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Lot Essay
The finely modelled and polychromed, austere bust of Christ in Blessing presented here, is a recently discovered addition to the oeuvre of Alfonso Lombardi, one of the finest Cinquecento sculptors working in terracotta, and a dominant figure in the artistic milieu of Bologna in the second quarter of the sixteenth century. Published and exhibited as an autograph work, it is dated to the apogee of Lombardi’s career, and closely linked to his seminal works at San Petronio and Santa Maria della Vita.
Alfonso Lombardi
Alfonso Lombardi was born in Ferrara around 1497 and died in Bologna in 1537. Much of our initial information about him comes from Giorgio Vasari in his Lives, who praises Lombardi’s gifts as a sculptor, particularly working in terracotta and stucco, but presents him as an ‘indulgent and vain’ man dedicated to sculpture ‘more for pleasure and to satisfy his own vanity than with any desire to set himself to chisel stone’ (Vasari, op. cit., p. 862). Beginning his career at the court of Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, in 1516 Lombardi moved to Bologna, where he established his reputation.
In the region of Emilio-Romagna, with the abundance of alluvial soils, and the scarcity of stone and marble, local sculptors had developed a particular tradition in working in terracotta. This was most evident in Bologna, where the tradition reached its highest formal and expressive levels with the work of Niccolò dell' Arca (1435-1494), Guido Mazzoni (1450-1518), and then Lombardi himself, and continued well into the eighteenth century.
At Ferrara, Lombardi had made small portrait medals in wax and plaster of the Duke, Ludovico Ariosto and Pietro Bembo that were praised by his contemporaries for their realistic features and facial characteristics. At Bologna he received a commission for a terracotta group of Hercules and the Hydra (completed 1519) that was placed in the great hall of the Palazzo Pubblico. Vasari relates how Lombardi was introduced to Emperor Charles V by his friend, the painter Titian, and through a theatrical show of his skills obtained a commission to carve a marble bust of Charles V. Lombardi remained in Bologna until 1530 when he travelled to Carrara, and later went into the service of Cardinal Ippolito de Medici in Rome, where he carved busts of both Pope Clement VII and Giuliano de’ Medici (both Florence, Palazzo Vecchio). In 1535 he returned to Bologna, where he died aged 49.
Cristo Benedicente
The present bust was first proposed as a work by Alfonso Lombardi in 1999 by Federico Zeri. This attribution has since been supported by Franco Faranda, Giancarlo Gentilini, Daniela Sinigalliesi and David Lucidiand, and the bust has been publically exhibited three times, including in the first comprehensive exhibition on the artist curated by Sinigalliesi and Graziano Campanini. Comparisons with a terracotta standing apostle in the group of the Death of the Virgin now displayed in the Oratory of Santa Maria della Vita in Bologna, and a terracotta St Anthony Abbot in the Cathedral of Cesena show full evidence of the attribution to Lombardi (Alfonso Lombardi. Lo scultore a Bologna, op. cit., p. 30). Further similarities can also be drawn with Lombardi’s marble group of the Resurrection of Christ in the side lunette of St Petronio’s façade in Bologna (c. 1526) which was eventually completed by Francesco da Milano (ibid, p. 18).
Christ’s austere expression and pose with his right arm raised in blessing suggest that Lombardi carried out both the marble Risen Christ and the terracotta Christ bust in the first half of the 1520s. The more delicate, ductile and expressive treatment of Christ’s skin, beard and hair in the present bust, is aided by the employment of a lively polychromed surface.
The original setting of the present work is unknown. In the early Cinquecento, terracotta busts representing holy characters had a number of possible functions. When displayed as a single work, they were usually placed in private chapels or in a lunette of a church façade. They were also embedded over the altar of private chapels, for example Giovanni Caccini’s marble bust of Christ (1590s, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). Alternatively terracotta busts often formed part of a larger religious group. These could be either set on corbels above columns running down the main nave of a church or could be displayed above the choir stalls set before the apse.
The Bentivoglio Family
According to the Bolognese author Pietro Lamo (1518-1574), Lombardi made a finely-coloured terracotta Apostolato for the monastery of San Giuseppe, Bologna. Whilst the apostles were set in niches above the columns of the main nave, a bust of Christ was displayed in the counter-façade (Lamo, loc. cit.). Described by Vasari as ‘terracotta high-reliefs tondos’ (Vasari, loc. cit.), the busts are now located at the Cathedral of Ferrara.
The large scale of the present bust, its pose with Christ in blessing, his eyes looking down, and the rough treatment of the reverse all suggest it was embedded in a niche of a church apse or a counter-façade at an elevated height. It is highly likely that it originally was part of an Apostolato like that at San Giuseppe.
The bust has a provenance from the Palazzo Bentivoglio, which was built between 1594 and 1600 for Ippolito Bentivoglio. In 1634 Francesco I d'Este, Duke of Modena took the Palazzo for himself, and it remained in the hands of the d’Este family until 1750. It is possible that the Bentivoglio family were patrons of Lombardi during their period of refuge in Ferrara after 1512.
Alfonso Lombardi
Alfonso Lombardi was born in Ferrara around 1497 and died in Bologna in 1537. Much of our initial information about him comes from Giorgio Vasari in his Lives, who praises Lombardi’s gifts as a sculptor, particularly working in terracotta and stucco, but presents him as an ‘indulgent and vain’ man dedicated to sculpture ‘more for pleasure and to satisfy his own vanity than with any desire to set himself to chisel stone’ (Vasari, op. cit., p. 862). Beginning his career at the court of Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, in 1516 Lombardi moved to Bologna, where he established his reputation.
In the region of Emilio-Romagna, with the abundance of alluvial soils, and the scarcity of stone and marble, local sculptors had developed a particular tradition in working in terracotta. This was most evident in Bologna, where the tradition reached its highest formal and expressive levels with the work of Niccolò dell' Arca (1435-1494), Guido Mazzoni (1450-1518), and then Lombardi himself, and continued well into the eighteenth century.
At Ferrara, Lombardi had made small portrait medals in wax and plaster of the Duke, Ludovico Ariosto and Pietro Bembo that were praised by his contemporaries for their realistic features and facial characteristics. At Bologna he received a commission for a terracotta group of Hercules and the Hydra (completed 1519) that was placed in the great hall of the Palazzo Pubblico. Vasari relates how Lombardi was introduced to Emperor Charles V by his friend, the painter Titian, and through a theatrical show of his skills obtained a commission to carve a marble bust of Charles V. Lombardi remained in Bologna until 1530 when he travelled to Carrara, and later went into the service of Cardinal Ippolito de Medici in Rome, where he carved busts of both Pope Clement VII and Giuliano de’ Medici (both Florence, Palazzo Vecchio). In 1535 he returned to Bologna, where he died aged 49.
Cristo Benedicente
The present bust was first proposed as a work by Alfonso Lombardi in 1999 by Federico Zeri. This attribution has since been supported by Franco Faranda, Giancarlo Gentilini, Daniela Sinigalliesi and David Lucidiand, and the bust has been publically exhibited three times, including in the first comprehensive exhibition on the artist curated by Sinigalliesi and Graziano Campanini. Comparisons with a terracotta standing apostle in the group of the Death of the Virgin now displayed in the Oratory of Santa Maria della Vita in Bologna, and a terracotta St Anthony Abbot in the Cathedral of Cesena show full evidence of the attribution to Lombardi (Alfonso Lombardi. Lo scultore a Bologna, op. cit., p. 30). Further similarities can also be drawn with Lombardi’s marble group of the Resurrection of Christ in the side lunette of St Petronio’s façade in Bologna (c. 1526) which was eventually completed by Francesco da Milano (ibid, p. 18).
Christ’s austere expression and pose with his right arm raised in blessing suggest that Lombardi carried out both the marble Risen Christ and the terracotta Christ bust in the first half of the 1520s. The more delicate, ductile and expressive treatment of Christ’s skin, beard and hair in the present bust, is aided by the employment of a lively polychromed surface.
The original setting of the present work is unknown. In the early Cinquecento, terracotta busts representing holy characters had a number of possible functions. When displayed as a single work, they were usually placed in private chapels or in a lunette of a church façade. They were also embedded over the altar of private chapels, for example Giovanni Caccini’s marble bust of Christ (1590s, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). Alternatively terracotta busts often formed part of a larger religious group. These could be either set on corbels above columns running down the main nave of a church or could be displayed above the choir stalls set before the apse.
The Bentivoglio Family
According to the Bolognese author Pietro Lamo (1518-1574), Lombardi made a finely-coloured terracotta Apostolato for the monastery of San Giuseppe, Bologna. Whilst the apostles were set in niches above the columns of the main nave, a bust of Christ was displayed in the counter-façade (Lamo, loc. cit.). Described by Vasari as ‘terracotta high-reliefs tondos’ (Vasari, loc. cit.), the busts are now located at the Cathedral of Ferrara.
The large scale of the present bust, its pose with Christ in blessing, his eyes looking down, and the rough treatment of the reverse all suggest it was embedded in a niche of a church apse or a counter-façade at an elevated height. It is highly likely that it originally was part of an Apostolato like that at San Giuseppe.
The bust has a provenance from the Palazzo Bentivoglio, which was built between 1594 and 1600 for Ippolito Bentivoglio. In 1634 Francesco I d'Este, Duke of Modena took the Palazzo for himself, and it remained in the hands of the d’Este family until 1750. It is possible that the Bentivoglio family were patrons of Lombardi during their period of refuge in Ferrara after 1512.