Italian Renaissance sculpture
Italian Renaissance sculpture was an important part of the art of the
Italian Renaissance sculpture was dominated by the north, above all by Florence.[3] This was especially the case in the quattrocento (15th century), after which Rome came to equal or exceed it as a centre,[4] though producing few sculptors itself. Major Florentine sculptors in stone included (in rough chronological order, with dates of death) Orcagna (1368), Nanni di Banco (1421), Filippo Brunelleschi (1446), Nanni di Bartolo (1451), Lorenzo Ghiberti (1455), Donatello (1466), Bernardo (1464) and his brother Antonio Rossellino (1479), Andrea del Verrocchio (1488), Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1498), Michelangelo (1564), and Jacopo Sansovino (1570). Elsewhere there was the Siennese Jacopo della Quercia (1438), from Lombardy Pietro Lombardo (1515) and his sons, Giovanni Antonio Amadeo (1522), Andrea Sansovino (1529), Vincenzo Danti (1576), Leone Leoni (1590), and Giambologna (1608, born in Flanders).[5]
While church sculpture continued to provide more large commissions than any other source, followed by civic monuments,[6] a number of other settings for sculpture appeared or increased in prominence during the period. Secular portraits had previously mostly been funerary art, and large tomb monuments became considerably more elaborate. Relief panels were used in a number of materials and settings, or sometimes treated as portable objects like paintings. Small bronzes, usually of secular subjects, became increasingly important from the late 15th century onwards, while new forms included the medal, initially mostly presenting people rather than events, and the plaquette with a small scene in metal relief.[7]
The term "sculptor" only came into use during the 15th century; before that sculptors were known as stonecarvers, woodcarvers and so on. Statua ("statue", and the art of making them) was another new Italian word, replacing medieval terms such as figura, simulacrum and imago, also used for painted images.[9]
Periods
Gothic architecture, and Gothic art in general, had a limited penetration in Italy, arriving late and mostly affecting the far north, Venice and Lombardy in particular, often only as an ornamental style in borders and capitals.[11] Classical traditions were more deeply-rooted than north of the Alps, making a deliberate revival of classical style less of a sharp change.[12] In the Trecento (14th century), sculptors might be asked to work on buildings generally in a Gothic style, or those that were not. Some sculptors could adjust their styles somewhat to fit in, others did not.[13] This complicated situation makes giving a clear start date for Renaissance sculpture difficult if not impossible.[14]
As with
Mannerist style starts to emerge around 1520, but the Sack of Rome in 1527, which greatly shook up and dispersed what had become the leading centre, provides a generally accepted end to the High Renaissance phase; the Medici were expelled from Florence the same year, displacing other artists.[17] Though his workshop continued to turn out work in his style, the death of Giambologna in 1608, when Baroque sculpture was already well-established in Rome, can be taken to mark the end of the period.[18]
Materials
Generally, "sculpture of any quality" was more expensive than an equivalent in painting, and when in bronze dramatically so. The painted
Understandably, sculptors tended "to produce the best work in the most durable materials", stone or metal; there was a great deal of quicker and cheaper work in other materials that has mostly not survived.
Many sculptors worked in several materials; for example Antonio del Pollaiuolo produced finished work in stone, bronze, wood, and terracotta, as well as painting in tempera, oils and fresco, and producing an important engraving. Donatello's Saint George, for the armourers and swordsmith's guild, at the Orsanmichele is in marble, but originally wore a bronze helmet and carried a sword.[23] Donatello also worked in wood, terracotta and plaster. Especially in the 15th century, many architects were sculptors by training, and several practised as both for most of their career.[24]
Stone
Marble, above all the pure white statuario grade of Carrara marble from the Apuan Alps in the north of Tuscany, was the most popular material for fine sculpture. Many Tuscan sculptors went to the quarries to "rough out" large works, some finishing them at Pisa nearby, so saving the cost of transporting large blocks. Long-distance transport was usually by boat, either by sea or down the Arno to Florence.[25]
Although most parts of Italy had stone that could be carved,
Metal
A
After the basic casting, which might be performed by outside specialists, there was a good deal of sculptor's work to be done in cleaning up, touching up and finishing the surface by polishing. In some cases this stage stretched over years, and used different sculptors.[31]
Despite its cost and difficulty, following the classical taste known from ancient literature such as
Bronze might be gilded.[36] A range of metals were used for casts of portrait medals of princely, or just wealthy, patrons, and sometimes for plaquettes. Bronze was the normal metal, but a few might be cast in gold or silver, for presentation to persons of the same or higher rank, and some in lead.[37] Especially in the princely courts, above all the richest, Milan, small cast figures and sculpted objects such as inkwells were often made in gold and silver, but almost all of these have been melted down for their bullion value at some point. The famous gold Cellini Salt Cellar, made in 1543 for Francis I of France by Benvenuto Cellini is almost the sole survivor in gold, now in Vienna.[38] The set of 12 silver-gilt cups called the Aldobrandini Tazze were made for an Italian family before 1603, but perhaps not by Italians.[39] The Ghisi Shield of 1554 is another example of tiny scenes in relief.[40]
Wood
Unlike north of the
Terracotta
Apart from the widespread use of clay for
Other materials
A new and distinctive genre of temporary sculpture for grand festivities was the sugar sculpture. Sugar became regularly imported to Europe in the mid-15th century, when Madeira and the Canary Islands were settled from Europe, and sugar grown there, which was mostly imported through Italy.[49] After this an "all-consuming passion for sugar ... swept through society" as it became far more easily available, though initially still very expensive.[50] Genoa, one of the centres of distribution, became known for candied fruit, while Venice specialized in pastries, sweets (candies), and sugar sculptures. Sugar was then considered medically beneficial.[51]
A feast given in
Originally some sculptures seem to have been eaten in the meal, but later they become merely table decorations, the most elaborate called triomfi. Several significant sculptors are known to have produced them; in some cases their preliminary drawings survive. Early ones were in brown sugar, partly cast in moulds, with the final touches carved; then gilding or paint might be added.[55] Eventually, in the 18th century, the porcelain figurine evolved as a permanent form of imitation of sugar sculptures; initially these were also placed around dining tables.[56]
Coloured sculpture
Painting, often now removed after it became flaky, was common if not usual on wood and terracotta, but already unusual on stone and metal in the 15th century. When it was used on these materials it was generally discreet.[57] Some of the marble portrait busts by Lariana retain their polychrome finish; others either never had it, or have had it removed. After 1500 colour fell increasingly from fashion; excavated classical sculptures did not have it, though whether they were originally coloured is another question. The influence of Michelangelo, "who abjured surface attractions in order to convey an idea by form alone" was another factor.[58]
Settings
Churches and tombs
In Italy, sculpture in churches had always been very largely inside the building, in contrast to countries north of the Alps.[59] A rare Italian exception was Milan Cathedral, built from 1368 with large numbers of niches and pinnacles for hundreds of statues, which took the whole period to fill; most were too high for the sculpture to be seen very clearly.[60] Another exception was the nearby Certosa di Pavia, a monastery planned as the dynastic burial place of the Visconti dukes of Milan, emulating other such sites north of the Alps,[61] begun in 1396 but not finished until well over a century later.[62]
In
Inside churches, the tomb monuments of the rich grew ever larger, initially with large but fairly shallow frames around the effigy of the deceased, as in the
Initially figures of the deceased on tombs followed the usual (but not invariable) traditional pattern of a "recumbent effigy", lying with eyes closed, but towards the end of the 15th century they began to be shown as alive. In the case of the popes, the first was the tomb of Pope Innocent VIII (d. 1492), where Antonio del Pollaiuolo had both a recumbent effigy below and a seated figure with an arm raised in blessing above. That is how the monument now appears, after it was moved to St Peter's, but originally these positions were reversed.[67] The next to include any figure was Michelangelo's Tomb of Pope Julius II, begun in 1505 during his lifetime. This had the pope lying on his side with his head raised. From the tomb of Pope Leo X (d. 1521) onwards, seated figures became usual when any figure was included.
Civic pride
Cities wanted to boost their prestige through having famous sculptural ensembles in public places, and were often prepared to spend lavishly to achieve this. The most outstanding was undoubtedly the group of unrelated statues in the
Another Florentine civic showpiece of sculpture was the
Fountains
Public fountains, from which the great majority of the population took water for domestic use, were a key part of local administration, on which city governments were judged. Those in main squares had to allow for many people to draw water at once; spouting jets were not expected until the later 16th century, but easy access to a continuous supply of good water was. Some large early fountains were wrapped around with relief panels, like the
Late Renaissance examples include the Fountain of Neptune, Bologna by Giambologna (1566) and Fountain of Neptune, Florence (Bartolomeo Ammannati and others, completed 1574). These look forward to Baroque fountains;[72] each is surmounted by a large statue of the god.[73] By then the wealthiest private garden fountains were being given sculptural settings almost as extravagant.[74] Giambologna's Samson Slaying a Philistine, now in London, was made for a Medici garden fountain.[75]
Portraits
Sculpted portraits had been mostly confined to grave monuments, but during the period they emerged in a wide range of sizes and materials. The Italians became very aware of the Roman attitude that having a public statue of oneself was almost the highest mark of status and reputation, and such statues, preferably mounted on a column, appear frequently in paintings of ideal cities, much more frequently than they ever did in reality.[76] Standing portrait statues of contemporary individuals remained very rare in Italy until the end of the period (one exception is John of Austria in Messina, 1572),[77] but Leone Leoni and his son Pompeo, court artists to the Spanish Habsburgs, made several in bronze for them.[78]
Equestrian statues
The ultimate expression of reputation, reserved for rulers and generals, was a full-size equestrian statue; Roman examples survived in the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome and the Regisole in Pavia (now destroyed). There were stiff Gothic precursors in marble at the Scaliger Tombs in Verona, and one of Bernabò Visconti in Milan by Bonino da Campione (1363).[79] A number of temporary ones were made for festivities,[80] but very few in bronze during the Renaissance. The attraction of the form is shown by two fictive statues painted in fresco in Florence Cathedral: that for Sir John Hawkwood (Paolo Uccello, 1436), is next to that for Niccolò da Tolentino (Andrea del Castagno 1456).[81]
Like the fresco imitations, both the first two real bronzes were of
One of the great unfinished projects of the Renaissance was
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Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, started by Andrea del Verrocchio in the 1480s, Venice
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Sforza Horse(first design)
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Giambologna, Cosimo I de' Medici, 1598, Piazza della Signoria, Florence
Shoulder busts
A type of bust portrait cut off below the shoulders emerged,
Mino did a number of similar busts, and artists such as Antonio Rossellino and Benedetto da Maiano took up the form, the latter taking a "life mask" mould, probably in wax, to work from. Early subjects included a doctor and an apothecary, as well as the top elite. In one case, the banker Filippo Strozzi the Elder (who also commissioned Benedetto to design the Palazzo Strozzi), both a terracotta model and a more idealized marble bust survive.[87]
Benedetto also used the format in fully polychromed terracotta,[88] which had been used for a bust attributed to Donatello of the politician Niccolò da Uzzano (d. 1431), probably posthumous, made using a death mask.[89] This would make it very early.[90] In the next century, painted terracotta busts were made of Lorenzo de' Medici, probably well after his death. He is shown wearing the rather old-fashioned and middle class cappucchio headgear, as a political statement.[91]
Pietro Torrigiano made a bust of Henry VII of England, probably posthumous from a death mask,[92] and he or Mazzoni one of a cheerful boy assumed to be the future Henry VIII during his stay in England.[93] Francesco Laurana, another widely travelled sculptor, was born in Venetian Dalmatia, but mostly worked in Naples, Sicily, and southern France, with some uncertain periods in his career. In the 1470s, relatively late in his career, he began to produce shoulder busts of rather similar-looking and somewhat idealized ladies in marble, some with polychrome.[94]
By the High Renaissance the flat-bottomed shoulder bust had fallen from favour, and classical-style rounded bottoms sitting on a socle were preferred, as has remained the case.[95]
Medals
With some precedents a few decades earlier,
It became usual to have the
The greater quality of the modelling on medals raised the bar for the artistic quality of coins, especially the most prestigious gold issues. In medieval Italy (unlike England) it had not been usual to include a portrait of the ruler, but in the Renaissance profile portraits became usual for princely states, reviving the imperial Roman style. The artists are usually unrecorded, but were probably often distinguished; Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography mentions one he modelled for Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, which is identifiable.[99]
Medals commemorating events rather than individuals mostly came near the end of this period, but one was made immediately for the failure of the Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici in 1478;[100] "its narrative content is unprecedented". The two sides are near mirror images, with the heads of the two Medici brothers, Lorenzo who escaped, and Giuliano who was assassinated. They rise above the choir screen of the cathedral, where the assassins struck during Mass.[101]
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Pisanello, Ludovico Gonzaga, 1447, reverse
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Lisisppo il giovane, self-portrait medal, 1475–80
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Gold medal of Queen Mary I of England, 1554, Jacopo da Trezzo
Small sculpture
Bronze statuettes were very rare in the Middle Ages, virtually restricted to royalty, but from about 1450 became increasingly popular, for a wealthy collector's market. Collectors of secular ones were mostly male and the subjects reflect male tastes. Horses were extremely popular, with warriors, mythological figures or personifications also common; nudity in both sexes became more common over the 16th century. Especially in the 16th century, the subjects for these works were probably chosen by the sculptor to produce for sale, rather than being commissioned like the vast majority of larger sculpture. However, market taste must have been a consideration.[102]
Many were reduced versions of larger compositions. They were intended to be appreciated by holding and turning in the hands by collectors and their friends, when the best "give an aesthetic stimulus of that involuntary kind that sometimes comes from listening to music", says John Shearman, talking of Giambologna's small figures. Now most are in museums this kind of appreciation is hardly ever possible, and "reversals of taste" have made these "supremely artificial" objects not widely popular.[103]
The subjects on
In these genres, Florence was not dominant as it was for larger sculpture, and
The engraved gem, a small form of hardstone carving, had been a popular object to collect for ancient Romans, including Julius Caesar, and a number of ancient examples had been incorporated into medieval jewelled objects such as the Cross of Lothair. In particular, imperial portrait cameos like the Gemma Augustea had tremendous prestige, and Renaissance elites were very keen to have their own likenesses in the form. Some plaquettes copy, or even are cast from, antique engraved gems, especially from the Medici collection.[107]
In the 16th century Venetian sculptors "developed a genre of grandly scaled household objects in bronze" for the patricians' palaces and villas, often including figures amongst the rich decoration. These included candlesticks, door-knockers and andirons.[108] The workshops of Andrea Riccio and later Girolamo Campagna were prominent in this area, but the makers of many objects are unclear.[109]
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Hercules and the Nemean Lion, Galeazzo Mondella (Moderno), c. 1500, gilt bronze plaquette
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Paris with his apple, statuette by Antico, c. 1500–05, 14+5⁄8 inches (37 cm) high
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putti, Padua, 1515–25
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Andiron fronts with Venus and (?) Mars. Design by Girolamo Campagna, possibly made in 17th century. 44+1⁄2 inches (113 cm) high
Workshops
Most sculptors trained and worked in fairly small workshops (bottega), which often included other family members, and were on the ground floor of the master's residence. Large commissions often required collaborations between different workshops, and travel to the site of the work for extended periods.[111] The largest fairly stable 15th-century workshop was probably Ghiberti's, but Donatello had a large number of assistants, many for brief periods. The figure of the "isolated single master responsible for the execution of the piece as well as for the design, as we think of Michelangelo, did not arise until" the late 15th century.[112] Several significant sculptors worked in different cities over their career; Rome and Venice in particular imported most of their sculptors, Rome sometimes for a single piece.[113]
A common way of paying for sculpture was to pay a certain amount as work progressed, but to leave the final valuation to "disinterested third parties, usually artists themselves, who were asked to pronounce upon the quality of the workmanship" and find the final value. This, despite some difficult episodes, was "a powerful incentive to meticulous workmanship".[114]
In 1472 Florence had 54 workshops carving stone, and 44 gold and silversmiths, both more than the 30 painter's workshops. There were more wood-carvers than butchers in the city. But the city was untypical, with perhaps the highest concentration in Italy, then rivalled only by Venice; in contrast, Naples and Southern Italy in general had few artists.[115] Large projects in Naples such as the Triumphal entrance to the Castel Nuovo and the Porta Capuana, were designed and executed by artists from the north, or under Alfonso V of Aragon, the King of Naples from 1442 to 1458, his native Spain.[116]
Many sculptors also worked as architects, then not a clearly defined profession, or painters, and those with a background in
Women sculptors
Even compared to painters, recorded women sculptors are vanishingly rare,
Guilds
The guilds which sculptors needed to join in most cities were often divided by the materials used,[122] in ways that sometimes hampered the development of the art. Stonecarvers, goldsmiths, workers in other metals, and woodcarvers often belonged to different guilds, though terracotta often lacked a guild. Guilds were especially strong, and politically powerful, in Florence, while in Rome, Venice, and smaller cities they were mostly weak. Their influence reduced considerably over the period. In Florence, carvers of stone and wood shared the Arte dei Maestri di Pietra e Legname ("Guild of Masters in Stone and Wood", one of the Arti Mediane or middle-ranking guilds),[123] and in the 16th century were eventually allowed to join the painters in their Compagnia di San Luca, strictly a confraternity rather than a guild until 1572. The Florentine metal workers were part of the Arte della Seta, the powerful silk guild, one of the Arti Maggiori or "major guilds".[124] Though powerful, the guilds in Florence were more accepting than many smaller cities of "foreign" artists from other cities practicing there,[125] perhaps because so many Florentine masters worked elsewhere themselves.
Patrons
The
In the many monarchical princely states of Italy the ruler was the main patron, and they often spent lavishly to glorify themselves: Milan,
Papal sculpture for their palaces and tombs increased enormously in the 16th century under
Over the course of the Renaissance the taste, and pockets, of the lesser members of elites, in the nobilities, patricians and wealthy bankers and merchants for art in the latest styles developed, and spread ever further down the social scale. Around 1500, shoulder busts (see below) were sometimes "inexpensive memorials made of terracotta formed from a cast of a death mask added helter-skelter to crudely modelled chest and shoulders".[131]
Development of style
To 1400
Especially in the 15th century,
Nicola's son Giovanni Pisano took over his father's workshop in the 1280s, and was much more receptive to Gothic style than his father.[134] Over the next century Gothic and classical influences were found together in many large works, sometimes in contention.[135] By the 1380s, "a vigorous movement" was emerging in several parts of Italy which set the ground for the styles of the next century.[136] But the 1390s also "began the apogee in Tuscany of a Gothic wave" in the International Gothic style;[137] the large "Porta della Mandorla" of Florence Cathedral, sponsored by the Arte della Lana or wool weavers' guild, which many sculptors contributed to, demonstrates this complex picture.[138]
From 1400
Doors of the Florence Baptistery
In the winter of 1400–1401 the
Two of the trial reliefs survive, those by Ghiberti and the runner-up, Filippo Brunelleschi, also in his early 20s. The jury found it very difficult to decide between them, and proposed that the two collaborate, but Brunelleschi declined, and after this defeat increasingly turned to architecture. The decision was acrimonious, and the dispute continued to cause bad feeling for many years. Both compositions reflected awareness of the latest Florentine styles, antique sculpture, and the northern International Gothic; the choice was in no way between new and old styles. Ghiberti's figures are more effectively integrated with the landscape background.[140] In Ghiberti "the mood is far gentler" than Brunelleschi's "stark, stoic interpretation". Ghiberti's Isaac was an idealized nude, with "the suggestion of a touchingly mute and child-like heroism in the face of inexplicable doom",[141] also described as "the first truly Renaissance nude figure; in it naturalism and classicism are blended and sublimated by a new vision of what a human being can be".[142]
Ghiberti had to establish a foundry and expand his workshop, which came to number about 25 people,
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The Sacrifice of Isaac, Brunelleschi's trial piece for the north doors of the Florence Baptistery competition, 1401
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The Sacrifice of Isaac, Ghiberti's winning piece for the 1401 competition
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Gates of Paradise,Baptistery, Florence, the doors in situ are reproductions
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Adam and Eve, from the Gates of Paradise
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Angled view of a panel with the story of Abraham from the Gates of Paradise
Donatello
Donatello, "the most inflential individual artist of the 15th century",[146] started receiving significant commissions in about 1408, mostly in marble, and by 1411 his Saint Mark was commissioned for the Orsanmichele. For the next half-century he was the most important and inventive sculptor in Italy, bringing Renaissance style to maturity. His work was always highly expressive of emotion, in a variety of different moods, and in his last years this often takes a more intense turn.[147]
He developed a style of very shallow and delicate relief, called stiacciato, whilst also excelling at statues, including the challenging first bronze equestrian one (see above).[148] His second, bronze, David is deservedly one of the most famous sculptures of the period, and the first free-standing nude statue of the Renaissance.[149] David, the biblical giant-killer, was a symbol of Florence, and a bronze by Verrocchio was another Medici commission in the 1470s, followed by Michelangelo's famous marble statue early in the next century.[150]
Donatello spent extended periods in Rome, in his youth with Filippo Brunelleschi and later in 1430–33 with his then partner Michelozzo; both are now better known as architects. This deepened his understanding of classical style.[151] In 1443 he left Florence for Padua, for his equestrian Gattamelata (see above), founding a bronze-casting tradition there. He was away ten years, during which his harsher final style began to develop.[152]
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St George, marble, for Orsanmichele, 1415–17
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The bronzeBargelloFlorence, h.158 cm
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Madonna and Child with Four Cherubs, terracotta, originally with colour
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Penitent Magdalene, wood, c. 1455
Middle of the century
From about 1430 to the 1480s there were a remarkable number of significant sculptors, working in personal variations of the style established by Ghiberti, Donatello, and others. Charles Avery describes as "the two disparate sculptural modes of the mid-century, the 'sweet-style' of Ghiberti and the brutal expressionism of Donatello", noting that Verrocchio "was able to blend" the two.[153]
Luca della Robbia's first documented work is a singing gallery or cantoria in Florence Cathedral (1431–38) with reliefs of children. After Donatello returned from Rome, he was commissioned to do a matching one (1433–40). According to Roberta Olsen, "while Luca's consummately sweet, refined figures create an ideal mood, Donatello's freely expressive putti are ribald. They are pudgy unorthodox angels ... By contrast, Luca's restrained figures ... could be portraits of real children. His allusions to antiquity are covert while Donatello's are overt".[154]
With Donatello absent in Padua from 1443 to 1453, the 'sweet style' dominated Florentine sculpture for the next 25 years, with the older Luca della Robbia, the brothers Bernardo and Antonio Rossellino later joined by Andrea del Verrocchio as leading figures.[155]
Apart from those already mentioned, Desiderio da Settignano (d. 1464, in his mid-thirties) is less generally known, as he died very young, and many of his works are relatively small religious reliefs, marked by "delicacy" and "extreme subtlety". He also produced several portraits of children.[156] A pupil was probably the unidentified Master of the Marble Madonnas who continued in his style in the next generation.
The
It was never completed as planned, but remains extremely important architecturally, as well as the interior having "the richest sculptural decoration of any Renaissance building" to 1449, when the first sculpture was added. Both inside and out, the sculpture is in a fairly low relief, in bands running vertically or horizontally on many surfaces. The subject matter was sometimes innovative, with chapels now called after "the Playing Children", "the Planets" and the "Arts and Sciences", from the subjects of the reliefs. The main workshop responsible was that of Agostino di Duccio; another may have shared the work, perhaps that of Matteo de' Pasti.[158]
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Luca della Robbia's cantoria, now Florence Cathedral Museum
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Detail of Luca della Robbia's cantoria
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Detail of the Donatello cantoria
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Desiderio da Settignano, Jesus and John the Baptist, 1455–57
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Philosophy, from the Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini
Crisis of the 1490s
The end of the 15th century saw something of a crisis in sculpture, especially in Florence. After about 1485, the traditional sources of large commissions were drying up. Sculptural projects became smaller, often paid for by single individuals, above all the Medici.[159]
The
16th century
Michelangelo
The 1490s saw the emergence of Michelangelo as an exceptional talent, culminating in his Pietà, begun in 1498. At the start of the next century, he began his David. This "established Michelangelo's reputation ... all over Italy and even further afield", and remains his most famous sculpture. After this, sculptors of large works had to react to the enormous force of Michelangelo's figures.[162] In 1504 Michelangelo received the first of the enormous painting commissions, for the Battle of Cascina (never completed), that were to take him away from sculpture for much of his career, and leave many sculptural projects unfinished.[163] But it is a common if "mistaken theory" that this was a deliberate preference; instead it was caused by his perfectionism, refusal to delegate to assistants, and inability to cope with the multiple demands by his powerful patrons.[164] A large bronze figure of Pope Julius II for Bologna was also destroyed in 1511 by the city.[165]
Michelangelo's unique technique of carving statues was to initially carve into only one face of the block, rather than have an assistant get to the rough dimensions of the figure on all sides, as other sculptors did. As he progressed and side views began to emerge, he would start carving into the sides of the block. This technique gave him "scope for continual alterations and revisions of the contours, and even the positions", of all the parts not yet reached. But it required his full concentration throughout the carving process, and effectively ruled out the use of assistants, except for finishing stages such as polishing. His several unfinished sculptures demonstrate the technique, but also show the excessive demands the technique put on him.[166]
Michelangelo was first asked by the Pope to create the Tomb of Pope Julius II in 1505, and set about choosing the marble, taking several months. But from 1508 to 1512 he was diverted into painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Originally the tomb had been planned as a free-standing pyramidal structure with many figures, but after the pope's death in 1513, a new contract was signed specifying that it stood against a wall. Work continued "spasmodically" until 1545, when "that miserable fragment that we have of the original scheme", with Moses and two other statues by him, was installed in San Pietro in Vincoli, as St Peter's was a building site. Other pieces are elsewhere, most unfinished. The young male nude Victory, with a twisting Figura serpentinata, which he left in his studio in Florence, was very influential on younger sculptors there.[167] By contrast, his four "unfinished slaves", now in the Louvre, "were not treated with the possibly exaggerated reverence in which they are now held", but placed in the grotto in the Boboli Gardens.[168]
His
Mannerist and Late Renaissance sculpture
Florentine sculptors who tried to reconcile the influences of Michelangelo and Mannerism included Niccolò Tribolo and his pupil Pierino da Vinci (the nephew of Leonardo). Tribolo's career got diverted into managing the water supply of the city and other engineering work, and some of his best later works are fountains for Medici gardens. Pierino was extremely talented, but died at 24. As well as statues, he developed a very effective Mannerist relief style, something that had eluded Cellini, and in which he had no successors.[171]
Benvenuto Cellini trained as a goldsmith in Florence and mostly worked in metal, though learned how to carve marble very well.[172] Thanks to his autobiography (which was only found in the 18th century) we know more about him than any other sculptor of the period. His undoubted masterpiece is Perseus with the Head of Medusa, 1545–1554, perhaps always intended for its current prominent position in the Loggia dei Lanzi.[173] It "has the elegant, effortless poise that was the hallmark of Mannerist art".[174]
Bartolomeo Ammannati was a talented sculptor, not best represented by his most prominent work, the central figure of the Fountain of Neptune, Florence, where he took over, after a competition, a block begun by Bandinelli. In later life, under the influence of the Counter-Reformation, he turned against nudity in public sculpture, and ceased work.[175] Vincenzo Danti, who also entered the Neptune competition, found he could not compete in Florence with Giambologna, and returned to his native Perugia as city architect, and professor at the new academy.[176]
The Florentine Jacopo Sansovino was initially a sculptor. He was working in Rome, but after the Sack in 1528 left for Venice, where he remained. He is mainly remembered as the most important architect of the period there, and it is not clear how much of the sculpture on his buildings he executed himself. He worked closely with Alessandro Vittoria, who is regarded as the most important Venetian sculptor. His rather severe portrait busts suited Venetian taste.[177]
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Baccio Bandinelli, Piazza della Signoria, Florence
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Restoration of Pisa by Cosimo I de' Medici, by Pierino da Vinci
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Vincenzo Danti, Beheading of John the Baptist, 1570s
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Alessandro Vittoria, Bust of a Venetian patrician, 1570-1600
Giambologna
Known as Jean de Boulogne at home in Douai, Flanders (now in France), Giambologna trained with a local sculptor who had been to Italy. At 21 he spent two years in Rome, and returning north in 1557 found a patron in Florence, who introduced him to the court. His entry for the Florence Neptune competition in 1560 was not successful, but probably caused the authorities at Bologna to invite him to do their Fountain of Neptune, Bologna. Completed in 1566, this was his largest commission to date.[178] He was briefly recalled from Bologna in 1565 to make temporary decorations for a Medici wedding. He produced a full-size modello in gesso (plaster) of Florence triumphing over Pisa, which was displayed at the wedding. The marble version was done later, perhaps by an assistant. This work introduces his interest in "the problem of uniting two figures in an action group", which many later works continue.[179]
As his career developed, he proved a capable manager of a large workshop, and an efficient manager of commissions, allowing his large output, mostly in bronze. He always worked from modelli which his workshop often repeated in different sizes. His elegant twisting figures climax in his marble Rape of the Sabine (1579–85, a title he adopted after the work was finished, from a friend's suggestion), which is designed to be equally satisfying viewed from any angle,[180] as was his earlier Mercury, balanced on one foot (there are four versions).[181]
Many of his larger statues were originally for gardens, often as the centrepiece of a fountain.
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Fountain of Neptune, Bologna, 1553–56
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Florence Triumphant over Pisa, modello in gesso (plaster), for a Medici wedding in 1565
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Large bronze version of Mercury (Bargello)
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Rape of the Sabine, 1579–85
Italians abroad
By the end of the period the
Periods working abroad by Italians often had decisive effects on the future sculpture of the country visited, providing models for local artists; this was especially the case in France. Though the Italian Wars begun in 1494 were a disaster for Italy they resulted in an "Italian cultural domination of Europe ... that compensated artistically for the political and military subjection of Italy".[188] By the end of the period tourism, led by interest in Italian art, was already becoming economically significant, for Florence, Venice and Rome in particular.
Portable objects such as medals and small bronzes reached the rest of Europe, and inspired local imitations. At the end of the period the small bronzes of Giambologna and his workshop (and his imitators) were a small industry largely for export.[189] Giambologna himself, as the leading sculptor of the later 16th century, received many invitations to work at foreign courts, which the Medici Grand Dukes would not allow him to accept. Leading artists were sometimes wary of accepting foreign invitations, especially from the Habsburgs, as they usually needed the consent of the ruler to leave again.[190]
The extended periods working outside Italy of Torrigiano and Lariana have been noted above. As with other emigres, when abroad they worked mostly for court circles with advanced taste. The artists of the Tudor court were mostly from the Netherlands, though some like the first English medallist, Steven van Herwijck, had worked in Italy. The few Italian sculptors included Torrigiano and probably the terracotta specialist Guido Mazzoni, who certainly spent some years after 1495 in France.[191] After the English Reformation visitors were nearly all portrait-painters, but during the reign of Mary I of England the Habsburg's medallist and jeweller Jacopo da Trezzo visited.[192]
The
Domenico Fancelli (1469–1519) produced several tomb effigies for Spanish royalty and the important Mendoza family, but worked in Carrara, visiting Spain briefly "to install his work and sign new contracts".[195] In a similar way, Leone Leoni stayed in Milan after he was appointed to run the imperial mint for the Habsburgs, but his son Pompeo moved to Spain, where he finished and installed his father's larger works, and produced his own.[196]
Notes
- ^ According to Frederick Hartt: "It is striking that the great new figurative style of the Renaissance is seen first in sculpture, and only later in painting" – Hartt, 163, of Ghiberti; White, 73
- ^ Avery, 4
- ^ Hartt, 638: "the undeniable fact is that every one of the truly great Italian Renaissance sculptors came from Tuscany, and all but two of them were Florentines, native or adopted".
- ^ Campbell, 28; Avery, 10
- ^ For all, see Olsen, Index, or Osborne
- ^ Seymour, 10–11
- ^ Avery, 4; Osborne, 705–706, 879
- ^ Seymour, 120
- ^ Seymour, 4–5, 11; Hartt, 25
- ^ "La Nymphe de Fontainebleau", Atlas database, Louvre.
- Dominican orderswere regular patrons in the 13th century.
- ^ Olsen, 8–9
- ^ Avery, 60, 63
- ^ Osborne, 965,
- ^ Avery, 11, 33–37; Olsen, 41
- ^ Seymour, 211–216
- ^ Olsen, 188
- ^ Avery, 253–256; Olsen, 201–202; Hartt, 660
- ^ Seymour, 14
- ^ Avery, 8
- ^ Hartt, 25–26; Avery, 8
- ^ Kemp, 189–197, 203
- ^ Hartt, 169
- ^ NGA, 6
- ^ Seymour, 15, 189
- ^ Seymour, 15, and 17 for a survey of other regional stones, also 189
- ^ Seymour, 15
- ^ Seymour, 17
- ^ Avery, 6–7; Hartt, 25–26; Seymour, 17
- ^ Kemp, 201 on another horse, attributed to Leonardo, as the Horse and Rider is by some.
- ^ Avery, 6–7
- Horses of San Marco in Venice, the Regisole in Pavia (now destroyed), and the Colossus of Barletta were the leading examples, and almost the only large ones known to the Middle Ages. The Idolino was excavated in 1530 and The Orator in 1566. The Youth of Magdalensbergwas found in Germany and never returned to Italy.
- ^ Seymour, 201–203; NGA, 5
- ^ Avery, 5–6
- ^ Avery, 58–59; Levey, 142–143
- ^ Hartt, 26
- ^ Osborne, 705–706, 879
- ^ Avery, 203–204
- ^ Aldobrandini Tazza, Victoria and Albert Museum
- ^ "The Ghisi Shield" Archived 2022-06-02 at the Wayback Machine, British Museum
- ^ Seymour, 53. Guild restrictions may have played a part in this.
- ^ Seymour, 53
- ^ Olson, 133–135; Seymour, 193
- ^ Described by the Louvre as "terre cuite avec incrustations de médaillons de cire sous verre avec traces de dorure".
- ^ Seymour, 10
- ^ Avery, 8–9
- ^ Avery, 165
- ^ Hartt, 174
- ^ Strong, 195
- ^ Strong, 194
- ^ Strong, 194–195, 195 quoted
- ^ Strong, 198–199. The small size of the humans is for effect; "the plates laid along the table's edge give a truer guide". The subjects of the sculptures are very similar to those recorded for Italian banquets.
- ^ Strong, 75
- ^ Strong, 133–134 (quoted)
- ^ Strong, 194–198
- ^ Strong, 223
- ^ NGA, 5
- ^ Osborne, 887
- ^ Avery, 11–12
- ^ Seymour, 20–21, 189–190; White, 517–531. Much of the current exterior is much later.
- Dukes of Burgundy, and later El Escorialfor the Spanish kings.
- ^ Seymour, 20, 189–190, 193–195
- ^ Seymour, 31–35, 34 quoted; Avery, 35, 54
- ^ Olsen, 48, 165, both originals are now in museums.
- ^ 12 of whom died between 1400 and 1578
- ^ Seymour, 13
- ^ Seymour, 179–182
- ^ Olsen, 184–186, 199–200. The contents of the loggia have changed somewhat since 1600, though these two works have always been there.
- ^ Avery, 31; Hartt, 15
- ^ Seymour, 25, 58–64; Hartt, 163–167; Avery, 56–63; Levey, 141–145
- ^ Hartt, 175–176
- ^ Shearman, 112–113
- ^ Olsen, 189–192; Avery, 238–239
- ^ Shearman, 123–125
- ^ Osborne, 144
- ^ Seymour, 6–7
- ^ John of Austria was still alive, but the Statue of Ferrante I Gonzaga, Guastalla was made for the subject's son, some 30 years after his death, similar to the Monument to Giovanni delle Bande Nere, Florence.
- ^ Wilson, 128; Osborne, 654
- ^ White, 610–614; Olsen, 32–33; Hartt, 139
- ^ Avery, 253
- ^ Hartt, 244–245, 267–268
- ^ Seymour, 123–125, 176–178; Olsen, 86–87, 118
- ^ Avery, 253–254; Olsen, 200–201
- ^ Kemp, 189–197, 203; Avery, 147–148
- ^ Hartt, 293
- ^ Avery, 116–117, 117 quoted
- ^ Avery, 119–122; Seymour, 139
- ^ NGA, 5
- ^ Olsen, 91; "Bust of Niccolò da Uzzano, 1430s" Metropolitan Museum (when on loan from the Bargello, Florence)
- ^ Levey, 102–103
- ^ "Lorenzo de' Medici, possibly 1513/1520", NGA
- V&A Museum
- ^ "Henry VIII (1491–1547) when a young boy (?) c. 1498", Royal Collection
- ^ Seymour, 164–165; Olsen, 131–132
- ^ Hartt, 177
- ^ Seymour, 105; Wilson, 16
- ^ Wilson, 15–24; Seymour, 105–106; Olsen, 71–72
- ^ Wilson, 12, 15–24, 30–19 quoted, and later sections; Seymour, 105–106; Olsen, 71–72
- ^ Wilson, 42–47
- ^ Wilson, 34–35
- ^ Olsen, 123–124, 124 quoted
- ^ Wilson, 7–8
- ^ Shearman, 88–89, quotes from pp. 89–91
- ^ Wilson, 7–8, 13
- ^ Osborne, 879
- ^ Olsen, 138–140; Wilson, 61; Seymour, 203
- ^ Wilson, 27–28
- ^ Wilson, 127
- ^ Wilson, 138–139, 173 have examples
- ^ Olsen, 36
- ^ NGA, 4
- ^ Seymour, 11–12, 12 quoted; Avery, 7
- ^ Seymour, 12
- ^ Avery, 8
- ^ Campbell, throughout; NGA, 1, 3
- ^ Seymour, 134–138; Campbell, 23–25
- ^ Kemp, 199, quoted; NGA, 2, 3, 5, 9
- ^ Hartt, 25; Olsen, 37
- ^ NGA, 2
- ^ Chadwick, 92–93, 92 quoted; Vasari extract, in NGA
- ^ Chadwick, 90
- ^ Seymour, 11
- ^ Hartt, 15
- ^ Hartt, 15
- ^ NGA, 3
- ^ Seymour, 134–138
- ^ Seymour, 12–13, 206; Avery, 2–4; Levey, 133–134
- ^ Avery, 2–4
- ^ Seymour, 153–155, 154 quoted; Avery, 10
- ^ Seymour, 13; Olsen, 127, 129–138, 149; Avery, 10
- ^ Seymour, 13
- ^ Clark, 219–221, 236–237; Avery, 181; Seymour, 8
- ^ Hartt, 51–58; Avery, 11–18; White, 74–91; Osborne, 876–877
- ^ White, 113–142; Hartt, 55–58
- ^ White, 591–614
- ^ Seymour, 19–27, 19 quoted
- ^ Seymour, 29
- ^ Seymour, 31–35; Avery, 18–22; Olsen, 38–39
- ^ Seymour, 36–46; Avery, 33–40; Hartt, 158–161; Olsen, 41–45
- ^ Seymour, 38–40; Avery, 33–37; Olsen, 41–42; Levey, 116–126
- ^ Seymour, 39
- ^ Hartt, 159
- ^ NGA, 5
- ^ Olsen, 44–45; Seymour, 75, 106–113; Avery, 49–53; Hartt, 161–163, 231–235; Levey, 136–140
- ^ google culture page
- ^ Osborne, 323
- ^ Avery, 70–72, 81–96
- ^ Olsen, 79–82; Avery, 47–49
- ^ Avery, 82; Olsen, 83; Hartt, 237–238
- ^ Hartt, 323, 469–470; Levey, 259–260
- ^ Avery, 74
- ^ Avery, 87–91; Osborn, 323
- ^ Avery, 143
- ^ Olsen, 78–79; Seymour, 92–97; Levey, 147-150+
- ^ Avery, 97–105
- ^ Seymour, 139–141, 141 quoted; Hartt, 288–290
- ^ Hartt, 222; Olsen, 130 (quoted)
- ^ Seymour, 129–134, 129 quoted; Olsen, 129–131
- ^ Seymour, 204–207
- ^ Seymour, 204, 214
- ^ "Effigy of Gaston de Foix, Duke of Nemours" V&A Museum
- ^ Avery, 168–180, 194 (178 quoted); Seymour, 211–216
- ^ Osborne, 718
- ^ Avery, 192–193
- ^ Osborne, 718
- ^ Avery, 180, 7
- ^ Avery, 181–189, 189 quoted; Hartt, 490–491, 505–508, 548–551
- ^ Avery, 193
- ^ Avery, 189–192, 190 quoted; Hartt, 540–548
- ^ Avery, 194–203; Olsen, 179–180; Osborne, 103
- ^ Avery, 210–219, 208, 236
- ^ Avery, 209
- ^ Avery, 205; Hartt, 658–659
- ^ Avery, 206
- ^ Avery, 220–230
- ^ Avery, 230–236
- ^ Hartt, 632, 638
- ^ Avery, 237–239
- ^ Avery, 242–243
- ^ Avery, 237–254; Shearman, 86–89; Olsen, 199–200; Osborne, 144; Hartt, 660
- ^ Shearman, 89–90; Olsen, 195–196; Avery, 239
- ^ Avery, 243–247
- ^ Olsen, 198–199; Shearman, 130–132
- ^ Shearman, 123–133
- ^ Shearman, 24
- ^ Avery, 237
- ^ Wilson, 165
- ^ Shearman, 24–25
- ^ Avery, 247–250, 256
- ^ Trevor-Roper, 31, 90-91
- ^ Seymour, 268
- Anthonis Mor, Sotheby's, Lot 22, Old Masters Evening Sale, London, 4 December 2019 (sold, £1.93 million)
- ^ Osborne, 427–429; Olsen, 182; Clark, 323–325, 323 quoted
- ^ Shearman, 23–24; Avery, 203–204, 208; Osborne, 212, 428; Olsen, 182–184
- ^ Osborne, 212, 428
- ^ Osborne, 654
- ^ Osborne, 1037
- ^ Shearman, 64, 67, 194–195; "Bona Sforza (1493–1557), Queen of Poland, Cameo by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, MMA
- ^ "Gregorio di Lorenzo (circa 1436–1504) | Italian, Florence, circa 1460–1465 | Profile Relief of a Roman Emperor", Sotheby's, Lot 38, Old Master Sculpture & Works of Art, London, 6 July 2021
- ^ Seymour, 261
References
- Avery, Charles, Florentine Renaissance Sculpture, 1970, John Murray Publishing, ISBN 0-7195-1932-2
- Campbell, Steven J., "Artistic geographies", Chapter 1 of The Cambridge Companion to the Italian Renaissance, ed. Michael Wyatt, 2014, Cambridge University Press,
- ISBN 978-0-500-20354-5
- Clark, Kenneth, The Nude, A Study in Ideal Form, orig. 1949, various edns, page refs from Pelican edn of 1960
- ISBN 0-500-23510-4
- ISBN 978-0-19-920778-7
- ISBN 0-7126-7310-5
- "NGA": "Italian Renaissance Learning Resources", National Gallery of Art/Oxford Art Online
- Olson, Roberta J.M., Italian Renaissance Sculpture, 1992, Thames & Hudson (World of Art), ISBN 978-0-500-20253-1
- Osborne, Harold (ed), The Oxford Companion to Art, 1970, OUP, ISBN 0-19-866107-X
- Seymour, Charles Jr., Sculpture in Italy, 1400–1500, 1966, Penguin (Pelican History of Art)
- ISBN 0-14-020808-9
- ISBN 0-224-06138-0
- ISBN 0-500-23232-6
- ISBN 0-14-056128-5
- Wilson, Carolyn C., Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts, 1983, National Gallery of Art (Washington), ISBN 0-89468-067-6
External links
Media related to Italian Renaissance sculptures at Wikimedia Commons