stolen
the following year and there was fear that unauthorized bronzes would be made from it, testimony to
the prestige of both the Apollo and the Renaissance court artist.7 Antico’s version generally anticipates
Montorsoli’s restoration of 1532 to 1533 (figs. 1, 4), especially the left hand holding the truncated bow.
fig. 2
Agostino Veneziano, Apollo Belvedere,
ca. 1518. Engraving,
26.9 × 16.9 cm. British Museum,
London. 1840,0808.12.
fig. 3
Marcantonio Raimondi, Apollo Belvedere,
1511–20. Engraving. cat. 19.
fig. 4
Hendrick Goltzius, Apollo Belvedere,
ca. 1593. Engraving. cat. 20.
44
fig. 6
Hercules and Telephos. Roman copy
of a 4th-century bc Greek bronze.
Marble, height 212 cm. Musei
Vaticani, Rome.
fig. 7
Netherlandish, Sketches of Roman
Antiquities (detail), mid-16th
century. Pen and ink over black
chalk on paper, ca. 15.3 × 22.5
cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
RP-T-1935-43-3(V).
fig. 5
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Apollo and
Daphne, 1625. Marble. Galleria
Borghese, Rome. Photograph by James
Anderson, 1850s.
Montorsoli more freely interpreted the right hand of Apollo, where the outwardly flexed wrist and long
fingers give the figure an exaggerated grace that would characterize it for the next four centuries.8 With this
addition, Montorsoli effeminized the Apollo by echoing the drapery and the god’s frothy curls of hair. That
no attempt was made to restore the entire bow reduced the figure’s role as a hunter. Montorsoli’s gesture
would be almost directly copied by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in his Apollo and Daphne of 1625 (fig. 5).
Hercules
When the sculpture of Hercules holding his infant son Telephos (fig. 6) was discovered in Rome in 1507,
most of the right arm and club were missing, as can be seen in two sketches in a mid-sixteenth-century
Netherlandish album based on an earlier source (fig. 7).9 Vasari says that Montorsoli only directed the
restoration of the Hercules, but there seems no reason to doubt that Montorsoli carved the powerfully
muscled arm that was attached to the figure. Strongly indebted to Michelangelo, the limb has also close
affinities with the right arm of Montorsoli’s John the Baptist, made shortly afterward. Montorsoli did not
restore the full club and the left hands of father and son; these elements were added much later and have
recently been removed.10
From its discovery through the eighteenth century, the statue was known as Emperor Commodus in
the guise of Hercules. For example, Hendrick Goltzius’s print (fig. 8) identifies the subject as Hercules
(in Greek) and additionally as the Commodus (Comodus Imperator). However, we now know that the
sculpture has no connection with the famously megalomanical emperor, which has greatly diminished
its fame. The identity of the infant also proved elusive to Renaissance viewers.11 The lines by Theodor
Schrevelius on Goltzius’s engraving call him Telemon, and even J. J. Winkelmann in the eighteenth century
thought the boy was Ajax.
Around the time Montorsoli was at work on the Apollo and Laocoon, a fragmentary river god was
moved into the Belvedere (fig. 9).12 The missing head and arms were added to create a representation of
the Arno River, in recognition of the reigning Medici pope, Clement VII. Carved into the vase is the lion
Marzocco, a symbol of Florence. Although it has been suggested that Montorsoli restored the sculpture,
the head of the figure is unlike Montorsoli’s work, which suggests that another skilled sculptor, perhaps
Baccio Bandinelli, was employed by the Vatican to restore antiquities.13 The Vatican river god relates to the
ephemeral figure of Arno that Montorsoli created for Charles V’s triumphal entry into Florence in 1536.
Placed on the Ponte Santa Trinità, the figure rested one arm on the lion of Florence.14 Whether ancient or
ephemeral, these river gods paved the way for Montorsoli’s four river gods that ring the Fountain of Orion
in Messina, begun in 1547 (fig. 10).15
COPIES, RESTORATIONS, AND CARICATURES
45
fig. 8
fig. 9
Hendrick Goltzius, Hercules and Telephos,
River God (Arno). Roman, 2nd
ca. 1593. Engraving. cat. 21.
century; head: 16th century. Marble.
Musei Vaticani, Rome.
fig. 10
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli, River God
Tiber (from the Fountain of Orion,
Messina), 1547–53. Print from
Hittorff 1835, pl. 26.
Laocoon
On a visit to the Vatican in 1523, a Venetian ambassador compared the great ancient works on display, and
wrote that the Apollo was praiseworthy, “but the excellence of the Laocoon makes one forget [the Venus]
and the Apollo, which was once so much celebrated.”16 This surprising comment comes just fifteen years
after the Apollo had been installed in the Belvedere, and while it commanded considerable attention from
the Renaissance to the eighteenth century, its reputation inexorably declined. The elegant figure is now out
of fashion, while the agony and anguish of the Laocoon group continues to fascinate modern observers,
in the same way Munch’s Scream does.17 A recent suggestion that the almost-too-convenient discovery of
the perfectly preserved Laocoon was an elaborate hoax by Michelangelo is another of the highly personal
responses that have burdened the work’s perception.18 However, our taste for aggression, anxiety, and
instability is not always historically appropriate, as John Shearman has reminded us.19 While the discovery
and critical reception of the Laocoon have been thoroughly explored, the immediate historical context of
the restoration of the sculpture is worth reexamining.20
The ancient marble representing Laocoon and his sons was unearthed in Rome in 1506. Summoned to
view the discovery, Michelangelo and the architect Giuliano da Sangallo instantly recognized it as the work
Pliny the Elder had called “superior to all the pictures and bronzes in the world.” The sculpture was acquired
by Pope Julius II and installed in the Vatican Belvedere – an act which can be regarded as the foundation
of one of the world’s oldest museums.21 The depiction of the Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons struggling
in agony against the “wonderful clasping coil of snakes” (Pliny) is based on book two of Virgil’s Aeneid, as
Homer does not mention Laocoon.22 A priest of Neptune, Laocoon attempted to expose the Trojan horse
as a Greek trick but Minerva sent sea serpents to kill him and his sons to prevent his doing so.
More than providing a formal inspiration for Renaissance artists, the Laocoon’s emotional power
suggested that art had a poetic force entirely independent of any text. The critic Ludovico Dolce, writing
in 1557, found the ancient sculpture so compelling that he thought it might be considered the source
of Virgil’s moving description rather than the other way around: “Even Virgil in describing his Laocoon
46
fig. 11
Giovanni Antonio da Brescia, Laocoon,
1506–11. Engraving, 28.3 × 25 cm.
British Museum, London.
1845,0825.707. Signed: IO AN BX.
fig. 12
Marco Dente, Laocoon, ca. 1515–23.
Engraving, 47.7 × 32. 8 cm. Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston. P1331. See cat. 22.
followed the way he had previously seen him depicted in the statue . . . which is still to be seen in Rome
today. And it happens interchangeably that painters often take their inventions from poets, and poets from
painters.”23 Dolce is not suggesting that the marble literally served as Virgil’s source, but that it could stand
equal to poetry.
When the Laocoon was originally discovered, each of the figures was missing an arm, as seen in a print
by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia (fig. 11), which also shows the sculpture on the ground before it was
placed on a plinth in 1511 (fig. 12).24 Even at this early stage, the work was interpreted, since the three
figures have been aligned as though on a picture plane, highlighted against a background – very likely at
odds with its original concept as a pyramidal sculpture meant to be viewed from three sides, as Seymour
Howard has argued.25 The Laocoon, from the moment of its discovery, was viewed pictorially, a feature
further emphasized by its placement in a niche and by later restorations. In short, an ancient sculpture
was transformed into a Renaissance painting, which is all the more remarkable given the early role played
by Michelangelo and Sangallo, a sculptor and an architect.
A copying contest
According to Vasari, Giuliano da Sangallo (who was present at the work’s excavation) invited the young
sculptor Jacopo Sansovino to work at the Vatican, where his sketches and models after ancient sculpture
were noticed by the celebrated architect Donato Bramante.26 A kind of competition was arranged for
four sculptors to make large wax copies of the Laocoon, with the winning version to be cast in bronze.
Besides Sansovino, the participants were Zaccaria Zacchi da Volterra (see cat. 26), Alonso Berruguete,
and Domenico Aimo. Judged the winner by no less a personality than Raphael, Sansovino’s wax was cast in
bronze and presented to Cardinal Domenico Grimani of Venice. Vasari also states that Sansovino restored
ancient sculptures, which greatly impressed Julius II. The contest probably took place in 1510, when all
the participants were in Rome, that is, within a few years of the Laocoon’s discovery.27 Like all good stories,
Vasari’s has a point beyond the specifics of the competition. It shows that Sansovino’s precocious talent was
endorsed by Sangallo, Bramante, Raphael, and the pope, while the bronze Laocoon introduces Sansovino to
Venice, where he would spend the bulk of his career. Moreover, the test to produce accurate copies echoes
ancient artistic contests – Pliny’s humorous tales of Parrhasios painting a curtain so realistic that it fooled
Zeuxis, or of Apelles besting Protogenes in a line-drawing contest, come to mind.
The desire to find Sansovino’s copy of the Laocoon has proved fatally attractive.28 A red chalk drawing of
Laocoon has also been attributed to Sansovino (see fig. 18), but there are no securely identifiable drawings
by the artist nor does this sheet relate to his sculptures.
Raphael and his printmakers
Raphael judged the contest among the four sculptors copying the Laocoon, but is not otherwise normally
associated with the restoration of the ancient sculptures in the Vatican. Nonetheless, the Apollo and the
Laocoon played significant roles in Raphael’s circle.
COPIES, RESTORATIONS, AND CARICATURES
Raphael operated a workshop of printmakers, including Marcantonio Raimondi, Marco Dente, and
Agostino Veneziano, who produced engravings after his drawings.29 Raphael even had a manager, Baviero
de’ Carrocci, who kept the engraved plates and controlled the printed output. The workings of this cottage
industry seem to predict modern notions of originality, collaboration, copyright, and profit. In this view,
Raphael emerges as a kind of Renaissance Warhol. The fact that the engravers sometimes produced almost
identical replicas of some images suggests that unauthorized copies were sold surreptitiously.30
It has been more difficult to account for the prints after ancient sculpture, since there are no drawings
by Raphael connected with the engravings of Agostino, Raimondi, and Dente (figs. 2, 3, 12).31 Were they
independent works that afforded the printmakers some meager profit outside the Raphael workshop, or
were they also ordered by the master? One strong indication that some of these prints were produced under
Raphael or Baviera is the existence of a very precise replica by Raimondi of his own print of the Apollo
Belvedere (fig. 3), in the fashion of other replica prints after Raphael. None of the prints of the first plate
show wear, nor are there any meaningful variations in the second image, but the inscription on the latter
version begins with the initial letter of “Sic” in reverse, almost as a kind of inside joke. Agostino Veneziano
also produced two closely related engravings of the Apollo Belvedere
and Raimondi made two prints of the Apollo Kitharodos.32
The prints after ancient sculpture are not typical reproductive
prints in that they do not diffuse the invention of another living
artist; even if these prints were based on drawings, the role of the
intermediary is completely obscure: the inscriptions only identify
the ancient work and the modern printmaker. There has been
a tendency to see the prints after the Laocoon and the Apollo as
documents of their condition, restoration, and placement, but
in fact the images are interpretive.33 Marco Dente’s print of the
Laocoon (fig. 12), for example, suggests some of the excitement of
its discovery amidst the ruins of Rome. The location is clearly not
the Vatican, where the sculpture had been since 1506. Set against
a crumbling wall decorated with egg-and-dart molding, and overgrown with foliage, the Laocoon is seen unrestored, embellished
only by the plinth’s inscription, which never existed in reality. It
is significant that Dente employed a similar setting for another
episode from Virgil’s Aeneid, the boxing match between Entellus
and Dares (fig. 13), which incorporates a view of the Colosseum.34
Dares, a young Trojan, fought the Sicilian fighter Entellus during
games commemorating the death of Aeneas’s father, Anchises
(Aeneid, 5). These images of Laocoon and Dares are reminders
that the Trojans were the legendery founders of Rome.
Dente produced another remarkable print of Laocoon and his
sons (fig. 14), not a depiction of the sculpture but an imagining
of the narrative in an extensive landscape. At the left, an altar is
aflame in front of the temple of Minerva; a domed building is
perched on the hill. Laocoon and his sons are already entangled
by serpents sent by Minerva, as another pair advances from the
sea. The triangle of figures on a stone altar echoes the ancient
marble, but Laocoon’s gesture more immediately derives from an
illustration in a fifth-century manuscript of Virgil that belonged
to the humanist Pietro Bembo.35 The manuscript also shows temples on the left with an altar. The print’s
design is very likely by Raphael, because of the imaginative composition and the musculature of the bodies,
which can be compared to drawings by Raphael and his circle.36
In contrast to Dente’s print of the Laocoon sculpture, which shows ancient ruins in decay, the second
print envisions a nearly untouched past. It has been suggested that the inscription “ossa” (bones) on the
stone fragment directly in front of the figures is a metaphor for the revivification of the ancient world
through the printer’s art.37
47
fig. 13
Marco Dente, Entellus and
Dares Boxing, ca. 1520.
Engraving, 31 × 26.3 cm.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
RP-P-OB-35.970.
fig. 14
Marco Dente, The Death of Laocoon
and His Sons, ca. 1520. Engraving,
26.4 × 38.7 cm, Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam. RP-P-OB-35.984.
48
fig. 15
Raphael, Young John the Baptist in the
Wilderness, ca. 1516–17.
Oil on canvas, 165 × 147 cm.
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
fig. 16
Baccio Bandinelli, Laocoon,
1520–25. Marble. Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence.
Laocoon as the Baptist
A painting by Raphael from around 1517 (fig. 15) combines aspects of the Laocoon and the Apollo
Belvedere in a representation of the young John the Baptist in the wilderness, wearing a leopard skin, an
attribute of Bacchus that Leonardo da Vinci also depicted (see pp. 109–10).38 The ancient sources have
been significantly modified, but the diagonal gesture upward completes the missing arm of the ancient
Laocoon – a restoration in paint. The figure reappears in a different setting in a chiaroscuro woodcut
attributed to Niccolò Boldrini.39
Bandinelli’s copy as restoration
In early 1520, the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli recreated the missing arm of the Laocoon, as Vasari reports:
Baccio made a large example in wax, which so resembled the muscles and the force and manner of
the ancient work, and harmonized with it so well, that it showed how much Baccio understood art:
and this model served him for making the whole arm of his own work.40
Although the wax arm was not attached to the original marble, Bandinelli was commissioned to produce
a full-scale copy of the group for Leo X to present to King Francis I of France, who had initially requested
the real sculpture.41 The pope’s death in late 1521 delayed the project, but Bandinelli’s completed marble
was sent to Florence in 1525. The arm as reconstructed by Bandinelli (fig. 16) reaches up to grasp a tightly
knotted snake that curls around the upper arm. In the end, the king of France received neither the original
Laocoon nor Bandinelli’s version, and only in 1540 did the French court manage to produce its own bronze
copies of the Vatican antiquities.
When offered the commission to carve a Laocoon, Bandinelli claimed “that not only would he equal
it, his spirit was sufficient to surpass it in perfection.”42 Such arrogance contrasts with Vasari’s account of
Sansovino’s work, which was accompanied by no boasting and whose excellence was proven in competition
and the judgment of senior artists. The Venetian ambassador to the Vatican had the chance to compare
the Laocoon with parts of Bandinelli’s copy, and offered a harsh assessment: “the master, even if he lived
five hundred years and made a hundred versions, could never equal the original.”43 These sentiments were
echoed by Michelangelo, who when asked about an artist who copied celebrated marble sculptures, “the
imitator boasting that he had far surpassed the ancients, Michelangelo replied, ‘One who follows behind
others can never surpass them, and one who cannot do good work of his own cannot make good use of the
work of others.’”44 Everyone knew that Michelangelo was talking about Bandinelli, and Benvenuto Cellini
also wrote that the jealous and greedy Bandinelli had “merely made a copy of the Laocoon.”45
49
fig. 17
Laocoon. Photograph by James
Anderson, ca. 1850s. The arm is based
on Montorsoli’s restoration of 1532–33.
fig. 18
Il Sodoma, Laocoon. Red chalk on paper,
33.5 × 22 cm. Gabinetto Disegni e
The idea of improving on antiquity recurs in another restoration project. Cellini was greatly taken by
an ancient fragment that showed “beauty, strength of intelligence, and rare style.” Duke Cosimo I allowed
Cellini to transform this torso into a figure of Ganymede (now in the Bargello) with the addition of an
elegant raised arm reminiscent of the Laocoon. Bandinelli, in contrast, saw the ancient torso as evidence
that “these ancients knew nothing about anatomy and therefore all their works are full of errors,” an opinion
that accords with Bandinelli’s claim to have improved the Laocoon.46 With comments like these, Bandinelli
emerges as the great villain of Renaissance art, at least according to sixteenth-century observers who report
that he cut up Michelangelo’s cartoon of the Battle of Cascina to prevent it from being seen by others,
disfigured Michelangelo’s sculptures, and conspired to destroy one of Montorsoli’s most important works.
Montorsoli’s Laocoon
Montorsoli’s solution (fig. 17) is significantly different from Bandinelli’s arm, which bends upward, perpendicular to the ground. Montorsoli’s arm stretches diagonally outward – a gesture more heroic, as though
it were a last, desperate attempt to survive. This gesture echoes the angle of Laocoon’s left leg, giving the
figure a kind of symmetry. Montorsoli’s hand turns toward the viewer so that the fingers are visible, while
the snake runs parallel to the arm, but does not wrap around it. It almost functions as a piece of drapery in
outlining and emphasizing the gesture. This, too, is a radically different concept from Bandinelli’s, where the
tightly knotted snake curls around Laocoon’s bicep. Montorsoli’s arm seems to be overcoming the serpent,
where Bandinelli’s entwined limb is being bent by the beast. In short, Montorsoli’s Laocoon is winning,
while Bandinelli’s is losing.
A drawing of the figure of Laocoon (fig. 18) shows the right arm complete, the gesture somewhere
between the solutions of Bandinelli and Montorsoli. The position of the hand, with the palm facing the
viewer, is identical to Montorsoli’s solution, whereas Bandinelli carved the thumb pointing forward. The
drawing’s attribution is uncertain: it has sometimes been associated with Jacopo Sansovino, although there
is no evidence that he reconstructed the arm. The drawing is more likely by Il Sodoma, who worked in
the Vatican between 1508 and 1510 and returned to Rome in 1516.47 Sodoma worked alongside Raphael
at the Vatican and the Villa Farnesina, and the drawing, like Raphael’s John the Baptist, demonstrates that
reconstructions of the outstretched arm of Laocoon circulated well before Montorsoli began his own
restoration.
Montorsoli’s replacement arm in terracotta was remade in marble between 1725 and 1727. In 1905,
Ludwig Pollak discovered the original ancient arm not far from where the Laocoon had originally been excavated. He presented the fragment to the Vatican, which waited more than a half century before reattaching
it in 1959 (fig. 19). The original arm bends behind Laocoon’s head in an arrangement more compact
Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence. 14535F.
50
fig. 20
The marble arm fitted to the Laocoon.
Photograph of 1959.
fig. 19
Laocoon. Marble, height 242 cm. Musei
Vaticani, Rome. Present state of
the sculpture.
and less dramatic than the gestures imagined by Bandinelli and Montorsoli. Now somewhat forgotten,
Pollak was a Czech dealer and connoisseur who settled in Rome and sold ancient sculpture to museums
in Europe and the United States.48 He also collected versions of the Laocoon, including two terracottas
now in Princeton (cat. 24). Tragically, he and his family were arrested by Nazi officials in 1943, and he
died at Auschwitz.
Montorsoli’s Laocoon, for that is what it was, exercised a tremendous hold on artists for four centuries,
from 1533 when the exultant arm was added, until the original arm was reattached in the mid-twentieth
century. It was Montorsoli’s valiant gesture that so struck J. J. Winkelmann and Gottwald Lessing, as well
as innumerable painters and sculptors. It is worth considering whether Montorsoli’s arm was a vulgar
misreading of the ancient work or a minor Renaissance inflection of the original.49 For Kenneth Clark,
Montorsoli “introduced a new kind of oratorical language” in his restoration of the ancient marble.50
The spirit of Michelangelo hovers over the restoration of the Laocoon, but his exact role has been clouded
by later legends. Vasari simply reports that Michelangelo recommended that his assistant Montorsoli
restore the Vatican antiquities. While the Laocoon played a major role in Michelangelo’s work, the Belvedere
Torso was perhaps even more influential. Giovan Paolo Lomazzo, writing in 1584 after the sculptor’s death,
commented that Michelangelo “had a belief that nothing could ever be added to the beauty of the Belvedere
Torso . . . which he constantly followed.”51 This is sometimes interpreted as a reluctance on Michelangelo’s
part to restore ancient sculpture in any way, but this seems an exaggeration.52 Michelangelo after all made a
recommendation for the restoration of the Apollo and Laocoon, which were more or less complete sculptures
compared with the Belvedere Torso. In the taste of the time, they seemed to demand full refurbishment.
The figure of Saint Cosmas (see p. 8) in the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo reflects the Laocoon in the
aged anxiety and thrown-back position of the head. The marble was carved by Montorsoli soon after his
work on the Vatican antiquities, but Michelangelo’s supervision of the figure suggests that it was equally
Michelangelo’s interpretation of the Laocoon. Montorsoli made a full-scale model of the whole figure of
the saint, which Michelangelo then retouched in many parts, according to Vasari.53 And it is significant
that Michelangelo himself made terracotta models of the head and the arms, which Vasari later acquired.
COPIES, RESTORATIONS, AND CARICATURES
False connections: A mysterious arm
In 1540, Primaticcio made molds of eight ancient sculptures in the Vatican in order to produce bronzes
for Francis I. After having been promised antiquities by two earlier popes, this was the king’s best chance
of obtaining major works of ancient art, although in facsimile. Five of the bronzes survive at Fontainebleau,
including copies of the three works restored by Montorsoli.54 Primaticcio’s replicas of the Apollo Belvedere
and the Hercules and Telephos include Montorsoli’s additions, but that of the Laocoon does not. Not only is
Laocoon’s right arm missing, but the arms of the two sons are also omitted. Perhaps these additions were
temporarily removed in order to produce the mold, or Primaticcio decided not to include the restorations
for aesthetic reasons.55 However, it is unlikely that Montorsoli’s arm was permanently removed in 1540.
Preserved in the Vatican is a roughly carved marble right arm with an L-shaped protrusion that slots
into the shoulder of the Laocoon, as was demonstrated in 1957 (fig. 20).56 Jonathan Richardson the
Younger first noted the arm in 1720, when he wrote that it had been left unfinished by Michelangelo,57 a
seductive attribution that survived for several centuries.58 Over time, the arm has also been attributed to
Montorsoli and Bandinelli.59 However, aside from being unfinished, the arm bears no stylistic connection
to Michelangelo nor does it resemble Montorsoli’s restoration; and while the bend of the elbow and the
coiled snakes are somewhat similar to Bandinelli’s version in the Uffizi, there are also significant differences.
In sum, the marble arm is so roughly finished that it is impossible to assign it to a particular artist or even
to an approximate date. It would seem unwise to use this mysterious arm as evidence for Michelangelo’s
ideas about restoring antiquities.
Indeed the question arises whether the mysterious marble arm has any connection to the Renaissance
whatsoever. It may well have been made in the early eighteenth century when the Vatican’s antiquities
were being rearranged and restored.60 For example, in 1725, Agostino Cornacchini (1686–1754) was
commissioned to make a new marble arm for the Laocoon to replace the old terracotta one, which Jonathan
Richardson had found “not good Work, and moreover of a Colour Disagreeable.”61 Cornacchini’s marble
arm (see fig. 17), which replicated Montorsoli’s concept, remained on the Laocoon until 1959 (with a brief
gap when the sculpture was taken to Paris). Therefore, it is possible that Cornacchini may also have been
involved with the extra marble arm, perhaps made as an alternative to Montorsoli’s limb. The slot in the
Laocoon could have been cut at that time rather than in the sixteenth century. In the event, the new arm
actually attached in 1725 reflected Montorsoli’s concept of the 1530s.
False connections: Drawings incorrectly attributed to Montorsoli
Several drawings of the Laocoon have been assigned to Montorsoli, including a sketch of the head of
Laocoon on the wall of a chamber under the New Sacristy (fig. 21).62 The mural drawings in this room
have been attributed to Michelangelo, not without controversy. The head of Laocoon certainly provided
inspiration to Michelangelo and Montorsoli for the head of Saint Cosmas, as we have seen. As a result,
some experts who reject Michelangelo’s authorship of the drawings in the New Sacristy basement have
suggested Montorsoli as an alternative.63 It is nearly impossible to attribute wall drawings on the basis of
comparison to works on paper, which are made with different materials and on an entirely different scale.
Nor are the basement drawings by a single artist. The one convincing wall drawing by Michelangelo (Villa
Michelangiolo, Settignano) shows no more than a generic similarity with any of the New Sacristy works,
and there are no secure mural drawings by Montorsoli.64
A two-sided drawing of the Laocoon (fig. 22) has been interpreted as Montorsoli’s preliminary studies
for the restoration of the sculpture. The position of the father’s right arm is somewhere between the
solutions of Bandinelli and Montorsoli. The sheet appeared at auction in 1987 as by Montorsoli, an
attribution then advocated by Arnold Nesselrath.65 The inscriptions on the drawing were also believed to
match the handwriting on a drawing by Montorsoli for the seal of the Accademia del disegno.66 This theory
has been refuted by Birgit Laschke and Ludovico Rebaudo, who pointed out that the proposed restoration
of the son’s arm would be impossible to achieve in reality.67
It may be helpful to ask what function the drawing might have served. Significantly, the Laocoon was not
drawn as interlocking three-dimensional elements, but as isolated figural studies. The cautiously outlined
and shaded figures lack the robust sense of a sculpture, and are unlike any of Montorsoli’s drawings. The
notations of breaks and of material are too vague for a sculptor, but may be useful reminders for a painter.
In short, the rather tentative and inexpert drawings appear to date from later in the sixteenth century.68
51
fig. 21
Italian, Head of Laocoon. Wall
drawing. Basement of the New
Sacristy, San Lorenzo, Florence.
52
fig. 22
Italian, Study of the Laocoon, late 16th
century. Black chalk on paper,
40.4 × 29 cm. Musée Calvet, Avignon.
996-7-705.
Bandinelli’s destruction of Montorsoli’s marble
In 1538, Montorsoli prepared a model of Hercules wrestling
Antaeus for the new gardens being planned at the Medici
Villa di Castello.69 With Duke Cosimo’s approval, Montorsoli
began work on the marble. But as he was completing the work,
Montorsoli came into conflict with Baccio Bandinelli, who
“used all possible effort against him” (con ogni sforzo pontava
contro a colui), according to Vasari. Through gossip and
intrigue, Bandinelli managed to seize Montorsoli’s statue to
cut up into decorative panels for Giovanni dalle Bande Nere’s
monument – perhaps out of jealousy that Montorsoli would
achieve success in Florence.70 Montorsoli was so angered by
this that he refused to return to Florence, where he would
have to encounter Bandinelli’s “presumption, arrogance, and
insolence.”71
After Montorsoli’s Hercules and Antaeus was destroyed,
the project was assigned to Vincenzo Danti, who attempted
three times to cast the group in bronze, without success.
Finally, twenty years after Montorsoli’s efforts, Bartolomeo
Ammannati produced a monumental bronze that was
installed in the garden (fig. 23), which preserves the setting
of Montorsoli’s lost sculpture.72 Another trace of the lost
work of 1538 might survive in a small sketch attributed to
Niccolò Tribolo, who was in change of the overall design of
the gardens at Castello (fig. 24).73 It is difficult to judge how
much of this concept can be credited to Montorsoli, but the arrangement of the figures differs significantly
from Ammannati’s. Hercules wears a draped lion skin, his attribute, and Antaeus lifts his right arm high in
a last effort to survive. Antaeus’s gesture is strikingly similar to Laocoon’s arm, created by Montorsoli just
a few years earlier. The arrangement of the lion skin and the compact arrangement of the two figures are
appropriate for a monumental marble, which would require the additional support that a bronze would not.
It is likely that the small pen sketch reflects Montorsoli’s destroyed marble and its echoes of the Laocoon.
fig. 24
Niccolò Tribolo (attributed to), Hercules and
Antaeus, ca. 1538. Pen and brown ink on paper,
6.4 × 4.4 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.
1944.
fig. 23
Fountain at Villa di Castello, with
the bronze Hercules and Antaeus by
Bartolomeo Ammannati. Photograph
by Brogi, 1890s.
COPIES, RESTORATIONS, AND CARICATURES
Caricatures of the Laocoon
By the 1540s, the Laocoon had become a cultural obsession – a too-famous work that had been praised,
copied, restored, and emulated. This naturally gave rise to caricatures and parodies. One, made in Venice
around 1540, turns the exalted ancient Laocoon into three apes holding the same pose (fig. 25). The
woodcut is attributed to Niccolò Boldrini working from a design by Titian. H. W. Janson interpreted
the print as a complex parody of ancient science.74 The sixteenth-century scientist Andreas Vesalius had
argued that the ancient surgeon Galen had based his treatise on dissected apes rather than dissected human
bodies. David Rosand and Michelangelo Muraro rightly rejected this reading as unnecessarily obscure and
suggested instead that the print compares art and nature.75
However, this woodcut seems to be about a specific work of art: the ancient Laocoon. Its figures have
been replaced by apes, but the composition and even the emotional content remain completely recognizable.
Indeed, Carlo Ridolfi in 1648 described the print as a frivolity (un gentil pensiero) “of three seated Barbary
apes, entwined by snakes, in the guise of Laocoon and the sons, located in the Belvedere in Rome.”76 This
fulfills the basic requirement of a caricature – the humorous exaggeration of the familiar, in this case, one
of the most exalted and over-exposed cultural creations. Moreover, Ridolfi reminds us that the image must
not be taken too seriously. Prints after the Laocoon circulated in Venice, while Jacopo Sansovino, the city’s
premiere sculptor and architect, had made one of the first copies of the sculpture, which was displayed in
the city’s Council of Ten.77
The setting is also critical to the understanding of the print, as it is nearly identical to the landscapes
produced in Venice in the early sixteenth century, seen in the paintings of Giorgione and Titian, and the
prints of Giulio Campagnola.78 This pastoral setting must have been deliberately chosen to represent the
art of Venice, which strongly suggests that modern Venetian art is being compared with ancient sculpture.
Is it too much to imagine that the shaggy apes allude to the exuberant brushwork of Venetian painting?
The apes could not be more different from the hard, smooth surfaces of the marble bodies of Laocoon and
his sons. All good caricatures contain some element of self-parody, and Boldrini’s woodcut technique might
be seen as a contrast with the fine linear engravings of Dente and Raimondi in their copies of the Laocoon.
On the other hand, it is difficult to believe that Boldrini’s woodcut represents Titian’s mockery of
Michelangelo, as has been suggested.79 The Laocoon was not exclusively associated with Michelangelo,
and there is no proof that Titian designed the woodcut, since the first attribution comes a century after it
was made.80
fig. 25
Niccolò Boldrini, Caricature of the
Laocoon, 1540s. Woodcut, 26.8 ×
40.3 cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
RP-P-OB-30.979.
53
54
fig. 26
Hans Schenck, Antipapal Allegory
(reverse of a portrait of Hans Klur),
1546. Stone, diameter 9.8 cm.
Bode-Museum, Berlin.
fig. 27
Gian Jacopo Caraglio after Rosso Fiorentino, Desiccated Anatomical
Figure Astride a Monster, 1524. Engraving, 24.9 × 18.2 cm (image).
British Museum, London. H,7.32.
Dating from around the same time is a radically different appropriation of the Laocoon. A German
medal design of 1546 uses the motif in a remarkable exercise in anti-papal propaganda (fig. 26).81 A
Laocoonesque bearded old man bears the features of Pope Paul III; he rides on a serpent while a figure
to the left defecates into the papal tiara. The inscription can be translated as “The son of corruption now
reveals himself as beyond all godly things, whom Our Lord Jesus will kill by his breath.” This strident
Reformation image by Hans Schenck uses a familiar sculpture closely associated with the Vatican to attack
the papacy, which had convened the Council of Trent the year before the medal was made.
Rosso Fiorentino: Apollo and Laocoon, anatomy and art
A more distant but equally bizarre derivation of the Laocoon is Rosso Fiorentino’s image of a screeching
figure astride a roaring monster, his raised arm entwined with a snake (fig. 27).82 Significantly, the figure
is just as dependent on the Apollo Belvedere, which has similarly positioned arms and even a stump to
support the right hand. The original poem printed with Gian Jacopo Caraglio’s engraving expresses the
horror and anguish from the figure’s point of view: “With fearful eyes I hide and withdraw.”83 Vasari calls
this a “desiccated anatomical figure” (figura di notomia secca), which explicitly connects the image to the
scientific study of cadavers.84 Artists like Michelangelo, Montorsoli, and Cosini were reported to have
dissected corpses in the name of art. Sixteenth-century anatomical prints show dissected bodies with
contorted limbs and exaggerated gestures close to the pose of Rosso’s figure, a parallel already seen in the
artist’s Allegory of Death and Fame of 1518.85 Because the figure is hardly recognizable as derived from
the Laocoon (unlike Boldrini’s woodcut or Schenck’s medal), it cannot be a parody or a caricature, which
depend on a familiar reference.86
The helpless figure (he lacks a penis) might be a kind of self-portrait, since Rosso Fiorentino had just
lost an important commission in 1524 and, even more career-damaging, had been accused of attacking
Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling. Rosso was forced to write an apology to Michelangelo in which he praised
the ceiling as “divinely made.”87 Untraditional images, like self-portraits, are often self-reflexive, and the best
interpretation of the print’s tone and poetic gloss is that the figure is consumed by an obsessive passion
for his art.88 The subtle references to ancient sculpture are overwhelmed by the comic fear of the principal
figure, a self-mocking tone that accords with Rosso’s personal circumstances.
COPIES, RESTORATIONS, AND CARICATURES
55
fig. 28
Vincenzo de’ Rossi, Laocoon and His Sons,
ca. 1570. Marble. W. Apolloni, Rome.
Adapting the Laocoon
Reverberations of the Laocoon were felt throughout the sixteenth century. Silvio Cosini borrowed the
pose for Neptune’s outstretched arm in a relief on the Jacopo Sannazaro monument in Naples, and for his
Flaying of Marsyas (cat. 27). Sculptural versions of the subject include Vincenzo de’ Rossi’s marble carved
in the 1570s (fig. 28), which gives the two sons greater prominence within a pyramidal composition.89
The result, if somewhat awkward, is a work meant to be seen from multiple sides. Rossi has Laocoon
grasp the serpent’s head in his upraised arm – a gesture more defiant than Montorsoli’s. In contrast to
Rossi’s expansive composition is the highly condensed rendering by Adriaen de Vries (Nationalmuseum,
Stockholm). His bronze of 1623 positions the three figures at different heights to create a tightly spiraling
composition.90
The composition of a father and son centered around an altar had an obvious parallel with depictions
of the Sacrifice of Isaac. Artists borrowed freely from the Laocoon for this subject, as seen in a drawing by
Il Sodoma and paintings by Andrea del Sarto and Titian.91 A century later, Giuseppe Piamontini returned
to a Laocoon-like composition for his bronze version of the Sacrifice of Isaac.92
Montorsoli’s John the Baptist in the Currier Museum of Art taps into the artist’s experience as restorer
of ancient works. The unprecedented type of his Baptist is closer to the striding ancient warriors than to
the gaunt hermit or delicate adolescent of earlier Renaissance representations. The musculature evident
in the terracotta, especially the right arm and hand, resemble Michelangelo’s work as well as the restored
Hercules and Telephos. The head of the Baptist is older and more intense than earlier images of the saint:
the anguished features of Laocoon may have been a critical influence. Finally, the pose of Montorsoli’s
Baptist resembles the Apollo Belvedere, although it has been given greater force and forward movement.
The opposing types of the Apollo and the Laocoon, which played oversize roles in the Cinquecento, come
together in Montorsoli’s work. If they had not been discovered, they would have had to be invented. And
in some very important ways – through their restorations, innumerable copies, and infinite variations –
they were.
Appendix: Montorsoli’s lost portrait of Clement VII
56
The quest to identify works described in the various sixteenth-century accounts of the Laocoon has often
led to mistaken identities, as we have seen. Vasari reports that Clement VII went daily to the Belvedere
courtyard for recreation and prayer, so Montorsoli, who was then restoring the Laocoon and the Apollo,
was able to carve the pope’s portrait in marble.93 The result brought Montorsoli much praise and the pope
conceived a “very great affection for him” because Montorsoli drew all night in order to have new things to
show him each morning. In her admirable monograph on Montorsoli, Birgit Laschke suggested an identification of the lost bust of Clement VII on the basis of a nineteenth-century photograph (fig. 29).94 In fact,
the bust had appeared at auction in 1988 as possibly a portrait of Cardinal Federico Cesi (1500–1565).95
Around 1890, the bust had been photographed in the Palazzo Cesi, Rome, when it was called a bust
of a Cardinal Cesi by Michelangelo.96 If the attribution was wishful thinking, the identity of the sitter
reflected family tradition, as confirmed by a medal of Federico Cesi made by Gianfederico Bonzagna in
1561 (fig. 30), which shows the same profile.97 The nineteenth-century photographs of the bust clearly
show that this medal was affixed to the front of the base, which provides further proof for the identification.
Close inspection of the marble bust (now in the Arp Museum, Remagen, on loan from the Rau Collection
as Montorsoli’s portrait of Clement VII), demonstrates that it is neither by Montorsoli nor a depiction of
Clement VII, whose distinctive profile is absent in the marble.98 Montorsoli’s bust of the pope remains lost.
Charles Davis published a posthumous bust of Federico Cesi made in 1577 by Leonardo Sormano
for the Cesi family pantheon in the family palace northeast of Rome.99 Sormano’s marble may have been
based on the earlier bust.
The brothers Federico and Paolo Cesi owned one of the most magnificent Renaissance gardens
adorned with ancient sculpture.100 In 1537, Federico inherited the garden from his brother and
expanded its holdings. Situated just southwest of Saint Peter’s Basilica, it was depicted by Hendrik van
Cleve (National Gallery, Prague) and described by Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1550. Federico Cesi was also
a patron of Michelangelo, who designed a painting of the Annunciation for him (Santa Maria della
Pace, Rome).
fig. 29
fig. 30
Italian, Portrait of Cardinal Federico Cesi,
Gianfederico Bonzagna, Medal of
ca. 1560. Marble, height 65.5 cm.
Cardinal Federico Cesi, 1561. Bronze,
Photograph by Romualdo Moscioni,
diameter 3.5 cm. Private collection.
ca. 1890. The bust is now in the
Rau Collection, on loan to the Arp
Museum, Remagen.
COPIES, RESTORATIONS, AND CARICATURES
1. From the introduction to part three of the Lives of the sculptor’s work, including the papal monuments in
the Artists; Vasari 1966 (eds. 1550 and 1568), vol. 4, pp. 7, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome.
8.
14. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 496. Additional details in Frey
2. Vasari 1966 (ed. 1568), vol. 5, p. 493: “e diede ordine 1923, pp. 52–62, 70–72.
di racconciare l’Hercole similmente.” On Montorsoli’s
restorations, see Laschke 1993, pp. 25–30; Laschke 1998; 15. ffolliott 1984, pp. 11–14. This remains the best
Rebaudo 2007.
analysis of the Messina fountains, with careful attention
to the triumphal imagery: pp. 73–138, 163–78. See also
3. Brummer 1970; Haskell and Penny 1981; Bober and Laschke 1993, p. 37.
Rubinstein 2010. The literature on the Laocoon is vast and
varied, as seen below.
16. Albèri 1846, p. 116: “ma l’ eccelenza del Laocoonte fa
dimenticar questa [Venus] e l’ Apollo, che per lo innanzi
era tanto celebrato.”
4. Fusco and Corti 2006, pp. 52–56.
5. Agostino’s engraving: Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 27, no. 17. For example, Richter 1992; Loh 2011. Kenneth
Clark in his introduction to the television series
328; Mantua and Vienna 1999, p. 199.
Civilisation of 1969, used the Apollo Belvedere as an exam6. For the history of the sculpture in the early 16th ple of old-fashioned high-brow taste.
century see: Brummer 1970, pp. 44–71; Bober and
Rubinstein 2010, pp. 76–77; Winner 1998a; Bloemacher 18. Catterson 2005.
2016, pp. 72–76.
19. Shearman 1967, p. 15.
7. Washington and New York 2011, p. 7. In 1498,
Ludovico Gonzaga complained that Antico’s model of the 20. For the work’s history in the Renaissance, see espeApollo Belvedere had been stolen to make unauthorized cially Rebaudo 2007; also Brummer 1970. On its critical
casts.
history: Haskell and Penny 1981; Settis 1999; Rome
2006.
8. The tree trunk needed to be raised slightly to support
the new hand.
21. See discussion in Rome 2006.
9. From the so-called Marten de Vos sketchbook 22. The priest is named in Greek Λαοκόων or Laokoōn.
consisting of twelve drawings from around the 1560s Virgil’s Latin is Laocoon.
based on various earlier sources. Brummer 1970, p. 133;
Boon 1978, no. 615: folio 3 verso [perhaps by a Haarlem 23. Roskill 2000, pp. 168–69.
artist].
24. Print by Brescia: Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 24, no. 15;
10. See Haskell and Penny 1981, p. 188, repr.
Zucker 1984, p. 352 [as ca. 1520]; Gramaccini and Meier
2009, p. 138. A drawing inscribed 1508 on the verso
11. Brummer 1970, pp. 133–37; Haskell and also shows the sculpture on the ground (Kunstmuseum,
Penny 1981, pp. 188–89; Bober and Rubinstein 2010, Dusseldorf ); Winner 1974, pp. 100–102; Rome 2006, pp.
pp. 131–32.
125–26. For the date of the plinth, see Rome 2006, p. 127,
which correctly dismisses any close relationship between
the Dusseldorf drawing and Brescia’s print, since they are
12. Rubinstein 1998, pp. 280–81.
seen from slightly different angles.
13. Möseneder 1979, p. 79, gives the restoration of
the River God/Arno to Montorsoli. Collareta 1985 25. Howard 1959; Howard 1989; Brilliant 2000, pp.
suggests that a model by Michelangelo might be the 64–66.
basis of the head. The Montorsoli attribution was argued
by Rubinstein 1998. Laschke 1993, p. 30, rejected the 26. Vasari 1966, vol. 6, p. 178.
attribution to Montorsoli, noting significant differences
with the handling of the head of Saint Cosmas. Lorenzo 27. The evidence for the date is considered in detail by
Principi (conversation July 2018) suggests that the head Mozzati 2007, pp. 569–70. Shearman 1977, pp. 136–37,
may be by Baccio Bandinelli, based on comparison with had dated the competition to 1507 or 1508. We should
57
58
remember, of course, that all four participants may not 36. A. Gnann in Mantua and Vienna 1999, p. 120.
have been together at the same time, and that Vasari may
not have have been entirely accurate.
37. Viljoen 2001.
28. The bronze belonging to Cardinal Domenico
Grimani is independently documented; Boucher 1991, vol.
2, p. 361. Grimani seems to have been fascinated with the
Laocoon as he commissioned Moderno’s silver plaquette
of the Flagellation of Christ (Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna), which is derived in part from Laocoon’s pose (see
p. 153). Another bronze attributed to Sansovino was in
the collection of Cosimo I in 1553, and this is sometimes
identified with a bronze in the Bargello (inv. 427), which
lacks the right arm; Boucher 1991, vol. 2, pp. 314–15,
fig. 21. See also Boucher 1991, vol. 1, pp. 9–10; vol. 2,
pp. 361–62 [as tentatively attributed]. Another bronze, in
the Victoria and Albert Museum, has also been attributed
to Sansovino: Rome 2006, pp. 137–38, no. 24.
29. Landau and Parshall 1994, pp. 120–46. Since then,
a torrent of studies have considered the implications of
the print workshop around Raphael: Viljoen 2001; Pon
2004; Witcombe 2008; Gramaccini and Meier 2009;
Bloemacher 2016; and in a broader context, Mantua and
Vienna 1999.
30. Landau and Parshall 1994, p. 146. They note that
there is no indication that the first plates were worn and
needed to be replaced, especially since it would be easier to
re-engrave the original plate; this refutes Shoemaker 1981,
p. 11 (recently repeated without discussion in Chicago et
al. 2005, p. 77).
38. Oberhuber 1999, p. 252, no. 153. The painting,
which was in the Tribuna of the Uffizi by 1584, has also
been attributed to the workshop of Raphael or to Giulio
Romano; see Florence 1984, p. 222.
39. The example of the woodcut in the British Museum,
London (1874,0808.187) is exceptional for its careful
highlighting in gold. The print is attributed to Niccolò
Boldrini, from the middle of the 16th century, by:
Gnann 2013, no. 182; Gnann 2014, pp. 164, 171, 216;
N. Takahatake in Los Angeles 2018, p. 209 note 5.
Attributed to Ugo da Carpi: Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 48, p.
108, no. 18; Carpi 2009, no. 17.
40. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 246: “Restaurò ancora l’antico
Laoconte del braccio destro, il quale essendo tronco e
non trovandosi, Baccio ne fece uno di cera grande che
corrispondeva co’ muscoli e con la fierezza e maniera
all’antico, e con lui s’univa di sorte, che mostrò quanto
Baccio intendeva dell’arte: e questo modello gli servì a fare
l’intero braccio al suo.”
41. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 246; Waldman 2004, pp.
55–57, 69. Bandinelli made a wax model and a full-scale
drawing of his Laocoon.
42. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 246: “Baccio rispose che,
nonché farne un pari, gli bastava l’animo di passare quello
di perfezzione.”
31. There is a drawing by Raphael or his circle of the
Apollo Belvedere which is similar but not identical to the 43. Albèri 1846, p. 116; Waldman 2004, p. 69: “e già
print by Agostino Veneziano: Mantua and Vienna 1999, sono fatti li putti, che sono lì in una camera; ma il maestro,
nos. 29a, 132, 133.
se anche vivesse cinquecento anni, e ne avesse fatti cento,
non potria mai far cosa eguale.”
32. Agostino: In addition to fig. 1, there is a version in
reverse in a niche also signed “A.V.”; Illustrated Bartsch, 44. Vasari 1966, vol. 6, p. 118: “Domandato da uno
vol. 27, no. 329. Raimondi made two engravings, one in amico suo quel che gli paresse d’uno che aveva contrafatto
reverse, of Apollo Kitharodos (Bartsch nos. 332, 333); di marmo figure antiche delle più celebrate, vantandosi lo
and Apollo with a harp from the School of Athens (Bartsch immitatore che di gran lunga aveva superato gli antichi,
nos. 334, 335). See Bloemacher 2016, pp. 72–77, 268–83. rispose: ‘Chi va dietro a altri, mai non Ii passa innanzi; e
chi non sa far bene da sé, non può servirsi bene delle cose
33. This idea is developed by Norberto Gramaccini in d’altri.’” Lavin 1998, p. 198.
Gramaccini and Meier 2009, pp. 22–31.
45. Benedetto Varchi even mentioned the episode in
his funeral oration for Michelangelo in 1564, when he
34. Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 26, no. 195.
specifically said that the copy was of the Laocoon; Varchi
35. Brummer 1970, pp. 115–17; Viljoen 2001. For the 1564, p. 39. For Cellini: Settis 1999, p. 224.
Virgil manuscript in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano,
Rome, see Wright 1993.
46. Cellini 1901, p. 352: “bellezza, et di virtù di intelligientia, et di rara maniera”; and “Sapiate che questi antichi
COPIES, RESTORATIONS, AND CARICATURES
non intendevano niente la notomia, et per questo le opere and the attached arm. Paolo Liverani in Rome 2006, p.
loro sono tutte piene di errori.” On the disagreements 180, rightly questions the validity of this conclusion and
between Cellini and Bandinelli, see Vossilla 1997.
suggests the cut and slots could have been made much
later. Barkan 1999, p. 11, comments on Michelangelo’s
47. Attributed to Sansovino by Middeldorf 1932, pp. supposed mutilation of the Laocoon.
242–45, and Boucher 1991, vol. 1, pp. 9–10; vol. 2, p. 377
[who connected the sheet with a drawing of Laocoon’s 57. Richardson 1722, p. 277: “An Arm was begun for
younger son in the Louvre, inv. 2712]. Charles Davis in it by Mich. Angelo, but not Finish’d, as it Is it lies down
Kunstchronik 46 (1993), pp. 360–61, attributed the Uffizi by the Figures.” The account of Roman monuments is by
drawing to Sodoma. I. Leone in Rome 2006, no. 29 [as Jonathan Richardson the Younger (1694–1771), son of
Sodoma but without citing Davis and with the wrong the painter Jonathan Richardson the Elder. Rebaudo 2007,
illustration]. Rebaudo 2007, p. 81, no. DS3 [as Florentine p. 31 (repeated by Paolo Liverani in Rome 2006, p. 180),
or Sienese, with incorrect inventory number and caption, mistranslates the passage as a report that Michelangelo
and a summary of earlier attributions]. On Sodoma and left the work unfinished “per modestia” and that the arm
Raphael, see Bartalini 2001.
was behind the pedestal, but these elements are not in the
original text.
48. Pollak’s diaries and memoirs have been published:
Guldan 1988; Pollak 1994. Mistakes about Pollak have 58. Magi 1960, pp. 11, 46, as Michelangelo; Brummer
crept into recent accounts: Bober and Rubinstein 2010, 1970, p. 89. Barkan 1999, p. 11, maintains a connection
p. 165, attributed the discovery of the original arm to with Michelangelo. On the critical reception of the arm,
Adriano Prandi; Barkan 1999, p. 9, called him a German see Rebaudo 2007, pp. 30–42.
archaeologist.
59. Rebaudo 2007, pp. 34–35, figs. 16–18, concludes
49. Discussed by Brummer 1970, pp. 114–19; Brilliant that the arm is closer to Bandinelli than to any other artist.
2000, pp. 1–10, 29–39.
Visconti 1818, vol. 2, p. 243 note 1, attributed the arm to
Montorsoli; the website catalogue of the Musei Vaticani
50. Clark 1956, p. 220.
(inv. 1067) listed the work as by Montorsoli in 2017
and 2018.
51. Lomazzo 1584, p. 437 (book 6): “Michel’Angelo ne
fa fede ilquale non e mai potuto aggiungere alla bellezza 60. Daltrop 1982, pp. 18–19, 25, 27; Paolo Liverani in
del torso d’Hercole, Apollonia Ateniese che si trova in Rome 2006, pp. 180–81 [with earlier references].
belvedere in Roma che fù da lui continouamente seguitato.”
61. Richardson 1722, p. 277. On Cornacchini’s work
52. On the myths surrounding Michelangelo and antiq- of 1725–27, see Brummer 1970, p. 101; Rebaudo 2007,
uity see, for example, Barkan 1999, pp. 197–207.
pp. 53–59.
53. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 494.
62. Most of the wall drawings are assigned to
Michelangelo by: Dal Poggetto 1979; Dal Poggetto 2012
54. Pressouyre 1969; Seelig-Teuwen 2003; Rome (pp. 40–41 on the Laocoon drawing); and Hartt 1992.
2006, pp. 150–51. The other works copied at the Vatican The attribution to Michelangelo is rejected by Elam 1981
were Cleopatra and Venus; the casts of the Tiber and two and Collareta 1992. Other authoritative sources (Bambach
sphinxes do not survive.
2017) have avoided discussion of the mural drawings.
55. Brummer 1970, p. 89, says that Montorsoli’s resto- 63. Elam 1981, p. 601, fig. 24 [perhaps Montorsoli].
ration was not on the Laocoon in 1540. Rossi Pinelli 1986, Elam attributed several drawings to Montorsoli. Collareta
pp. 186–87, suggests the cast is deliberately fragmentary. 1992, pp. 165–66, assigns some of wall drawings to
Montorsoli, but calls the head of Laocoon anonymous
56. Magi 1961, pp. 11–15, 46–47; Brummer 1970, pp. 16th century (p. 172, fig. 15).
88–89; Laschke 1998; Rebaudo 2007, pp. 30–42.
Brummer 1970, p. 89, thought that Primaticcio’s 64. Bambach 2017, pp. 70, 72–73.
copy of the Laocoon of 1540 showed the edge of the right
shoulder before it was cut down, supposedly to add the 65. Auction of Michel Gaud, St. Tropez, at Sotheby’s,
mystery marble arm. A drawing (ibid., fig. 76) purportedly Monaco, June 20, 1987 (lot 80). The assignment to
shows a straight cut at the shoulder and a gap between it Montorsoli: Nesselrath 1998a; Winner 1998, p. 125, figs.
59
60
8, 9; P. Liverani in Rome 2006, no. 39 [more hesitantly]; 78. Rosand and Muraro 1976, p. 188, identify specific
Viljoen 2007, p. 23 [who accepts the Montorsoli attribu- comparisons, while suggesting that the weaker landscape
tion without citing other views].
of the caricature print reflects the absence of a drawn
model by Titian.
66. The inscriptions read: for drapery of one son: “questa
c[on] panno” (this with cloth); “questo serpe fala no[n] 79. Barkan 1999, pp. 11, 13–14, 16. Barkan’s suggesrotta” (this serpent to render unbroken) and “e questo tion depends on several unlikely conjectures regarding
fala cosi” (and this is like that). Montorsoli’s drawing Michelangelo’s involvement with the Laocoon, including
for the seal: Laschke 1987; Laschke 1993, pp. 143, 165, his making of the mysterious marble arm in the Vatican
figs. 177–79.
and the drawing of Laocoon’s head in the New Sacristy
basement.
67. Laschke 1993, p. 27 note 23; Laschke 1998, p. 183
note 44. Rebaudo 2007, pp. 25–27, 87.
80. Titian’s authorship of the design is reported by Carlo
Ridolfi (Ridolfi 1648, vol. 1, p. 183) and is usually accepted.
68. The Musée Calvet now more correctly calls the sheet
Florentine ca. 1560.
81. Wischermann 1979. The medal design is now
attributed to Hans Schenck. The obverse is a portrait of
Hans Klur, aged 47, accompanied by a figure of Death.
69. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 497.
The inscription on the reverse reads, “Nunc revelatur filius
70. ffolliott 1984, pp. 23–24. Vasari says that Bandinelli perditionis qui se extulit super omne quod deus est quem
was angered by Montorsoli’s taking over a commission in dominus nostr Iesus interficiet spiritu oris sui z thez.”
Genoa that Bandinelli had abandoned.
82. Carroll 1987, pp. 24, 39, 73–74. Illustrated Bartsch,
71. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 501: “che per allora non volle vol. 28: Commentary, pp. 192–94.
altrimenti tornare a rivedere Fiorenza, parendogli che
troppo fusse sopportata la prosonzione, arroganza et 83. “Negliocchi spaventosi albergo e chiudo.”
insolenza di quell’uomo.”
84. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 16: “sua figura di notomia
secca, che ha una testa di morte in mano e siede sopra un
72. Florence 2011, pp. 382–87.
serpente, mentre un cigno canta” (his desiccated anatomi73. Waldman 2006. The drawing has also been cal figure who has a death’s head in his hand and sits upon
attributed to the Netherlandish artist Lambert Lombard a serpent, while a swan sings).
(ibid., p. 99).
85. Kornell 1989, esp. p. 845.
74. Janson 1946. See also Nadine Orenstein in McPhee
and Orenstein 2011, no. 42.
86. Campbell 2002, p. 600, argues that this is an element
of the print. Schmidt 2003, pp. 353, 369, goes further in
75. Rosand and Muraro 1976, p. 190. They note that titling the print “Laokoon-Parodie.” The title conventionTitian’s motto was “Art is more powerful than nature” ally given to the print beginning with Bartsch, “Fury,” is
(Natura potentior ars).
inaccurate and historically unjustified.
76. Ridolfi 1648, vol. 1, p. 183; Rosand and Muraro
1976, p. 188: Titian also designed images for prints,
including “un gentil pensiero di tre Bertuccie sedenti,
attorniate da serpi, nella guisa del Laocoonte, e de’ figliuoli
posti in Belvedere di Roma” (a nice idea of three seated
Barbary apes, entwined by snakes, in the guise of Laocoon
and the sons located in the Belvedere in Rome).
77. Cardinal Domenico Grimani owned the bronze
cast of Sansovino’s copy of the Laocoon made ca. 1508;
it was bequeathed to the Republic in 1523 and kept in
the guardaroba of the Council of Ten; then given to the
Cardinal of Lorraine in 1534; Boucher 1991, vol. 2, p. 361.
87. Campbell 2002, p. 596.
88. Campbell 2002, pp. 600–602. Carroll 1987, p. 74,
connects the print to Rosso’s personal circumstances in
1524.
89. Heikamp 1990; Heikamp 2017.
90. Amsterdam et al. 1998, no. 41. Bronze, height 172 cm.
91. Il Sodoma: Uffizi, inv 1455F. Andrea de Sarto:
Museo del Prado, Madrid; and Cleveland Museum of Art.
Titian: Santa Maria della Salute, Venice.
COPIES, RESTORATIONS, AND CARICATURES
92. Detroit and Florence 1974, no. 52, repr.; Wardropper
2011, p. 159, repr.
93. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 493; echoed by Borghini 1584,
pp. 495–96.
94. Laschke 1993, pp. 13, 61, 166, no. 6A, fig. 39.
95. Sotheby’s, London, April 21, 1988 (lot 91, unsold);
noting the traditional identification, and attributed to the
late sixteenth or early seventeenth century.
96. Catalogo delle fotografie esistenti nello stabilomento
fotografico artistico commerciale di Romualdo Moscioni
fondato fin dall’anno 1868 Roma (Rome, 1893), p. 28, no.
2999: “Palazzo Cesi, Busto del Cardinale, di Michelangelo.”
Moscioni’s negatives survive in the Fototeca of the Musei
Vaticani and there are copies of the photographs in
the Fototeca Zeri, Bologna, and the Kunsthistorisches
Institut, Florence. I am grateful for the help of Katherine
Bentz of Saint Anselm College and Alexander Kader
of Sotheby’s.
97. Attwood 2003, nos. 959; there is also a medal fom
1564: no. 1044. The reverse shows the church of Santa
Caterina dei Funari, Rome, which was rebuilt with the
support of Federico Cesi.
98. This opinion was developed with Kurt Sundstrom
and Lorenzo Principi, and this text reflects their
observations.
99. Davis 2014; Nocchi 2015.
100. Eiche 1995; Bentz 2013.
61
fig. 1
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli, Charles V, 1539–41.
Marble, height 78 cm. Museo Nazionale della Certosa di San
Martino, Naples. cat. 11.
MONTORSOLI AND THE HAPSBURG COURT
Sergio Ramiro Ramírez
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli’s reputation as a talented follower of Michelangelo brought
him to the attention of the court of Andrea Doria (1466–1560), the celebrated admiral and ruler of Genoa.
For centuries Genoa had been the maritime connection between Italy and Spain, and the city also provided
the conduit for Montorsoli’s work to enter the circle of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V as part of the
commercial and political dialogue between Genoa and the Hapsburg monarchy.1
Montorsoli’s first commission in Genoa was a colossal portrait of Andrea Doria as an ancient
commander, which he began in March 1539 and completed in July 1540.2 After this project (of which
only a fragment survives, in the Palazzo Ducale, Genoa), Montorsoli embarked on a series of works for
the Doria family, as well as for Charles V’s court, propelled by the Genoese family’s efforts to cultivate
the imperial court on its peripatetic journeys through Europe. Montorsoli spent two periods working in
Genoa, from 1539 to 1541, and then from 1543 to 1547. Giorgio Vasari describes Montorsoli’s work for
Genoa and Spain, although his chronology is not clear. In conjunction with the Triton Fountain for the
Villa del Principe in Genoa (see fig. 16), Vasari says that Montorsoli made a similar “monster” – Tritons
having human torsos and fish tails – that was sent to Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle (1486–1550), the
emperor’s trusted advisor. Then Vasari writes: “He made a large Neptune in stucco, which was placed on
a pedestal in the prince’s garden. He made two portraits of the same prince and two of Charles V, which
were taken by Cobos to Spain.”3 Montorsoli apparently made two portrait busts of Andrea Doria, and two
of Charles V, the latter given to the imperial secretary, Francisco de los Cobos (ca. 1477–1547), who had
them shipped to Spain.
In this period, Italian princes presented lavish gifts, often of works of art, to Hapburg officials to pave
the way for their petitions to be heard by the emperor. Charles V had wisely delegated the processing of
these requests to his senior courtiers, Cobos and Granvelle, who received and negotiated petitions before
presenting them to the emperor. For example, in 1537, Duke Cosimo I of Florence gave Michelangelo’s
Young John the Baptist to Cobos. By amassing so many gifts of artworks, Cobos and Granvelle also played
an important role in defining a new image of Charles V with strong classical references. These Italian works,
which gradually supplanted the earlier Flemish style of representing the emperor, encouraged a wider shift
in Charles V’s image in alignment with the idea of a universal monarchy like that of ancient Rome, as had
been advocated by Mercurino Gattinara (1465–1530), grand chancellor to Charles V. Although nearly all
of the art objects were gifts to imperial courtiers rather than to the emperor himself, some of them made
their way into his possession.
The image of Charles V as global ruler became especially prominent after his coronation as Holy Roman
Emperor in Bologna on February 24, 1530. A determined propaganda campaign advanced the myth that
Charles was the true successor to the Roman emperors.4 The new imperial imagery combined references to
antiquity with the Burgundian traditions associated with Charles V’s dynastic lineage. The most successful
purveyor of this new vision was Titian, who first painted Charles V in 1532 or 1533 after the defeat of the
Ottoman army at Vienna.5 Titian’s portrait, now lost (see fig. 4), showed the emperor wearing armor and
holding a sword, its aggressive, authoritarian style eschewing humanistic or religious references. The image
proved enormously influential for the development of military portraiture, not only of Charles V and his
family, but also of Italian princes hoping to emulate the emperor.
By the time he made his bust of Charles V (fig. 1), Montorsoli already had some experience portraying rulers in armor. In 1534, he was commissioned to make a wax portrait of the new duke of Florence,
Alessandro de’ Medici (1510–1537), for the church of Santissima Annunziata, Florence. Vasari states
that the portrait “was executed in a way that was unusual from others and very beautiful,” as the duke was
portrayed “armed and kneeling over a helmet in the Burgundian style, and with one hand to his chest in
the act of appealing to the Madonna there.”6
Vasari emphasizes the distinctive nature of the portrait, which anticipates later developments, although
the duke’s posture still manifests the humility appropriate to the religious setting. The pointed reference
to a Burgundian helmet, called a burgonet, connects the votive wax figure directly to Charles V, whose
63
64
fig. 2
fig. 3
Montorsoli, Charles V, 1539–41.
Workshop of Montorsoli, Charles V,
Marble. Museo Nazionale della
1539–41. Marble, height 100 cm.
Certosa di San Martino, Naples.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.
cat. 11.
E288.
Burgundian court had developed a new style of helmet by drawing upon ancient examples.7 Duke
Alessandro owed his position to the emperor, who not only restored the Medici to power in 1530 but
also arranged for his daughter Margaret to marry Alessandro. Around the same time, in 1532 or 1533,
Montorsoli carved a marble bust of the duke’s uncle, Pope Clement VII, which is now lost (see p. 56).
Two busts have usually been suggested as candidates for the portraits of Charles V mentioned by Vasari:
one in the Certosa di San Martino, Naples, the other in the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid (figs. 2,
3).8 Both show Charles V in his thirties, wearing a cuirass with two protective disks (besagews) decorated
with fleurs-de-lis. The breastplate is almost identical to the armor made around 1525 to 1530 by Kolman
Helmschmid of Augsburg (Real Armería, Madrid, inv. A.66).9 In both busts, the emperor wears the chain
of the Toisón de Oro, insignia of the grand master of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
In order to portray the emperor, Montorsoli probably used prints after Titian’s portrait of 1532 to 1533,
which circulated in an engraving by Agostino Veneziano dated 1535 (fig. 4) and woodcuts by Giovanni
Britto.10 However, Montorsoli must have also seen the emperor in person during his triumphal entry
into Florence on April 26, 1536, when the artist participated in making ephemeral decorations under the
supervision of Vasari. Although the final likeness suggests that the emperor never actually posed for him,
Montorsoli must have scrutinized his appearance as Charles V passed in procession.
Among the surviving portrait busts, the one in Naples is of the highest quality and appears to be the
primary work from which the other busts derive. The face is finely delineated, with the iris and pupil carved
65
fig. 4
fig. 5
fig. 6
Agostino Veneziano after Titian,
Back of the bust in Naples (fig. 2).
Back of the bust in Madrid (fig. 3).
Charles V (1532), 1535. Engraving,
44.5 × 30.8 cm. Albertina, Vienna.
fig. 7
Montorsoli, Bust of Jacopo Sannazaro,
1540–41. Marble. Santa Maria del
Parto, Naples.
in the fashion of other portraits by the artist. The emperor seems to turn to engage the observer, as does
Montorsoli’s bust of Jacopo Sannazaro in Naples (fig. 7), made around 1541 to 1542, roughly the moment
when the bust of Charles V was being carved. The busts share expressive wrinkles around the cheeks and
eyes, a feature also found in the Montorsoli’s bust of Alfonso V of Aragón (see fig. 15). The portrait of
Charles V gains in naturalism through the teeth glimpsed within the half-open mouth, while the prominent
veins at the temples soften the hardness of the marble (fig. 8).
Each bust depicts a determined and formidable sitter. However, the somewhat lost look of a taciturn
personality that Titian captured perfectly is missing in Montorsoli’s rendering of Charles V. The sculptor
tempers the emperor’s famous extended lower jaw, described by Venetian ambassador Gaspare Contarini
as “so wide and so long that is does not seem natural to the body.”11
fig. 8
Detail of the bust
in Naples (fig. 2).
66
fig. 9
Detail of the bust in Madrid
(fig. 3).
fig. 10
fig. 11
Detail of the bust in Naples.
Detail of the bust in Madrid.
fig. 12
fig. 13
Workshop of Montorsoli, Charles V,
Detail of fig. 12.
1539–41. Marble, height 51 cm.
Monastère royal de Brou,
Bourg-en-Bresse. 961.79.
MONTORSOLI AND THE HAPSBURG COURT
Close comparison of the two portraits of Charles V reveals that the carving of the
face in the Prado version is less fine than that in Naples. For example, the treatment
of the hair, which separates into fine strands along the cheek of the Naples bust, is
more summary in the work in the Prado, where the hair is treated almost as a helmet
(fig. 9). Similarly, the ram signifying the Order of the Golden Fleece, which hangs
from the end of the collar, has more convincing natural weight in the Naples bust
(figs. 10, 11).
It is very likely that the Prado example was produced in a workshop in Genoa,
reproducing the Naples original.12 There are, however, other significant differences
between the two busts in Naples and Madrid, which suggest that they might have
had divergent roles. The delicate engraving found on Helmschmid’s suit of armor
is carefully rendered in the Prado marble, but almost entirely missing in the Naples
portrait. Where one version emphasizes the convincing rendering of the face, the
other presents an image of military authority, an approach that sets the stage for later
sculptures of the Hapsburg rulers by Leone and Pompeo Leoni.
The marble bust in the Prado is documented in Spain by the end of the sixteenth
century, as it appears in a 1602 inventory of the goods left by Philip II at his death
in 1598. This supports its identification as one of the two portraits given to Spain, as
reported by Vasari. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the bust was located
in the Galería del Poniente of the Alcázar Palace, Madrid, probably in an exterior
niche, since the marble shows signs of wear (except on the back) as a consequence of
exposure to the elements. Therefore, it is likely that the bust was in the Spanish royal
collections from shortly after it was made until its entry into the Museo del Prado.
Another example of this model is found in the Brou monastery at Bourg-en-Bresse
(fig. 12).13 Unfortunately, the work has suffered greatly from exposure, with the back,
base, and parts of the armor and shoulders missing, and the surface heavily worn. The
material appears identical to that of the Prado bust: a white marble with pyrite crystals
and particles of mica, which could have been quarried in the Alps or at Carrara. The
decoration still visible on the armor also shows close similarities with the bust in
Madrid (fig. 13). Although the foliage and flowers on the breastplate derive from the
Naples portrait, the rest of the bas-relief carving on the Bourg armor matches that
of the Madrid version. Consequently, it appears that the busts in Bourg and Madrid
are workshop copies made in Genoa based on the original now in Naples. The most
plausible hypothesis is that the two copies, being of equivalent quality, were sent to
Spain in 1541, probably with Granvelle rather than with Cobos, who was not in
Genoa at the time; Vasari’s confusion of the two imperial courtiers is understandable.
These three portraits associated with Montorsoli belong to a concerted sculptural campaign to shape
the imperial image. The Hapsburg palaces were adorned with portraits that connected Charles V with the
great Roman emperors. This was also the case with the palaces and gardens dedicated to the imperial theme,
such as the Alcázar in Madrid, where the Prado version of the bust was once installed. Relatives of the
emperor and court officials requested similar sculptures. For example, a portrait that Margaret, Duchess
of Parma, the natural daughter of Charles V, commissioned from Bartolomeo Cancellieri shows her seated
near a bust of the emperor that bears a marked resemblance to Montorsoli’s (fig. 14).14
Another portrait by Montorsoli, depicting Alfonso V of Aragón, king of Naples (1396–1458), might
be seen as furthering the connection between the emperor and the artist’s Genoa patron, Andrea Doria.
Alfonso’s bust (fig. 15), featuring a rounded breastplate, shares the general format of the portraits of
Charles V. As the Spanish ruler of Naples, Alfonso was a precursor to Charles V and his hegemony over
Italian states. It has therefore been suggested that Montorsoli’s busts of Charles V, Andrea Doria (now lost),
and Alfonso of Aragón formed a triptych celebrating Spain’s connection with Italy, probably commissioned
by the Doria court.15 This theory is strengthened by the fact that all three busts would have shown the
Order of the Golden Fleece. On the other hand, there is a lack of evidence surrounding the Alfonso
portrait commission, whereas Vasari explicitly linked the portraits of Andrea Doria and Charles V. Nor,
given the absence of documentation, is it absolutely certain that the bust in Vienna represents Alfonso
of Aragón, rather than an ancestor of Charles V like the emperors Maximilian I or Frederick III. Finally,
67
fig. 14
Bartolomeo Cancellieri,
Margaret, Duchess of Parma,
ca. 1550–55. Oil on canvas,
169.9 × 105.3 cm. Galleria
Nazionale di Parma. 1466.
fig. 15
Montorsoli, Alfonso V of Aragón,
1540s. Marble, height with
base 96 cm. Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna. KK 5441.
68
fig. 16
fig. 17
fig. 18
Montorsoli, Triton, ca. 1540–43.
Attributed to Montorsoli, Study for the Fountain
Félix Castello, View of the Casa de Campo,
Marble. Fountain at the Villa del
of the Labyrinth in the Villa di Castello, 1538. Pen
Madrid, 1641. Oil on canvas. Museo
Principe, Genoa.
in brown ink on paper, 27.9 × 20.1 cm. Biblioteca
Arqueológico Nacional, on loan to the Museo
Nacional de España, Madrid. Dib/16/49/41/1.
de Historia de Madrid.
there is the inconvenient fact that Alfonso of Aragón was a rival to Genoese power and was considering an
attack on the city-state at the time of his death; however, this may have made no difference to Montorsoli’s
commission in the 1540s.
Fountains for Spain
Alongside the important clues Vasari provides about Montorsoli’s Genoa portraits, he documents the
sea monsters made for the Doria family and for Granvelle. The prototype described by Vasari is almost
certainly the Fountain of the Triton at the Villa del Principe in Fassolo, just outside Genoa (fig. 16). A
muscular creature with a fish tail rests on a rock, holding open the mouth of a dolphin to allow water to
cascade into a large basin. As an apprentice with the sculptor Andrea Ferrucci, Montorsoli had gained
experience with marine imagery when he worked on a marble fountain for the king of Hungary. Fountains
would become an extensive part of the sculptor’s oeuvre. For a Servite monastery in Budrio near Bologna,
Montorsoli designed an ephemeral fountain that included two clay figures of Faith and Charity painted to
resemble marble.16 The artist’s river gods for the triumphal entry of Charles V into Florence in 1536 were
enhanced by streams of water pumped from the Arno in a system developed by Niccolò Tribolo. Two years
later, Montorsoli worked on fountains for the Villa di Castello under the direction of Tribolo. This included
a marble Hercules and Antaeus that was destroyed through the machinations of Baccio Bandinelli. These
projects acquainted Montorsoli with the practical and aesthetic demands of fountain design, especially the
relationship with the surrounding landscape and the hydraulic engineering required by working fountains.
A drawing attributable to Montorsoli represents a preliminary design for the Villa di Castello fountain
(fig. 17). The sketch is inscribed “invenzione del tribolo del duca Cosimo a Castello,” indicating that the
concept is by Tribolo.17
The so-called candelabra fountain, which had an elaborate column supporting several basins, was
a form favored in Florence when Montorsoli began work on the Fountain of the Triton around 1540.
Giovan Paolo Lomazzo coined the term in his Trattato della pitture of 1584, specifically for the description
of Montorsoli’s Orion Fountain in Messina (see fig. 33), which was placed in front of the city’s cathedral
in an urban setting far different from the princely gardens of the Genoa and Madrid projects. “From the
form of the candelabra are carved round, oval, and square fountains, at the bottom of which is a basin that
receives water from above, emerging out of mouths of masks or from other similar things, and the top is
MONTORSOLI AND THE HAPSBURG COURT
made of some marine god or nymph who dominates the waters, as well as histories, sea gods, and putti.”18
Montorsoli’s fountains of this type have a large, polygonal basin at the bottom, with a central column that
supports basins of decreasing size as they ascend. Fanciful reliefs with masks and beasts are carved around
the bottom basin, while larger marine deities adorn the column.
During his first stay in Genoa, before leaving for Naples in October or December 1541, Montorsoli
made two large fountains. The first fountain was sent to Spain, as documented in a letter of September 22,
1540, written by Francisco de los Cobos to Charles V. This states that Andrea Doria had given Charles V a
large marble fountain that had already been sent to the court in Madrid from Cartagena, a port in southeast
Spain some 450 kilometers from Madrid. In his letter to the monarch, Cobos expresses astonishment at the
magnificence of the gift, and offers his opinion that gratitude is due the donor. The document also explains
the fate of the fountain. Cobos could not find a suitable place to install the fountain, since the Alcázar in
Madrid was in the midst of an extensive remodeling campaign begun four years earlier, and because Charles
V already possessed similar marble fountains at his palaces in Granada. For the time being, Cobos decided
to keep the fountain.19
On April 18, Cobos ordered a certain Hernando del Corral to collect the fountain at Cartagena. Cobos
paid Corral two hundred ducats for this, plus six to the jurado Tomás Garci for receiving the work at the
port, and another five to the courier Pero Negro. On May 10, Garci acknowledged delivery of sixty-one
boxes of marbles, and on May 28, 1540, the fountain arrived in Madrid on thirty-three carts pulled by
two mules apiece.20 Cobos did not inform the emperor of the fountain’s arrival until September, probably
because a proper location had yet to be found.
Fortunately, the fountain survived until Philip II extended the royal possessions in Madrid to the far
bank of the Manzanares River, where he had acquired the villa of the Vargas family – a location that became
known as the Casa de Campo (fig. 18). Montorsoli’s fountain can be identified with the so-called Fuente
el Águila, or Eagle Fountain, in the “Ochavado,” a private space in the royal garden. It was described in the
eighteenth century by writers such as Antonio Conca and Antonio
Ponz. The latter thought it dated from the time of Charles V
because it was surmounted by the imperial double-headed eagle
(now lost), with chains of the Golden Fleece and more imperial
eagles decorating the large octagonal basin.21 The fountain was
removed from the Casa de Campo in the mid-nineteenth century,
probably during the reign of Isabel II (1833–68) and is now
stored in the Palacio Real, Madrid. In 2000, a modern copy of
Montorsoli’s fountain was installed in a courtyard of El Escorial,
in the Real Colegio María Cristina (fig. 19).22
The Eagle Fountain perfectly conveys imperial authority, based
on the principles of Florentine fountain design that privileged
architectural structure. The central shaft and the successive basins
of decreasing size contain profuse sculptural decorations that project ideological and political ideas. The great double-headed eagle at
the apex (fig. 21) would have completed an imperial discourse full
of allegorical elements, in the same way that the triumphal arches
designed by Perino del Vaga did for Charles V’s entries into Genoa
of 1529 and 1533. The presence of the imperial eagle made the
fountain unsuitable for public display during the reign of Philip
II, since he did not succeed his father as Holy Roman Emperor.
However, in the private royal gardens of the Casa de Campo it
served as a reminder of the grandeur of the Hapsburg dynasty.23
The fountain appears next to the equestrian sculpture of Philip
III by Giambologna and Pietro Tacca (today in the Plaza Mayor,
Madrid) in several seventeenth-century paintings that include
depictions of the gardens of the Casa de Campo (fig. 20).
The Eagle Fountain is one of the most successful creations to
emerge from Montorsoli’s workshop. The general scheme of the
main basin resembles the so-called Dolphin Fountain at Villa del
fig. 19
Copy of Montorsoli’s Eagle Fountain of 1540, 2000.
Marble. Real Colegio María Cristina-UCM, San
Lorenzo de El Escorial.
69
70
fig. 20
Spanish, The Garden of the Casa de
Campo with the Sculpture of Philip III
and Montorsoli’s Eagle Fountain, ca.
1634. Oil on canvas, 149 × 181 cm.
Museo de Historia de Madrid (on
loan from Museo Nacional del
Prado, P1288).
fig. 21
Detail of fig. 20 showing the
double-headed eagle at the top of
Montorsoli’s Eagle Fountain.
fig. 22
fig. 23
Workshop of Montorsoli, Dolphin
Basin of the Eagle Fountain
Fountain, mid-16th century. Marble.
(fig. 19).
Villa del Principe, Genoa.
Principe (fig. 22).24 The octagonal basin made for Spain is divided into three horizontal registers (fig.
23), with the lowest frieze containing bas-reliefs depicting griffons, dolphins, masks of fauns, and shells.
The convex intermediate section is carved with chains of the Golden Fleece strung like festoons. Above it,
a concave register has geometric grooves. As in the fountain in Genoa, lion heads resting on single paws
punctuate the design. In the Madrid fountain, these are placed at the vertices of the octagon, interspersed
with paws supporting platforms with various objects.
Hybrid beings encircle the lowest section of the column, as if in some dance (fig. 24). They link their
limbs and flex their arms in different directions to balance the composition. The Tritons with their coiled
tails resemble the Triton on the pulpit of San Matteo, Genoa, made by Montorsoli’s workshop (fig. 25).25
Continuous lines of drill marks create a lively sense of shadow on these figures. This technique is also seen
in the fantastic masks (fig. 26), which are close to the work of Silvio Cosini, Montorsoli’s collaborator in the
period 1539 to 1541.26 Montorsoli placed sirens in a similar arrangement in the Orion Fountain, Messina
(see fig. 33), but without reaching the quality of the powerful dancing figures in the Eagle Fountain.
71
fig. 24
Figures around the lowest section
of the column in the Eagle
Fountain (fig. 19).
fig. 25
Workshop of Montorsoli, Relief of a
Triton. Marble, 73 × 46 cm.
San Matteo, Genoa.
fig. 26
Attributed to Silvio Cosini, Mask on the
basin of the Eagle Fountain (fig. 19).
fig. 27
Middle section of the column of the
Eagle Fountain (fig. 19).
Both Cosini and Montorsoli took up the monumental figural style
of Michelangelo, which the work of Perino del Vaga in Genoa further
encouraged. The flattened modeling in the larger figures contrasts strongly
with the detailed treatment found in Montorsoli’s portraits. On the other
hand, the frowns, raised eyes, and half-open mouths seen in the figures on
the Eagle Fountain are also seen in Montorsoli’s Saint Cosmas in the New
Sacristy at San Lorenzo in Florence.
In the middle section of the column are three nude figures: a faun with
curly hair and pointed ears like the Triton of the Villa del Principe, a man
wearing a turban, and a young man with curly hair (fig. 27). Turbaned figures appear in other imperial
monuments dedicated to the theme of maritime power in the Mediterranean, for example, at the base of
the monument to Giovanni Andrea Doria, made by Taddeo Carlone in 1539 to 1540.27
In the upper section of the column, putti toy with a finely carved cloth that passes through rings carved
onto the shaft – a playfulness that endows the work with great vitality (figs. 28, 29). The use of cloth
reminds us of the children who flank the bas-relief with the Doria family’s coat of arms in the church of San
Matteo, although the latter are by the artist’s workshop.28 Putti of this type can also be seen in Montorsoli’s
presbytery of San Matteo and in the reliefs with trophies in the atrium of the Villa del Principe (fig. 30),
which are very similar to those of the Eagle Fountain in their curly hair, partly open mouths, and snub
noses that give them a singular character. In the fountain, water flows from the uppermost basin through
72
fig. 28
Upper section of the column of
fig. 19.
fig. 29
Montorsoli, Putti in the upper
section of the original Eagle
Fountain, 1540. Marble.
fig. 30
Montorsoli, Trophies. Marble.
Atrium of the Villa del Principe,
Genoa.
symmetrically arranged openings in putti mouths, and from similar holes in the lower basins, thus creating
the sensation of rainfall.
Another Spanish fountain by Montorsoli?
Documents allows us to recreate another monumental fountain sent to Spain, probably also sculpted in
Montorsoli’s workshop in 1540. On April 12, 1541, Abbot Filippo di Negro, an agent of the Doria family,
wrote to Francisco de los Cobos to announce the delivery of a gift from Andrea Doria – a marble fountain
contained in forty-four boxes.29 Di Negro assured Cobos that the fountain was the most beautiful of
all those that had been produced in Genoa, “both for the fineness of the marble, and for the fineness of
sculpture.”30 He also recommended that Cobos use an accompanying drawing so that the fountain could
be correctly installed. Antonio Doria himself had written earlier, on August 5, 1540, that the fountain had
been completed in Genoa. Although Cobos tried to disguise some resistance to the gift, he finally agreed
that the work could be sent to Cartagena where the jurado of the city would be responsible for forwarding
it to the most appropriate place.
The fountain’s disappearance makes a definitive attribution impossible. However, there is a strong
possibility that it was designed by Montorsoli, since the artist was working for the Doria court in Genoa at
this time and the design of the fountain shares many features with Montorsoli’s work, including the Eagle
MONTORSOLI AND THE HAPSBURG COURT
Fountain. Although we do not have the drawing that di Negro mentions in his letter, written instructions
survive for assembling a novel type of fountain.31 This memorandum clarifies certain parts of the design,
especially the number of figures.
73
First, the monsters, which the drawing shows as two but are actually three in number, are somewhat
larger than life-size. The larger ones that are underneath the basin, which are shown as two, but
are actually three, are life-size. The foundation is eight and a half feet wide, or slightly less, in the
drawing of the work where only one figure is shown, there are actually two with the columns.
They are somewhat less than life-size. The base at its largest dimension is 19 feet in diameter, the
circumference is 57 feet with the first step next to the ground. The basin inside is 11 feet wide.
Primeramente estos monstruos que en este designo se muestran ser dos son tres y de algo mayor
grandeza que del natural. Las mayores que estan debaxo la basçia que paresce que son dos son tres y
la grandeza del natural. La basçia es ancha de ocho pies y medio de ancho o poco menos en la altura
donde se muestra sola una figura hay en la obra dos con las colonas como muestra el designo. Son
grandes algo menos del natural. El pilon de baxo la mayor grandeza de su diametro es de dizenueve
pies, la circumferencia de cincuenta y siete pies es a saber el primer escalon que esta junto a la tierra.
El vaso de dentro es de anchura de once pies.32
The large size of the lowest basin (more than 16 meters, or 53 feet, in circumference) approaches the
concept of the fishpond (peschiera) of the Triton Fountain in Genoa, made at about the same time, 1540 to
1543, and similar grand basins in the Orion and Neptune Fountains in Messina, made between 1547 and
1557. The reference in the document to the “first step next to the ground” implies the existence of several
steps at the base, as is the case with the Eagle Fountain and the fountains in Messina. The arrangement of
figures also resembles Montorsoli’s Eagle Fountain, with three life-size figures in the first section, and two
smaller figures in the upper level.33
The author of the document takes pains to detail the number of figures in the fountain, pointing out
that only some of them can be seen in the drawing, but additional figures actually made up the work. The
difficulty of images made from a single viewpoint is encountered in other drawings by Montorsoli, such as
the one for the Neptune Fountain in Messina (fig. 31).34 The description of large sea monsters in the design
suggests that Montorsoli is responsible for the lost second Spanish fountain, since the artist often used
large hybrid figures at this time, as in the sculptures of Scylla and Charybdis in the Neptune Fountain.35
fig. 31
Montorsoli, Neptune Fountain in
Messina, ca. 1553. Pen in brown
ink, and black chalk on paper,
42.8 × 57.2 cm. Biblioteca Nacional
de España, Madrid. Dib/16/49/25.
74
fig. 32
Montorsoli, Sketch for a Fountain,
ca. 1540. Black chalk and pen in brown ink
on paper. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Art
Museum. cat. 12.
MONTORSOLI AND THE HAPSBURG COURT
A drawing by Montorsoli that shows Tritons holding up the basin of a fountain (fig. 32) strengthens
the case for Montorsoli’s authorship. The figures’ torsos, arms, and thighs exert great effort to hold up
the basin as their long, coiled tails twist beneath them.36 The combination of black chalk and brown ink
suggests that the drawing is a preliminary study for a fountain, especially as the basin appears shaded
and delineated in a slightly different manner from the figures. The project with three Tritons may have
resembled the lost fountain sent from Genoa to Spain in 1541.
In elaborate fountains and imperial portrait busts produced through the patronage of Andrea Doria, the
work of Montorsoli reached Spain in the early 1540s and was presented to the emperor and his powerful
courtiers. By the end of the decade, Montorsoli would have the opportunity to show his work in Sicily, a
possession of the Spanish monarchy. While his fountains in Genoa and Madrid were installed in highly
restricted aristocratic settings (or not even installed at all), in Messina, Montorsoli successfully managed the
creation and installation of two monumental public fountains. The Orion Fountain (fig. 33), in particular,
has strong connections to Charles V, and concludes Montorsoli’s long and rich association with the emperor.
Begun in 1547, a decade after Charles V’s victory over the Ottomans at Tunis, the fountain perpetuates
the emperor’s triumph, which naturally recalled the ancient triumph of Scipio Africanus.37 In 1535, the
imperial fleet had gathered at the port of Messina to launch its attack on the Ottoman stronghold, and
Charles V returned to Messina amid elaborate celebrations – making the city a fitting site for Montorsoli’s
public memorial to the victory. Meanwhile, Montorsoli’s work in Spain provided more discreet delights for
members of the imperial court, along with reminders of the generosity and allegiance of the Doria family.
fig. 33
Montorsoli, Orion Fountain, Messina, 1553.
Print from Hittorff 1835, pl. 27.
75
76
1. For the relations between Spain and Genoa in the of 1958 written by her husband, Prince Alfred Antonin
Renaissance, see Cadenas y Vicent 1977; Pacini 1999; Juritzky, states that he acquired the bust from a Parisian
Boccardo et al. 2004; and especially Marías 2004.
dealer in 1938. A letter from Princess Juritzka of 1970
reports the suspicion that the work may have been
brought from Spain to France during the Spanish Civil
2. Laschke 1993, pp. 39–41, figs. 40–43.
War (1936–39).
3. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 501: “simile al quale mostro
ne fece un altro a que’ signori, che fu mandato in Ispagna 14. Zeri 1978; Fadda 2013, pp. 133–34.
al Granvela. Fece un gran Nettunno di stucco, che sopra
un piedistallo fu posto nel giardino del principe. Fece di 15. Laschke 1993, pp. 60–61.
marmo due ritratti del medesimo principe e due di Carlo
Quinto, che furono portati da Coves in Ispagna.”
16. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 495. ffolliott 1984, p. 10.
4. On this issue, see: Yates 1975; Scolaro 1994; 17. Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid, B 16/49, no.
Sassu 2007.
41. Ferretti 2016, p. 185, fig. 59. Traditionally attributed
to Niccolò Tribolo: Bustamante and Marías 1991, p. 243,
5. Charles Hope in Art Bulletin 59 (1977), pp. 551–52. no. C.32.
Rubens copied Titian’s portrait around 1603 (private
collection). See Wethey 1971, pp. 191–93; Falomir 2010; 18. Lomazzo 1584, p. 429: “Della forma ancora de’
candelieri sopradetti ne sono cavate le fontane tonde,
Bodart 2011.
ovate & quadre, in fondo di cui si fa il vaso che riceve
6. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 494: “la quale condusse fuor l’acqua che da di sopra esce fuori da bocche di maschere, ò
dell’uso dell’altre e bellissima, in quel modo che esso d’altre simili cose, & in cima si fa un qualche Dio Marino,
signore si vede armato e ginocchioni sopra un elmo alla ò Ninfa che signoreggi le acque aggiungendovi anco histoborgognona e con una mano al petto in atto di raccoman- rie, di Dei del mare & i suoi amori.”
darsi a quella Madonna.”
19. Archivo General de Simancas [AGS], Estado, Legajo
7. Nickel et al. 1982, pp. 43–46; ffolliott 1984, p. 6.
49, doc. 137: “El principe Andrea Doria ha embiado a
Su Majestad una fuente de marmol muy buena [struck
8. For the bust in Naples, see cat. 11. For the bust in through: “cosa cierto digna de ¿consideracion?”]. La granMadrid: Blanco and Lorente 1969, p. 203; Coppel 1998, deza della se pesse en lo que ha costado de traer desde
pp. 100–101; Lucía Varela in Granada 2000, p. 279; Cartagena aquí que no es poco. Paresçiome que porque en
Madrid 2015, p. 187, no. 93.
Granada hay muchas fuentes de mármol era mejor traerla
aquí donde no havia ninguna. Y assi esta en la fortaleza.
9. Álvaro Soler del Campo in Madrid 2010, p. 132. Su Majestad debe mandar cuando escriviere al principe
Helmschmid’s workshop produced another suit of armor Andrea Doria darle las graçias por ella que como digo
for Charles in 1538 (Real Armería, Madrid, inv. A.129), cosa es por que se le debe dar.” I am inclined to think that
which was also depicted in portraits (Fabio Speranza in Cobos did not want to send it to another royal possession
Naples 2006, p. 266).
because of the high cost of moving it from Cartagena.
10. See under cat. 11 for the woodcuts by Britto. On
the prints after Titian’s portraits, see Rosand and Muraro
1976, pp. 204–7, 314. Agostino Veneziano: Illustrated
Bartsch vol. 27, no. 524.
11. Bodart 2011, pp. 93–114.
20. The first two registers of the central column were
made in one piece. Therefore, six mules were required to
draw one of the carts: “De la horden que ha de tener en
el gasto de los dineros qe son para traer de Cartajena a
Madrid una fuente de marmol”: AGS, Contaduría Mayor
de Cuentas, 1ª Época, Legajo 592, doc. 9.
12. In Ramiro 2016, p. 287, I suggested that the artist 21. Ponz 1776, vol. 6, pp. 161–62.
could be someone close to Baccio Bandinelli, for example,
Vincenzo de’ Rossi. On reflection, I prefer the interpreta- 22. I am grateful for the assistance of María Jesús Herrero
tion of Laschke 1993, p. 60.
Sanz, curator of sculpture at the Patrimonio Nacional.
13. The work was given to the museum by Wilhelmina 23. Tejero 1998, pp. 401–4, attributed the work to
Juritzka in 1961 (Malgouyres 2007, pp. 20–22). A letter Montorsoli but was unaware of the document that dates
MONTORSOLI AND THE HAPSBURG COURT
it with certainty, which led her to think that it could be
one of the fountains in the Casa de Campo installed in
the early 1570s, related to the arrival of fountains from
Genoa for royal sites around Madrid. However, at that
time the gift of a work to Philip II with Holy Roman
Imperial iconography would have been indecorous. This
allows us to identify with near certainty the arrival of the
Eagle Fountain in 1540. As noted above, its installation
in the Casa de Campo can be explained by the fact that
it was stored in the Alcázar until it was placed in a less
public location in the late 16th century.
Real, Madrid. However, the fountain that was at the Buen
Retiro is a different work, a Glaucus by Battista Lorenzi,
based on a design by Giambologna (Loffredo 2012). The
Fountain of Tritons is a mixture of different elements
(Sancho 2000). While its column and basin can be associated with Genoa, the three marine deities appear to be
by Giovan Giacomo Parraca da Valsoldo (ca. 1546–1597).
Lorenzo Principi has shared convincing comparisons with
a Triton in the Villa Pallavicino della Peschiere, Genoa.
López 1997, p. 253, doc. 4, published a contract between
Don Juan de Cardona and Giovan Giacomo Parraca for
a fountain destined for Spain. If the Spanish crown also
24. Tejero 1998, pp. 412–13. This fountain has tradi- obtained work by Parraca, it might have been in shiptionally been assigned to Cosini, although the attribution ments of the 1560s and 1570s under Philip II (Tejero
has recently been rejected. Wiles 1933, p. 30, thought that 1998, pp. 410–11; Arciniega 2013, p. 96).
the fountain might be connected with Montorsoli’s circle,
an idea supported by the formal analogies with the Eagle 34. Bustamante and Marías 1991, p. 235, no. C.15.
Fountain in Spain. The issue is deserving of further study.
35. See Laschke 1993, figs. 124, 125.
25. Laschke 1993, p. 161, no. 12.
36. These figures closely resemble a bronze that belonged
26. Principi 2014, pp. 117–18. See Cosini’s work in San to Maurice de Rothschild at the beginning of the 20th
Lorenzo, Portovenere, and the wings of the angel in the century (Bode 1907, fig. CCLX).
Pisa Cathedral.
37. ffolliott 1984, pp. 70–71, 134–37. On Charles V’s
27. Manara 1959, pp. 28–29, figs. 17, 18; Stagno 2017, triumph in Messina, see Jacquot 1975, pp. 430–31, 488
pp. 152–54.
[with further references]; Mitchell 1986, pp. 152–54.
28. Laschke 1993, p. 161, no. 12, fig. 79.
29. AGS, Estado, Legajo 1374, doc. 88 (cited by Urrea
1981, p. 161; and Gómez 2014, pp. 170–71). Finally, on
July 17, 1541, Filippo di Negro wrote to Cobos with satisfaction that the fountain had reached Cartagena: AGS,
Estado, Legajo 1374, doc. 86.
30. AGS, Estado, Legajo 1374, doc. 86: “sia per la finezza
dei marmi et sia per la scultura.”
31. Di Negro did not write the set of instructions,
although he was close to Montorsoli in Genoa; Vasari
1966, vol. 5, p. 501. Di Negro was also closely involved in
the shipment of Michelangelo’s Young Baptist, a gift from
Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici to Cobos in 1537; Caglioti
2012, p. 36.
32. AGS, Estado, Legajo 1374, doc. 89, fol. 1r.
33. I have previously suggested (Ramiro 2016) that the
original fountain was sent to Valladolid to the palace of
Francisco de los Cobos, and from there to the Palace of
Buen Retiro, Madrid, where it would have been copied as
the Fountain of Tritons. This last work was at the Palacio
Real de Aranjuez and is now in the gardens of the Palacio
77
78
fig. 1
fig. 2
Michelangelo, Tomb of Lorenzo de’ Medici in the New
Michelangelo, Tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici in the New
Sacristy, San Lorenzo, Florence. Photograph, ca. 1880s.
Sacristy, San Lorenzo, Florence. Photograph, ca. 1880s.
fig. 3
Federico Zuccaro, Artists in the New Sacristy, late 17th century.
Black and red chalk on paper, 20 × 26.3 cm. Musée du Louvre,
Paris. 4554 recto.
THE IMPACT OF MICHELANGELO’S NEW SACRISTY
Lorenzo Principi and Alan Chong
In 1519, Giulio de’ Medici (later Pope Clement VII) commissioned Michelangelo to design
and decorate the New Sacristy (Sagrestia Nuova) at San Lorenzo in Florence, a church long patronized
by the Medici family. The new structure was built off the right transept as a counterpart to the old
sacristy designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, which contained on one wall the tombs of Piero and Giovanni
de’ Medici by Andrea del Verrocchio. The New Sacristy was also intended to house tombs of Medici
family members, and is sometimes called the Medici Chapel. It was begun in 1519 and roofed over in
1524, as Michelangelo planned the sculptural program. Two monumental sarcophagi are surmounted by
figures of the deceased, Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino; and Giuliano de’ Medici, Duke of Nemours
(figs. 1, 2). Resting on the sarcophagi are figures of the four Times of Day. The two female figures of
Night and Dawn are more highly finished than their male counterparts, Day and Dusk.
The completion of the New Sacristy was slow and difficult. The Republic of Florence, reestablished in
1527, exiled the Medici, with the result that the project was suspended until the defeat of the Republic
in 1530. Michelangelo worked for the Republic against his former patrons, but his closeness to Clement
VII gained him a pardon and he returned to work on the tombs. The four Times of Day were carved
between 1524 and 1531, and the effigies of the two dukes were completed and installed by 1534.
The New Sacristy had a profound impact on art in Florence, most immediately on Michelangelo’s
assistants, who included Giovan Angelo Montorsoli, Raffaello da Montelupo, and Silvio Cosini. In 1533,
Montorsoli accompanied Michelangelo from Rome to Florence to help with the project. Vasari reports
that Montorsoli assisted with the two Medici dukes “in polishing them and in executing certain difficult
undercuttings.”1 On an adjacent wall, the Virgin would be flanked by the two patron saints of the Medici
family, Cosmas and Damian (see fig. 9). Assigned the figure of Saint Cosmas, Montorsoli prepared a
life-size terracotta model, which Michelangelo extensively retouched. Michelangelo himself made the
terracotta models of the head and arms. Raffaello da Montelupo carved the Saint Damian.
The Times of Day were installed in the mid-1540s, and ten years later the New Sacristy was brought
to its present arrangement under the direction of Giorgio Vasari and Bartolomeo Ammannati. The
architecture and sculpture of the New Sacristy attracted enormous attention, as can be seen in the
number of copies, and in Federico Zuccaro’s entertaining drawing (fig. 3) of draughtsmen clambering
over the chapel and sitting on ledges to view the sculptures.
Michelangelo originally planned two pairs of reclining river gods in the ancient manner, to be
placed at the foot of each tomb, but they were never completed. The arrangement appears in a drawing
(fig. 5), and another sketch gives
measurements of one of the river gods,
perhaps to instruct stonecutters. 2
A terracotta model of one of the
river gods, probably made around
1525, also survives (fig. 4).3 These
recumbent figures would have visually
anchored each tomb ensemble. As
presently arranged, the Times of Day
on their roughly finished bases seem
top heavy, as though about to slide off
their sarcophagi. After Clement VII
died in 1534, Michelangelo refused to
transfer his loyalty to the succeeding
Medici rulers of Florence, dukes
Alessandro and Cosimo. He rejected
their numerous invitations, and never
again set foot in Florence.
fig. 4
Michelangelo, Model for a River God in the New Sacristy, ca.
1525. Terracotta, length 147 cm. Casa Buonarroti, Florence.
79
80
fig. 5
Michelangelo, Design for a Tomb in
the New Sacristy, ca. 1524. Brush in
brown wash, pen in brown ink, over
underdrawing, 32.1 × 20.3 cm. Musée
du Louvre, Paris. 838.
fig. 6
Sandro di Lorenzo, Bacchus,
mid-1520s. Terracotta with remains
of paint. John and Mable Ringling
Museum of Art. cat. 16.
Sandro di Lorenzo’s Bacchus
An early response to Michelangelo’s river gods may be Sandro di Lorenzo’s Bacchus (fig. 6), a composition
recorded in 1523, when Michelangelo was still working on the marble sculptures in the New Sacristy.4 The
reclining pose and intensely defined musculature have much in common with Michelangelo’s river gods as
sketched in figure 5. The turn of the head and the tucked-in leg are also similar. Sandro di Lorenzo (who is
almost certainly the so-called Master of the Unruly Children) has transformed the river god into Bacchus
– the large water vessels seen in the drawing have been replaced by a wine cask. If the Bacchus shows the
influence of Michelangelo’s river gods, then Sandro di Lorenzo must have encountered Michelangelo’s
models of the river gods at a very early stage, when the New Sacristy had not yet been roofed over.
Copies of Michelangelo’s Times of Day
The sculptures on the Medici tombs in the New Sacristy were among the most influential works of the
Renaissance, and artists of all backgrounds and specializations copied them in drawings, paintings, prints,
and sculptures. Around 1536, Battista Franco made two prints showing Dawn and Dusk lying on the
ground with fanciful landscape or architectural backgrounds that have nothing to do with the New Sacristy.5
These images had limited circulation, unlike Cornelis Cort’s prints of 1570, which proved immensely
popular. A Dutch artist who had settled in Italy, Cort went to Florence to make precise engravings of the
three principal walls of the New Sacristy (figs. 7–9), plus a fourth print showing Andrea del Verrocchio’s
Medici monument from 1473 (fig. 10). Inserted in a wall between the Old Sacristy and the transept of San
Lorenzo, this tomb has no connection with Michelangelo’s project, except that it entombs other members
of the Medici family.6 While commemorating the unveiling of Michelangelo’s New Sacristy, Cort’s print
series thus also celebrates the Medici dynasty. The printmaker must have expected a commission from the
81
fig. 7
Cornelis Cort, Tomb of Lorenzo de’ Medici in
the New Sacristy, 1570. Engraving. cat. 14.
fig. 8
Cornelis Cort, Tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici in
the New Sacristy, 1570. Engraving. cat. 15.
fig. 9
Cornelis Cort, Virgin and Child with Saint
Cosmas and Saint Damian in the New
Sacristy, 1570. Engraving. cat. 13.
fig. 10
Cornelis Cort, Tomb of Piero and Giovanni
de’ Medici in San Lorenzo, 1570. Engraving,
42.6 × 27.7 cm. The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York. 57.572.30.
fig. 11
Copy after Cornelis Cort, Medici Family
Tree, 1569. Engraving, 55.5 × 42.7 cm.
.
family, as just a year before he had been generously remunerated for an engraving of the Medici family tree
(fig. 11).7 For reasons unknown, however, Duke Cosimo failed to grant imprimatur to the prints of the
New Sacristy.8 Nonetheless, Cort’s engravings were reprinted into the eighteenth century, and were the
primary means by which Michelangelo’s striking sculptures were known.
Small-scale sculptural reductions of the Times of Day were also in great demand. Jacopo Tintoretto
owned several statuettes of Michelangelo’s sculptures that he used in his compositions.9 He reportedly
commissioned models from Daniele da Volterra, Michelangelo’s friend and collaborator, who had made
gesso reductions of nearly all of Michelangelo’s marble figures in the New Sacristy. Carlo Ridolfi writes that
Tintoretto studied the Times of Day intensively, “making an infinite number of drawings by lantern light.”10
This is confirmed by the artist’s many surviving sketches of the Times of Day, which show the works from
unusual angles, often scattered with bright flickers of light (fig. 12). These drawings appear to be studies
of lightweight models that could be easily held and turned.
Marco Mantova Benavides, a connoisseur active in Padua in the mid-sixteenth century, owned a plaster
reduction of Dawn, which is preserved in the university of Padua (fig. 13).11 The sculptor Alessandro
82
fig. 12
Jacopo Tintoretto, Study of Michelangelo’s
Day, ca. 1550. Black and white chalk on
paper, 35 × 50.5 cm. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. 54.125 recto.
fig. 13
Dawn, mid-16th century. Painted stucco,
length 26 cm. Università degli Studi di
Padova, Museo di Scienze Archeologiche e
d’Arte. MB21.
fig. 14
Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul
Rubens, Allegory of Sight (detail), 1617.
Oil on wood, 65 × 109 cm. Museo
Nacional del Prado, Madrid. 1394.
Vittoria knew Benavides’s collection, and in 1563 bought a model of a foot from Day, which he believed
to be by Michelangelo.12 Around this time, Johan Gregor van der Schardt made terracotta versions of the
four Times of Day. The popularity of copies of this sort can be seen in the Allegory of Sight painted by Jan
Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens in 1617 (fig. 14) where terracotta statuettes of Michelangelo’s
Night and the Dawn appear on a shelf in a collector’s cabinet. They flank two copies of Michelangelo’s
Slaves, while ancient Roman busts fill the shelves below. Rubens placed his own Tiger Hunt of 1616
(now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes) behind the terracottas, so that the foreground figure can be
directly compared to the reclining poses of Michelangelo’s sculptures. A seventeenth-century portrait of
Michelangelo, attributed to Il Passignano, shows a terracotta model of Day.13
A cabinet belonging to Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici in his villa in Rome, probably made by Pietro
da Barga between 1572 and 1575, was decorated with bronze sculptures after Michelangelo’s Times of
Day.14 A terracotta reduction of Dusk has recently been attributed to Barga (see fig. 22). Pietro Tacca
made bronze versions of the Night and Dawn around 1600.15 There are also versions in other materials
such as wax, alabaster, and ivory: a pair of ivories is recorded in the collection of Cardinal Leopoldo de’
Medici in the mid-seventeenth century.16 Life-size copies are also sometimes documented. In 1570, the
sculptor Vincenzo Danti donated his full-scale copies of the Times of Day (attributed to Egnazio Danti
and Timoteo Refati) to the new Accademia del Disegno in Perugia. The Florentine artist Rodolfo Sirigatti
owned life-size copies of Night and Dawn, as noted in 1584.17
83
fig. 15
fig. 16
fig. 17
Niccolò Tribolo, Dusk, ca. 1534–37.
Niccolò Tribolo, Dawn, ca. 1534–37.
Niccolò Tribolo, Day, ca. 1534–37.
Terracotta, height ca. 53 cm. Museo
Terracotta, height ca. 53 cm. Museo
Terracotta, height ca. 53 cm. Museo
Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
Niccolò Tribolo in the New Sacristy
Niccolò Tribolo (1497–1550) had been commissioned to make sculptures of Heaven and Earth for the New
Sacristy, but only finished the second in 1533, and it was destroyed in 1762 in a fire in the Uffizi.18 When
Michelangelo left Florence permanently in 1534, the New Sacristy was unfinished. Tribolo, appointed
supervising architect of San Lorenzo in 1542, installed the Times of Day above the sarcophagi. Vasari
reports that in the mid-1530s, Tribolo
copied in clay all the figures in the Sacristy of San Lorenzo that Michelangelo had made in marble,
namely Dawn, Dusk, Day, and Night. And they came out so well that Monsignor Giovan Battista
Figiovanni, the prior of San Lorenzo, to whom he gave the Night because he had opened the sacristy
for him, judging it a rare thing, presented it to Duke Alessandro, who then gave it to Giorgio Vasari
who was staying with His Excellency, knowing that Giorgio gave his attention to such studies. This
figure is now in his house at Arezzo, with other works of art.19
This event must have taken place before 1537 since Alessandro de’ Medici was assassinated in January
of that year. Vasari specifically characterized the quality of Tribolo’s terracottas as inspired by Michelangelo.
On another occasion, Tribolo made some terracottas in order to help the painter Giuliano Bugiardini
complete a composition sketched by Michelangelo. Tribolo “made some sketch-models in clay, which were
excellently executed, in that they were given that boldness and style which Michelangelo put into design,
with a gradine, which is a toothed piece of iron, the gradine giving them some roughness so they might
have greater force.”20 However, Tribolo’s rough finish did not please Bugiardini, who used a wet brush to
smooth away the marks of the scraper, which left the finished painting devoid of Michelangelo’s influence.21
This description of Tribolo’s terracotta technique, along with the absence of a figure of Night in the series of
statuettes that have been in the Bargello since 1879, suggests that these terracottas are the ones described
by Vasari (figs. 15–17).22 On the surface of the three terracottas are signs of the gradine that evoke the
irregular surfaces of Michelangelo’s marbles in the New Sacristy.
The terracotta Dusk in Pittsburgh
Once Tribolo’s authorship of the three terracottas in the Bargello has been established, it is easier to analyze
the Dusk in the Carnegie Museum of Art (fig. 18), which derives directly from the sculpture in the Bargello.
The surface of the terracotta in Pittsburgh closely recalls Tribolo’s work, and the figure shows the same
departures from Michelangelo’s original that Tribolo’s terracotta does. For example, the curls of the hair
and the presence of full, folded drapery that runs along the base are reminiscent of Tribolo but differ from
Michelangelo’s marble.
84
fig. 18
Circle of Niccolò Tribolo, Dusk, 1540s.
Terracotta, length 52 cm. Carnegie
Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. cat. 17.
The Dusk in Pittsburgh is not a slavish copy of Tribolo, however. The freshness of modeling and pliable
sense of musculature suggest that a skilled artist close to Tribolo made the terracotta. The chiseled and
defined volumes in the sculpture indicate that it was made in the middle of the sixteenth century. Portions
of the left leg and the groin have been repaired more recently.23
The critical history of the Pittsburgh terracotta is somewhat confused. Ernst Steinmann in 1907
considered it a variant after Michelangelo, perhaps a model for a reduction in porcelain or bronze. Charles
de Tolnay confused it with the work in Houston (fig. 19), a sign that the copies of Michelangelo’s Times
of Day no longer held much interest for scholars in the twentieth century, who have been primarily interested in whether these versions were by Michelangelo and not in the wider reception of the New Sacristy.
Some versions are rather eccentric in character, like those in the Chigi Saracini collection. These beautiful
sculptures based on Michelangelo are fully deserving of study and appreciation in their own right, not least
for the commentary they provide on the original sculptures and their setting. It is evident that the Dusk
in Pittsburgh, although little known and almost never exhibited, is among the most important replicas of
the Times of the Day.
Johan Gregor van der Schardt
In addition to the Tribolo statues, the most important clay copies of the Times of Day are those attributed
to Johan Gregor van der Schardt (1530–ca. 1581), which were recorded in the massive collection of Paulus
von Praun (1548–1616) of Nuremberg. The inventory drawn up in 1616 lists “The four images of day,
night, midnight, and morning, one foot high, after Michelangelo.”24 The catalogue of 1719 is even more
telegraphic: “The four times of day, lying.”25 No artist is given for these works or indeed for the majority of
the terracottas in the collection, as has sometimes been assumed.26 When Christophe de Murr compiled
another catalogue of the Praun collection in 1797, he assigned the terracotta versions of the Times of
Day optimistically to Michelangelo himself, while attributing copies after ancient works to Johan van der
Schardt.
THE IMPACT OF MICHELANGELO’S NEW SACRISTY
Despite the lack of documentation, circumstances suggest that van der Schardt
might be the artist of Praun’s Times of Day after Michelangelo, and of some of the other
unattributed terracottas in the collection. In the 1560s, van der Schardt had been in Italy
where, like many other artists, he had the opportunity to study Michelangelo’s sculptures.
The artist worked for the imperial court in Nuremberg beginning in 1570, and had close
connections with collectors such as Willibald Imhoff and, after 1578, Paulus von Praun.
A few works are identified as by van der Schardt in Praun’s 1616 inventory.27 Praun seems
to have acquired a large number of objects from van der Schardt’s estate after the artist’s
death in 1581, including some 170 terracottas.28
Three of the four Times of Day from the Praun collection survive, one in Houston and
two in the Victoria and Albert Museum (figs. 19–21). The Dusk was probably destroyed,
as in 1797 it was already described as broken.29 From the seventeenth to the twentieth
century, attributions of these terracottas alternated between Michelangelo and copies
after him. Lars-Olof Larsson in 1984 attributed the works to van der Schardt, followed
by Ursel Berger in 1994, and others.
The style of these terracottas is very different from those of Tribolo and other
Florentine artists, which have more organically flowing musculature. Instead, the three
works attributed to van der Schardt are sharply delineated with an almost choppy
rendering of anatomy, familiar also from the work of another Netherlandish sculptor
of the same period, Willem Tetrode (ca. 1525–after 1580). Nonetheless, it should
be admitted that the Times of Day and the studies of body parts after Michelangelo
(now in the Rijksmuseum and the Victoria and Albert Museum30) are very different
85
fig. 19
figs. 20, 21
Johan Gregor van der Schardt, Day,
Johan Gregor van der Schardt, Dawn and Night, 1560s. Terracotta,
1560s. Terracotta, length 30 cm.
length 23.3 and 26.4 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. cat. 18.
A.5-1938 and A.6-1938.
86
fig. 22
Pietro da Barga, Dusk, ca. 1580.
Terracotta, length 28 cm. Tomasso
Brothers Fine Arts, UK.
in purpose and character from van der Schardt’s
signed or documented works. The artist’s celebrated
self-portrait is a hyper-realistic object, being highly
finished and naturalistically painted, although only
about half life-size. Carefully catalogued in the 1616
inventory as van der Schardt’s self-portrait, the work
is now in the Rijksmuseum. Praun also owned other
documented portraits by van der Schardt, as well as
a Mercury and a Minerva in bronze. Frits Scholten
has made the appealingly modern suggestion that
Praun’s collection of works by van der Schardt,
including his self-portrait, studies after other
works, and independent statues, constituted a vast,
virtual self-portrait of the artist.31 We might resist
this interpretation only because a fraction of the
terracotta models in the Praun collection survive,
and none of them is listed as by van der Schardt in
Praun’s inventory of 1616, which was started when
the collector was still alive. Nor were the supposed
works by van der Schardt grouped together. The
strong and dynamic style of the Times of Day, especially the Day in Houston, leaves open the possibility
that they are by another northern European artist
active in the late sixteenth century.
fig. 23
Day, 17th century? Terracotta, length
71.1 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York. 1971.206.35.
fig. 24
Night, 2nd half of the 16th century.
Terracotta, length 31 cm. Museo di
Palazzo Venezia, Rome. 13441.
THE IMPACT OF MICHELANGELO’S NEW SACRISTY
Appendix
Significant Renaissance terracotta sculptures based on Michelangelo’s Times of Day in the
New Sacristy.
Dusk
1. Niccolò Tribolo, 1534–37. Bargello. fig. 15.
2. Circle of Tribolo, 1540s. Pittsburgh. fig. 18.
3. Attributed to Pietro da Barga, ca. 1580. Tomasso 2018, no. 5. fig. 22.
4. Late 16th century. Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota (SN5375). Height 34.3 cm.
5. Late 16th or early 17th century. State Hermitage, St. Petersburg (2500). Height 50 cm.
Androsov 2008, no. 53.
6. 17th century? Metropolitan Museum of Art (1971.206.36). Length 78.7 cm.
Dawn
1. Niccolò Tribolo, 1534–37. Bargello. fig. 16.
2. Johan van der Schardt, 1560s. V&A. fig. 20.
3. Late 16th century. Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota (SN5376). Length 61 cm.
4. 2nd half of the 16th century. Formerly Alejandro Pietri, Caracas. Length 63.5 cm.
Goldscheider 1962, fig. 41.
5. 2nd half of the 16th century. V&A (4119-1854). Length 46 cm. Bonn 2015, no. 148.
6. Late 16th century (Prospero Bresciano or Marcello Sparzo?). Chigi-Saracini collection, Siena (293).
Length 54 cm. Siena 1989, no. 35b.
Day
1. Niccolò Tribolo, 1534–37. Bargello. fig. 17.
2. Johan van der Schardt, 1560s. Houston. fig. 19.
3. Late 16th or early 17th century. State Hermitage, St. Petersburg (558). Length 59 cm.
Androsov 2008, no. 51.
4. 17th century? Metropolitan Museum of Art. fig. 23.
5. 17th century. State Hermitage, St. Petersburg (561). Length 39 cm. Androsov 2008, no. 52.
Night
1. Johan Gregor van der Schardt, 1560s. V&A. fig. 21.
2. 2nd half of the 16th century. Palazzo Venezia, Rome. Giometti 2011, no. 9. fig. 24.
3. 2nd half of the 16th century. Formerly Alejandro Pietri, Caracas. Length 63.5 cm.
Goldscheider 1962, fig. 13.
4. Late 16th century (Prospero Bresciano or Marcello Sparzo?). Chigi-Saracini Collection,
Siena (292). Length 54 cm. Siena 1989, no. 35a.
1.
Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 493.
5.
Rosenberg 2003, pp. 115–18.
2.
British Museum, London, 1859,0625.544.
6. Sellink 2000, p. 145, incorrectly says that this tomb
is in the Medici Chapel.
3.
Principi 2018, p. 113.
7. Meijer 1987. In November 1569, Cort was paid
4. Charles Avery in The Dictionary of Art (London, 15 ducats.
1996), vol. 20, p. 779, writes that some of the Master
of the Unruly Children’s terracottas are reworkings of 8. Barnes 2010, pp. 154, 157, suggests that the reason
Michelangelo’s unrealized river gods.
for Cosimo I’s avoidance of the prints was because the
87
88
entombed Medici were not his direct ancestors, which
is unconvincing, especially given the duke’s desire to
complete the New Sacristy.
9. Nichols 2015, pp. 67–72; Whitaker 1997; Rossi
1975, nos. 10–40. Borghini 1584, p. 551: “e poscia si prese
per principal maestro l’opere del divino Michelagnolo, non
riguardando à spesa alcuna per haver formate le sue figure
della sagrestia di San Lorenzo.”
10. Ridolfi 1648, vol. 2, p. 6: “si fece condur da Firenze
i piccoli modelli di Daniele Volterrano, cavati dalle figure
delle sepolture de’ Medici, poste in San Lorenzo di quella
Città, cioè l’Aurora, il Crepuscolo, la Notte, & il Giorno,
sopra quali fece studio particolare, traendone infiniti
disegni a lume di lucerna.” Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 546: “là
dove in detto tempo formò di gesso quasi tutte le figure di
marmo che di mano di Michelagnolo sono nella Sagrestia
nuova di San Lorenzo.”
11. Recorded in the 1695 inventory of collection of
Benavides (1498–1582); Favaretto 1972, p. 120. On the
gesso in Padua, see L. Attardi in Favaretto and Menegazzi
2013, pp. 132–33.
12. Avery 1999, p. 54, no. 51.
così ben fatte, che monsignor Giovanni Batista Figiovanni,
priore di San Lorenzo, al quale donò la Notte perché gli
faceva aprir la sagrestia, giudicandola cosa rara, la donò
al duca Alessandro, che poi la diede al detto Giorgio che
stava con Sua Eccellenza, sapendo che egli attendeva a
cotali studi; la qual figura è oggi in Arezzo nelle sue case,
con altre cose dell’arte.”
20. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 282: “fatti alcuni modelli in
bozze di terra, i quali condusse eccellentemente, dando
loro quella fierezza e maniera che aveva dato Michelagnolo
al disegno, con la gradina, che è un ferro intaccato, le
gradinò, acciò fussero crudette et avessino più forza.”
21. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 283: “il quale finalmente diede
finita l’opera in modo che non si conosce che Michelagnolo
la guardasse mai.”
22. D. Lauri in Florence 2017, pp. 146–49.
23. Ultraviolet analysis by Michael Belman, objects
conservator at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.
24. Achilles-Syndram 1994, p. 145, no. 349: “Die vier
bilder tag, nacht, mitternacht und morgen, eines schuchs
hoch, nach Michel Angelo.”
13. Private collection. Exhibited in Michelangelo and 25. Achilles-Syndram 1994, p. 264, nos. 29–32: “Die
the Ideal Body (National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, vier tagzeiten, so liegen.”
2018), no. 62 [as by Il Passignano].
26. Achilles-Syndram 1994, pp. 144–50, 261–75. B.
14. Rome 1999, nos. 37–40. A Dawn by an artist close Boucher in Houston and London 2001, p. 170, erroneto Pietro da Barga is in the civic museums of Ferrara: ously states the 1616 inventory records that the Times of
Day are by van der Schardt.
Ferrara 1974, no. 152.
15. Volker Krahn in Bonn 2015, nos. 142a–b.
27. Achilles-Syndram 1994, pp. 124, 137, 138, 146–47.
16. Red wax: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (length 28. Berger 1994, pp. 56–57; Scholten 2008, p. 201.
23.5 cm): Penny 1992, vol. 1, p. 79. Alabaster: Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen, Dresden: Bonn 2015, nos. 140a–d. 29. Murr 1797, p. 241, no. 32: “L’Aurore, le Jour, le
Crepuscule et la Nuit. La quartiéme s’est cassé.” Murr
Ivory: Palazzo Pitti, Florence: Madrid 2007, p. 400.
probably confused Night for Dusk.
17. Danti: Dimitrios Zikos in Florence 2008,
pp. 324–25, as by Egnazio Danti and Timoteo Refati.
30. Rijksmuseum: BK-2013-9-1 to 9-9; BK-2016Sirigatti: Borghini 1584, p. 20; Waźbiński 1987, 44-1 to 44-9. Victoria and Albert Museum: A.7-1938;
pp. 94–95.
A.8-1938.
18. Krahn 2018.
31. Scholten 2008, p. 220.
19. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 205: “Onde egli ripreso un
poco d’animo, ritrasse di terra nella sagrestia di San Alan Chong is responsible for the sections on Sandro
Lorenzo, mentre s’andava pensando al bisogno suo, tutte di Lorenzo and van der Schardt. Lorenzo Principi
le figure che aveva fatto Michelagnolo di marmo, cioè wrote the sections on copies, Tribolo, Dusk, and
l’Aurora, il Crepuscolo, il Giorno e la Notte, e gli riusciron the Appendix.
89
90
CATALOGUE
92
cat. 1
Florentine (close to Benedetto da Maiano and the
young Michelangelo)
Bust of the Young John the Baptist
ca. 1490s
marble, height 34.7 cm (13 ⅜ in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.79
In fifteenth-century Florence, sculptors produced
a significant number of marble busts depicting the
Christ Child and the young John the Baptist, apparently in response to the recommendation of the
Dominican friar Giovanni Dominici (ca. 1355–1419)
that such images would be suitable models for children. In his Regola del governo di cura familiare, written
between 1400 and 1405, Dominici suggested that a
mother adorn her home with paintings or sculptures
of young religious figures. “The child is mirrored in
the holy Baptist wearing a camel skin – a young boy
who enters the desert, plays with birds, sips nectar
from leaves, and sleeps on the ground. It would not
be amiss if Jesus and the Baptist, or Jesus and the
Evangelist, as children, were depicted together.”1
This marble bust has long been attributed to
Antonio Rossellino (ca. 1427–1479).2 A close
comparison among Rossellino’s works is a marble
relief of the Virgin and Child, called the Altman
Madonna (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York), which dates about 1455 to 1460.3 However,
in contrast with that relief and most sculptures of
the fifteenth century, which have a generalized sweet
expression, the Washington bust has an emotional
specificity. The boy’s downward gaze and sense of
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
93
fig. 1
Benedetto da Maiano, Funerary
Monument of Maria of Aragon (detail),
1481–91. Marble. Sant’Anna dei
interior absorption more closely resemble Florentine
sculpture from the end of the fifteenth century.
Charles Seymour in 1961 thought that
the bust showed “a mystical withdrawal from this
world to another realm of religious or poetical
imagination.”4 As the palpable sense of sadness that
comes from contemplating Christ’s fate is unprecedented in the work of Antonio Rossellino from
around 1460, the bust may have been made later,
around the 1490s.
The drapery folds that resemble flattened tubes
suggest that the bust was made in Florence under
Rossellino’s influence. On the other hand, the bust
expresses a more modern style that has links with
Benedetto da Maiano (1442–1497), the principal
student of Rossellino. The fleshy lips, elongated
eyes with subtly incised lids, and the thin, slightly
raised eyebrows have parallels with the figure of
the Virgin in the funerary monument of Maria
of Aragón (Sant’Anna dei Lombardi, Naples),
sculpted by Benedetto da Maiano between 1481
and 1491 (fig. 1).
However, the flame-like forms of the hair on the
Washington bust differ from both Rossellino’s work,
which has an edgier line in low-relief carving, and
that of Benedetto da Maiano, who tends to arrange
hair in tidy strands. The dynamic curls on the bust
of the Baptist can be compared to early works by
Michelangelo (1475–1564), who trained as a marble
sculptor in the workshop of Benedetto da Maiano.
Michelangelo’s early sculptures of the 1490s show
similar overlapping forms of hair, seen for example
in his Young John the Baptist of Úbeda (fig. 2) and
the young faun accompanying Bacchus (Bargello).
The treatment of the eyes can also be compared
with the Archer of 1496 to 1497 (on loan to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art). The attribution of
the bust of the young Baptist cannot yet be resolved,
but its quality is confirmed by its affinity with the
work of some of the most distinguished Florentine
sculptors of the late fifteenth century – Antonio
Rossellino, Benedetto da Maiano, and Michelangelo.
Attribution
Since 1891, this bust has been consistently
attributed to Antonio Rossellino, with only two
exceptions. Adolfo Venturi (1935) thought that the
softness of flesh and expression indicated that the
bust was by Giovanfrancesco Rustici, perhaps interpreting a lost work by Leonardo da Vinci.5 Charles
Seymour (1961 and 1966), after suggesting that the
bust shared qualities with the young Michelangelo’s
work, assigned it to Benedetto da Maiano.
Lorenzo Principi
Provenance
This bust is first recorded in the church of San
Francesco dei Vanchetoni, Florence, which was
founded in 1602 by Ippolito Galantini (1565–1620)
to teach Christian doctrine to children. The image of
the young Baptist was thus wholly in keeping with
the mission of the church. This bust was recorded
in the church by 1756 as a pair to a marble bust
of a boy (National Gallery of Art, Washington, as
by Desiderio da Settignano).6 Frequently described
in early guidebooks as by Donatello, the two busts
were placed over doors leading to the relic room.7
The works cannot have been original to the church,
Lombardi, Naples.
fig. 2
Michelangelo, Young John the Baptist,
1495–96. Marble. Fundación
Casa Ducal de Medinaceli-Sevilla.
Photograph of 1930.
fig. 3
Detail of fig. 2.
94
since it dates from seventeenth century, nor did the
two busts originate as pendants, being different in
style and size.
Some time before 1914, the two busts had been
moved to the local museum to avoid theft, and two
plaster copies were placed in the church, where they
remain. In March 1914, the church attempted to
sell the two busts to the Italian state, but its offer
of 15,000 lire was considered too low. Then, in
September 1938, the church approved the sale of
the busts for 500,000 lire to the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London, but nothing came of this.8
Beginning in December 1938, the Austrian
connoisseur Leo Planiscig negotiated the sale of
the two marble busts to Duveen Brothers in New
York.9 In the summer of 1939, the confraternity
of the Vanchettoni agreed to sell the busts with
the following justification: “The two little children
have no artistic interest and therefore they have no
importance with respect to national artistic heritage.”10 The superintendent of Florentine museums
Giovanni Poggi objected to the sale, but the ministry
of education nonetheless consented to the sale in
November 1939, just as World War II was beginning.11 The church agreed to sell the two works to
the dealer Eugenio Ventura for 350,000 lire, which
would be used for the restoration of the building.12
In January 1940, Duveen purchased the
two busts for $71,600.13 This means that the
Vanchettoni church received a mere $17,600, the
equivalent of 350,000 lire, with the rest going to
Ventura and Planiscig. The works were shipped
from Genoa to New York in February 1940, shortly
before Italian ports were closed to the United
States. Correspondence within the Duveen firm
as early as October 11, 1939, makes clear that the
dealer intended to sell the busts to Samuel Kress. In
February 1941, Duveen sold the Baptist alone to the
Kress Foundation, New York, for $130,000, having
first asked $280,000.14 It was immediately sent to
the National Gallery of Art in Washington for its
grand opening, but the bust by Desiderio was not
sold until a year later.
Leo Planiscig (1887–1952), who was the main
contact with Duveen, had been director of sculpture and decorative arts at the Kunsthistorisches
Museum in Vienna, but left for Florence after the
German annexation of Austria in 1938. Planiscig
attributed the busts to Desiderio (Christ Child)
and Rossellino (Baptist). Planiscig’s role as
facilitator of this sale has been obscured, notably
by Ulrich Middeldorf, perhaps in an attempt to
protect Planiscig’s reputation as a scholar.15 Eugenio
Ventura was a far more controversial personality, as
he sold works of art to Nazi officials during the
war; for example, in 1942 he met Hermann Göring
to arrange for the purchase and the restoration of
several paintings.16
References
Richa 1754, vol. 4, p. 92 [Donatello]. Bode 1891,
p. 89 [the two busts in the Vanchettoni church
attributed to Rossellino]. Venturi 1935, part 1,
pp. 79–80, fig. 66 [Rustici based on a model by
Leonardo]. Washington 1941, p. 31 [Rossellino].
Seymour 1961, pp. 59–60 [Rossellino, connected
with the young Michelangelo]. Seymour 1966, p.
245 note 27 [Benedetto da Maiano]. Middeldorf
1976, pp. 23–24 [thereafter as Rossellino, with
earlier literature]. Gary Radke in Detroit and Fort
Worth 1985, no. 56 [ca. 1460]. Coonin 1995, p. 61,
fig. 3. Sénéchal 2007, pp. 82, 84, 217, no. SR 1.
1. Dominici 1860, p. 131: “Così si specchi nel Battista
santo, vestito di pelle di cammello, fanciullino che entra
nel diserto, scherza cogli uccelli, succhia le foglie melate,
dorme in sulla terra. Non nocerebbe se vedessi dipinti lesu
e il Battista, lesu e il Vangelista piccinini insieme coniunti.”
See Coonin 1995; also Lavin 1955 and Lavin 1961.
2. The earlier attribution history is summarized by
Middeldorf 1976, pp. 23–24. The earliest assignment
of the bust to Rossellino is by Bode 1891, p. 89, who
attributed both busts in the church of Vanchettoni to
the artist.
3. Gary Radke in Detroit and Fort Worth 1985, p. 178.
4. Seymour 1961, p. 59.
5. The assignment to Rustici is rejected by Sénéchal
2007, p. 217.
6. Inv. 1943.4.94. Middeldorf 1976, pp. 19–20. Bode
1883, p. 135, assigned both busts to Desiderio da
Settignano; in 1891, he concluded that they were both by
Rossellino (Bode 1891, p. 89).
7. Richa 1754, vol. 4 (1756), p. 92: “due busti di marmo
del Donatello sono stati collocati sulle porte laterali, che
mettono nella stanza detta della Reliquie” [two marble
busts by Donatello have been placed over the side doors
that lead into the room called that of the Relics].
8. Archivio della Congregazione dei Vanchetoni, 158/4.
The mediator with the London museum in 1938 was
Alfredo Ciolli.
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
9. Duveen Records: Desiderio and Rossellino files. New
York stock book 19 [1938], p. 136, no. 29833: “purchased
from Mr. Planiscig Jan. 12/40,” for a total cost of $82,340.
10. Pellegrini 2014, p. 247: “I due puttini non hanno
alcun interesse artistico e quindi essi non hanno veruna
importanza rispetto al patrimonio artistico nazionale.”
11. Poggi’s letter is dated Aug. 29, 1939. The ministry’s
letter is dated Nov. 25, 1939.
12. Archivio della Congregazione dei Vanchetoni, 158/4.
13. Duveen Records: Planiscig file: cable of Dec. 15, 1938
(image 166); also Desiderio file, letter of May 10, 1939.
Rossellino file: letter of Jan. 12, 1940, to Ventura, is
annotated with 15% commission paid to Duveen’s Paris
office for a total cost of $82,340.
14. Duveen Records: Kress file, 1941–43: invoice dated
Feb. 27, 1941 (image 150). A price of $140,000 is shown
in a letter of Feb. 21, 1941 (image 160). The Christ Child
by Desiderio was sold to Kress in January 1942.
15. Middeldorf 1976, p. 19, giving Ventura as the owner.
Duveen Records: New York stock book 19 [1938], p. 137:
Planiscig received $4,680 in commission.
16. Hofacker 2004, p. 89; Pellegrini 2014. In December
1942, Ventura arranged the restoration of fifteen
Impressionist and six early Italian paintings belonging to
Hermann Goering.
95
96
97
cat. 2
Benedetto da Rovezzano (1474–ca. 1552),
attributed to
John the Baptist ca. 1510
terracotta with polychromy, height 71.5 cm (28 ⅛ in.)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Bequest of John L. Severance, 1942.781
In the first decades of the sixteenth century, a number
of painted terracotta statues of the young John the
Baptist were produced in Florence. Approximately
half life-size, they depict the figure sitting on or
leaning against a rocky outcropping. Elegant and
smoothly finished, with distinctively tousled hair,
the works are based on earlier representations of
the young John the Baptist entering the wilderness,
a subject already found in the thirteenth-century
mosaic in the dome of the Florence Baptistery
Attribution
(see p. 30) as well as in several sculptures. Around There is strong evidence that Benedetto da
1477, Antonio Rossellino carved a marble sculpture Rovezzano is the sculptor of the Cleveland Baptist
of the young Baptist striding into the desert holding a and related terracottas, as can be seen by comparibanner (fig. 1). Installed over the door of the Opera sons with the artist’s Saint John the Evangelist carved
di San Giovanni, directly opposite the Baptistery, in marble between 1513 and 1514 (fig. 2), and a
the image was perhaps designed to be accessible to Penitent Saint Jerome in painted terracotta (fig. 3).
children receiving religious instruction.1
Rovezzano’s bronze Neptune, made around 1537
The Cleveland sculpture shows an older figure to 1540 for Cowdray House in England (Victoria
who neither moves through the landscape, nor is and Albert Museum), also offers strong points of
an emaciated hermit, as seen for example in the comparison.3 There are analogies in the angular and
so-called Martelli John the Baptist by Donatello dynamic drapery with deep undercuts, the curly
and Desiderio da Settignano (see p. 101).2 Rather, hair twisted into locks, and the eyes with very round
the terracotta figures of the early sixteenth century irises and pupils.
represent a new type of the Baptist as a thoughtful
Scholarly discussion has focused on the
young man, imbued with a sense of contemplation attribution of an extensive and mysterious group
but not of sadness. It is no coincidence that the same of terracottas, rather than on their meaning. The
physical and emotional type was used to depict the terracottas represent a wide variety of subjects:
young David after the slaying of Goliath.
John the Baptist seated, standing, or in bust form,
fig. 1
Antonio Rossellino,
Young John the Baptist Striding into the
Wilderness, ca. 1477. Marble,
height 101 cm. Museo Nazionale
del Bargello, Florence.
fig. 2
Benedetto da Rovezzano, Saint John
the Evangelist, 1513–14. Marble.
Duomo, Florence.
98
fig. 3
Benedetto da Rovezzano,
Saint Jerome, ca. 1510. Painted
terracotta, height 55 cm.
Bode-Museum, Berlin.
fig. 4
Benedetto da Rovezzano?,
Seated John the Baptist, ca. 1510.
Terracotta with remains of paint,
height 68 cm. Museo Nazionale
del Bargello, Florence.
David, the penitent Saint Jerome, Saint Michael
and the dragon, a knight trampling a victim, and
the Spinario. Wilhelm Bode in 1901 discussed a
few of these works in connection with a range of
Florentine sculptors working in the first decade of
the sixteenth century, but could not identify an artist
and so applied the conventional name of “Master of
John Statuettes.”4 Giancarlo Gentilini in 1980 and
1992 refined this group by noting the influence of
Michelangelo’s David and the strong connections
with Jacopo Sansovino. A glazed example from
the Duomo of Pescia can be dated to 1505, and
Gentilini thought that the Cleveland work might
follow shortly afterward.5
Bruce Boucher attributed the example in the
Bargello (fig. 4), the most highly finished of the
group, to Jacopo Sansovino, but did not discuss
the other works.6 If the treatment of the face in the
Bargello work seems close to Sansovino, the overall
composition is actually quite stiff. The composition of another terracotta Baptist (fig. 5) is more
modern but its depiction of hair is extremely close
to that of Benedetto da Rovezzano. Benedetto has
sometimes been suggested as the maker of some of
these terracottas, for example, by Carlo Gamba in
1920, who discussed a sculptural group showing a
horseman trampling a soldier (fig. 6).7 Francesco
Caglioti made a stronger argument for attributing
the terracottas to Benedetto da Rovezzano in 1996
and 2012, followed by Giancarlo Gentilini in 2014.8
It is likely that Benedetto da Rovezzano directed a
workshop that produced the terracotta figures, but
several other artists, as yet unidentified, appear to
have been involved and are deserving of further study.
Lorenzo Principi
Provenance
This sculpture is first documented in 1889
in the collection of Emile Gavet (1830–1904), a
French architect who also dealt in art, beginning
with pastels commissioned from Jean-François
Millet, followed by a wide variety of medieval and
Renaissance decorative arts. Around 1892, he
sold a large number of objects to Alva Vanderbilt
to decorate her Newport mansion, Marble House,
a collection later sold to John Ringling for his
museum in Sarasota.9 This terracotta was attributed
to Andrea del Verrocchio in Gavet’s catalogues of
1889 and 1894. It was auctioned with the same
attribution at Petit, Paris, May 31–June 9, 1897 (lot
204, 12,500 francs to Gouin). Arnold Seligmann
et cie of Paris sold the work around 1926 to John
L. Severance (1863–1936), a Cleveland industrialist who amassed a fine collection that included
masterpieces by J. M. W. Turner, Aelbert Cuyp, and
others, installed in a mansion called Longwood.10
To accompany this terracotta, still believed to be
by Verrocchio, Severance also obtained a copy
of the artist’s bronze putto with a dolphin in the
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Severance’s collection
was bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art
in 1936.
99
fig. 5
Benedetto da Rovezzano?, John the
Baptist, ca. 1510. Terracotta,
height 69.5 cm. Galleria Altomani,
Pesaro.
fig. 6
Benedetto da Rovezzano, Knight
Trampling a Victim, ca. 1510.
References
Gavet 1889, no. 22, pl. VI [Verrocchio]. Gavet
1894, no. 203, pl. 50.11 Cleveland 1942, no. 20, pl. XI
[Verrocchio]. Pillsbury 1971, no. 30 [Master of the
John Statuettes]. G. Gentilini in Impruneta 1980, p.
98 [Master of the John Statuettes, 1505–10]. Chong
2009, p. 12 [perhaps 19th century]. A. Bagnoli in
Monte San Savino 2016, pp. 112–15.
5. Pescia: Gentilini 1992, p. 456, fig. p. 470 (p. 471 for
another glazed terracotta of the Baptist); Schottmüller
1933, p. 146, also related it to the group of terracottas.
On the group: Gentilini in Impruneta 1980, pp. 97–98,
also pp. 85–86; Gentilini 1992, p. 456; Florence 1992,
pp. 150–53. A. Bellandi in Fiesole 1998, pp. 372–73.
6. Boucher 1991, vol. 2, pp. 313–14. Sénéchal 2007, pp.
229–30, also accepts the Bargello terracotta as by Jacopo
Technical note
Sansovino, with the remainder by other hands. Warren
Three samples from the sculpture analyzed by 2016, vol. 1, pp. 60–66, attributed various terracottas to
Oxford Authentication Ltd. in December 2010 Sansovino.
show that the last firing of the work took place
between 400 and 700 years ago (1310 to 1610).
7. Gamba 1920, p. 176.
8. Caglioti 1996, p. 101 note 76. F. Caglioti in Paris 2012,
1. See Paolozzi Strozzi 2013. A terracotta of the young pp. 22–27. G. Gentilini in Brun 2014, pp. 6–13.
Baptist (Bargello) has long been attributed to Michelozzo,
but apparently dates from the 16th century; see Caglioti 9. Chong 2009.
2012, fig. 41, pp. 66–67 note 106.
10. Paul Byk of Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., New
York, to William Milliken, director of the Cleveland
2. Paolozzi Strozzi 2006.
Museum of Art, Oct. 8, 1942 [museum file].
3. John the Evangelist: Francesco Vossilla in Cinelli et al.
2002, pp. 62–66. Neptune: Caglioti 2012a.
11. A photograph of this work appears in an album in
the Clark Institute of Art, Williamstown, with catalogue
4. Bode 1901. The group was expanded by others, headings taken from Gavet 1894.
including Fabriczy 1909, pp. 42, 43, 76, 134, 141, 145,
171; and Pope-Hennessy 1964, pp. 191–96.
Terracotta, height 55.5 cm. Museo
Horne, Florence. 105.
100
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
101
fig. 1
Donatello and Desiderio da Settignano, John
the Baptist (Martelli Baptist), ca. 1440 and 1457.
Marble, height 173 cm. Museo Nazionale del
Bargello, Florence.
fig. 2
Benedetto da Maiano, John the Baptist,
ca. 1478–80. Marble. Sala di Gigli, Palazzo
Vecchio, Florence.
fig. 3
Circle of Benedetto da Maiano, John the Baptist,
1480s. Painted terracotta, height ca. 49.5 cm. Art
Institute of Chicago. 1977.917.
cat. 3
Giovanfrancesco Rustici (1475–1554)
John the Baptist
ca. 1500–1515
marble, height 75.5 cm (29 ¾ in.)
Morgan Library and Museum, New York
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1909, AZ031
Giovanfrancesco Rustici made a number of striking
sculptures of John the Baptist, the most prominent
being the Preaching of John the Baptist above the
north door of the Baptistery in Florence (see p. 32).
Commissioned in 1506, the group of three bronzes
was completed in 1511, although Rustici was not
paid fully until 1524.
Leonardo da Vinci assisted Rustici in modeling
the waxes for the Baptistery bronzes, according to
Giorgio Vasari.1 Well known in his lifetime, Rustici
is regarded as an eccentric figure. Pomponius
Gauricus, in his 1504 treatise De sculptura, praised
Rustici as one of the four best Tuscan carvers of
marble, putting him in the company of Benedetto
da Maiano, Michelangelo, and Andrea Sansovino.2
Based on his reputation as a close follower of both
Leonardo and Michelangelo, Rustici was invited to
France in 1528. Between 1531 and 1533, he was
the highest paid artist at the French court after
Rosso Fiorentino. He lived in Paris rather than at
the court at Fontainebleau. A series of disappointments followed his prominent career, and he died,
forgotten, in Tours in 1554.3
Rustici occupies a pivotal position in early
sixteenth-century Florentine sculpture. While his
work was strongly influenced by his friend Leonardo
da Vinci, Rustici was also attentive to fifteenth-century sculpture. The marble figure of the adolescent
Baptist in the Morgan Library recalls such important
earlier models as the Martelli Baptist by Donatello
and Desiderio da Settignano, and Benedetto da
Maiano’s sculpture in the Palazzo Vecchio (figs. 1, 2).
The basic form, with the weight resting on the left
leg, the left arm clutching a scroll, and the right
dropped to the side, remains remarkably consistent
over half a century. More specifically, the thinness
of Rustici’s ascetic figure is directly indebted to the
Martelli Baptist, while the soft body and dreamy
gaze are derived from Maiano’s work. In a departure from these earlier examples, Rustici leaves the
shoulder uncovered, a feature which has a strong
affinity with Michelangelo’s Young John the Baptist
(see p. 93), sculpted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco
de’ Medici (called il Popolano) between 1495 and
1496. However, the flaps of the garment in Rustici’s
sculpture are tied together with a rope, which is not
seen in Michelangelo’s work but may derive from
Benedetto da Maiano, as shown in a terracotta
probably based on a marble by Maiano (fig. 3).4
Since Michelangelo trained in Maiano’s workshop,
this terracotta bust may reflect a common source for
these images of the young Baptist.
102
Attribution and dating
fig. 4
John the Baptist, ca. 1900 (copy of
cat. 3). Marble, height 76.2 cm.
Frontispiece to the Volpi auction
catalogue of December 17–19,
1917.
fig. 5
Gianfrancesco Rustici?, John the
Baptist, 1500–1510. Marble, height
102 cm. Private collection.
J. P. Morgan purchased the marble figure of
John the Baptist in 1909 as the work of Antonio
Rossellino. He already owned Rossellino’s sublime
relief of the Virgin and Child, made between 1460
and 1475 (Morgan Library and Museum, New
York).5 In 1935, Ulrich Middeldorf attributed the
John the Baptist to Giovanfrancesco Rustici with
some hesitation. Shortly after, William Valentiner
identified it as Michelangelo’s lost statue of John the
Baptist commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco
de’ Medici, a theory that generated a certain amount
of excitement among Michelangelo scholars.6
However, in 1943, Charles de Tolnay, the leading
Michelangelo expert of the twentieth century,
attributed the marble to Silvio Cosini. Since then,
Middeldorf ’s attribution of the marble to Rustici
has been widely accepted, although its date remains
in question: was it made before or after the great
Baptistery bronze figures? Philippe Sénéchal
(2007) dated the Morgan Baptist between 1495
and 1500, among Rustici’s earliest works, while
Tommaso Mozzati (2008) placed it around 1515,
after the Baptistery bronzes, when the artist was
adopting a new classicist style, as can be seen in his
work at the Villa Salviati.7 Both theories are plausible and it should be conceded that the eclectic range
of Rustici’s sources, as well as gaps in his career,
makes dating this sculpture difficult. In any event,
the marble Baptist shows the strong influence of
Benedetto da Maiano, Rustici’s teacher. Moreover,
three years after Maiano’s death in 1497, Rustici
is recorded as occupying his master’s workshop on
the Via dei Servi.8
The statue apparently enjoyed some fame, as
shown by the versions based on it. An almost identical composition, but more dryly carved, was sold
in New York in 1917 by the notorious Elia Volpi
(1858–1938), an antique dealer and forger, who
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
formed the collection of the Palazzo Davanzati in
Florence.9 The auction consisted of a large quantity
of Italian furniture and textiles. The John the Baptist
(fig. 4), attributed to Antonio Rossellino like
Morgan’s version, appeared as the frontispiece to the
auction catalogue. Precisely duplicating Morgan’s
sculpture, Volpi’s version is almost certainly a copy
made in the early twentieth century. Another replica,
in bronze, appeared on the art market in 1977 with
an attribution to Benedetto da Maiano.10
literature]. Mozzati 2008, pp. 142–43 [ca. 1515].
Caglioti 2012, pp. 5, 7–8, 60–61 notes 48–51, figs.
25, 37 [ca. 1500].
1. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, pp. 477–78: “Non volle
Giovanfrancesco, mentre conduceva di terra quest’opera,
altri atorno che Lionardo da Vinci, il quale nel fare le
forme, armarle di ferri, et insomma sempre, insino a
che non furono gettate le statue, non l’abbandonò mai;
onde credono alcuni, ma però non ne sanno altro, che
Lionardo vi lavorasse di sua mano, o almeno aiutasse
Another Baptist by Rustici
Rustici created several sculptures of John the Baptist. Giovanfrancesco col consiglio e buon giudizio suo.”
In addition to this marble and the monumental
bronzes for the Baptistery, he made another Baptist
in glazed terracotta (cat. 4), as boldly modeled as
the Baptistery figures. Rustici is also responsible for
a terracotta bust of the infant Baptist (Bargello) and
a marble relief of Christ and the Baptist as children
(Louvre).11 Another marble statue of the Baptist has
recently come to light (fig. 5).12 The position of the
right arm and the fleece that covers the right shoulder
differ from the arrangement in cat. 3, which shows
that it is not a copy. Although the work is worn from
exposure, and the head is a modern replacement, it
is very likely by Rustici. The curls of the fleece are
characteristic of the artist’s style. In comparison with
the work in the Morgan Library, the composition of
the figure is more tightly closed and the distribution
of weight on the legs less pronounced, factors that
suggest the newly discovered work dates from just
before the Morgan Baptist.
Lorenzo Principi
Provenance
The sculpture is first recorded with Maurice de
Rothschild (1881–1957), 47 rue de Monceau, Paris,
who was a collector and part-time art dealer. In
May 1909, he sold the statue as a work by Antonio
Rossellino through Duveen Brothers in Paris to
the famous American collector J. Pierpont Morgan
(1837–1913). Morgan paid Duveen 450,000 francs,
with 200,000 going to Rothschild.13 J. P. Morgan
Jr. (1867–1943), who inherited most of his father’s
collection, presented this work to the Pierpont
Morgan Library, New York, when it was incorporated in 1924.
References
Middeldorf 1935, p. 72, pl. 2a [Rustici].
Valentiner 1938 [Michelangelo]. Tolnay 1943, pp.
199–200 [Cosini]. M. Weinberger in Art Bulletin
27 (1945), p. 71 [Rustici]. Sénéchal 2007, pp.
31–33, 184–85 [Rustici, 1495–1500, with earlier
2. Quoted in Sénéchal 2007, p. 12.
3. Mozzati and Sénéchal 2010, pp. 54, 58.
4. The work in Chicago is published by Wardropper
1991, p. 117, fig. 14, as the Master of the John Statuettes,
ca. 1470.
5. Inv. AZ069. Bought in 1902.
6. Surveyed by Caglioti 2012, pp. 5, 7–8.
7. Tomasso Mozzati in Florence 2010, pp. 362–75 [with
earlier references].
8. Mozzati 2008, pp. 65–66, 89 note 445, 141–42.
9. Volpi sale: American Art Galleries, New York, Dec.
17–19, 1917 (lot 430, height 30 in.). A photograph of the
sculpture is in the Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence;
noted by Sénéchal 2007, p. 185; Mozzati 2008, p. 142
note 742, fig. 263.
10. With I.S.A.M.A. di Franco Vercelli, Turin; illustrated
in V Mostra mercato d’antiquariato: Assisi, 1 maggio–29
maggio 1977, Sacro convento di S. Francesco (1977).
11. Bargello: P. Sénéchal in Florence 2010, pp. 308–9, no.
21. Louvre (the background is added later): Mozzati 2008,
pp. 143–44, fig. 264.
12. Catalogued in an unpublished paper by Giancarlo
Gentilini and Tommaso Mozzati (2013), who kindly
brought the work to my attention.
13. Duveen Records: Paris stock book, 1908–11, fol.
74, stock no. 1357 (cost: 200,000 francs); Paris ledger
1, 1908–13, pp. 401, 427; and confirmed in Paris sales,
1908–17, fol. 22; client summary book, 1894–1918.
103
104
cat. 4
Giovanfrancesco Rustici
John the Baptist
ca. 1505–15
glazed terracotta, height 100.3 cm (39 ½ in.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Gift of Mrs. Solomon R. Guggenheim, 50.2624
Giovanfrancesco Rustici’s John the Baptist was
modeled in clay, fired, covered in white glaze (with
manganese glaze to outline the eyes, represent the
pupils, and sketch in the eyebrows; see fig. 2), and
then fired again. The figure, about half life-size, slender, and elongated almost to the point of distortion,
stands barefoot on rough terrain. He wears the goatskin tunic that identifies him as the Baptist, with
the hooves tied over his right shoulder, emphasizing
the forward twist of the upper body. His right arm
crosses over his chest and he points with his right
index finger, John’s characteristic gesture.1 The
saint turns his head to his right, away from this
gesture, creating torsion through the body. With an
intensely expressive and focused gaze, he looks into
the distance. His open mouth reveals teeth. Long
curls reach his shoulders, and he has a beard and
mustache. John’s left arm and hand are held close to
his body and his fingers, which seem never to have
held a cross, press into his left leg. The artist eschews
attributes beyond John’s animal-skin garment.
The statue follows, in posture, gesture, setting,
and clothing, three significant Florentine prototypes
for the figure of John the Baptist: the first from the
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
105
fig. 1
John the Baptist and Christ (Behold the
Lamb of God), 13th century. Mosaic.
thirteenth-century mosaic scenes of the Life of
the Baptist decorating the dome of the Baptistery
of Florence; the second from Andrea Pisano’s
relief cycle for the bronze doors of the Baptistery
(1330–36); and the third, Donatello’s bronze John
the Baptist of around 1457, now in the Baptistery
of Siena. The two narrative cycles tell the story of
John the Baptist’s retreat into the wilderness and his
mission, which culminated in the baptism of Christ,
a moment of epiphany.2 The same five scenes are
represented in both cycles, though not in the same
order. The first scene shows the young saint as a child
heading out into the wilderness, an episode that
became particularly popular in Florentine imagery
and devotional literature (see p. 30).3 He has already
divested himself of his clothing and donned animal
skins. For John it was a time of withdrawal from
family and society: a period of reflection, repentance,
and preparation for his mission as the precursor of
Christ. He grew into manhood in this harsh setting,
proclaiming and then preaching the coming of
Christ as the “Voice of one calling in the wilderness,” exhorting his listeners to “Make straight the
way of the Lord” ( John 1:23). In the mosaic of the
Preaching of the Baptist, he holds a scroll citing that
verse, and points upward. This is also the gesture of
Rustici’s bronze figure for the group of the Preaching
of John the Baptist made for the north portal of the
Baptistery (see p. 31). Rustici presents a powerful,
heroic image of John as he addresses a Levite and a
Pharisee, his pointing finger a rhetorical gesture of
discourse.4 Next in the narrative, John baptizes the
people who have gathered around him to hear him
preach. The subsequent scene in the mosaic cycle
presents the first likely source for the pose of the
sculpture in Boston: John points over his left shoulder while speaking to a group to his right, holding a
scroll citing the Gospel verse “Behold the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sins of the world” ( John
1:29). John points to Christ, who is represented as
if just arriving at the scene (fig. 1). Andrea Pisano’s
relief of this scene shows the saint in a similar pose,
also pointing to Christ.5 Donatello’s bronze John the
Baptist evokes the episode by employing this pose
and gesture, the isolated figure calling to mind the
complete narrative.6 All of John’s preparations in the
desert since childhood, followed by his preaching
and baptizing, led to this moment, marking the
arrival of Christ. It is a pivotal scene in the story of
Christian salvation, marking the transition between
John’s mission as prophet and the fulfillment of that
prophecy as Christ takes up his own public mission.
It is in this broader narrative and sacred context
that Rustici’s terracotta John the Baptist should be
considered.
In the sculpture, we see the extremely thin,
barefooted figure, intensely focused on his message,
telling his listeners that Christ is among them and
calling for repentance. John’s power comes from his
message, his emaciated body a sign of the ascetic
life he has lived. His beard and mustache indicate
that he has reached manhood, in contrast, for
example, to a group of terracotta sculptures of the
younger, beardless John in the wilderness, such as
Ceiling of the Baptistery, Florence.
106
fig. 2
Detail of cat. 4.
that in Cleveland (cat. 2). In Florence in the early
sixteenth century, Rustici’s terracotta John the Baptist
would have expressed the need for spiritual if not
physical asceticism in the devotee. Through his body
and in his message, the figure modeled penitence
for his Renaissance viewers, many of whom would
have listened to preachers calling for repentance
in sermons delivered in Florence in the decades
around 1500.
The choice of glazed terracotta is particularly
appropriate for the message, as the technique
embodies both humility and transformation.7
Shaped from the humble material of local clay,
the sculpture supports the notion of the humility
required for repentance. The choice of a white glaze
asserts the power of repentance to transform the
spirit. A popular devotional treatise, the Monte delle
Oratione, describes the effects of contemplation
and prayer in terms of the color white: “Up on this
mountain of prayer our garments will become white
like the snow and our faces will shine like the sun.”8
The white glaze confers to the humble clay figure
the powerful transformative aspect of repentance,
through color, radiance, and shine. The sculpture
was metaphorically perfected twice, through its two
firings in the kiln.
Another figure by Donatello helps clarify the
significance of this John the Baptist, the sculpture
of the Penitent Mary Magdalene, which is documented in 1500 in the Florence Baptistery, and
may have been there earlier, or even made for the
site. Rustici would have seen it in that setting. The
placement of the Magdalene in the Baptistery would
have emphasized the ongoing need for repentance
throughout the lives of all Florentines, who had
undergone the cleansing ritual of baptism there.
Donatello’s Magdalene was made in wood – like
clay, a humble material – painted and highlighted
with gilding, which, like the white glaze, signaled
the sinner’s transformation.9 Her thin but powerful body, shaped by acts of ascetic penitence, like
the long hair that provided her only garment in
the wilderness, is comparable to Rustici’s John
the Baptist. The Museum of Fine Arts’ statue can
be grouped with a number of sculptures of the
Magdalene made in the decades around 1500, all in
response to Donatello’s powerful image.10 By that
time, it had become common to pair these saints
in Florentine imagery, as in Sandro Botticelli’s Pala
delle Convertite, an altarpiece made for the convent
church of Saint Elizabeth, which housed reformed
prostitutes, as well as in Filippino Lippi’s panels of
John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene (Accademia,
Florence), which would have flanked a central panel
as part of an altarpiece.11 Together, the Baptist and
the Magdalene provided wide-ranging examples
of repentance for all Florentines, and devotion to
each of these saints crossed gender boundaries.
They were both intimate companions of Jesus,
and both experienced moments of epiphany and
revelation: John at the moment of Christ’s baptism,
and the Magdalene as the first to see Christ after
the resurrection.
Giovanfrancesco Rustici produced a glazed
terracotta relief of the Noli me tangere for the
altarpiece of the Augustinian convent of San Luca
in Via San Gallo, which was, according to Vasari,
glazed by Giovanni della Robbia. A white glaze even
more brilliant than the creamy color of the John the
Baptist was used to express the transcendence of this
scene of revelation. That white was a choice in this
image, as in the John the Baptist, is made clear by the
contrast with Giovanni della Robbia’s own multicolored Noli me tangere, made for another convent
in Via San Gallo, and now in the cloister of Santa
Maria Novella.12 Set in a garden with Christ as
gardener, the episode is common in both penitential
literature and works of art associated with female
devotional experience, where gardening became a
metaphor for self-discipline.13
The original location of the Boston John the
Baptist is unknown, but its humble material,
transcendent white glaze, and stress on the ascetic
body of John point to a setting that would have
encouraged contemplation, prayer, and internal,
penitential devotion. Placement in a convent
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
church or the oratory of a confraternity would
have provided fertile ground for the transformative
repentance that John the Baptist represented in
Renaissance Florence.
Marietta Cambareri
11. Filippino Lippi’s John has been suggested as a stylistic
source for the Boston sculpture; Mozzati 2008, p. 76. See
Jansen 2000, pp. 134–35, for the pairing of these saints.
Provenance
Irene Rothschild Guggenheim (1868–1954),
New York, presented the work to the museum in
1950. Irene Rothschild attended public school in
New York and then Hunter College. She set up
nurseries and kindergartens for the children of
working women.14 In 1895, she married Solomon
Guggenheim (1861–1949), the mining magnate
and founder of the Guggenheim Museum in New
York. She also presented the Boston museum with a
sixteenth-century Flemish tapestry (50.2627).
13. Solum 2015, pp. 186–95.
References
Marietta Cambareri in Ottawa 2005, no. 8.
Hykin 2007. Sénéchal 2007, pp. 72–75, 197
[1510–20]. Mozzati 2008, pp. 75–77. Marietta
Cambareri in Florence 2010, pp. 302–5 [with
previous references].
1. This finger is a repair carried out in 2004, based on
consideration of the position and anatomy of the hand.
2. Moskowitz 1986, pp. 7–30; Solum 2015, pp. 81–87,
109–17.
3. Lavin 1955; Lavin 1961; Solum 2015, pp. 119–32.
4. Tommaso Mozzati and Philippe Sénéchal in Florence
2010, pp. 256–67.
5. In the mosaic cycle, the scene is set between the
Baptism of the Multitudes and the Baptism of Christ,
while on the bronze doors, it precedes those scenes.
6. The right forearm may not be by Donatello, but likely
reproduces his intention. Rustici would have known the
figure in this form; the forearm, which had been missing
when the statue was delivered, was attached by 1474. See
Pope-Hennessy 1993, pp. 288, 348, fig. 287.
7. Cambareri 2016, pp. 41–45, 66–69.
8. Cited in Solum 2015, p. 193.
9. Dunkleman 2005.
10. Jansen 2000, p. 280.
12. Tommaso Mozzati in Florence 2010, pp. 322–27.
14. Davis 1989.
107
108
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
cat. 5
Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530)
John the Baptist
ca. 1517
oil on wood, transferred to canvas,
71 × 50 cm (28 × 19 ⅝ in.)
Worcester Art Museum
Museum Purchase, Restricted Funds; Gifts from
Louise I. Doyle, Britta D. Jeppson,
The Reverend and Mrs. DeWolf Perry in memory of
Harriett Brooks Hawkins; the Worcester Art Museum
Members’ Council, and Anonymous Donors, 1984.38
For Giovan Angelo Montorsoli, the idea of conflating a pagan god with John the Baptist may have
come directly from the painter Andrea del Sarto,
who depicted Florence’s patron saint adorned with
the attributes of the god of wine, Bacchus. Sarto
died during an outbreak of the plague in September
1530, and was buried in the church of Santissima
Annunziata, just weeks before Montorsoli entered
the order of Servites in same church. Giorgio Vasari
tells us that Montorsoli specifically studied the
fig. 1
Leonardo da Vinci, John the Baptist,
ca. 1513–16. Oil on wood,
69 × 57 cm. Musée du Louvre,
Paris.
paintings of Andrea del Sarto at the Annunziata,
which inspired him as he trained to sing his first
mass (see p. 19).1 Montorsoli would also have
known Sarto’s John the Baptist fresco cycle (painted
between 1513 and 1536) located in the Chiostro
dello Scalzo, very near the Annunziata.
Over the course of his career, Sarto’s figures
become more three dimensional and monumental,
which must have appealed to sculptors. He shared a
workshop with the sculptor Jacopo Sansovino, and
Vasari reports that through “discussing together the
problems (dubbii) of art, and Jacopo making models
of figures for Andrea, they gave one another great
assistance.”2
Andrea del Sarto’s figure of John the Baptist has
the soft features of an adolescent. Beneath the red
tunic is the saint’s traditional camel-hair coat. In
his left hand he gently holds a reed cross. A wreath
made of a grape vine rests upon his full head of hair.
Moreover, the cross is tied together by a section
of vine. Grape vines were an attribute of Bacchus,
the pagan of wine. Positioned before a blank background, the Baptist looks slightly down as his upper
109
110
fig. 2
Roman, Patera of Rennes, early 3rd
century. Gold, diameter 25 cm.
Bibliothèque nationale de France,
Paris. Cabinet des médailles, 56.94.
torso twists, pushing his right shoulder forward. He
points to the cross, the traditional gesture announcing the coming of Christ and his sacrifice.
Sarto’s enigmatic combination of John the
Baptist and Bacchus derives from Leonardo da
Vinci’s painting of the same subject (fig. 1).3
Leonardo’s Baptist is a youth of about the same
age as Sarto’s. Both figures are rendered half-length
before a blank background, with Leonardo’s more
androgynous figure smiling enigmatically at the
viewer. Rather than wearing the traditional camelhair coat, the saint in Leonardo’s painting wears a
leopard skin, another attribute of Bacchus. Around
1516 to 1517, Raphael also depicted John the
Baptist wearing a leopard skin (see p. 48).
Vines and wine
The conflation of John the Baptist, precursor of
Christ, with the pagan god of wine and ecstatic
abandon seems incongruous at first glance. However,
wine was essential to Christianity. At the Last
Supper, Christ referred to wine as being his blood,
and in the sacrament of the Eucharist worshippers
consume bread and wine as the body and blood of
Christ. Moreover, Christ identified himself with a
grape vine, saying to the Apostles, “I am the true vine,
and my father is the gardener,” and “I am the vine;
you are the branches” ( John 15:1, 5).4 One legend
claimed that the Tree of Life was a grape vine. After
it was removed from the Garden of Eden, Noah
brought it back to life, and from that vine also came
the wood of the true cross. Pierre Bersuire, in his
Ovidius moralizatus (written 1340–42), directly
compared Bacchus to Christ, claiming that because
Bacchus wears a vine wreath, he carried on his head
the symbol of the Passion of Christ.
There are also connections between the Baptist
and Bacchus, because both figures are associated
with redemptive ceremonial liquids. John baptized
by pouring water over the supplicant, symbolically
washing away original sin and promising eternal
life. Roman priests of Bacchus poured wine from
vessels to honor their god. This ceremony is
shown in ancient Roman art, for example, on the
third-century Patera of Rennes (fig. 2), where
Bacchus appears at the center wearing a crown of
grape leaves, with a panther at his feet and a staff
couched in his left arm. The similarity to depictions
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
of the John the Baptist would have been obvious
to Renaissance viewers. Moreover, Sarto’s painting
connects the transformative qualities of wine, both
as an intoxicant and as the blood of Christ.
Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, and
Montorsoli contributed to the duality of John the
Baptist, where the saint takes on essential pagan
attributes – whether of Bacchus or Mars (see essay
by Sundstrom) – to expand the impact of the figure
in ways that traditional attributes could not. These
works can be compared to the so-called portraits
historié where a recognizable individual adopts
elements of a mythological or historical figure.
This highly symbolic form of dress-up includes
the Emperor Commodus in the guise of Hercules
or Vincenzo Danti’s portrait of Duke Cosimo
I as Augustus (see p. 37), where the portrayed
remains recognizable but the disguise enhances a
characteristic. Similarly, the Florentine depictions
of John the Baptist under discussion are not equal
blends of pagan and Christian. Rather, the Baptist
adopts a critical feature of an ancient type. Unlike
Montorsoli’s comingling of John the Baptist with
Mars, which has political overtones, Sarto’s innovative painting explores the intellectual parallels
between pagan and Christian redemption.
Kurt Sundstrom
Provenance
The painting is first recorded in 1863 when Peter
Chardon Brooks (1798–1880), Boston, lent it to
the Boston Athenaeum (“Sanitary Fair Exhibition,”
no. 168, as Andrea del Sarto).5 Around this time, the
painting was transferred from panel to canvas by
George Howarth, who worked in Boston between
1839 and 1864. This is one of the first documented
transfers, and is recorded on a stencil on the verso
of the picture.6 The painting descended to Brooks’s
cousin Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), the famed
rector of Boston’s Trinity Church, and then to
his niece Harriet Brooks Hawkins. In 1959, the
painting was given to All Saints Church, Worcester,
which sold it to the museum in 1984.
References
Freedberg 1982. Marilyn Aronberg Lavin in
Burlington Magazine 125 (1983), p. 162.
111
1. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 492.
2. Vasari 1966, vol. 6, p. 177: “conferendo insieme i
dubbii dell’arte e facendo Iacopo per Andrea modelli di
figure, s’aiutavano l’un l’altro sommamente.”
3. For the opportunities Sarto had to study Leonardo’s
painting first hand, see Freedberg 1982, pp. 285–86.
4. Freedberg 1982, pp. 266, 281–88.
5. The provenance is documented in Freedberg 1982.
6. Freedberg 1982, p. 281.
112
cat. 6
Marcantonio Raimondi (active 1504–27)
John the Baptist
ca. 1520
engraving, 8 × 4.7 cm (3 ⅛ × 1 ⅞ in.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection,
The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949, 49.97.52
Marcantonio Raimondi produced a series of fiftythree small prints, each measuring about eight by
five centimeters, depicting Christ, the Apostles, and
famous saints.1 Nearly all the figures are framed by
angular posts (fig. 1), although a few have analogous natural features like the tree trunks that arch
over John the Baptist in this print.
John the Baptist steps forward in the landscape
and points toward a cross formed by the reeds to
his staff, to indicate the advent of Christ. The pose
has analogies to both the terracotta sculpture by
Giovanfrancesco Rustici and the painting by Andrea
de Sarto in the exhibition (cats. 4, 5). The Baptist’s
gesture in this print is ambiguous since he points
at the cross but apparently also beyond it. The full
range of the saint’s gestures, whether to a cross, to
heaven, or to Christ, deserves further study
Raimondi made other prints of the Baptist,
including a larger image of the standing saint
(fig. 2), and one of the Baptist seated on a rock in
the wilderness (fig. 3). The latter closely reflects the
composition of terracottas made around 1510 (for
example, cat. 2).2
The series of small prints of saints (to which cat.
6 belongs) has been almost completely ignored in the
recent avalanche of writing on Raimondi, perhaps
because they seem to be unambitious devotional
images, with only vague connections with Raphael.
In 1888, Henri Delaborde, probably the last scholar
to give them serious consideration, thought he
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
could discern links to Raphael.3 However, Giorgio
Vasari in his biography of Raimondi regarded them
as artistic models, perhaps because of the clarity
of their attributes, and made the strange comment
that they could be especially useful to unimaginative
painters: “Marcantonio meanwhile, continuing to
engrave, made some sheets with small figures of the
twelve Apostles, in various styles, and many male
and female saints, in order to help those poor painters who were weak in design, so these works would
serve their needs.”4 Raimondi indeed put considerable imagination into these little images, which show
intriguing connections with contemporary painting
and sculpture. Saint James the Greater, for example,
seems to turn to walk away from the viewer (fig. 1).
Alan Chong
113
fig. 1
Provenance
Sold by the Graphische Sammlung Albertina,
Vienna.
References
Delaborde 1888, no. 64. Illustrated Bartsch,
vol. 26, no. 150.
Marcantonio Raimondi, Apostle James
the Greater, ca. 1520. Engraving,
8.5 × 5.3 cm. Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam. RP-P-OB-11.804.
Signed: MAF. Bartsch no. 127.
fig. 2
Marcantonio Raimondi, John the
Baptist, ca. 1510–20. Engraving,
10.7 × 6.3 cm. Rijksmuseum,
1. Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 26, nos. 124–83, with the
following exceptions, which are different in size and
compositional type, or repeat the saint: nos. 151, 157, 162,
163, 165, 167, 175, 180.
2. Standing Baptist: Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 26, no. 99.
Seated Baptist: ibid., no. 151.
3. Delaborde 1888, pp. 110–12.
4. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 12: “Marcantonio intanto,
seguitando d’intagliare, fece in alcune carte i dodici
Apostoli piccoli, in diverse maniere, e molti Santi e Sante,
acciò i poveri pittori, che non hanno molto disegno, se ne
potessero ne’ loro bisogni servire.”
Amsterdam. RP-P-OB-11.792.
Bartsch no. 99.
fig. 3
Marcantonio Raimondi, John the
Baptist Seated in the Wilderness, ca. 1520.
Engraving, 8.2 × 5.5 cm. Albertina,
Vienna. DG1970/371. Bartsch
no. 151.
114
cat. 7
Francesco di Giuliano da Sangallo (1494–1576)
John the Baptist
1520s
marble, height 110 cm (43 ¼ in.)
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk
Gift of Mrs. Cortlandt Field Bishop, 52.49.1
Donatello continued to play a critical role in
Florentine sculpture for more than a half century
after his death in 1466. For example, in 1515, as part
of Pope Leo X’s triumphal entrance into Florence,
Donatello’s last great work, the hallucinatory
reliefs of the pulpit of San Lorenzo (1461–66),
was cleaned and reinstalled.1 This rekindled an
interest in the great sculptor’s work, not only on
the part of Florentine artists such as Michelangelo,
Giovanfrancesco Rustici, and Rosso Fiorentino, but
also visionary and eccentric Spanish sculptors like
Bartolomé Ordóñez, Alonso Berruguete, Diego
de Siloé, and Pedro Machuca. Among the most
refined of these Donatello revivalists is Francesco
da Sangallo, who, as a twelve-year-old in 1506,
had witnessed the discovery of the Laocoon in the
company of his father, the architect Giuliano da
Sangallo, and Michelangelo himself.2
One of the best indications of Francesco da
Sangallo’s passion for Donatello is the marble statue
of John the Baptist in the Bargello (fig. 1). Although
the original setting of the work is unknown, it was
in the Uffizi by 1704–14 and credited to Donatello
by Jonathan Richardson the Younger in 1722. Hans
Kauffmann in 1931 was the first to attribute the
work to Francesco da Sangallo, an assignment generally accepted.3 It can be confirmed through close
similarities with the sculpture of Saint Paul on the
tomb of Piero de’ Medici (made between 1532 and
1558) at Montecassino.
The sculpture in the Chrysler Museum is
undoubtedly also by Francesco da Sangallo. Less a
figure of the wilderness than that seen in the Bargello,
the work exhibits a technical virtuosity that ranges
from the Donatello-like surface engraving (called
stiacciato) to deep drill marks left visible in the hair.
There are significant differences between the two
marble figures of the Baptist that dispel any doubt
of one being a copy of the other. In the Bargello
work, the Baptist steps forward as he clutches a
bundle of texts (the phylactery) close to his chest
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
115
fig. 1
fig. 2
fig. 3
Francesco da Sangallo, John the Baptist,
Francesco da Sangallo, John the Baptist,
Circle of Francesco da Sangallo,
1530s. Marble, height 170 cm.
ca. 1535–38. Bronze, height 53 cm.
Mary Magdalene, ca. 1520. Painted
Museo Nazionale del Bargello,
Frick Collection, New York.
terracotta, height 64.8 cm. Davis
Florence.
1916.2.41.
Museum at Wellesley College,
Wellesley. 1967.15.
in a gesture of devotion, his eyes cast down to read
it. The figure in the Chrysler Museum would have
held a cross or staff in his left hand. The extensive
use of the drill and gradine (toothed chisel) in the
Bargello work indicates that it is later in date, while
the Chrysler Museum’s figure seems to have been
made by an artist still somewhat tentative and less
technically assured – the treatment of the hair and
contours of the drapery are particularly telling in
this respect. Moreover, the Bargello marble is lifesize, which indicates that it was destined for an altar,
while the considerably smaller marble now in the
Chrysler Museum was probably meant to be placed
over a baptismal font. Given this function, it was
likely subject to refurbishments in the course of its
history, perhaps involving coating with oil, which
has partly yellowed its surface.4
Francesco da Sangallo also made a John the
Baptist in bronze (fig. 2), produced between 1535
and 1538 for the church of Santa Maria delle
Carceri in Prato.5 Although this example is different
in medium, and separated from the two marbles by a
number of years, the three works are linked by their
response to Donatello; they echo the technique and
form of the earlier artist, including his approach to
anatomy and the treatment of faces.
Another indication of Francesco da Sangallo’s
close attention to the Quattrocento is the moving
wooden statue of Mary Magdalene of 1519 in
the church of Santo Stefano al Ponte, Florence,
which interprets Donatello’s famous sculpture
made around 1455 (Museo dell’Opera del Duomo,
Florence).6 Related to the former work is a littleknown Mary Magdalene in terracotta at Wellesley
College (fig. 3), which shares with the Bargello
Baptist its physiognomy and the sinuous and winding strands of hair.
Critical history
When the Chrysler Museum’s sculpture first
appeared at auction in 1950, it was attributed to
the workshop of Donatello and already specifically
connected with Francesco da Sangallo’s John the
Baptist in the Bargello.7 However, scholars have
long resisted the attribution to Sangallo. William
Valentiner thought it was by Alceo Dossena, a
famous forger of Italian marble sculpture.8 Ulrich
Middeldorf noted the similarities with the statue
in the Bargello, but expressed doubts that it was
by the same hand.9 H. W. Janson suggested it was
from Sangallo’s workshop in the third quarter of
the sixteenth century.10 Darr and Roisman (1987)
116
published the Chrysler marble as made under
Sangallo’s influence.11 But Charles Avery in 1994
thought it was by Sangallo,12 a view argued by
Ortenzi (2006), who considered it a youthful work
from the 1520s. Unfortunately, the sculpture has
rarely been displayed by the Chrysler Museum.
Lorenzo Principi
Provenance
The work was owned by N. M. Friberg, a railway
executive in Stockholm; parts of his collection were
deposited and exhibited at the Nationalmuseum,
Stockholm, in the late 1940s. His collection was
sold at auction at Kende Galleries, New York, May
18, 1950; this work, lot 19 (workshop of Donatello),
failed to sell but was bought afterward by Shirley
Falcke (1889–1957), president of Kende Galleries.
Gift of Mrs. Cortlandt F. Bishop, née Amy Bend
(1870–1957).
Captain Shirley Falcke, a British connoisseur,
worked for the New York auction house American
Art Association, which was owned by Cortlandt
Bishop (an automobile and aviation enthusiast). At
his death in 1935, Bishop left the bulk of his estate
jointly to his wife (née Amy Bend) and to Mrs.
Shirley Falcke (née Edith Nixon).13 This explains
the joint ownership of many works of art: Mrs.
Bishop and Mrs. Falcke together gave WilliamAdolphe Bouguereau’s portrait of Cortlandt Bishop
as a boy to the New-York Historical Society, as well
as books to the Morgan Library. Bishop’s large
French library was sold in 1938 as the property of
Mr. and Mrs. Falcke. Francesco da Sangallo’s John
the Baptist was auctioned at Kende Galleries in New
York; Falcke himself purchased it and presented it
in Mrs. Bishop’s name to the Chrysler Museum.14
Falcke led a dramatic life. He was the son of
Douglas Falcke, an American stockbroker and
antiques dealer based in London. According to
newspaper accounts, in 1907, the eighteen-year-old
Shirley Falcke shot himself in a cab because of his
impending separation from an actress, Iris Hoey.
He served with the Royal Horseguards and was
promoted to captain. In 1924, Falcke won a £3,000
libel award against Melbourne newspapers for defamation of an exhibition of his paintings. He married
Mary Kinder in 1914, Marjorie Wells in 1923, and
later Edith Nixon.
References
Darr and Roisman 1987, p. 789 note 17. Ortenzi
2006, pp. 73–75, figs. 84–87, 107. Ortenzi 2009,
pp. 51, 53, 56.
1. Gentilini 2013, p. 82.
2. Francesco da Sangallo recounted the discovery a half
century later in 1567. For the text, see Brummer 1970,
p. 75.
3. Kauffmann 1931, p. 4. See Caglioti 2012, note 31, for
the history of attributions.
4. Torraca 1986, pp. 35–36.
5. Morselli 1982, pp. 54–57.
6. Darr and Roisman 1987; F. Traversi in Florence 2016,
no. 30.
7. Mentioned in the auction catalogue: Kende Galleries,
New York, May 18, 1950 (lot 19).
8. Letter of Mar. 14, 1953, museum files.
9. Letter of Mar. 20, 1953, museum files.
10. Letter of Oct. 21, 1953; museum files.
11. Darr and Roisman 1987, p. 789 note 17.
12. Comment of Nov. 3, 1994; museum files.
13. New York Times (Oct. 12, 1939), p. 33;
( July 3, 1949), p. 29. New York Supreme Court, 277
A.D. 108 (1950); June 13, 1950 [www.leagle.com
/decision/1950385277ad1081353].
14. Letter from Herbert Kende to Falcke, June 17, 1953,
stating that the work was in the Friberg collection and
that Falcke purchased the work at auction. Falcke is listed
in the catalogue as president of Kende Galleries, with
Herbert Kende as vice president.
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
cat. 8
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli
John the Baptist
1530s
terracotta, height 130 cm (51 ⅛ in.)
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester
The Ed and Mary Scheier Acquisition Fund and the
Kimon S. Zachos Acquisition Fund, 2017.7
The sculpture is in good condition, although along
some of the drapery edges small areas of loss have
been filled. The figure’s left hand was repaired at
the wrist, where it had previously broken, and there
are scattered repairs in parts of the hand. However,
the hand appears to be largely intact, with mostly
original pieces. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry
(XRF), conducted under the direction of Mary
Kate Donais of Saint Anselm College in March
2018, indicates that the composition of the clay is
generally consistent between the left hand, the right
arm, and the left leg.1 The base, which shows darker
areas, is also generally consistent with the rest of the
sculpture.2 The darker patches are probably due to
a flaw in firing.
The areas of white accretion in the crevices of the
sculpture, suspected to be remnants of gesso, were
analyzed by Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy
with an attached energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM/EDS), under the direction of Richard
Newman of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.3
FTIR spectra indicated the presence of gypsum and
lead white (specifically, hydrocerussite or basic lead
carbonate). Gypsum (anhydrous calcium sulfate or
calcium sulfate dehydrate) is the particle component
of gesso that was typically used as a preparation
layer in Italian painting and sculpture. Its presence
here suggests that the sculpture’s surface was at one
time prepared for paint decoration. SEM analysis
revealed gypsum grains, usually less than 15 μm,
which make up most of the samples. Peppered
throughout are small (sub-micron) particles and
larger clumps of lead white. Lead white, a common
pigment in European Renaissance painting, may be
present as an additive to the gesso. Alternately, the
lead white detected in these analyses may have been
present as part of a paint layer.
Because of the difficulties involved in firing
large terracotta sculptures, this work was very likely
fired in at least five pieces that were assembled
together. Besides the head, the sections comprise
the upper-right torso from the shoulder to the
waist, the left shoulder and arm, the lower torso
from the waist to the knees, and the lower legs and
base. Thermoluminescence testing
indicates that there is a high probability that the terracotta was last fired
in the sixteenth century.4 The cross
is not original to the work, but the
tubular opening in the left hand was
designed to hold poles inserted above
and below the hand.
The back of the sculpture is less
finely finished and is somewhat flattened, which suggests that it was not
meant to be seen from all sides, but
was designed to be installed near a
wall or in a niche.
Valentine Talland
Provenance
This terracotta probably belonged
to the painter Tommaso Gherardini
(1715–1796), Florence, who in
January 1791 sold it and a terracotta of Saint Paul, both attributed
to Montorsoli, to Giovanni degli
Alessandri (1765–1828), Florence,
for 35 lire (see essay by Principi).
The two works are recorded in the
Alessandri family’s Villa del Petroio,
Vinci, in an inventory of 1828. In
1879, the sculptures were described
as in plaster, which may mean they
had been replaced by copies. The
Baptist is documented with Maud Margareta
Blomqvist, Sweden; sold to a private collector; and
purchased by the museum in 2017.
1. Elements identified are calcium, titanium, manganese,
iron, nickel, zinc, lead, rubidium, strontium, and zirconium. There were higher levels of lead in the left hand and
right shoulder than in the lower arm and leg areas. Donais
conducted the analysis on Mar. 27, 2018, with assistance
from Luke Douglass and Elizabeth Lomuscio.
2. One sample site on the base in the XRF analysis
showed a higher presence of calcium, lower presence of
iron, and no lead, in comparison with other sites. This
may be an area of accretion or repair.
3. Newman conducted the FTIR and SEM/EDS
analyses at the MFA’s Research Analytical Lab in
December 2017.
4. Art-Test, s.a.s., Florence, report dated Nov. 10, 2015.
Back of cat. 8
(see p. 12 for front view).
118
cat. 9
Jacopo Sansovino (1486–1570),
cast by Tiziano Minio (1511 or 1512–1552)
John the Baptist
1540s
bronze with gilding, height 53 cm
Liechtenstein The Princely Collections,
Vienna. SK20
Wearing an animal skin fastened by a belt highlighted with gold, John the Baptist places his hand
on his chest and turns his head to the right to reveal
an anxious, worried expression. The figure is slightly
bent over, as though from exhaustion. This is a very
different Baptist from other representations of the
sixteenth century: he is not the wide-eyed youth in
the wilderness; nor the heroic preacher or baptizer
of Christ, even less the striding athletic warrior.
Indeed, the moment represented by the bronze is
unclear. Is this the wasted figure after years in the
desert? Or does his agony come from contemplating
his own fate and that of Christ? While the gesture is
related to representations of the Baptist pointing to
a cross, it is closer to one of melancholic exhaustion.
The emphasis on the belt, which is gilded on this
bronze, is not often encountered in Renaissance
images of the Baptist, whose camel-skin garment
is usually fastened with a rope or a strip of cloth, if
at all. However, Matthew 3:4 states: “John’s clothes
were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather
belt around his waist. His food was locusts and
wild honey.”
Attribution
The attribution of this striking bronze is challenging.
The subtle emotion and compact pose of the figure
are recognizable as the work of Jacopo Sansovino
of the 1540s, but the artist normally worked with
other artists to cast bronzes, as would appear to
be the case here.1 Wilhelm Bode in 1904 and
1907 attributed this work with some caution: “The
writer cannot say with absolute certainty Jacopo
Sansovino is the artist, but its style bears the mark
of Florentine workmanship.” James Draper in 1980
wrote that the bronze was made in northern Italy
CATALOGUE 9
119
fig. 2
fig. 3
Follower of Jacopo Sansovino, John
Giuseppe de Levis, John the Baptist,
the Baptist Preaching. Bronze, height 41
late 16th century. Bronze, height
cm. Palazzo Grimani, Venice.
49.5 cm. Cleveland Museum of Art.
John L. Severance Fund, 1952.276.
fig. 1
Tiziano Minio, John the Baptist, ca. 1535. Limestone, height
175 cm. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. Purchase:
William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 37-28.
in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century.
The auction catalogue of 2000 attributed the work
to the circle of Sansovino. Bruce Boucher in his
catalogue raisonné (1991) of Jacopo Sansovino’s
work does not mention the work. Luca Siracusano
has recently attributed the bronze to Tiziano Minio
(1517–1552).2
The figure’s adjacency to a tree trunk suggests
that it is related to a larger marble sculpture,
since a bronze of this size would not require the
additional support. Tiziano Minio’s signed stone
sculpture of John the Baptist (fig. 1) has a similar
gesture toward the chest and anxious turn of the
head. The left arm, however, is treated differently,
and the position of the head varies, with the result
that the emotional engagement of the two works is
quite distinct. This John the Baptist was most likely
modeled by Sansovino and cast by Tiziano Minio,
who was born in Padua and worked in Venice with
Sansovino beginning in 1536. Between 1539 and
1541, he probably assisted Sansovino with the reliefs
on the exterior of the Loggetta under the Campanile
in Venice.3 Minio made the bronze cover of the
baptismal font in Saint Mark’s Basilica in 1545.4
Sansovino produced other depictions of the
Baptist, including a signed marble statue of the
seated Baptist, in the Frari church, Venice.5 A
bronze sculpture in the Palazzo Grimani of John
the Baptist preaching (fig. 2) also seems to reflect a
design by Sansovino.6
The importance of the bronze in the
Liechtenstein collection can be gauged by its reception in Venice and the Veneto in the later sixteenth
century. Its gestures, anatomy, and treatment of the
animal skin is echoed in a bronze by Giuseppe de
Levis (1552–1611/1614) after a model by Angelo
de Rossi (active ca. 1600), in the church of San
Giorgio in Braida, Venice.7 Another bronze of
John the Baptist by these same artists has a similar
composition (fig. 3).8
Lorenzo Principi
120
Provenance
The bronze is first recorded in 1904 in the
collection of Alfred Beit (1853–1906), London,
who made an immense fortune in gold and
diamond mining in South Africa. He moved from
his native Hamburg to London, where he built a
grand mansion at 26 Park Lane in the late 1890s.9
Wilhelm Bode advised Beit in his collecting, and in
1904 catalogued the entire collection. In 1891, Bode
acquired a large group of bronzes from the dealer
Isaac Falcke (1819–1909), and recommended that
Beit purchase pieces that Bode did not want.10
Alfred Beit bequeathed most of his collection
and estate to his brother Otto, but left this particular bronze to Julius Wernher (1850–1912), his
German-born business partner in Wernher, Beit
and Co., a leading force in the South African
diamond and gold trade. The motivation for this
gift is unrecorded, but it is somewhat surprising
since Otto Beit was also an enthusiastic collector
of bronze statuettes.11 The Beit brothers and Julius
Wernher were Germans who made prospered
in South Africa and then settled in London. The
sculpture by Sansovino was displayed in the Red
Room of Bath House, Wernher’s London residence
on Piccadilly. Decorated in vaguely Renaissance
style, the gallery featured an abundance of paintings,
sculpture, and objects.12 The collection descended
to Sir Harold Wernher (1893–1973), Luton
Hoo; and then to his grandson Nicholas Phillips
(1947–1991); it was auctioned by heirs of the
latter at Christie’s, London, July 5, 2000 (lot 64,
unsold), where it was catalogued as from the circle
of Sansovino, around 1530 to 1550. Daniel Katz
Ltd, London, sold it in 2001 to Prince Hans-Adam
II von und zu Liechtenstein.
References
Bode 1904, pp. 38–39, 64, repr. [Sansovino?].
Bode 1907, vol. 2, p. 23, pl. CLVI [Sansovino?].
James Draper in Bode 1980, p. 102 [North Italian,
late 16th–early 17th century]. Katz 2001, no. 8
[Sansovino]. Manfred Leithe-Jasper in Vienna 2010,
no. 29 [Sansovino, 1530–50]. Siracusano 2011,
pp. 88–89, fig. 114 [Tiziano Minio?].
1. On bronze casting in Sansovino’s workshop, see
Boucher 1991, vol. 1, pp. 145–47.
2. Siracusano 2011, pp. 88–89.
3. Boucher 1991, vol. 1, pp. 151–52.
4. Boucher 1991, vol. 1, pp. 151, 165–66, figs. 422, 423.
5. Boucher 1991, vol. 2, pp. 323–24, figs. 93–95, as from
the 1530s.
6. Boucher 1991, vol. 2, p. 355, fig, 350. The work was
formerly in the Museo Archeologico and the Cà d’Oro.
7. Avery 2016, pp. 84–85, no. 40.
8. Avery 2016, pp. 85, no. 95. See also Wixom 1975,
no. 133 [as Angelo de Rossi]. The work comes from the
Trivulzio collection, Milan.
9. Bode 1904; Stevenson 1997, pp. 81–131.
10. Warren 1996, pp. 128–30, 140–42.
11. Bode 1913, esp. p. 51.
12. Charles Davis, “Inventory and valuation of works
of art of artistic interest at Bath House Piccadilly, the
property of Sir Julius Wernher” (April 1913); cited in
Christie’s, July 4, 2000 (lot 64). Photographs of Bath
House taken by Bedford Lemare in 1911 can be seen in
Stevenson 1997, figs. 1.2, 1.3, 1.4. Stevenson discusses
South African collectors of old masters.
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
cat. 10
Giovan Francesco Susini (1585–1653)
John the Baptist
ca. 1635
marble, height 102.9 cm (40 ½ in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Patrons’ Permanent Fund,
2005.109.1
The accession of Cosimo I as duke of Florence in
1537, followed by his coronation as grand duke of
Tuscany in 1570, was accompanied by a decline
in the representation of John the Baptist in public
settings. The patron saint of Florence fell out of
favor in comparison to symbols of the Medici family
or of Tuscany as a whole. Vincenzo Danti’s bronze
group of the Beheading of John the Baptist for the
Baptistery, completed in 1571, was the principal
public representation of the saint in the period from
1540 to 1630. In the 1580s, Giambologna carved
a John the Baptist in marble for the Salviati Chapel
in San Marco, and a bronze version was made in
1588 (Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence).1 Images
of the Baptist as a symbol of Florence could be
encountered in foreign settings, as in a 1549 triumphal entry in Antwerp (see p. 38), since he was such
a recognizable embodiment of the city. The late
sixteenth-century interest in mythology and allegory
seems to have further discouraged depictions of
the Baptist.
After a long hiatus, Giovan Francesco Susini
took up the subject of the young John the Baptist
in the desert in a major work in marble completed
in the 1630s. The depiction of the seated figure
recalls representations of the young Baptist made
in terracotta more than a century earlier (cat. 2).
However, Susini’s figure has an elegantly spiraling
pose: the head turns away from the gesturing arm
while his legs pivot in opposite directions.
Susini’s marriage of an early Cinquecento
type with late Mannerist exaggeration has caused
immense confusion among modern experts who
have attributed this sculpture to Michelangelo,
Andrea Sansovino, Pierino da Vinci, and Bernini,
among others – attributions that span more than
a century. Finally, Francesco Caglioti (2012) recognized the work as by Giovan Francesco Susini, more
famed as the maker of fine small bronzes in the early
seventeenth century. Indeed, the composition of a
seated male nude very closely resembles Susini’s
David, which the artist modeled in terracotta (fig. 1)
and then cast in bronze.2 One of the bronzes of the
figure, signed by the artist, has been documented in
the collection of the prince of Liechtenstein since
1658, and may have been acquired from the artist
around 1635 to 1636. As with the Baptist, David
looks away from his gesturing arm.
Susini was not alone in creating a graceful
marble figure of the seated Baptist in the seventeenth century. At about the same time, another
Florentine sculptor, Domenico Pieratti, also
carved a young Baptist invested with elegance and
a spiraling pose (fig. 2). It has been argued that
Pieratti’s work represents a distinctly Roman style,
in contrast to that of Susini and his circle. For
example, Caravaggio’s paintings of John the Baptist
(Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and Galleria
Doria Pamphilj, Rome) show a similar bent arm,
but otherwise the poses are completely different.3
The arm of Pieratti’s Baptist more closely resembles
that of Caravaggio’s Bacchus in the Galleria Borghese,
Rome, but significantly, Pieratti makes his figure
turn away from his hand, here holding a honeycomb,
a reference to the honey that nourished the saint in
the wilderness.
The two marble figures by Pieratti and Susini are
remarkably similar in type, format, and emotional
impact, especially since no other marble sculptures
of the young seated Baptist from the period are
known.4 Both sculptures revive the grace of early
sixteenth-century Florentine sculpture..
Attribution
In the early twentieth century, the marble sculpture in Washington was thought to be by Andrea
Sansovino. It came to wider attention in 1949
when it was shown at an exhibition on Leonardo
da Vinci in Los Angeles with a cautious attribution to Leonardo’s nephew Pierino da Vinci
(1529–1553). Then, in 1964, a lavish volume of
112 plates was published to advocate an assignment
to Michelangelo, an idea that met with widespread
ridicule. However, no convincing alternative was
put forward and the work was variously assigned to
Pierino da Vinci, Pietro and Gian Lorenzo Bernini
from around 1614 to 1615 (Parronchi 2003), and
even a nineteenth-century imitator.
The John the Baptist can be compared with
Susini’s documented works in marble: a signed, if
somewhat worn, marble sculpture of Bacchus with a
young satyr in the Louvre (M.R. 2096) and a Venus
dated 1637 in the Villa La Pietra (Caglioti 2012).
In 2005, the National Gallery of Art acquired the
sculpture with the attribution to Susini.
Alan Chong
121
122
CATALOGUE: JOHN THE BAPTIST
123
fig. 1
Giovan Francesco Susini, David
with the Head of Goliath, ca. 1630.
Terracotta, height 24.5 cm. Biblioteca
Nazionale Centrale, Florence.
MCF-L.F. 2004-3469.
fig. 2
Domenico Pieratti, John the Baptist,
1640s. Marble, height 71.1 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York. European Sculpture and
Decorative Arts Fund, 2006.70.
Provenance
The sculpture was reportedly purchased in 1900
near Bologna by Albitez for Daniel Noorian as a
work by Andrea Sansovino. Daniel Z. Noorian (d.
1929), New York and Newark; auction: American
Art Association, New York, March 12–14, 1931
(lot 643, as Sansovino), unsold; by descent to Belle
Ward Noorian. Piero Tozzi (d. 1974), New York (by
1964). Purchased by the museum in 2005 through
Robert Simon Fine Art, New York.
References
Los Angeles 1949, no. 101, repr. [attributed to
Pierino da Vinci]. De’ Maffei 1964 [Michelangelo].
Parronchi 2003, pp. 71–78 [Pietro and Gian
Lorenzo Bernini]. Caglioti 2012, pp. 6, 58–60 notes
34–39 [Susini ca. 1635, with earlier literature].
Freddolini 2016, pp. 417–18 note 30, repr.
1. Charles Avery in Edinburgh et al. 1978, p. 136, no. 91.
2. Dimitrios Zikos in Florence 2013, p. 234.
3. Wardropper 2011, p. 119, citing James Draper. The
John the Baptist by Susini in Washington is not mentioned
in relationship to Pieratti’s work, a comparison made by
Freddolini 2016, p. 417.
4. Similar to the marbles by Susini and Pieratti is a
terracotta of the seated Baptist, sold at Sotheby’s, New
York, June 10–11, 1983 (lot 62), height 29 cm, the head
perhaps a replacement. Lorenzo Principi kindly brought
this to my attention.
5. Caglioti 2012, p. 6.
6. De’ Maffei 1964. The responses are recounted by
Caglioti 2012, pp. 58–60.
7. Caglioti 2012, p. 6.
124
cat. 11
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli
Bust of Charles V
1539–41
marble, height without base 62 cm (24 ⅜ in.),
height including base 78 cm (30 ¾ in.)
Museo Nazionale della Certosa
di San Martino, Naples
AM 10824, Dep. 421
Montorsoli sculpted this portrait during his first stay
in Genoa, from 1539 to 1541, around the time he
also produced a bust of Jacopo Sannazaro in Santa
Maria del Parto, Naples, and a portrait of Alfonso V
of Aragón (see essay by Ramiro). The Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V (1500–1558) is represented
in the manner of ancient Roman busts, with short
hair and an idealized face, which softens and somewhat conceals his famous jutting jaw. The likeness
generally accords with the emperor’s appearance
125
fig. 1
Giovanni Britto after Titian,
Charles V, ca. 1535–40. Woodcut,
50 × 35.3 cm. British Museum,
London. 1846,0509.26.
fig. 2
Giovanni Britto after Titian,
Charles V, 1540s. Woodcut,
40.5 × 28.2 cm. British Museum,
London. 1866,0714.51.
fig. 3
Charles V, late 16th century. Marble,
height 72 cm. Private collection.
fig. 4
Charles V, 18th century?
Marble, height 62.5 cm. Lady Lever
Gallery, Port Sunlight. LL 158.
after his coronation as emperor in Bologna in 1530.
Montorsoli’s bust strikes a balance between ancient
and Burgundian traditions. For example, the state
portrait in armor was adopted by some of Charles’s
Burgundian predecessors, such as Charles the
Bold (1433–1477), and by Charles V himself as a
boy in a painting that depicts him wearing armor
and holding a sword (Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna, inv. 5618). The son of Philip the Fair of
Burgundy, Charles was brought up in the culture
of the Netherlands before his election as emperor
in 1519.
Images of Charles V combine his roles of
Christian knight and new Roman emperor. Such an
expression of power through portraiture had considerable impact on the contemporaneous portraits of
Italian princes striving to mimic imperial authority,
including Andrea Doria in Genoa; Alfonso d’Este,
duke of Ferrara; and Cosimo I de’ Medici, duke
of Florence and later grand duke of Tuscany. This
phenomenon is demonstrated by the numerous
painted and sculpted portraits in armor commissioned from artists associated with the imperial
court such as Titian, Bronzino, Cellini, Alfonso
Lombardi, and Montorsoli. Montorsoli creates a
forceful and determined image that asserts imperial
dignity. The vitality of the portrait may have been
derived from Titian’s portrait of Charles V in armor
made in 1533, known through prints by Agostino
Veneziano and Giovanni Britto. Britto produced two
woodcuts, one showing the emperor with a sword
(fig. 1), the other a close-up view with an attached
sonnet in praise of the emperor’s rule (fig. 2).1
Despite the militaristic accouterments of the
portrait, Montorsoli gives Charles V a depth of
character through the expression of the face and
126
treatment of the hair. The sitter turns slightly to
his left, softening the rigid frontality of the image
and giving it dynamism. The intensity of the gaze,
with the iris and pupil sharply delineated, and the
half-open mouth, which reveals some teeth, further
humanize the marble. The gravitas of the character
is accentuated through the wrinkles around the
eyes, temple, and forehead, as well as the eyebrows,
which are typical of Montorsoli, seen for example
in the bust of Tommaso Cavalcanti (Santo Spirito,
Florence). The rest of the face has a hardness
and specificity of modeling that is different from
Montorsoli’s portraits of Sannazaro and Alfonso
V. The beard achieves remarkable pictorial effects
through the subtlety in which it blends with the skin.
The marble is drilled to create a sense of shadow as
it breaks up the strands of the beard.
According to Vasari, Montorsoli carved two
portraits of Charles V, in addition to two others of
Andrea Doria. The busts of the emperor were said
to have been taken to Spain by the imperial secretary,
Francisco de los Cobos. Charles V was in Genoa
in 1541 and 1543, but Cobos did not accompany
the emperor on those occasions because he was
in Spain with the crown prince, the future Philip
II. Therefore, it is more likely that the portraits
by Montorsoli were entrusted to another courtier,
Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle, who took a large
number of works of art back from Italy. The busts
sent to Spain in the 1540s are most likely the works
now in the Prado and the Brou Monastery (see
pp. 64, 66). This bust, Montorsoli’s protoype, was
undocumented until it appeared in Naples in 1933.
Attribution
This bust was first attributed to Montorsoli by
Martin Weinberger (1963), although with some
hesitation, as he did not regard the portrait of Jacopo
Sannazaro as by the artist. Marina Causa Picone in
1964 thought the bust was made in Naples, perhaps
by the local sculptor Giovanni da Nola, with reflections of Montorsoli’s work.2 R. Middione (2001)
failed to cite Weinberger and incorrectly credited
Causa Picone with the attribution to Montorsoli.
Karl Möseneder (1979) and Birgit Laschke (1993)
in their monographs on Montorsoli attribute the
bust to him.
Versions
Close copies of this bust by Montorsoli’s workshop
are in Madrid and Bourg-en-Bresse (see pp. 64, 66).
In another version based on one of these examples,
the features have been schematized and the face has
lost the vitality of the Montorsoli’s model (fig. 3).3
A later copy, perhaps of the eighteenth century, is
in the Lady Lever Gallery, Port Sunlight (fig. 4).4
More distantly related works include a bust in
the Palazzo Ajutamicristo, Palermo, where the sitter
wears a laurel wreath and armor close to sculptures
by Leoni. This bust is similar to one in the Palacio
Mirabel, Plasencia. Both are probably from the
1540s. The bust of Charles V in the courtyard of the
Casa de Pilatos, Seville, seems to have no connection
to Montorsoli or his workshop.5
Sergio Ramiro Ramírez
Provenance
The work was deposited in the Certosa di San
Martino, Naples, in 1933, presumably from an
official or religious institution in Naples.
References
Weinberger 1963, p. 43, fig. 2. M. Causa Picone
in Naples 1964, p. 9, no. 1. Möseneder 1979, p. 139
[Montorsoli]. Laschke 1993, pp. 59–60, no. 8
[Montorsoli]. Middione 2001, p. 65. Malgouyres
2007, pp. 20–22. L. Finocchi Ghersi in Trento 2009,
p. 234, no. 38. Ramiro 2016, pp. 285–91.
1. Rosand and Muraro 1976, pp. 204–7, 314.
2. Naples 1964, p. 9: “certamente in ambito di Giovanni
da Nola ma anche marcatamente in direzione montorsoliana,” and states that it is unpublished.
3. López de Aragón: 20 Years in Maastricht (2015),
pp. 110–11.
4. Liverpool 1983 [as Italian 16th century]. Edward
Charles Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke, sold at Christie’s,
London, June 28, 1893 (lot 139); to William Lever by
1914.
5. Despite the views of Trunk 2002, no. 70, fig. 80; and
Estella 2008, pp. 22–23.
CATALOGUE: HAPSBURG COURT
127
cat. 12
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli
Sketch for a Fountain
ca. 1540
black chalk and pen in brown ink on paper,
11.9 × 17.4 cm (4 ⅝ × 6 ⅞ in.)
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge
Charles A. Loeser, Florence,
Bequest to Fogg Art Museum, 1932.349
The ancient figure of Laocoon had considerable
impact on Montorsoli’s fountains made in Genoa
around 1540 to 1543, for example, the Dolphin
Fountain and the sculpture of Triton (see essay by
Ramiro). The artist’s typical Triton, a hybrid beast
that combines a human torso with a fish tail, taps
into the muscular athleticism of Laocoon. The
raised, outstretched arms of the sea creatures mimic
Montorsoli’s reconstructed arm of the ancient sculpture. This drawing appears to be a working sketch
for a fountain consisting of a basin supported by
Tritons. The project differs from Montorsoli’s known
fountains in that the Tritons are not freestanding or
encircling a column, but support a large basin along
the edges. Probably made in Genoa around 1540,
the drawing may represent a preparatory stage of a
fountain shipped to Spain, but now lost.
cat. 12 verso.
128
In addition, there exist two bronzes that
appear to have been based on the sea monsters
in Montorsoli’s fountains, one in the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge, the other formerly with
Maurice de Rothschild, Paris.1
The drawing was evidently made in successive
stages, first in black chalk, and then in pen with
brown ink. The somewhat flattened basin seems to
have been added later by the artist, who also sketched
another figure at the right. The verso also has several
sketches: a penis drawn in red chalk and a faint image,
perhaps of a figure or a hand, in black chalk.
The assignment of drawings to Giovan Angelo
Montorsoli starts from an album assembled by his
pupil Giovanni Vincenzo Casale (1539–1593).
Many of the sheets in the album, in the Biblioteca
Nacional de España (see pp. 68, 73), bear
sixteenth-century attributions and annotations.2
The sheets directly related to Montorsoli’s projects
in Messina and Genoa show a stylistic similarity to
the Sketch for a Fountain in the use of pen and carefully applied washes, sometimes with the addition
of black chalk. On the basis of the Casale album,
similar drawings of fountains can be attributed
with confidence to Montorsoli.3 Annamaria Petrioli
Tofani judiciously added to Montorsoli’s oeuvre a
few other sheets in the Uffizi with old attributions
to the artist.4 Scholars of Montorsoli have otherwise
avoided extensive discussion of the artist’s drawings.
The discovery of drawings in an underground room
beneath the New Sacristy led to the attribution of
some of the sketches to Montorsoli, a theory that
has no firm basis given the vast difference in scale
and medium between these sketches and the previously attributed drawings.5 Finally, Montorsoli was
instrumental in founding the Accademia del disegno
at the end of his life. He provided support and funds
for the organization, and designed its seal, as shown
in a drawing.6 Montorsoli carved the design into
a marble plaque set into the floor of the painters’
chapel, the Cappella dei pittori, at Santissima
Annunziata, Florence (see p. 11).
Alan Chong
Provenance
This drawing was part of a collection of some
two hundred Italian drawings owned by Charles
Loeser (1864–1928), son of the owner of a department store in Brooklyn. Charles was educated at
Harvard and settled in Florence in 1890. He wrote
articles on Renaissance art and furnished his Villa
Gattaia with an impressive collection. Bernard
Berenson, who had been his classmate at Harvard,
also settled in Florence, but the two quarreled
bitterly. Loeser bequeathed a group of objects to
the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, including two
terracotta battle scenes by Gianfrancesco Rustici,
an artist he wrote about.7 Loeser also presented
eight paintings by Cézanne to the White House,
and the drawings to Harvard University. This sheet
is recorded in the export inventory of 1928. The
remainder of the collection remained with Loeser’s
family in the Villa Gattaia until the outbreak of
World War II led to the confiscation of part of the
collection. In 2011, a painting of Saint Catherine
of Alexandra by Bernardo Strozzi, which had been
seized by Nazi officials in 1943, was returned to
Loeser’s granddaughter Philippa Calnan, who gave
the work to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
References
Mongan and Sachs 1940, vol. 1, no. 95
[Florentine?, 16th century]. Vitzthum 1963, p.
57, pl. 41 [Montorsoli]. Möseneder 1979, p. 166.
Laschke 1993, p. 169 [uncertain]. Francini 2000, p.
122 [cartella R, no. 3: “Scuola fiorentina (progetto
di fontana),” 15 lire].
1. Cambridge: inv. M.15-1979, height 45 cm;
Avery 2002, no. 65 [as perhaps after a lost 16thcentury model]. Rothschild: Bode 1907, vol. 3,
pp. 23, 35, pl. 260 [as Sansovino? or Montorsoli?].
2. Bustamante and Marías 1991 provides a comprehensive analysis of the album; there is an index of
the drawings compiled by Alessandro Massai in the
eighteenth century. Laschke 1993 makes the relevant
connections with Montorsoli’s major commissions. See
also Vitzthum 1963; Kubler 1978; and Lanzarini 1998.
3. Uffizi, Florence (943E; Kubler 1978, fig. 10.7).
Biblioteca Reale, Turin (15710). Staatliche Graphische
Sammlung, Munich (12857). Musée Fabre, Montpellier
(837.1.291; Vitzthum 1963, pl. 40). See Petrioli Tofani
2003, p. 151.
4. Petrioli Tofani 2003. Other assignments to Montorsoli
include a drawing of a double tomb (Louvre, inv. 837);
Wallace 1987. This has been refuted by Bambach 2017,
p. 125, who attributed the drawing to Michelangelo’s
workshop (Stefano di Tommaso Lunetti?).
5. Elam 1981, p. 601, note 32; Collareta 1992.
6. Laschke 1987; Laschke 1993, figs. 177–80.
7. Loeser 1928.
CATALOGUE: NEW SACRISTY
129
cat. 13
Cornelis Cort (ca. 1533–1578)
Virgin and Child with Saint Cosmas and
Saint Damian in the New Sacristy
1570
engraving,
41.9 × 29 cm (16 ½ × 11 ⅜ in.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Purchase, Anne and Carl Stern Gift, 1959
59.642.81
130
cat. 14
Cornelis Cort
Tomb of Lorenzo de’ Medici
in the New Sacristy
1570
engraving,
41.7 × 27.3 cm (trimmed; 16 ⅜ × 10 ¾ in.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1945
45.47.3(5)
Signed lower left: Corne. Cort fe.; dated lower
right: 1570
CATALOGUE: NEW SACRISTY
131
cat. 15
Dated lower left: 1570
Cornelis Cort
Tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici
See pp. 80–81 for further discussion.
in the New Sacristy
1570
engraving,
42.2 × 27.2 cm (trimmed; 16 ⅝ × 10 ¾ in.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1945
45.47.3(6)
References
Sellink 2000, no. 219, 217, 218 [on cats. 13–15;
1st states]. Rosenberg 2003, pp. 126–30 [Cort may
have used drawings by Giovanni Battista Naldini for
these prints]. Barnes 2010, pp. 153–57.
132
cat. 16
Sandro di Lorenzo (1483–ca. 1554)
Bacchus
mid-1520s
terracotta with remains of paint
height 27 cm, length 39.5 cm (10 ⅝ × 15 ⅝ in.)
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota
Museum purchase, 1949
SN1402
Bacchus, the god of wine, reclines uneasily on a
wine casket, his left leg tucked under him. He holds
a shallow cup in one hand and a pitcher in the other.
The figure is based on ancient sculptures of river
gods, and may have been inspired by Michelangelo’s
river gods, which were planned but never carved for
the Medici tombs (see p. 80).
This work belongs to an extensive group of
expressively modeled terracottas that have long been
attributed to the Master of the Unruly Children,
an artist apparently based in Florence in the early
sixteenth century.1 This particular composition
is described in documents from 1523 when the
artist Sandro di Lorenzo di Smeraldo submitted
four terracottas to be valued as payment to a notary.2
The context of the valuation suggests that the works
may have been made by Sandro, but the documents
do not state this. The four sculptures are described
first as terracottas, then in the valuation three are
called “terra cruda” or “terra non cocta,” that is, unfired
clay. The sculptures are listed as: a Laocoon painted
to simulate bronze; a male child after Desiderio da
Settignano, also painted bronze; a Judith after Andrea
del Verrocchio; and a Bacchus. The composition of
the Bacchus is described in detail: “a Bacchus, also of
unfired clay, reclines and rests on a wine cask, and on
the left side holds in his hand a vase that pours forth
water, which is 3/4 braccia [44 cm] high.”3
This description closely matches four extant
terracottas, including this example. No other
figures of Bacchus with these specific features are
known, whether ancient or Renaissance, making
it almost certain that the 1523 document refers to
this composition. The other terracottas are: formerly
with Daniel Katz, London (which is missing the cup
and has a modern replacement head); Princeton
CATALOGUE: NEW SACRISTY
133
fig. 1
Sandro di Lorenzo, River God,
ca. 1523. Terracotta, length 31.5 cm.
Private collection.
University Art Museum; and Trinity Fine Art,
London (these last two lack the left leg).4 Similar in
form but lacking the pitcher is a terracotta in Detroit
Institute of Arts.5 Some of Sandro di Lorenzo’s
figures of Bacchus seem to have been paired with
river gods (fig. 1).
Sandro di Lorenzo as Master of the
Unruly Children
The valuation of 1523 provides circumstantial
evidence that Sandro di Lorenzo is the Master of the
Unruly Children. In addition, it can now be documented that in 1521 Jacopo Guicciardini ordered
from Sandro “a terracotta cast” (uno getto di terracotta)
depicting Filippo Benizi (1233–1285), superior
general of the Servites who had revitalized the order.6
Benizi was beatified in 1516, which undoubtedly
occasioned the making of this portrait, and canonized in 1671. In 1592, the Guicciardini family gave
the terracotta portrait to the church of Santissima
Annunziata, Florence, where it remains (fig. 2).
Further evidence comes from the testimony of
Antonfrancesco Grazzini, founder of the Accademia
della Crusca and known as Lasca, who in the 1530s,
described seeing a terracotta group depicting six
riders and foot soldiers in combat, at a terracotta
workshop (terraiuolo) in the Piazza San Giovanni,
Florence.7 Not only was this subject (with this
number of figures) produced by the Master of the
Unruly Children (fig. 3), but Sandro di Lorenzo
had his studio in the Piazza San Giovanni.8
As one of the less prominent artists in Florence
in the early sixteenth century, Sandro di Lorenzo
needed to diversify his offerings and respond quickly
to market demand. He produced a wide array of
terracotta objects – not just statuettes, but also
death masks and household crockery – and even
made perfume.9 On one occasion, Sandro made
160 painted terracotta dolls of the infant Christ
Child to be presented to nuns. The 1523 valuation
demonstrates the artist’s nimbleness: the works
included two copies of fifteenth-century sculptures
by Desiderio and Verrocchio, and one of the earliest recorded terracotta reductions of the famous
Laocoon in the Vatican. The Bacchus itself is a very
early variant of the river gods in the New Sacristy,
134
fig. 2
Sandro di Lorenzo, Bust of Filippo
Benizi, 1521. Terracotta.
Santissima Annunziata, Florence.
which demonstrates that Sandro di Lorenzo had
somehow insinuated himself into Michelangelo’s
circle. Other aspects of Sandro’s work show similarities with Michelangelo’s workshop.10
The theory that the Master of the Unruly
Children is indeed Sandro di Lorenzo solves a long
mystery. The conventional name was first coined
in 1890 by Wilhelm Bode, who put together a
group of terracottas and assigned them to the late
fifteenth century.11 More recently, the terracottas
have received a bewildering array of attributions,
from Giovanfrancesco Rustici, Jacopo Sansovino,
and Niccolò Tribolo to Pietro Torrigiani and
Bartolomeo Ammannati.12
Lorenzo Principi
Provenance
The work belonged to Oscar Bondy (1870–
1944) of Vienna, who formed a major collection of
more than two thousand paintings, musical instruments, and decorative arts, which were displayed in
his house on the Schubertring in Vienna. When
Nazi Germany absorbed Austria in the Anschluss
of 1938, Bondy’s collection was seized because he
was Jewish. This work was catalogued at that time in
the music room.13 Bondy owned sugar refineries in
Czechoslovakia and was a Czechoslovakian citizen,
which allowed him to leave Austria, after which he
made his way to New York, where he died in 1944.
Toward the end of the war, Bondy’s collection was
stored in Germany, and in 1945 was processed
at the Central Collecting Point in Munich, when
this terracotta was again catalogued.14 In February
1948, the terracotta, along with part of the collection, was returned to representatives of Elisabeth
Bondy, Oscar’s widow, who had it shipped to New
York.15 Elisabeth Bondy sold the sculpture through
Blumka Gallery, New York [as a river god by Jacopo
Sansovino], to the Ringling Museum in January
1949 for $500.16
Reference
Principi 2018, p. 86, no. 33.
1. On the critical history of the group, see Principi 2018,
pp. 31–57, 81–109; also Avery 1981, pp. 46–49; Principi
2016, pp. 19–38, 53–67.
2. Butterfield and Franklin 1998.
3. Butterfield and Franklin 1998, p. 824: “uno Bacho,
pure di terra non cocta, che istà a diacere et posasi in sun
una bocte et dal lato mancho ha in mano uno vaso che
butta acqua, che è di grandezza di 3/4.”
4. Principi 2018, pp. 21–27.
5. Reproduced in Butterfield and Franklin 1998, p. 819,
as attributed to Sansovino.
6. Principi 2018, pp. 57–63.
CATALOGUE: NEW SACRISTY
135
fig. 3
Sandro di Lorenzo, Battle between
Horsemen and Soldiers, 1510–20.
Terracotta with traces of paint,
height 54 cm. Daniel Katz, London
(2007).
7. Lasca, Lezione di maestro Niccodemo dalla Pietra al
Migliaio sopra il Capitolo della Salsiccia (Florence, 1589).
Principi 2018, pp. 184–87. Lasca saw another terracotta
of the same subject with Giovambattista del Verrocchio,
whose workshop had belonged to Sando di Lorenzo
between 1519 and 1526.
pp. 216–45; and Theodor Brückler, report on Karton 15,
15/1 [BDA-Archiv].
14. Central Collecting Point no. 2256/9. Online: http://
www.dhm.de. The depot possessor is listed as Hitler,
but the object does not occur in any of the lists for the
Führermuseum, Linz. The object entered the Allied
8. There are four versions of this battle scene, two in the Central Collecting Point, Munich, on July 2, 1945, and
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence; one in the Pushkin Museum, was returned to Austria on Nov. 29, 1946.
Moscow; and the one illustrated here in fig. 3. See
Principi 2018, pp. 283–91.
15. The terracotta was turned over to Bondy’s representatives, the shippers Kühner & Söhne, on Feb. 17, 1948;
BDA-Archiv, RestMat, K. 15-1 M2, PM Bondy Oskar, fol.
9. Waldman 2005; Principi 2018.
54. I am grateful for the assistance of Anita Stelzl-Gallian
of the Büro der Kommission für Provenienzforschung
10. Principi 2018, pp. 44, 47, 62.
beim Bundeskanzleramt, Vienna.
11. Bode 1890, pp. 103–5.
16. Elisabeth Bondy’s paintings were sold by Kende
Galleries, New York, on March 3, 1949. Blumka Galleries,
12. Surveyed in Principi 2016 and Principi 2018.
New York, seems to have sold the sculptures and objects:
13. Listed in the inventory of Bondy’s collection seized a bust by Sebastian Loscher was acquired by the Museum
in 1938: “Terracottagruppe. Liegender bärtiger Bacchus of Fine Arts, Boston (49.4); a sculpture by Nicolas
mit Krug, aus dem Wein quillt, und Trinkschale”; Lillie Weckmann, among others, was sold to the Metropolitan
2003, p. 244. On Bondy and his collection, see ibid., Museum of Art (48.154.1).
136
Back of cat. 17
(see p. 84 for front view).
cat. 17
Circle of Niccolò Tribolo
Dusk
1540s
terracotta with traces of paint
height 46 cm, length 52 cm, depth 23 cm
(18 ⅛ × 20 ½ × 9 in.)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Decorative Arts Purchase Fund, 68.28
Provenance
The work was owned by Carl Alexander, Grand
Duke of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1818–1901),
Weimar, who bequeathed it to privy councillor
(Geheimer Hofrat) Carl Ruland (1834–1907).1 An
accomplished scholar of art and literature, Ruland
served as private secretary and librarian to Prince
Albert in London beginning in 1859, and remained
in service to Queen Victoria after the prince’s death
in 1861. In 1870, Ruland became director of the
Weimar museums and was later the founding director of the Goethe Museum.
Ruland’s son reportedly sold the sculpture to
the Count Pourtalès, Germany, and it was then
owned by Benno de Terey (1903–1973), New York.
Benno de Terey’s father, Gábor Térey, was director
of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. Benno
immigrated to the United States after his father’s
death in 1927 and became a reknowned interior
designer in New York, where he created displays
for the decorative art dealers French and Company.
Sold by Benno de Terey to the museum in 1969.
References
Steinmann 1907, pp. 82, 84 note 3, fig. 18.
Thode 1908, vol. 1, p. 485. Tolnay 1948, p. 155, no.
8. D. T. Owsley in Carnegie Magazine, no. 44 (1970),
pp. 25–26 [perhaps Pietro Francavilla]. Wixom
1975, under nos. 138–39 [attributed to Tribolo].
1. Steinmann 1907, pp. 82, 84 note 3; Thode 1908, vol. 1,
p. 485.
137
Back of cat. 18
cat. 18
Johan Gregor van der Schardt (ca. 1530–1581)
Day
New York. President of Macy’s, Straus began collecting in 1921 and left his collection to the museum in
Houston because his son had settled there.2
1560s
terracotta
height 21.3 cm, length 30 cm (8 ⅜ × 11 ¾ in.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Edith A. and Percy S. Straus Collection, 44.584
Provenance
This terracotta was one of four reductions of
the Times of Day by Michelangelo that belonged
to Paulus von Praun, Nuremberg. In 1801,
the Praun heirs sold the collection to Johann
Friedrich Frauenholz (1758–1822), an art dealer
in Nuremberg; it was then acquired in 1803 by
Oberstleutenant von Gemmingen, Nuremberg. In
1842, most of the terracottas in the Praun collection were sold to the sculptor Ernst Julius Hähnel
(1811–1891), Dresden (by descent to his widow
and daughter), and then owned by the South West
African Trust Company, 1922.
Dr. A. B. Heyer, London, owned thirty-three of
the Praun terracottas, which were sold in twenty-six
lots as by Michelangelo or his school at Christie’s,
London, February 24, 1938. The work in Houston
(lot 61) was sold for £105 to Smith, and was by
far the most expensive object in the sale; the two
other Times of Day now in the Victoria and Albert
Museum (see p. 85) made £27 and £32. The other
works were dispersed: a relief of Hercules and Atlas
is in the AD&A Museum, University of California,
Santa Barbara (1964.480); an arm and hand are
in the Victoria and Albert Museum; and eighteen
others are in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.1
Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., Paris, sold Day
in March 1939 to Percy S. Straus (1876–1944),
References
Murr 1797, p. 241, nos. 29–32 [Michelangelo].
Houston 1945, no. 76 [Michelangelo]. LeBrooy
1972, pp. 52–61 [Michelangelo]. Honnens de
Lichtenberg 1991, pp. 64, 65 [different in character
from the two terracottas in the V&A]. AchillesSyndram 1994, pp. 264–65 [van der Schardt, with
earlier references]. Berger 1994 [van der Schardt].
O’Grody 1999, pp. 295–96.
On the Dawn and Night in the Victoria and
Albert Museum: Larsson 1984, p. 25–27 [van der
Schardt]; Houston and London 2001, no. 31 [van
der Schardt].
1. Seventeen terracottas from the 1938 auction were
acquired by Percival Wolff of Montreal (he acquired
another separately). They were sold by his descendants to
a consortium that gave them to the Museum of Vancouver.
The museum placed nine at auction at Sotheby’s, New
York, Jan. 31, 2013 (lot 354, attributed to van der Schardt),
but they failed to sell. All eighteen were later purchased by
the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
2. Invoice from Seligmann, Rey to Strauss, Mar. 30,
1939 (museum files), gives Dr. A. von Frey as owner after
the auction in 1938. This is presumably Alexander von
Frey (1881–1951), a Hungarian based in Lucerne and
Paris (see www.lostart.de). Frey owned another of the
Praun terracottas after Michelangelo.
(see p. 85 for front view).
138
cat. 19
Marcantonio Raimondi (active 1504–27)
Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1511–20
engraving, 29.2 × 16.3 cm (11 ½ × 6 ⅜ in.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection,
The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949, 49.97.114
See discussion on page 47. The Apollo Belvedere
was raised onto a plinth in 1511, so this engraving
must date from that year or after. This print is a later
version by Raimondi of an almost identical image
(Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 27, no. 330). The S in “sic”
in the inscription is reversed in the second version.
References
Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 27, no. 331. A. Gnann
in Mantua and Vienna 1999, p. 90. Gramaccini
and Meier 2009, pp. 151–52. Bloemacher 2016,
pp. 72–76.
Inscriptions
Inscribed on plinth: Sic. Romae. Ex. Marmore.
Sculpto (Carved in marble as in Rome).
CATALOGUE: APOLLO BELVEDERE
139
cat. 20
Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617)
Apollo Belvedere
ca. 1593, published in 1617
engraving, 41.2 × 30.3 cm (16 ¼ × 11 ⅞ in.)
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Cambridge
Gift of William Gray from
the collection of Francis Calley Gray, G1667
140
cat. 21
Hendrick Goltzius
Hercules and Telephos
ca. 1593, published in 1617
engraving, 41.1 × 29.8 cm (16 ⅛ × 11 ¾ in.)
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum,
Cambridge, Mass. Gift of William Gray from the
collection of Francis Calley Gray, G1666
Goltzius and ancient sculpture
Hendrick Goltzius produced three remarkable
engravings after the ancient Roman sculptures
that he saw in Rome in 1591, two of them restored
by Giovan Angelo Montorsoli. Before he went to
Italy, Goltzius had made prints of mythological
gods and Roman heroes, which are occasionally
based on the bronzes of Willem van Tetrode, a
collaborator of Benvenuto Cellini.1 Goltzius’s
prints of the 1590s after ancient sculptures have a
greater specificity, as they are obviously depictions
of monumental marbles, sometimes accompanied
by modern observers.
Despite the fame of the prints, especially the
image of the Farnese Hercules (fig. 1), questions
linger about their status. They are based on drawings apparently made on the spot in Rome, but
of the forty-three surviving drawings made after
twenty-seven sculptures, Goltzius made only three
engravings, and did not bother to publish them.2
Instead, they were issued in 1617, immediately after
the artist’s death. No convincing explanation has yet
been advanced for Goltzius’s hesitation.
The prints of the two Hercules sculptures each
have two related drawings of the same size, one in
black chalk on blue paper, the other in red chalk
(fig. 2). There is only one black chalk preparatory
drawing for the engraving of the Apollo Belvedere
(fig. 3). The two red chalk drawings of the Hercules
CATALOGUE: HERCULES
141
and Telephos and the Farnese Hercules have been
indented on the reverse to trace the design onto the
plate, which suggests that the red chalk drawing for
the Apollo print is lost.3 Many of the other Roman
subjects exist in two different drawings (all are
preserved in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem). In
general, when two drawings survive of the same
subject, the black chalk drawing on blue paper is less
finished than the red chalk drawing on white paper,
although this is not always the case.4 Twenty of the
sheets are indented for transfer to a second drawing.
Goltzius made the prints after his return to
the Netherlands, perhaps in 1592 or 1593, as the
engraving style is comparable to works from those
years, and certainly before 1600 when the artist abandoned printmaking.5 Goltzius may have intended
to make more engravings of ancient sculptures (or
even of Michelangelo’s Moses), but set the project
aside: the naturalism and genre sensibility of the
three engravings are quite different from the rest of
Goltzius’s prints. The black chalk drawing of one of
the Dioscuri even contains two small observer figures
like those found in the completed prints, suggesting
that the artist was planning to engrave the image.6
Jan Piet Filedt Kok (1993) has proposed that the
three engravings were not completed by Goltzius. He
believes that the Hercules and Telephos and the Apollo
Belvedere were largely engraved by another artist,
because of the mechanical-looking backgrounds.
Today, the Farnese Hercules (fig. 1) is one of
Goltzius’s most famous prints, perhaps because it
appeals to a modern sensibility: the muscle-bound
giant comically dwarfs the observers, who gaze
upward like the bored little putti in Raphael’s Sistine
Madonna. The figures in the completed prints do
not appear in the preparatory drawings; those in
the Farnese Hercules are derived from a separate
metalpoint drawing. These observers are not added
merely for scale but to enhance the sense of wonder
on encountering marvels of ancient art, and perhaps
to reinforce the idea that the sculptures need to be
viewed from different angles, as Goltizius himself
experienced. Dressed in sixteenth-century clothing,
these proxy viewers remind us of the modern world,
and thus of the distance between antiquity and the
present day.
fig. 1
Hendrick Goltzius, Farnese Hercules,
ca. 1593. Engraving, 41.9 × 30.3 cm.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. RP-P-OB-10.348.
142
The print of the Apollo Belvedere includes a young
artist hard at work sketching the statue. Amusingly
diminutive and shy, the figure seems to echo
Goltzius’s own incognito presence in Rome in 1591.
Karel van Mander in 1603–4 says that Goltzius
shunned the attention of prominent Roman patrons
and artists, but dressed like a German peasant and
went by the name of Hendrick van Bracht.7
Alan Chong
Provenance
Francis Calley Gray (1790–1856), bequest
to his nephew, William Gray; gift to Harvard
University, 1857.
References
Reznicek 1961, vol. 1, pp. 325–26. Brummer
1970, pp. 50, 71. Filedt Kok 1993, p 182. Luijten
2003, pp. 119, 122. Leesberg 2012, nos. 380, 379.
Inscriptions
cat. 20:
Inscribed on base: HG Sculp. Apollo Pythius. Cum
privil. Sa. Cae M. Plinth: Herman Adolfz. excud.
Haerlemens.
Margin: Status antiqua Romae in palatio Pontifis
belle vider / opus posthumum, HGoltzij iam
primum divulgat. Ano. M.D.C.XVII. Vix natus
armis Deluis vulcanijs / Donatus infans, sacra
Parnassi iuga / Petij. draconem matris hostem
spiculis / Pythona fixi: nomen inde Pythij. Schrvel
Numbered: 3
cat. 21:
Inscribed on base: HERCULES [ALEXIKAKOS.
in Greek] / In Script. Roman. COMODUS
IMPERATOR
Plinth: HGoltzius sculpt. Cum privil Sæ. Cæ. M. /
Herman Adolfz. excud. Haerlemen
Margin: Statua antiqua Romae in palatio Pontificis
belle vider. / opus posthumum. HGoltzy iam
primum divulgatum An.o M.D.C.XVII. Telamonis
aulam victor Alcides subt, / Telamone natum Jovi, et
Aiacem sinu / Spolys leonis implicans votum dedi, /
Ut fata corpus vulnere intactum darent. / Schreve
fig. 2
Hendrick Goltzius, Hercules and
Telephos, 1591. Red chalk on paper,
39.4 × 18.2 cm. Teylers Museum,
Haarlem. N 27.
CATALOGUE: HERCULES
143
1. Goddard and Ganz 2001.
2. On the drawings, see Reznicek 1961, vol. 1, pp. 89–94,
201–2, nos. 200–253; Miedema 1969; Luijten 2003.
3. Reznicek 1961, vol. 1, nos. 206, 207, 208, 226, 227.
4. Brandt 2001.
5. Reznicek 1961, vol. 1, p. 419, connected the prints to
the series of the Nine Muses dated 1592. They seem even
closer to the Pygmalion and Galatea dated 1593, as pointed
out by Ackley 1981, p. 12. Leesberg 2012, p. 368, simply
dates the prints to 1592 and adds, “They were probably
left unfinished and were completed and posthumously
published.”
6. Luijten 2003, p. 129, no. 40.2. Luijten says that the
figures were included to indicate the immense scale of the
sculpture.
7. Miedema 1994, pp. 390, 391: “wat boerigh op zijn
Hooghduytsch vercleedt, liet hem noemen Hendrick
van Bracht” (dressed somewhat like a peasant in German
clothing, and calling himself Hendrick van Bracht).
fig. 3
Hendrick Goltzius, Apollo Belvedere,
1591. Black chalk on blue paper,
62 × 45.1 cm. Teylers Museum,
Haarlem. K III 23.
144
cat. 22
Marco Dente (active 1515–27)
Provenance
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna.
Laocoon
ca. 1515–23
engraving, 44.5 × 32.7 cm
(trimmed; 17 7⁄16 × 12 15⁄16 in.)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection,
References
Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 27, no. 353 [originally
as Raimondi]. Brummer 1970, p. 78. Mantua and
Vienna 1999, no. 276. Rebaudo 2007, pp. 12–13,
82, no. DS 8. Gramaccini and Meier 2009, no. 91.
The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949, 49.97.122
Marco Dente, or Marco da Ravenna, arrived in
Rome from his native Ravenna in 1515. He worked
for the publisher Baviera (Baviero de’ Carrocci)
along with fellow engravers Marcantonio Raimondi
and Agostino Veneziano. Dente was killed in the
Sack of Rome in 1527. Rebaudo suggests that the
print dates before the spring of 1523, when the arms
of the two sons of Laocoon were partly restored. A
printmaker in the workshop of Antonio Lafreri
copied the main portions of Dente’s image in 1552
for the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae (p. 147).
Inscriptions
Signed lower left: MRCUS. RAVENAS.
Inscribed on plinth: LAOCHOON
The plinth carried the further inscription
(see p. 46): ROMAE IN PALATIO PONT IN /
LOCO QUI VULGO DICITUR / BELVIDERE.
[In the palace of Rome in the place called the
Belvedere.]
145
cat. 23
Nicolas Béatrizet (active 1540–66)
Laocoon
1550s
engraving, 44.4 × 29.2 cm (17 ½ × 11 ½ in.)
Illustrated: British Museum, London.
1920,0420.41.
Exhibited: Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum.
John Witt Randall Fund, R835NA.
37.2 × 24.9 cm (sheet).
In the period from around 1510 to the Sack
of Rome in 1527, printmakers in Raphael’s circle
in Rome occasionally made images of the famous
ancient sculptures in the Vatican. The middle of the
sixteenth century witnessed a surge in printmaking
after the antique, primarily through the work of
foreigners living in Rome, including the publishers Antonio Salamanca and Antoine Lafréry, or
Lafreri (from Spain and France respectively), and
engravers such as the Netherlanders Hieronymus
Cock, Cornelis Cort, and Jacob Bos, as well as the
Frenchmen Nicolas Béatrizet, Stefano Duchetti,
and Étienne Dupérac. They produced a vast number
of prints of ancient and Renaissance monuments,
as well as maps and vistas of Rome, which were
gathered into albums that could be easily marketed,
most famously by Lafreri in the Speculum Romanae
Magnificentiae (Mirror of Roman Magnificence).
Although the title was created only in the mid-1570s,
prints for the series were made beginning in the 1540s,
some for other projects or as independent works.1
146
fig. 1
Hercules and Telephos, 1550. Engraving, 45.4 × 30 cm.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. RP-P-1888-A-13798.
Made for Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae.
The Vatican’s ancient sculptures were reproduced
in differing ways. The Apollo Belvedere continued to
be shown as it had been found in the late fifteenth
century, without Giovan Angelo Montorsoli’s
restoration of 1532–33. For example, the engraving
in the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae is dated
1552, but copies Marcantonio Raimondi’s Apollo
made nearly forty years earlier (cat. 19).2 On the
other hand, the ancient marble Hercules and Telephos
appeared in print for the first time in 1550 with
Montorsoli’s added limbs (fig. 1), in an engraving
that may be by Jacob Bos.3
Montorsoli’s restoration of the Laocoon was
first depicted in a print in 1539, on the frontispiece
for Euralio Morani’s poems on the ancient statues
of Laocoon, Apollo Belvedere, and Venus.4 Although
certain liberties have been taken, Montorsoli’s
reconstruction of Laocoon’s right arm is faithfully
reproduced. Another print of the restored sculpture was issued in 1544 as part of Bartolomeo
Marliani’s illustrated guidebook, Urbis Romae
Topographia.5
Because the illustrations in Speculum Romanae
Magnificentiae were produced over many decades
by many different artists, Lafreri no doubt felt
related images needed some consistency. Thus
the statues in the Vatican Belvedere were often
rendered with heavy shadows, with inscriptions
presented as though carved on the marble plinths;
the river gods were given a distinctive format for
their inscriptions.
Two prints of the Laocoon were included in
Lafreri’s collection of Roman images, one showing
the work in a niche, the other setting it against a
plain wall (cat. 23 and fig. 2). Both have been
attributed to Nicolas Béatrizet, although neither is
signed and the images differ considerably in style.6
They have been called copies of Marco Dente’s
print of the Laocoon (cat. 22), but this is the case
only for figure 2.7 A portion of the egg-and-dart
molding from Dente’s engraving can be glimpsed
under Laocoon’s left armpit in figure 2, showing that
the copyist did not fully understand the sculpture.
This print also lacks a unifying sense of shadow,
which leaves Laocoon’s musculature disjointed and
scaly in appearance. That Laocoon is shown with
Montorsoli’s restoration, but the sons are not, seems
to suggest that the print is based on several different
models.8 cat. 23 reflects Montorsoli’s restoration
of the arms of the three figures, while the print
in figure 2 shows the arms of the sons unrestored.
The shading of the body and the characterization
of the sons in cat. 23 are significantly different
from Dente’s print, to the extent that it cannot be
considered a copy.
We suggest that the two engravings of the
Laocoon in the Speculum are not by the same artist.
While the print in figure 2 would appear to be by
an unknown artist in Lafreri’s workshop, the earlier
version with the niche fully convinces as a work by
Nicolas Béatrizet.9 It shows close similarities with
Béatrizet’s signed prints after ancient sculpture – for
example, the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius
of 1548, a relief of 1553, and the Oceanus dated
1560 (fig. 3).10 Tightly delineated curly hair and
incisively shadowed drapery give these engravings
a peculiar energy, enhanced by intense highlights
scattered throughout the compositions. Béatrizet
gives exaggerated expressions to his faces that
sometimes approach caricature. Lafreri’s name was
added as publisher to the second state of cat. 23,
which hints that the print was not originally made
for the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae.
Nicolas Béatrizet was born in Lorraine and
sometimes signed his work “Lotharingo.” Between
1541 and 1562, he produced nineteen signed prints
CATALOGUE: LAOCOON
for Lafreri’s Speculum.11 In addition, he made numerous prints after Michelangelo’s work, including a
reproduction of the Last Judgment consisting of ten
engravings, which he published himself in 1562.12
Giorgio Vasari mentions Béatrizet as making “many
prints worthy of praise.”13
Alan Chong
10. Rubach 2016, nos. 310, 273, 328 (signed “Nicolao
Beatricio Lotharingo”), repr.
11. Rubach 2016. Also: Bianchi 2003; Bury 1996.
Inscription
Laochoon. On the plinth: Romae in palatio pont 12. Barnes 2010. Last Judgment: Barnes 2010, pp. 202–6;
in / loco qui vulgo dicitur / Belvedere. [In the papal Bury and Lockett 2011.
palace, Rome, the place popularly known as the
Belvedere]
13. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 20: “In Roma, outré ai sopradetti,
References
Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 29, no. 90. Hülsen 1921,
p. 168, no. 59d. Brummer 1970, p. 93. Bianchi
2003, p. 4, no. 99. Rebaudo 2007, pp. 85–86, no.
DS 44 [2nd state described]. Rubach 2016, no. 325
[attributed to Béatrizet].
1. The best catalogue of the Speculum is Rubach 2016.
See also: Parshall 2006; Witcombe 2008; Chicago 2008.
2. Rubach 2016, no. 322, repr.
3. Dated 1550. Rubach 2016, no. 323. Rubach states
that Antonio Salamanca also issued a print of the Laocoon
(Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano, Rome: Cicognara
XII.541,75). The print in fig. 1 has been attributed to
Jacob Bos in Hollstein 1949, vol. 3, p. 150, no. 16.
4. Stanze d’Eurialo d’Ascoli sopra le statue di Lacoonte, di
Venere, e d’Apollo (Rome, 1539), with a woodcut frontispiece of the Laocoon. Rome 2006, pp. 158–59, no. 50,
repr.; Rebaudo 2007, no. DS 39, fig. 22.
5. Brummer 1970, p. 93, fig. 80; Rebaudo 2007, no. DS
40, fig. 23.
6. Print of the Laocoon with no niche: Illustrated Bartsch
vol. 29, no. 91; Bianchi 2003, p. 4, no. 98; Rubach 2016,
no. 324.
7. Hülsen 1921, p. 168; repeated by Bianchi 2004, vol. 3,
p. 4; Rebaudo 2007, pp. 85, 86.
8. It may be derived in part from Cornelis Bos’s print
(signed and dated 1548, in reverse; Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam, RP-P-BI-2784), which is closer to Dente’s
print. On Bos’s print, see Hülsen 1921, no. 59c; and
Bianchi 2003, no. 98.
147
9. Rubach 2016, nos. 324, 325, identifies both versions
of the Laocoon as “attributed to Béatrizet.” Bianchi 2003,
nos. 98, 99, attributes both prints to Béatrizet.
ha talmente dato opera a questi intagli di bulino Niccolò
Beatricio loteringo, che ha fatto molte carte degne di lode.”
fig. 2
Laocoon, mid-16th century. Engraving,
49.1 × 32.1 cm. Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York. 41.72(2.77). Made for
Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae.
fig. 3
Nicolas Béatrizet, Oceanus, 1560.
Engraving, 30.7 × 41.8 cm.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
RP-P-1926-324.
First state. Made for Speculum Romanae
Magnificentiae.
148
CATALOGUE: LAOCOON
149
cat. 24
Italian
Laocoon
ca. 1600
terracotta, height 68 cm (26 ¾ in.)
Princeton University Art Museum
Museum purchase,
gift of Elias Wolf, Class of 1920, and Mrs. Wolf,
y1968-118
Almost from the moment of its discovery in
1506, the ancient sculpture of Laocoon and his sons
being strangled by serpents was copied in various
media – proof of its hold on the artistic imagination. In 1510, a competition was held to produce
a faithful copy on a small scale of the Laocoon.
Jacopo Sansovino produced the winning version
in wax. The Florentine artist Sandro di Lorenzo
made a terracotta reduction of the Laocoon that was
painted in imitation of bronze, which was recorded
in 1523 (see cat. 16). In 1525, Federico Gonzaga,
the marquis of Mantua and builder of the Palazzo
Te, commissioned a gesso version of the Laocoon,
which is said to have been about one braccia high
(68 centimeters or 27 inches).1
Probably made in Rome around 1600, the exhibited terracotta was closely modeled after Giovan
Angelo Montorsoli’s restoration of the Laocoon.
Also falling into the category of collectors’ items
are Stefano Maderno’s highly finished terracottas
of Hercules and Telephos and Laocoon, which are
signed and dated 1620 and 1630 respectively (State
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg).2 Maderno’s
richly expressive terracotta (fig. 1) demonstrates
the uninterrupted fascination with the ancient
group in the Baroque era. Ancient sculptures
sometimes appear in Netherlandish paintings of the
seventeenth century. Abraham Begeyn, for example,
depicted the Laocoon in reverse in the 1670s in a
painting made in England for Ham House, near
London, where the work remains.
Alan Chong
fig. 1
Stefano Maderno, Laocoon,
1630. Terracotta, height 71 cm.
State Hermitage Museum,
St. Petersburg. 553.
150
Provenance
This terracotta and another after the Laocoon
at Princeton (inv. y1968-119) belonged to Ludwig
Pollak (1868–1943), the Czech archaeologist
who in 1905 discovered the original right arm of
Laocoon, four hundred years after the rest of the
statue has been found. Pollak, honorary director of
the Museo Barracco in Rome, died at Auschwitz in
1943. Adolf Loewy, Los Angeles, sold the work to
the museum in 1968.
References
Martin 1968. Brummer 1970, pp. 103–7
[perhaps derived from Sansovino]. Winner 1974, p.
112 note 81. Boucher 1991, vol. 2, pp. 314–15 [not
connected with Sansovino]. Rossi Pinelli 1993, p. 9.
Rebaudo 2007, no. CR 14 [mid-16th century?].
1. Boucher 1991, vol. 1, p. 183.
2. Chicago 1998, nos. 1, 2.
fig. 2
Back of cat. 24.
CATALOGUE: LAOCOON
151
cat. 25
Nicolò Boldrini (active 1520s to 1566),
after Titian (1485/90–1576)
Caricature of the Laocoon
1540s
woodcut, 27.3 × 40 cm (10 ¾ × 15 ¾ in.)
Illustrated: The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York. Rogers Fund, 1922. 22.73.3-125.
Exhibited: Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum.
Gift of William Gray from the collection of Francis
Calley Gray, G464. 27 × 35 cm (trimmed).
See page 53 for discussion.
References
Ridolfi 1648, vol. 1, p. 183 [after Titian]. Janson
1946. Rosand and Muraro 1976, no. 40 [Boldrini
after Titian; with earlier references]. Barkan 1999,
pp. 11, 13–14, 16. Nadine Orenstein in McPhee
and Orenstein 2011, no. 42.
152
CATALOGUE: LAOCOON
cat. 26
Zaccaria Zacchi da Volterra (1473–1544)
Marsyas
ca. 1510
wax, 22 × 10 × 12 cm (8 ⅝ × 4 × 4 ¾ in.)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Gift of Herbert DuPuy, 27.10.378
The ancient marble sculpture Laocoon influenced
innumerable Renaissance works of art within a few
years of its discovery in 1506. An early interpretation
of the composition is Moderno’s bronze plaquette
of the Flagellation of Christ (fig. 1), made around
1510 to 1515, where the pose of Christ is based on
Laocoon’s expression of extreme physical distress.1
In turn, the outstretched arm tied to a column
bears a close relationship to representations of the
Flaying of Marsyas, as seen in this wax sculpture by
Zaccaria Zacchi da Volterra, which was very likely
made around the same time as Moderno’s relief.
The wax sculpture gains in significance because the
artist is one of the earliest recorded copyists of the
Laocoon. In 1510, four artists made wax copies of
the Laocoon in an informal competition (see p. 46).2
According to Giorgio Vasari, Zaccaria Zacchi was
one of the participants.
Wax sculptures in the Renaissance
The physical properties of wax made it a favorite
medium for sculpture.3 The pliable material can
be easily worked, and it hardens naturally without
cracking, as clay sometimes does during firing. Wax
also remains stable when applied over wood or
metal. However, wax is fragile, making its long-term
preservation difficult. Among the most significant
surviving Renaissance waxes is Michelangelo’s model
for the Young Slave (Victoria and Albert Museum,
London, 4117-1854). Besides preparatory works of
this type, wax was also employed for small portraits,
ex-voto images, and anatomical studies. And wax
was fundamental to the casting of bronzes.
Beeswax is naturally yellow, but loses its color
after prolonged exposure to sunlight. Liquefied
wax can be colored with powdered additives. Red,
orange, and green were preferred by Renaissance
artists, since they recalled the metal sculptures cast
from wax models. In his autobiography, Benvenuto
Cellini described in detail how he made a yellow wax
model for his monumental bronze Perseus around
1545. Giambologna produced five models in yellow
wax for the Equestrian Monument of Cosimo I de’
Medici, which was cast in 1591.4 Filippo Baldinucci
wrote that modeling wax, usually white or yellow,
was often mixed with “tallow, turpentine, fine flour,
and cinnabar, to be used to make models of large
and small figures.”5
The small wax model exhibited here was probably made as a study for a larger version in clay or
marble. It was built around a wooden armature,
which demonstrates that the wax was not poured
into a mold. The wood base is not original.
153
Attribution and iconography
The wax Marsyas was tentatively connected with
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli by Birgit Laschke, who
noted similarities with figures on the relief on the
tomb of Jacopo Sannazaro (see p. 155).6 Giorgio
Vasari writes that Montorsoli made wax portraits
of Leo X and Clement VII, Medici popes whose
images were destroyed in 1527 with the expulsion of
the Medici from Florence.7 While the physiognomy
of the Marsyas is not dissimilar to Montorsoli’s
work, the figure is more sparsely handled and the
drapery stiffer, factors that suggest that the wax is
earlier in date. Indeed it seems closer to the time of
the discovery of the Laocoon in 1506.
In ancient art, the satyr Marsyas is often represented as an old man without goat’s legs, and at the
beginning of the sixteenth century such representations became common, especially in Florence and
northern Italy.8 Zaccaria’s wax sculpture demonstrates a close familiarity with ancient art, since
Marsyas is shown tied to a tree. This detail is absent
from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and while it is described
in the Fabulae by Hyginus, the latter was only
published in 1535.9 Therefore, Zaccaria must have
fig. 1
Moderno, Flagellation of Christ,
ca. 1510–15. Bronze,
14.2 × 11 cm. Bode-Museum,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
154
fig. 2
Zaccaria Zacchi, The Lamentation,
ca. 1504. Painted terracotta. Santa
Caterina, Colle di Val d’Elsa.
fig. 3
Zaccaria Zacchi, Nicodemus. Detail
of fig. 2.
shows similarities in the modeling of the abdomen,
with the central muscles in slight relief, and in the
rendering of squarish hands with long fingers. Both
Zaccaria’s Colle di Val d’Elsa Lamentation and
Nymph and Satyr support dating the wax Marsyas
to around 1506 or slightly later.
The subject of the Flaying of Marsyas continued
to attract Zaccaria’s imagination. An alabaster
sculpture of the same subject (fig. 5) is stylistically
related to busts of Christ and the Apostles made by
the artist around 1523 to 1525 for San Giovanni in
Monte in Bologna (fig. 6).12 The alabaster Marsyas
was probably made around 1530, which explains
taken the motif from ancient works of art such as the differences with the wax in Pittsburgh, evident
vases, statues, or carved gems. The ropes that bind above all in the greater luxuriance of the beard and
Marsyas’s hand over his head recall the snakes that hair in the later work.
encircle Laocoon in the ancient marble.
Lorenzo Principi
Born in Volterra, Zaccaria Zacchi worked
in Rome, Florence, Bologna, and Trento.10 The
Provenance
sharp-cornered drapery that falls straight down in
The wax is first recorded in the collection of
tubular forms behind the shoulders of his Marsyas the art dealer and numismatist Arthur Sambon
is similar to the drapery of the painted terracotta (1867–1947), Paris, when he placed it at auction
figures of the Lamentation in Santa Caterina in Colle at Georges Petit, Paris, May 25–28, 1914 (lot 345,
di Val d’Elsa (fig. 2), and in another Lamentation as “Ancien travail italien”); it sold for 75 francs with
group in San Francesco in Volterra, commissioned the buyer recorded as Mellain. Shortly afterward it
in 1504.11 The elongated proportions and exagger- entered the collection of Herbert DuPuy (1856–
ated emotions of Marsyas can be compared with 1930), Pittsburgh, who gave his extensive collection
the expressive faces of Joseph of Arimathea and of small sculptures to the Carnegie Museum of Art
Nicodemus (fig. 3) in the monumental group in in 1927.
Colle di Val d’Elsa. The figures share characteristic features, including hooked noses with a high
References
hump, deep wrinkles, wide mouths contorted by a
Laschke 1993, p. 55 note 73, fig. 186
grimace, and distinctive curls of the beard and hair. [16th-century Italian, Montorsoli?]. Jesse 2017,
Zaccaria’s marble Nymph and Satyr (fig. 4), dated p. 199, fig. 4 [anonymous, Montorsoli?].
1506, also has stylistic ties with the Marsyas; it
CATALOGUE: LAOCOON
155
fig. 4
fig. 5
Zaccaria Zacchi, Nymph and Satyr,
Zaccaria Zacchi, Flaying of Marsyas,
1506. Marble, height 54.6 cm.
ca. 1530. Alabaster, height 44.5 cm.
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Private collection.
New York. Gift of Irwin Untermeyer,
1964, 64.101.1443.
1. Lewis 1989, pp. 129–31; T. Schtrauch in Rome
2006, pp. 155–56. The first version of the composition
by Moderno seems to have been a gilded silver plaque
(Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), made for Cardinal
Domenico Grimani around 1510 to 1515. Grimani also
owned the bronze casting of Jacopo Sansovino’s wax
model of the Laocoon of 1510.
7. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 493. Montorsoli made votive
portraits of the king of Bosnia and “Signor Vecchio” of
Piombino shortly after this. In the autumn of 1534, he
also made a wax portrait of Duke Alessandro de’ Medici.
8. Wyss 1996, pp. 93–95; Faticcioni 2007, p. 132, fig. 10.
9. Faticcioni 2007, pp. 139, 141, 143, doc. 16.
2. Vasari 1966, vol. 6, p. 178. On the date of the competition: Mozzati 2007, pp. 569–70.
3. See Penny 1993, pp. 215–18; and Panzanelli 2008.
10. Lucidi 2012. For Zaccaria’s work in Trento, see
Bacchi 1995. For his work in Volterra and Tuscany,
see La Porta 1998.
4. Krahn 2006, p. 45. They are recorded in 1588.
11. Gennari 1958, pp. 13–14.
5. Baldinucci 1681, pp. 31–32: modeling wax (cera
da modellare) is described as “bianca o gialla co[n] sego,
trementina, farina sottile, e cinabro; serve per far modelli
di figure grandi e piccole.”
12. Lucidi 2012, pp. 147, 165 note 138. I am grateful to
David Lucidi, who wrote an unpublished study of this
alabaster, for bringing it to my attention. It was displayed
by Mauro Prasedi Antiquario, Legnano; see Arte Antica
’97: Lingotto Fiere, Torino, 15–23 Febbraio 1997 (Turin,
1997), p. 116.
6. Laschke 1993, p. 55 note 73.
fig. 6
Detail of cat. 26.
fig. 7
Zaccaria Zacchi, Bust of an Apostle,
1523–25. Marble. San Giovanni in
Monte, Bologna.
156
CATALOGUE: LAOCOON
cat. 27
Silvio Cosini (ca. 1500–1545)
The Flaying of Marsyas
1533
marble, 73 × 60 × 7 cm (28 ¾ × 23 ⅝ × 2 ¾ in.)
Private collection
Jacopo Sansovino may have taken Silvio Cosini on
as a pupil in Florence as early as 1515 to 1520. In
1533 Cosini is securely recorded as working at the
Santo in Padua, the workshop of which was directed
by Sansovino.1 In the same year, Silvio Cosini and
his brother Vincenzo worked at a marble workshop
in Venice on Sansovino’s tomb, which was being
planned for the Frari church in the same city.2 Cosini
arrived in Padua by September 1533 and there is
no further description of his work on Sansovino’s
tomb. The marble components of the monument,
including Cosini’s sculptures, were still in storage in
1568 and were in fact never assembled in the tomb.
The discovery of this relief by Cosini showing the
Flaying of Marsyas raises the intriguing possibility
that it was intended for Sansovino’s tomb.
The Tomb of Jacopo Sannazaro
statue of Andrea Doria and the decorations in the
church of San Matteo.8 Since Montorsoli carved
the Sannazaro tomb in Carrara and Genoa (when
Cosini was also there) and sent the components to
Naples in late 1541, Cosini’s participation in the
project seems very likely.
The Arcadia relief is loosely based on the tenth
eclogue of Arcadia, written by Sannazaro between
1480 and the 1490s, and published in Naples in
1504. The relief is stylistically unlike other works
by Montorsoli, being more detailed and varied in
texture. Conceived in pictorial terms, the relief
subtly blends the figures into the landscape, with
the surface worked in a variety of techniques to
create a rich sense of light and shadow. The Arcadia
relates closely to the Flaying of Marsyas, which
depicts Apollo torturing the satyr Marsyas for
daring to challenge him in music, and both can be
attributed with confidence to Silvio Cosini.9 The
twisting, flexed figures of Marsyas and Neptune are
not only similar in pose, but are carved in an almost
identical manner. The rounded forms of the trees
are also analogous. It is typical of Cosini to leave
drill holes and gradine marks visible to heighten the
Cosini’s Flaying of Marsyas is closely related to
Arcadia, the central relief of the tomb of the celebrated poet Jacopo Sannazaro (fig. 1). Close in
size and style, the works may also have shared the
same decorative role in funerary monuments. The
commission for Sannazaro’s tomb (fig. 2) was given
to Giovan Angelo Montorsoli at the end of 1536
or beginning of 1537, and completed in 1541.3
The base of the tomb is signed by Montorsoli, but
several other artists were involved in the project.
According to Vasari, part of the architectural carving
is by Francesco Ferrucci del Tadda,4 while Borghini
reports that Bartolomeo Ammannati made three
figures for the project, very likely the two putti holding the epigram and the figure of Saint Nazarius.5
Vasari also states that Montorsoli carved a
“historical scene with figures in half relief ” for the
tomb.6 This may have been selective memory on
Vasari’s part, since he was keen to emphasize the
importance of the art establishment in Florence,
which included Montorsoli as the founder of the
Accademia, with the result that Cosini’s role in the
tomb was ignored. Since Montorsoli directed the
project and his name appears on the base, there
has been an understandable tendency to attribute
its major components to him.7 In fact, Cosini is not
documented as working on Sannazaro’s tomb, but he
did work closely with Montorsoli in Genoa around
1540 to 1544, for example, on the monumental
fig. 1
Silvio Cosini, Arcadia, 1536/37–41. Marble,
91 × 100.5 cm. Tomb of Jacopo Sannazaro,
Santa Maria del Parto a Margellina, Naples.
157
158
fig. 2
fig. 3
Giovan Angelo Montorsoli and others,
Silvio Cosini, Presentation of the Virgin,
Tomb of Jacopo Sannazaro, 1536–41. Marble,
ca. 1540. Marble, 172 × 98 cm.
height 485 cm. Santa Maria del Parto a
Cathedral, Savona.
Margellina, Naples.
effects of light. The two reliefs can be compared to
Cosini’s relief of the Presentation of the Virgin (fig. 3)
in the cathedral of Savona, which was carved around
1540.10 The billowing drapery of Apollo in the
Marsyas relief is similar to that of Cosini’s stucco
figures in the Hall of Giants at the Villa del Principe,
Genoa (fig. 4), made from 1531 to 1532.
The Flaying of Marsyas
If Cosini carved the Flaying of Marsyas in 1533
for Sansovino’s tomb, then it is possible that a few
years later, around 1537, he convinced Montorsoli
to adopt the idea of a mythological relief of about
the same size, specifically tailored to the poetry
of Jacopo Sannazaro. The Flaying of Marsyas can
therefore be considered the direct precursor of
the Arcadia relief. Moreover, Cosini’s earlier relief
influenced artistic developments in Venice. The
contortion of Marsyas’s body and the features
of Apollo’s face seem to have inspired Francesco
Salviati’s frescos of 1540 in the Camerino of Apollo
in the Palazzo Grimani (fig. 5).11 The subject is
also depicted on the Loggetta of the Campanile in
Venice (fig. 6), a monument planned and directed
by Sansovino in the 1540s, although he did not
carve the relief, which is poorly preserved.12 The
figure of the satyr is almost precisely quoted from
Cosini’s version, which demonstrates that his work
was well known and commanded respect from
Sansovino, who apparently asked his workshop to
use his tomb relief as a model.
According to an ancient Greek myth, the satyr
Marsyas played a double flute so well that he decided
to challenge Apollo, the god of music.13 The Muses
could not decide the winner of the contest until
Apollo began to sing and play simultaneously, or, in
another version of the story, played his instrument
upside down. As punishment for challenging a god,
Marsyas was condemned to be skinned alive by
Apollo himself.
CATALOGUE: LAOCOON
159
fig. 4
Silvio Cosini, Dance of a Satyr and
Nymphs, 1531–32. Stucco. Hall of
Giants, Villa del Principe, Genoa.
fig. 5
Francesco Salviati, Flaying of Marsyas,
1540. Fresco. Camerino of Apollo,
Palazzo Grimani, Venice.
fig. 6
Workshop of Jacopo Sansovino, Flaying of
Marsyas, 1540s. Marble. Loggetta, Piazza
San Marco, Venice.
In Cosini’s relief, Marsyas is tied to a tree by
one hand. Apollo has begun to slice Marsyas’s
shoulder, drawing blood. In the back at left, two
goat-legged satyrs (unlike Marsyas, who is depicted
with human legs) lament Marsyas’s fate. Ovid, in
the Metamorphoses (6.392–95), writes: “The country
folk, the forest deities, the fauns, and his brother
satyrs all wept.”14
An important source for the tale is the Italian
translation of Ovid published in Venice in 1497,
which was accompanied by fifty-two woodcuts.15
In the print showing Apollo flaying Marsyas
(fig. 7), the musical instrument is not the double
flute mentioned in most ancient sources, but a
bagpipe, exactly as seen in Cosini’s relief. Two seated
figures play bagpipes in the print, while a third
160
fig. 7
Flaying of Marsyas. Woodcut from
Ovidio Methamorphoseos vulgare (Venice,
1497). Signed “ia,” perhaps Jacobus
Argentoratensis.
instrument lies on the ground in front of Marsyas.
Both the print and the sculpture show Marsyas not
as a satyr with goat legs, but as a human, a fairly
common form in the sixteenth century.
The story of the Flaying of Marsyas is a reminder
that real human dissections often took place in the
Renaissance for scientific and artistic purposes.
Michelangelo’s mastery of art was explained by his
“flaying [scorticando] dead bodies to study anatomical matters.”16 Giorgio Vasari tells a macabre story
that Silvio Cosini went far beyond the mere study
of corpses. Cosini took the body of a hanged man
and, “after dissecting it in the interests of art, being
capricious and perhaps a necromancer and someone
who believed in magic and such follies, he flayed it
completely, and prepared the skin as he had been
taught, and thinking that it had some great power,
made a tunic that he wore for a while over his shirt
without anyone ever knowing.”17 Unsurprisingly,
Vasari considered this “the strangest thing in the
world.”
Laocoon
The figures of Neptune and Marsyas in Cosini’s two
reliefs (cat. 27 and fig. 1) are strongly indebted
to the ancient sculpture of Laocoon, which was
restored in 1532 to 1533 by Cosini’s close friend
and collaborator, Giovan Angelo Montorsoli. In
essence, Cosini offers alternative reconstructions
of Laocoon’s missing arm. In the Sannazaro relief,
Neptune’s right arm stretches diagonally outward
in a manner similar to Montorsoli’s reconstruction
(p. 49). In contrast, in the Marsyas relief, the right
arm is shown sharply bent back. The gesture is close
to the original arm (p. 50), although it was only
discovered in 1905.18
Lorenzo Principi
CATALOGUE: LAOCOON
Provenance
The relief is first recorded in 1966 when the
dealer Ettore Viancini, Venice, exhibited it as by
Baccio Bandinelli (3a Mostra nazionale dell’antiquariato: Roma, Palazzo Braschi [Rome 1966], fig.
XVIII). It belonged to Paul and Eula Ganz, and
then to Anthony Roth, London. It was sold after
his death by Sotheby’s, London, December 9, 1993
(lot 71), as attributed to François Marchand.
15. Ovidio Methamorphoseos vulgare (Venice, 1497). The
Italian translation is by Giovanni Bonsignori (active 14th
century). On the woodcuts, see Wyss 1996, pp. 83–85.
16. Vasari 1966, vol. 6, p. 13: “dove molte volte scorticando
corpi morti per studiare le cose di notomia, cominciò a
dare perfezzione al gran disegno che gl’ ebbe poi.”
17. Vasari 1966, vol. 4, p. 260: “e dopo averne fatto notomia per conto dell’arte, come capriccioso e forse maliastro,
e persona che prestava fede agl’incanti e simili sciocchezze,
1. Principi 2014, pp. 112–14.
lo scorticò tutto, et acconciata la pelle secondo che gl'era
stato insegnato, se ne fece, pensando che avesse qualche
2. The workshop was near San Silvestro al Canal Grande. gran virtù, un coietto, e quello portò per alcun tempo
Boucher 1991, vol. 1, pp. 233–34, doc. 256 (testament of sopra la camicia, senza che nessuno lo sapesse già mai.”
1568).
See Campbell 2002, p. 602; Bohde 2003, pp. 28–29.
3. Laschke 1993, pp. 16, 53. Principi 2014, pp. 116–17. 18. Another coincidence is the similarity of the figure
of Marsyas in the 1497 woodcut with the unrestored
Laocoon, as seen in reverse. The positions of the legs are
4. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 496.
nearly identical.
5. Borghini 1584, p. 590. The figures are identified by
Davis 1977, pp. 71–73.
6. Vasari 1966, vol. 5, p. 497: “Là dove [to Carrara] andò
il frate molto volentieri per tirare innanzi con quell’occasione la detta sepoltura del Sanazaro, e particolarmente una
storia di figure di mezzo rilievo.”
7. Laschke 1993, pp. 45–57, 160 (with earlier references).
8. Principi 2014, pp. 114–18.
9. The relief is attributed to Cosini by Ciardi Dupré
1961, pp. 11–12; Principi 2014, p. 115–16; Principi 2017,
pp. 7–8. It is attributed to Montorsoli by Laschke 1993,
pp. 55–56.
10. Principi 2017.
11. Tempestini 2005.
12. Boucher 1991, vol. 2, pp. 334–35, no. 27.
13. On Marsyas in the Renaissance, see Wyss 1996; and
Faticcioni 2007.
14. Illum ruricolae, silvarum numina, fauni / et satyri fratres et tunc quoque carus Olympus / et nymphae flerunt, et
quisquis montibus illis / lanigerosque greges armentaque
bucera pavit.
161
162
cat. 28
Benedetto da Maiano (1442–1497)
Virgin and Child
ca. 1490
painted terracotta, height 107 cm (42 in.)
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester
Museum Purchase: Currier Funds, 1945.3
Benedetto da Maiano spent much of his career
working in Naples and Calabria, as one of the many
artists from Florence who travelled to the south. For
example, Giovan Angelo Montorsoli also undertook
major commissions in Naples and Sicily in the
middle of the sixteenth century.
This painted terracotta sculpture of the standing
Virgin carrying the infant Christ is closely related
to several marble works carved by Benedetto da
Maiano for southern Italian patrons.1 The Currier
Museum’s Virgin and Child is the only known terracotta of this type by the artist, and is especially close
to the sculpture in Santa Maria Assunta e San Elia
in Terranova Sappo Minulio (40 km northeast of
Reggia Calabria), where very similar figures are set
against an elaborate rocky landscape (fig. 1).2
The popularity of the standing Virgin holding
the Christ Child in small southern Italian towns
is striking, especially since no examples of the type
by Benedetto exist in his native Tuscany. These
commissions are connected with the sculptor’s
activity in Naples between 1475 and 1497, when
CATALOGUE: BENEDETTO DA MAIANO
163
fig. 1
Benedetto da Maiano, Virgin and Child
(Madonna della Neve), ca. 1490. Marble. Santa
Maria Assunta e San Elia, Terranova Sappo
Minulio (Calabria).
he worked for the royal court there and for Marino
Curiale, a confidant of King Alfonso II of Naples.
A large altarpiece in the church of Santa Caterina
in Terranova from around 1490 was very likely
a commission from Curiale, who was count of
Terranova. The central figure of this dispersed
altarpiece is a standing Virgin and Child similar to
the Currier Museum’s work. It has been suggested
that this terracotta may be the preparatory model
for the marble, as the artist sometimes initiated
projects with full-scale terracotta models.3 On the
other hand, the Currier Museum’s sculpture does
not appear to be a working model since it is highly
finished enough for permanent display. Indeed, the
artist created other polychromed terracottas of the
Virgin and Child in different poses, including a roundel (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston)
and enthroned figures in the cathedral of Prato and
the Bode-Museum, Berlin.4 Another, less-refined
terracotta of the standing Virgin holding the Christ
Child has been attributed to Benedetto da Maiano.5
In sum, the terracotta in the Currier Museum was
probably destined for a church in Naples or the
surrounding region.
Alan Chong
Provenance
Duveen Brothers, New York, sold the work in
1914 to Elbert H. Gary, New York.6 Returned to
Duveen Brothers, who sold it in March 1928 for
$15,000, to Leon Schinasi, New York; to Mrs. Leon
Schinasi, New York; auctioned at Parke-Bernet,
New York, Nov. 3, 1944 (lot 374), sold for $5,500
to French and Co., New York; sold to the Currier
Gallery of Art for a 15% commission in Jan. 1945.
This terracotta was owned by two remarkable
American collectors of the early twentieth century.
Elbert Gary (1846–1927) was one of the founders
of US Steel Corporation and its first president. The
planned city of Gary, Indiana, was named after him.
Gary apparently did not actually own the sculpture,
as it is listed as on approval in Duveen’s account
books from 1914 to 1928, when it was sold to Leon
Schinasi (1890–1930) of New York. Schinasi had
164
fig. 2
cat. 28 in the frame made
for it by the Duveen
Brothers around 1914.
inherited a successful cigarette business from his
father, an immigrant from the Ottoman Empire.
Leon and his wife, Ruby Smith Salmon Schinasi,
were involved in a series of salacious lawsuits with
a cousin, Nettie Stoeve, who accused Mrs. Schinasi
of doping her husband with morphine to force him
to alter his will.7
Although this sculpture has always been
attributed to Benedetto da Maiano (it was
illustrated in Dussler’s monograph of 1924 and
exhibited in the New York World’s Fair in 1939),
its value dropped precipitously in the course of the
twentieth century. Valued at $48,000 in 1914, it was
sold to Schinasi just fourteen years later for a third
of that at $15,000, and it made only a third of that in
1944. This is evidence of the decline in appreciation
for Quattrocento sculpture, with the exception of
the spending sprees that Andrew Mellon and S. H.
Kress embarked on in preparation for the opening of
the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1941.
References
Dussler 1924, p. 82, no. 37, fig. 29 [Benedetto da
Maiano, late 1480s]. New York 1939, no. 414 [lent
by Mrs. Schinasi]. Lein 1988, p. 223 [attributed to
Benedetto]. Carl 2006, vol. 1, p. 109, pl. 53. Caglioti
2007, pp. 18, 26, 37.
1. Carl 2006, pp. 105–11, pls. 32–52. Examples at
Nicotera, Morano Calabro, Amantea, Bombile, and
Terranova Sappo Minulio, as well as a half-length figure
in Pietrapennata.
2. Carl 2006, pp. 108–9.
3. Carl 2006, pls. 157–61. See also Pope-Hennessy 1964,
vol. 1, p. 157; Radke 1992.
4. Carl 2006, pls. 23, VI, 26 (a related figure of Charity).
CATALOGUE: BENEDETTO DA MAIANO
165
5. Carlo De Carlo, Florence; see Caglioti 2007, pp. 18, 27.
6. Duveen Brothers records: client book, G–H, no. 6, for
1914: “1 Terra cotta painted group, The Virgin & Child by
Benedetto da Majano. 48,000.” However, Duveen carried
the object and its costs in its stock books as inventory
number 26873 until 1928, with Gary listed as having
it only on approval, and with book values declining to
$15,000, $12,000, and then $8,000. In the 1927 stock
book the sculpture is finally recorded as sold, to Leon
Schinasi.
7. New York Supreme Court AD; New York Times (Oct.
23, 1934), p. 8. The suit was settled for a token sum: New
York Times ( Jan. 8, 1936), p. 22.
fig. 3
Back of cat. 28.
166
THE BAPTIST AND MARS IDENTITY SHIFTS IN RENAISSANCE FLORENCE
167
168
Atlanta and Los Angeles 2009
Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture.
Exh. High Museum of Art, Atlanta;
and J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles,
Most references from before 1940 are
available through archive.org, europeana.eu, 2009–10. By Gary M. Radke et al.
Gallica, HathiTrust, and other sites.
Attwood 2003
Journal articles have often been accessed
through JSTOR and DigiZeitschriften, etc. Philip Attwood. Italian Medals c.
1530–1600 in British Public Collections. 2
vols. London, 2003.
Achilles-Syndram 1994
Avery 1981
Katrin Achilles-Syndram, ed. Die
Charles Avery. Fingerprints of the Artist:
Kunstsammlung des Paulus Praun: Die
Inventare von 1616 und 1719. Nuremberg, European Terra-Cotta Sculpture from the
Arthur M. Sackler Collections. Washington,
1994.
1981.
Ackley 1981
Avery 1999
Clifford S. Ackley. Printmaking in the Age
Victoria J. Avery. Documenti sulla vita e le
of Rembrandt. Exh. Museum of Fine Arts,
opere di Alessandro Vittoria (c. 1525–1608).
Boston; and Saint Louis Art Museum,
Trento, 1999.
1980–81. Boston, 1981.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Berliner Museen 16 (1974), pp. 83–121.
183
184
Winner 1998
Matthias Winner. “La collocazione degli
dei fluviali nel Cortile delle Statue e il
restauro del Laocoonte del Montorsoli” in
Winner et al. 1998, pp. 117–28.
Winner 1998a
Matthias Winner. “Paragone mit
dem Belvederischen Apoll: Kleine
Wirkungsgeschichte der Statue von
Antico bis Canova” in Winner et al. 1998,
pp. 227–52.
Winner et al. 1998
Matthias Winner et al., eds. Il cortile delle
statue: Der Statuenhof des Belvedere im
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Wischermann 1979
Heinfried Wischermann. “Ein pommersches ‘Schandgemälde’ auf Papst Paul III.
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Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe. Print
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Wixom 1975
William D. Wixom. Renaissance Bronzes
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David Roy Wright. “The Medici villa at
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Wright 1993
David H. Wright. The Vatican Vergil: A
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Wyss 1996
Edith Wyss. The Myth of Apollo and
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Yates 1975
Frances A. Yates. Astraea: The Imperial
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Zeri 1978
Federico Zeri. “Un pittore del Cinquecento
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Zikos 2003
Dimitrios Zikos. “Benvenuto Cellini’s
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Boston and Florence 2003, pp. 133–72.
Zikos 2012
Dimitrios Zikos, ed. Marks of Identity:
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Mark J. Zucker. Early Italian Masters. The
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185
186
INDEX
Accademia del disegno, 10, 17, 51,
128, 157
Agostino Veneziano, 43, 47, 144; portrait
of Charles V, 64, 65, 125
Alcázar, Madrid, 67, 69
Aldrovandi, Ulisse, 56
Alessandri, Giovanni degli, 17, 117
Alfonso II, 163
Alfonso V of Aragón, 65, 67, 68, 126, 124
Ammannati, Bartolomeo, 10, 52, 79, 134;
Mars, 38, 39; Tomb of Sannazaro, 157
anatomical studies, 15, 53, 54, 160
Anderson, James, 42, 44, 49
Antico, 27, 40 n 3, 43
Apollo Belvedere, 43, 45, 48, 51, 54;
Montorsoli’s restoration, 7, 13, 26, 27,
42, 43–44; prints after, 43, 44, 47, 138,
139, 140, 143, 146
Aranjuez Palace, Madrid, 77 n 33
Aretino, Pietro, 25 n 47
Arezzo, Angelo d’, 18
Argentoratensis, Jacobus, 160
armor, 63, 64, 67, 125
Avery, Charles, 87 n 4, 116
Bacchus, 80, 93, 121, 132–34; attributes,
38, 48, 109, 110
Baldinucci, Filippo, 153
Bande Nere, Giovanni dalle, 52
Bandinelli, Baccio, 18, 27, 49, 161; conflict
with Montorsoli, 9, 18, 49, 52, 68;
Laocoon, 48, 49, 51; river god, 44
Baptistery, Florence, 29, 31, 97, 101, 106;
early history, 29, 30, 40 n 12; mosaic
ceiling, 30, 105; portal sculptures, 32,
101, 105, 121; silver altar, 34
Barga, Pietro da, 82, 86, 87
Baviera (Baviero de’ Carrocci), 47, 144
Béatrizet, Nicolas, 145–47
Begeyn, Abraham, 149
Beit, Alfred, 120
Belvedere Court, 43, 45, 56, 146
Belvedere Torso, 50
Bembo, Pietro, 47
Benavides, Marco Mantova, 81–82
Benizi, Filippo, 133, 134
Bernini, Gian Lorenzo, 44, 121
Bernini, Pietro, 121
Berruguete, Alonso, 46, 114
Bersuire, Pierre, 110
Bode, Wilhelm, 97, 118, 120, 134
Boldrini, Niccolò, 48, 53, 54, 151
Bondy, Oscar, 134
Bonzagna, Gianfederico, 56
Borch, Gerard ter, 22 n 6
Borghini, Raffaello, 61 n 93, 88 n 9, 157
Bos, Jacob, 145, 146
Botticelli, Sandro, 106
Bourg-en-Bresse, 66, 67, 126
Bramante, Donato, 46
Bregno, Giovanni Battista, 40 n 3
Brescia, Giovanni Antonio da, 46
Bresciano, Prospero, 87
Britto, Giovanni, 64, 125
Brogi, 52
Brooks, Peter Chardon, 111
Brou Monastery, 66, 67, 126
Brueghel the Elder, 82
Brummer, Hans Hendrik, 149
Brunelleschi, Filippo, 79
Budrio, 16, 18, 68
Bugiardini, Giuliano, 83
Buglioni, Benedetto, 16, 24 n 21
Burgundian helmet, 63
Caglioti, Francesco, 98, 121
Calimala (Cloth Guild), 31, 40 n 20–22
Camaldoli, 19
Campagnola, Giulio, 53
Caraglio, Gian Jacopo, 54
Caravaggio, 121
Carlone, Taddeo, 71
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh,
136, 153
Carrara, 18, 67, 157
Casa de Campo, Madrid, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73
Casale, Giovanni Vincenzo, 128
Cecconi, Archbishop Eugenio, 17
Cellini, Benvenuto, 48, 49, 140, 153
Certosa di San Martino, Naples, 124
Cesi, Cardinal Federico, 56
Cesi, Paolo, 56
Charles V, 7, 63, 67, 69, 75, 124–25;
triumphal entries, 10, 16, 18, 44, 64, 68,
69, 75. Also see Agostino,
Britto, Montorsoli
Charles the Bold, 125
Clark, Kenneth, 50, 57 n 17
Clement VII, 7, 18, 27, 33, 79; portrait
by Montorsoli, 56, 64; and ancient
sculpture, 43, 44
Cleve, Hendrik van, 56
Cleveland Museum of Art, 97, 119
Cobos, Francesco de los, 63, 67, 69, 72,
77 n 33, 126
Cock, Hieronymus, 145
Commodus, 44, 111
Contarini, Gaspare, 65
Cornacchini, Agostino, 51
Cort, Cornelis, 22 n 1, 80–81,
129–31, 145
Cosini, Silvio, 19, 24 n 41, 70, 71, 77 n 24,
79, 102; Flaying of Marsyas, 55, 157–61
Curiale, Marino, 163
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester,
117, 162
Dante, 29, 30
Danti, Egnazio, 82
Danti, Vincenzo, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 52, 82,
111, 121
Davis, Charles, 56, 58 n 47
Delaborde, Henri, 112
Della Robbia, Giovanni, 106
Della Robbia workshop, 16
Dente, Marco, 46, 47, 53, 144, 146
Desiderio da Settignano, 93, 94, 97, 101,
132, 133
Discobolus, 33
Dolce, Ludovico, 45–46
Dominici, Giovanni, 31, 92
Donais, Mary Kate, 117
Donatello, 35, 36, 93, 105, 106; reception,
114, 115; John the Baptist (Martelli),
97, 101
Doria, Andrea, 9, 67, 69, 72, 75, 125;
portraits by Montorsoli, 13, 18, 63,
126, 157
Doria, Giovanni Andrea, 71
Doria family, 13, 63, 68, 71, 72
Dossena, Alceo, 115
drill marks, 70, 114, 115, 126, 157
Duchetti, Stefano, 145
Dupérac, Étienne, 145
DuPuy, Herbert, 154
Duveen Brothers, 94, 103, 163, 164
Empoli, Jacopo da, 17
Entellus and Dares, 47
Falcke, Shirley, 116
Farnese Hercules, 140, 141
Ferrucci, Andrea, 19, 68
Ferrucci del Tadda, Francesco, 18, 19, 157
INDEX
ffolliott, Sheila, 10
Filippo di Negro, 72, 73, 77 n 31
Florence, political crisis, 7, 28
florin, 28, 29
Fontainebleau, 51, 101
Francis I, 18, 48, 51
Franco, Battista, 80
Friberg, N. M., 116
John the Baptist, 7, 10, 17, 31, 92, 105–6,
121; leopard skin, 48, 110; patron saint
of Florence, 28–30, 34
Julius II, 43, 45, 46; tomb, 18, 27, 43
Galantini, Ippolito, 93
Galen, 53
Gary, Elbert H., 163
Gattinara, Mercurino, 63
Gauricus, Pomponius, 101
Gavet, Emile, 98
Gentilini, Giancarlo, 98
gesso, 16, 81, 117, 149
Gherardini, Tommaso, 17
Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 31
Ghirlandaio, Domenico, 31, 35
Giambologna, 77 n 33, 121, 153; Mars, 39;
Philip III, 69
Giugni, Galeotto, 28
Goltzius, Hendrick, 140–43; Apollo
Belvedere, 43, 139; Hercules and Telephos,
44, 45, 140
Gonzaga, Federico, 149
gradine (toothed chisel), 83, 115, 157
Granvelle, Nicolas Perrenot de, 63, 68, 126
Grazzini, Antonfrancesco, 133
Grimani, Cardinal Domenico, 46, 58 n 28,
60 n 77, 155 n 1
Guggenheim, Irene Rothschild, 107
Lafreri, Antonio, 144, 145–46
Laocoon, 43, 45–46, 48–49; additional
arm (18th century), 50, 51; caricatures,
53–54, 151; influence of, 53–55, 127;
Montorsoli’s restoration of, 13, 49–50,
52, 55, 146, 149, 160; prints after, 46–
47, 144, 145, 146–47; terracotta copies,
132, 148–50
Larsson, Lars-Olof, 85
Lasca, 133
Laschke, Birgit, 10, 56, 126, 153
Leo X, 48, 114, 153
Leonardo da Vinci, 19, 93, 94, 101, 121;
John the Baptist, 48, 109, 110
Lessing, Gottwald, 50
Levis, Giuseppe de, 119
Lippi, Filippino, 106
Lippi, Filippo, 31
Loeser, Charles, 128
Lomazzo, Giovan Paolo, 50, 68
Lorenzi, Battista, 77 n 33
Hähnel, Ernst Julius, 137
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 139,
140, 145, 151
Helmschmid, Kolman, 64, 67, 76 n 9
Hercules and Telephos, 26, 27, 44, 51, 55,
149; prints after, 45, 140, 141, 142, 146
Heyer, A. B., 137
Homer, 45
Howard, Seymour, 46
Howarth, George, 111
Hugford, Ignazio Ennio, 16–17, 23 n 13
Hyginus, 153
Janson, H. W., 53, 115
Jesuate order (Gesuiati), 19
John and Mable Ringling Museum,
Sarasota, 132
Klur, Hans, 54, 60 n 81
Kress, Samuel H., 94, 164
Machuca, Pedro, 114
Maderno, Stefano, 149
Maiano, Benedetto da, 92, 93; John the
Baptist, 35, 36, 101, 102; Virgin and
Child, 162–65
Manara, Carla, 10
Mander, Karel van, 142
Mantegna, Andrea, 35
Margaret of Austria, duchess of Parma, 7,
64, 67
Marliani, Bartolomeo, 146
Mars, 34–36, 38–39; patron of Florence,
28–30; Mars Gradivus, 34, 35, 38, 39
Marsyas, 55, 152–55, 157–60
Marzocco, 36, 38, 45
Master of the Unruly Children see Sandro
di Lorenzo
Medici, Alessandro de’, 7, 18, 28, 33, 36, 83
Medici, Cosimo I de’, 10, 29, 33, 38, 63, 81,
111, 121; portraits, 36, 37, 153
Medici, Ferdinando de’, 23 n 21, 82
Medici, Giovanni de’, 81
Medici, Giuliano de’, 81
Medici, Giulio de’ see Clement VII
Medici, Leopoldo de’, 82
Medici, Lorenzo de’, 79, 81
Medici, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’, 102
Medici, Piero de’, 79, 81, 114
Medici Chapel see New Sacristy
Medici family, 28, 33
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
112, 129–31, 138, 144
Michelangelo, 49, 51, 53, 54, 56, 92, 98,
101, 121; and ancient sculpture, 43, 45,
48, 50, 51; influence on Montorsoli, 7,
13, 17, 18, 44; Apollo-David, 37, 38;
New Sacristy, 7, 16, 20–21, 27, 78–87,
134, 137; Slaves, 82, 153; Young John the
Baptist, 63, 77 n 31, 93, 102
Michelozzo, 28, 34, 99 n 1
Middeldorf, Ulrich, 94, 102, 115
Millet, Jean-François, 98
Minio, Tiziano, 118, 119
Moderno, 58 n 28, 153, 155
Montelupo, Baccio da, 40 n 3
Montelupo, Raffaello da, 22 n 1, 79
Montorsoli, Giovan Angelo, biography, 7,
9, 17–18, 52; anatomical studies, 15, 27,
54; restoration of Laocoon, 43, 49–50,
146, 149, 160; and Michelangelo, 7, 13,
16, 18–21, 27, 43, 79; Villa di Castello,
9, 18, 52, 68; Messina, 8–9, 44, 68–70,
73, 75; medal, 10; Accademia, 10,
11 n 6.
Works: Dolphin Fountain, 70; drawings,
51, 59 n 63, 68, 73, 74, 75, 127–28;
Eagle Fountain, 11, 69–72; Fountain
of Neptune, 8, 73, 75; Fountain of
Orion, 8, 9, 10, 44, 45, 70, 73, 75;
John the Baptist (Genoa), 15; John the
Baptist (Manchester), 7, 12–16, 19,
26–28, 39, 41 n 24; provenance, 17, 117;
relationship to Mars, 10, 27, 33–35;
technical study, 117; Moses, 10, 16, 18,
19; Portrait of Alfonso V, 65, 67–68, 124,
126; Portrait of Andrea Doria, 13, 18, 63;
Portrait of Charles V (Naples), 9, 13, 14,
15, 62–65, 66, 67, 124–26; versions, 64,
66, 67, 68, 125–26; Prophet Jeremiah, 6,
15; St. Andrew, 13, 14; St. Cosmas, 7, 8,
13, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22 n 1, 27, 50, 51, 71;
St. James the Greater, 15, 18; St. John the
Evangelist, 13, 14, 15, 16; St. Paul, 10,
16, 18; San Matteo, 8, 13, 15; Sheet of
Studies, 16, 17; Sketch for a Fountain, 74,
187
188
75, 127–28; tomb cover, 11, 128; Tomb
of Sannazaro, 15, 18, 65, 121, 153,
157–58; Triton Fountain, 15, 16,
22 n 6, 68, 73.
Lost works: entry of Charles V, 16, 44;
fountains, 16, 72–75, 77 n 33; Hercules
and Antaeus, 9, 18, 52, 68; portrait of
Andrea Doria, 67; portrait of Clement
VII, 56; St. Paul, 17; wax portrait of
Alessandro de’ Medici, 18, 63.
Workshop, 64, 66, 67, 68.
Morani, Euralio, 146
Morgan, J. P., 102
Morgan Library and Museum,
New York, 101
Moscioni, Romualdo, 56
Möseneder, Karl, 126
Murr, Christophe de, 84
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 104
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 137
National Gallery of Art, Washington,
92, 121
New Sacristy, Florence, 13, 16–18, 27, 50;
wall drawings, 50, 128
Newman, Richard, 117
Nola, Giovanni da, 126
Noorian, David, 123
Order of the Golden Fleece, 64, 67, 69, 70
Ordóñez, Bartolomé, 114
Orsanmichele, Florence, 31, 39
Ovid, 110, 153, 159
Palagio see Terra
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 29, 30, 35, 36,
99, 101, 128
Palma il Giovane, 25 n 47
Parraca dal Valsoldo, Giovan Giacomo,
22 n 6, 77 n 33
Passalo, Giovan Maria da, 18
Passignano, Il, 82
Patera of Rennes, 110
Paul III, 54
Pescia, 98
Petrioli Tofani, Annamaria, 128
Philip II, 38, 77 n 23
Piamontini, Giuseppe, 55
Pieratti, Domenico, 121, 123
Pierino da Vinci, 121
Pietri, Alejandro, 87
Sansovino, Jacopo, 19, 49, 109, 134, 157,
158; Laocoon copies, 46, 53, 58 n 28,
60 n 77, 149, 155 n 1; John the Baptist
(bronze), 118–20; St. James the Greater
(Rome), 13, 18, 19; terracottas, 98, 134;
workshop, 159
Santissima Annunziata, Florence, 10, 11,
16–17, 19, 28, 63, 109, 128, 133
Sarto, Andrea del, 19, 33, 55; John the
Baptist, 38, 108–11, 112; Madonna of
the Harpies, 19, 20
Raimondi, Marcantonio, 47, 58 n 32, 113,
Scalzo cloister, Florence, 17, 23 n 21, 109
144; Apollo Belvedere, 43, 47, 138, 146;
Schardt, Johan Gregor van der, 82, 84–85,
John the Baptist, 112–13
86, 87, 137
Raphael, 46–48, 49, 110, 111, 141, 145
Schenck, Hans, 54
Refati, Timoteo, 82
Schinasi, Leon, 163
Reparata, St., 29, 40 n 10, 41 n 27
Scholten, Frits, 86
Riccio, Pierfrancesco, 18
Richardson the Younger, Jonathan, 51, 114 Schrevelius, Theodor, 44, 142
Seligmann, Arnold, 98, 137
Ridolfi, Carlo, 53, 81
serpentine form, 33, 121
Ringling, John, 98
Servites, 10, 16, 19, 24 nn 24 & 41, 27, 68,
river gods, 44, 45, 68, 79, 80, 132, 133,
109, 133
134, 146
Severance, John L., 98
Rosand, David, 53
Seymour, Charles, 93
Rossellino, Antonio, 31, 92, 93, 94, 97,
Shearman, John, 45
102, 103
Signoria, Florence, 28, 36, 41 nn 27 & 30
Rossi, Angelo de, 119
Siloé, Diego de, 114
Rossi, Vincenzo de’, 55, 76 n 12
Sirigatti, Rodolfo, 82
Rosso Fiorentino, 54, 101, 114
Rothschild, Maurice de, 77 n 36, 103, 128 Sodoma, Il, 49, 55
Sormano, Leonardo, 56
Rovezzano, Benedetto da, 11, 96–99
Sparzo, Marcello, 87
Rubens, Peter Paul, 76 n 5, 82
Straus, Percy S., 137
Ruland, Carl, 136
Rustici, Giovanfrrancesco, 19, 93, 101, 112, Strozzi, Bernardo, 128
114, 128, 134; John the Baptist (Boston), Susini, Giovan Francesco, 121–23
104–7; John the Baptist (New York),
100–103; Preaching of the Baptist, 31, 32,
Tacca, Pietro, 69, 82
102, 105
Terey, Benno de, 136
Terra, Carlo di Cesare, 23 n 21
terracotta, 7, 16, 20, 23 n 21, 27–28, 50;
Sack of Rome, 7, 28, 144
copies in, 82–86
Sala dei Gigli, Florence, 35, 36, 101
Tetrode, Willem van, 85, 140
Salamanca, Antonio, 145
Ticciati, Girolamo, 17
Salviati, Francesco, 36, 158, 159
Tintoretto, 25 n 47, 81, 82
Salviati, Maria, 18
Titian, 53, 55, 63, 64, 65, 125, 151
Sambon, Arthur, 154
Tolnay, Charles de, 84, 102
San Matteo, Genoa, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16, 70,
Torrigiani, Pietro, 134
71, 157
Tournon, François de, 18
Sandro di Lorenzo, 11, 132–35, 149;
Tribolo, Niccolò, 10, 52, 68, 134; and the
Bacchus, 80, 132
New Sacristy, 83, 84, 87, 136
Sangallo, Francesco da, 114–16
triumphal entries, 38, 114, 121; of Charles
Sangallo, Giuliano da, 45, 46
V, 16, 44, 64, 68, 69, 75, 77 n 37
Sannazaro, Jacopo, 15, 157; tomb, 15, 18,
55, 65, 126, 153, 157–58
Sansovino, Andrea, 31, 32, 101, 121
Pisano, Andrea, 31, 105
Planiscig, Leo, 94
Pliny the Elder, 45, 46
Pollak, Ludwig, 49–50, 150
Pontormo, 10
Praun, Paulus von, 84–85, 86, 137
Primaticcio, 51, 59 n 56
Princeton University Art Museum, 149
INDEX
Vaga, Perino del, 69, 71
Valentiner, William, 102, 115
Valori, Baccio, 37–38
Vanchetoni church, Florence, 93–94
Vanderbilt, Alva, 98
Vasari, Giorgio, 21, 43, 46, 79, 83, 113,
160; on Montorsoli, 8, 10, 11, 16,
18–19, 20–21, 44, 50, 52, 56, 63, 79,
109, 157; on Rosso, 54; paintings by, 29
30, 36
Verrocchio, Andrea del, 36, 79, 80, 98, 132
Vesalius, Andreas, 53
Villa del Principe, Genoa, 16, 22 n 6, 63,
68, 70, 71, 72, 158, 159
Villa di Castello, Florence, 18, 52, 68
Villa Petroio, Vinci, 17
Villa Salviati, Florence, 102
Villani, Giovanni, 29, 40 n 12
Virgil, 45–46, 47
Vittoria, Alessandro, 82
Volpi, Elia, 102
Volterra, Daniele da, 81
Vos, Marten de, 57 n 9
Vries, Adriaen de, 55
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: p. 21: fig. 28;
p. 78: figs. 1, 2; p. 81: fig. 11.
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh,
photo: Bryan Conley: p. 84: fig. 18;
pp. 136, 156; p. 155: fig. 3.
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles: pp. 42,
44: figs. 1, 5; p. 49: fig. 17.
Genevra Kornbluth: p. 30: fig. 8; p. 105:
fig. 1.
Magi 1961: p. 50: fig. 20.
The Currier Museum of Art respects fair
use and copyright in a manner consistent
with its nonprofit, educational mission. All
of the works of art illustrated in this book
are in the public domain.
Mauro Magliani: frontispiece: left
and lower right; pp. 6–9: figs. 1, 4, 5;
pp. 13–21: figs. 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14–16,
19, 23, 28; pp. 62–72: figs. 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10,
25, 30; p. 93: fig. 1; pp. 124, 157, 158.
Jeffrey Nintzel: p. 7: fig. 2; pp. 15–16:
figs. 11, 13, 17; p. 34: fig. 16; pp. 117,
162, 165.
Captions
Cover: cat. 8.
Frontispiece: details of p. 14: fig. 7; cat. 8;
cat. 11.
Page 90, clockwise from top: cats. 2, 4,
24, 16.
Page 167: cat. 19.
Page 168: p. 145.
wax, 18, 46, 48, 63, 88 n 15, 101, 153
Weinberger, Martin, 126
Wernher, Julius, 120
Winkelmann, J. J., 44, 50
Worcester Art Museum, 109
Zacchi da Volterra, Zaccaria, 11, 46,
152–55
Zenobius, St., 29, 40 n 10
Zuccaro, Frederico, 78, 79
189
190
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This exhibition and book would not have been possible without the critical advice of Dimitrios Zikos and
Sergio Ramiro Ramírez. Marietta Cambareri and Valentine Talland kindly contributed entries for the catalogue.
Technical analysis of Montorsoli’s John the Baptist was conducted by Richard Newman, Mary Kate Donais,
and Valentine Talland.
Warm thanks are due Giancarlo Gentilini and Irving Lavin, as well as Katherine Bentz, Fausto Calderai, Maichol
Clemente, Victor Coelho, Douglas N. Dow, Clario Di Fabio, Maria Grazia Di Natale, James Fenton, Davide
Gambino, Francesca Girelli, Alex Kader, Geoff Kaplan, Laura Kraus, Stuart Lochhead, David Lucidi, Mauro
Magliani, Giacomo Montanari, Tommaso Mozzati, Giambattista Oneto, Clement Onn, Annamaria Petrioli Tofani,
Darryl Pinckney, Assunta Procopio, Frits Scholten, Philippe Sénéchal, Carlo Sobrero, Tong Wee Sian, Louis
Waldman, and Alison Whiting.
We owe a debt of gratitude to our museum colleagues: Erik M. Lee, Nadine Orenstein, C. D. Dickerson, Betsy
Wieseman, Betsy Rosasco, Sarah Cartwright, Fabio Speranza, Anna Imponente, Rita Pastorelli, Giandomenico
Spinola, Helga Aurisch, Marietta Cambareri, Michael Belman, Xavier Salomon, Lloyd DeWitt, Denise Allen, Judy
Mann, Timothy Verdon, Susanne Blöcker, and Guido Cornini.
At the Currier Museum, we thank Rachel Kase, the exhibition’s research assistant, and Andrew Spahr, Karen
Papineau, Karen Graham, Jeff Allen, Meghan Petersen, Karl Hutchins, Carol Fabricant, and Barbara Jaus.
Production of this book was in the hands of Geoff Kaplan, Kristin Swan, and Linus Lee. Christie’s and Stuart
Lochhead have kindly supported the scholarly conference accompanying the exhibition.
The editors are especially grateful to the museums and collectors that furnished high-resolution photographs for this
book free of charge. The book has not used images from commercial rights agencies, as we regard them as restrictions on scholarship. Open access to images is now as important as any public museum program, and images should
not be treated as income generators. Scholars, students, and other nonprofit institutions are heavily penalized, often
with the result that charitable contributions are transferred from one organization to another. Leading the way
in open access are the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, and especially the
Rijksmuseum, which has encouraged the public to use images of the highest possible resolution as a contribution to
the free exchange of ideas. We strongly encourage other museums to follow these examples.
The research and publication of this book have been generously supported by Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo.
We warmly thank our exhibition sponsors: M. Christine Dwyer and Michael Huxtable, and Thomas Silvia and
Shannon Chandley.
AC, LP, KS
LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Cleveland Museum of Art
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Morgan Library and Museum, New York
Museo Nazionale della Certosa di San Martino, Naples
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Princeton University Art Museum
Worcester Art Museum
Private collectors
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CONTRIBUTORS
LORENZO PRINCIPI received his PhD from the University of Genoa for his study of Silvio Cosini, a pupil of
Michelangelo and collaborator of Montorsoli and Jacopo Sansovino. He recently completed a study of Sandro di
Lorenzo, the Master of the Unruly Children.
KURT SUNDSTROM, curator at the Currier Museum of Art, wrote his dissertation on the Chiostro Grande of
Monte Oliveto Maggiore. He has curated an exhibition on Jan de Bray and written on Frank Lloyd Wright’s
Zimmerman House.
ALAN CHONG, director of
the Currier Museum of Art, has curated exhibitions on Christianity in Asia and the
patronage of Bindo Altoviti.
SERGIO RAMIRO RAMÍREZ will receive his PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid. His dissertation focuses
on the artistic patronage of Francisco de los Cobos at the court of Charles V.
MARIETTA CAMBARERI, curator of decorative arts and sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, organized the
exhibition Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence.
VALENTINE TALLAND
of Art.
is an independent objects conservator and a regular collaborator with the Currier Museum