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Lot Essay
Giambologna, the Flemish-born student of Michelangelo (1475-1564), who came to shape, model, and cast the last great works of the Italian Renaissance, arrived in Rome in 1550. Perhaps best known for his Rape of a Sabine in the Loggia dei Lanzi of Florence, carved from the largest block of marble ever brought to Florence, Giambologna or Jean de Bologne, carried out the majority of his work under the patronage of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1519-1574).
As a student of Michelangelo, Giambologna began a career grounded in modeling an array of subject matter in wax and clay. Baldinucci notes his ‘Notozie de’ professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua’ of 1846 that a young Giambologna with less than two years of study in Rome took a clay model to Michelangelo who quickly reworked the soft material and told him “now go and learn first to model and then to finish” (P. Barocchi, ed., Florence, vol. 2, p. 556). By all accounts, the young sculptor appears to have done just that as one of the most prolific master sculptors in wax and clay from either the Italian Renaissance or Baroque.
Much can be learned about Giambologna’s artistic process from the studies for his larger works such as those for the Rape of a Sabine or Florence Triumphant over Pisa, which show his method of building up figures and compositions with soft materials around metal armatures (D. Zikos, catalogue note for Trinity Fine Art Ltd, c. 2018). Giambologna’s tireless labor on these soft models provide insight in to the develop of critical hallmarks of Mannerism such as the circular composition. As Charles Avery noted ‘Sculptural models, like the sketches of painters, are vital evidence of an artist’s imagination at work, of his reaction to received ideas and his immediate response’ (C. Avery, Giambologna: The Complete Sculpture, Oxford, 1987, p. 70).
From Cosimo I de’Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Giambologna enjoyed dedicated patronage and mingled with members of the Duke’s court. Giambologna would go on to render his patron’s posthumous equestrian portrait which still stands today in the Palazzo della Signoria.
While in Cosimo’s court, Giambologna would have been acquainted with Braccio di Bartolo da Poggio Fornione or ‘Morgante’. This person of short stature, one of five in the Grand Duke’s court, forged a unique place in the court of the Grand Duke, and later his daughter (D. Heikamp, ‘Il Nano Morgante Tentative di un ritratto,’ B. P. Strozzi and D. Zikos, eds., Giambologna: gli dei, gli eroi, Florence, 2006, p. 286). The dwarf’s force of personality is attested to by his popularity in contemporaneous art and literature as well as his close personal relationship with the Duke. Morgante was known for his comforting presence to Cosimo, his wit, charm, dancing, and revelry. In response to his complex and engaging personality, Bronzino (1503-1572) depicted him in a two-sided painting Ritratto del Nano Morgante (fig. 1, circa 1553, inv. 5959) now at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence (Heikamp, pp. 286-290).
Giambologna portrayed Morgante on several occasions including the bronze now at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello and in his relief of the Coronation of Cosimo I at Piazza della Signoria. However, the present object has been interpreted by Dimitrios Zikos as a portrayal of Morgante in the guise of Silenus. According to Zikos, while the skull, mustache and beard are indicative of known portraits of the dwarf, the snub nose and left pointed ear are trademarks of Silenus, a mythological elderly and obese satyr in the retinue of Bacchus, often shown inebriated, riding a donkey. Indeed, both the sculptor and subject of this portrait were known for their shared enjoyment of the Bacchanalian drink.
As a representation of the artist’s mastery and experimentation in clay, the present object typifies his penchant for a worked, lively surface, mirrored in the motion and energy in his more complex compositions. The surface with its swirled and worked curls, pressed and applied dobs of clay built up to form the grizzled face and is similar to other known works of the sculptor in terracotta clay and cast bronze. Zikos notes the stylistic similarities to other works by Giambologna: Grotesque masque, (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, inv. 4107:1-1854) and Diavolino (Museo Bardini, Florence), among others that testify to the artist’s dedication to naturalism and ability to mold dynamic surface with merely fingers and a stylus. To render his Turkey (fig. 2), once at Medici Villa di Pratolino and now at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, the artist recalls working during the summer for his preferred weather conditions to working in clay (E. Dhanens, Jean Boulogne. Giovanni Bologna fiammingo, Douai 1529-Florence 1608, Brussels, 1956, p. 338). Zikos notes the similar effect of layering and built up strata of material to create the look of a surface that is lively and fresh.
Similar dedication to naturalism can be seen in the present object with its worked, earthy surface which allows a viewer to picture the hand, fingers, and stylus of the artist, pinching, pressing, and cutting in to the still wet clay, the frenzy of dobs, swipes, and delineated hairs forming gaunt eyes and a scraggly beard that ultimately allow one to understand the sculptor’s creative process of building the material, the sitter’s likeness, and the concept of the allegorical figure into an amalgamation focused on the expression of the sitter, an object never meant for public consumption, rather, the working sculptor’s sketch.
Zikos has also points out that this work could be the ‘head of a satyr made of terracotta’ mentioned in the inventory of Bernardo Vecchietti’s Villa Il Riposo compiled on 11 August 1759 (listed as ‘Una testa di Terracotta verniciata rappresentante un satiro con suo piedistallo d’ottone’ F. Carrara in Giambologna: gli dei, gli eroi, p. 313). This inventory for the residence near Florence, which includes several models by Giambologna, was drafted immediately preceding the dispersion of the collection, much of which found its way into private English collections thereafter.
A thermoluminescence test dated 10 June 2008, Oxford Authenticiation Ltd, sample N108q42, dates the last firing 300 to 500 years prior.
As a student of Michelangelo, Giambologna began a career grounded in modeling an array of subject matter in wax and clay. Baldinucci notes his ‘Notozie de’ professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua’ of 1846 that a young Giambologna with less than two years of study in Rome took a clay model to Michelangelo who quickly reworked the soft material and told him “now go and learn first to model and then to finish” (P. Barocchi, ed., Florence, vol. 2, p. 556). By all accounts, the young sculptor appears to have done just that as one of the most prolific master sculptors in wax and clay from either the Italian Renaissance or Baroque.
Much can be learned about Giambologna’s artistic process from the studies for his larger works such as those for the Rape of a Sabine or Florence Triumphant over Pisa, which show his method of building up figures and compositions with soft materials around metal armatures (D. Zikos, catalogue note for Trinity Fine Art Ltd, c. 2018). Giambologna’s tireless labor on these soft models provide insight in to the develop of critical hallmarks of Mannerism such as the circular composition. As Charles Avery noted ‘Sculptural models, like the sketches of painters, are vital evidence of an artist’s imagination at work, of his reaction to received ideas and his immediate response’ (C. Avery, Giambologna: The Complete Sculpture, Oxford, 1987, p. 70).
From Cosimo I de’Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Giambologna enjoyed dedicated patronage and mingled with members of the Duke’s court. Giambologna would go on to render his patron’s posthumous equestrian portrait which still stands today in the Palazzo della Signoria.
While in Cosimo’s court, Giambologna would have been acquainted with Braccio di Bartolo da Poggio Fornione or ‘Morgante’. This person of short stature, one of five in the Grand Duke’s court, forged a unique place in the court of the Grand Duke, and later his daughter (D. Heikamp, ‘Il Nano Morgante Tentative di un ritratto,’ B. P. Strozzi and D. Zikos, eds., Giambologna: gli dei, gli eroi, Florence, 2006, p. 286). The dwarf’s force of personality is attested to by his popularity in contemporaneous art and literature as well as his close personal relationship with the Duke. Morgante was known for his comforting presence to Cosimo, his wit, charm, dancing, and revelry. In response to his complex and engaging personality, Bronzino (1503-1572) depicted him in a two-sided painting Ritratto del Nano Morgante (fig. 1, circa 1553, inv. 5959) now at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence (Heikamp, pp. 286-290).
Giambologna portrayed Morgante on several occasions including the bronze now at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello and in his relief of the Coronation of Cosimo I at Piazza della Signoria. However, the present object has been interpreted by Dimitrios Zikos as a portrayal of Morgante in the guise of Silenus. According to Zikos, while the skull, mustache and beard are indicative of known portraits of the dwarf, the snub nose and left pointed ear are trademarks of Silenus, a mythological elderly and obese satyr in the retinue of Bacchus, often shown inebriated, riding a donkey. Indeed, both the sculptor and subject of this portrait were known for their shared enjoyment of the Bacchanalian drink.
As a representation of the artist’s mastery and experimentation in clay, the present object typifies his penchant for a worked, lively surface, mirrored in the motion and energy in his more complex compositions. The surface with its swirled and worked curls, pressed and applied dobs of clay built up to form the grizzled face and is similar to other known works of the sculptor in terracotta clay and cast bronze. Zikos notes the stylistic similarities to other works by Giambologna: Grotesque masque, (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, inv. 4107:1-1854) and Diavolino (Museo Bardini, Florence), among others that testify to the artist’s dedication to naturalism and ability to mold dynamic surface with merely fingers and a stylus. To render his Turkey (fig. 2), once at Medici Villa di Pratolino and now at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, the artist recalls working during the summer for his preferred weather conditions to working in clay (E. Dhanens, Jean Boulogne. Giovanni Bologna fiammingo, Douai 1529-Florence 1608, Brussels, 1956, p. 338). Zikos notes the similar effect of layering and built up strata of material to create the look of a surface that is lively and fresh.
Similar dedication to naturalism can be seen in the present object with its worked, earthy surface which allows a viewer to picture the hand, fingers, and stylus of the artist, pinching, pressing, and cutting in to the still wet clay, the frenzy of dobs, swipes, and delineated hairs forming gaunt eyes and a scraggly beard that ultimately allow one to understand the sculptor’s creative process of building the material, the sitter’s likeness, and the concept of the allegorical figure into an amalgamation focused on the expression of the sitter, an object never meant for public consumption, rather, the working sculptor’s sketch.
Zikos has also points out that this work could be the ‘head of a satyr made of terracotta’ mentioned in the inventory of Bernardo Vecchietti’s Villa Il Riposo compiled on 11 August 1759 (listed as ‘Una testa di Terracotta verniciata rappresentante un satiro con suo piedistallo d’ottone’ F. Carrara in Giambologna: gli dei, gli eroi, p. 313). This inventory for the residence near Florence, which includes several models by Giambologna, was drafted immediately preceding the dispersion of the collection, much of which found its way into private English collections thereafter.
A thermoluminescence test dated 10 June 2008, Oxford Authenticiation Ltd, sample N108q42, dates the last firing 300 to 500 years prior.