ADRIANO FIORENTINO

Adriano worked at courts in Italy and also in Germany, where he produced one of his best-known works, a bronze bust of Elector Frederick III the Wise in contemporary costume.

Adriano Fiorentino, a Florentine artist active in Naples, made an impressive bronze bust of Pontano, as well as an all’antica portrait relief in marble and a medal. Giovanni Gioviano Pontano (1429-1503) was a poet, humanist, and statesman. He was the presiding spirit of the Accademia Pontaniana, and chief minister and tutor to the Aragonese Kings of Naples. He was also the most innovative and versatile Latin poet of Quattrocento Italy. His Two Books of Hendecasyllables, given the subtitle Baiae by their first editor Pietro Summonte, experiment brilliantly with the metrical form associated principally with the ancient Latin poet Catullus. The poems are the elegant offspring of Pontano’s leisure, written to celebrate love, good wine, friendship, nature, and all the pleasures of life to be found at the seaside resort of Baiae on the Bay of Naples.

In all three forms, Adriano depicts Pontano as an older man, his sparse remaining hair is wavy, and his rather severe demeanour is expressed through a furrowed brow, pronounced veins and perhaps a scar at the temples, deeply creased cheeks, and a slightly downturned mouth. In the bust and relief he wears classical garb, with his cloak held at the shoulder by a fibula.

Adriano Fiorentino, a Florentine artist active in Naples, made an impressive bronze bust of Pontano, as well as an all’antica portrait relief in marble and a medal. Giovanni Gioviano Pontano (1429-1503) was a poet, humanist, and statesman. He was the presiding spirit of the Accademia Pontaniana, and chief minister and tutor to the Aragonese Kings of Naples. He was also the most innovative and versatile Latin poet of Quattrocento Italy. His Two Books of Hendecasyllables, given the subtitle Baiae by their first editor Pietro Summonte, experiment brilliantly with the metrical form associated principally with the ancient Latin poet Catullus. The poems are the elegant offspring of Pontano’s leisure, written to celebrate love, good wine, friendship, nature, and all the pleasures of life to be found at the seaside resort of Baiae on the Bay of Naples.

In all three forms, Adriano depicts Pontano as an older man, his sparse remaining hair is wavy, and his rather severe demeanour is expressed through a furrowed brow, pronounced veins and perhaps a scar at the temples, deeply creased cheeks, and a slightly downturned mouth. In the bust and relief he wears classical garb, with his cloak held at the shoulder by a fibula.

The relief in marble relates to both the profile view of the bronze bust and his medal of the sitter. Set within an illusionistic frame, the relief combines the tradition of the carved portrait bust with the imagery of Roman emperors developed by Desiderio da Settignano and Mino da Fiesole.

Adriano Fiorentino, a Florentine artist active in Naples, made an impressive bronze bust of Pontano, as well as an all’antica portrait relief in marble and a medal. Giovanni Gioviano Pontano (1429-1503) was a poet, humanist, and statesman. He was the presiding spirit of the Accademia Pontaniana, and chief minister and tutor to the Aragonese Kings of Naples. He was also the most innovative and versatile Latin poet of Quattrocento Italy. His Two Books of Hendecasyllables, given the subtitle Baiae by their first editor Pietro Summonte, experiment brilliantly with the metrical form associated principally with the ancient Latin poet Catullus. The poems are the elegant offspring of Pontano’s leisure, written to celebrate love, good wine, friendship, nature, and all the pleasures of life to be found at the seaside resort of Baiae on the Bay of Naples.

In all three forms, Adriano depicts Pontano as an older man, his sparse remaining hair is wavy, and his rather severe demeanour is expressed through a furrowed brow, pronounced veins and perhaps a scar at the temples, deeply creased cheeks, and a slightly downturned mouth. In the bust and relief he wears classical garb, with his cloak held at the shoulder by a fibula.

The medal depicts Pontano in a similar manner to the sculpted bust as it would appear in profile. On the reverse Urania, muse of astronomy is shown holding a sphere aloft in one hand and a lyre in another; a plant grows before her. Urania is the subject of one of Pontano’s poems.

The obverse of this medal portrays Ferdinand II (1467-1496), Prince of Capua, Duke of Calabria, and King of Naples (1495-96), who recovered his kingdom from French occupation. A gifted humanist prince, Ferdinand was loved by the people, who affectionately addressed him in the diminutive Ferrandino. When his father, the unpopular Alfonso II, became king (1494), Ferdinand took command of Neapolitan troops opposing the advance of the French king Charles VIII in northern Italy. Failing to halt the French, Ferdinand returned to Naples and became king upon the abdication of his father on Jan. 23, 1495. The following month, however, the French captured Naples, and Ferdinand withdrew to Sicily. Aided by a Spanish army and the Venetian fleet, he recovered almost all his lands by the summer of 1496 and was received triumphantly by the populace of Naples. His sudden death opened the way for Spanish usurpation of the Neapolitan throne.

The reverse of the medal depicts Felicitas Seated, Holding Ears of Corn and Waving Cornucopiae.

In the second half of the fifteenth century, there was a demand of sculptures of classical subjects due to the rediscovery of antique sculpture. The pose of Adriano’s statuette probably was partly based on specific antique sculpture, but Venus standing on a shell shows also the influence of Botticelli’s famous painting The Birth of Venus, now in the Uffizi.

Adriano Fiorentino (Adriano de Giovanni de’ Maestri) was active in Florence. This statuette is one of the rare works signed by the artist: it is inscribed underneath in abbreviated Latin: HADRIANUS/ ME.F. (Adriano/ made/ me).