AMMANATI, Bartolomeo

Between 1563 and 1565 Ammanati modelled and cast a half-length giant in bronze to represent the mountain range of the Apennines. It is the centrepiece of the fishpond on the highest terrace of the gardens of Il Castello: the naked giant, seeming to shiver with cold, appears to rise out of an islet in the centre of the sheet of water. The top of his head is pierced to emit water, which drips down over his shoulders and in winter forms icicles.

This allegorical stone statue in the garden designed by Niccolò Tribolo is one of the famous works by Ammanati.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 11 minutes):

Vivaldi: Concerto in F minor RV 297 op. 8 No. 4 (Winter)

This allegorical stone statue in the garden designed by Niccolò Tribolo is one of the famous works by Ammanati.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 11 minutes):

Vivaldi: Concerto in F minor RV 297 op. 8 No. 4 (Winter)

This sheet by Ammanati shows the muscles and bones that allow to arm to occupy a particular position.

Ammanati collaborated on several river gods on the spandrels and some lion-masks on the keystones of the arches on the fa�ade of the Biblioteca Marciana.

Ammanati collaborated on several river gods on the spandrels and some lion-masks on the keystones of the arches on the fa�ade of the Biblioteca Marciana.

This falcon is one of the bronze birds Giambologna and Ammanati together produced for the grotto of the Medici garden at Castello. The grotto can be regarded as a kind of collection, one conceived on analogy with the ‘studiolo’ or ‘Kunstkammer.’

Ammanati received a major commission for the spectacular Fountain of Juno for the Sala Grande of the Palazzo Vecchio. The fountain was never erected in the hall but was set up out of doors at Pratolino; a drawing after Ammanati by Giovanni Guerra (Vienna, Albertina) shows six figures mounted around a rainbow, a fantastic design recalling the table decorations made by Mannerist goldsmiths. This was technically ingenious and amusingly erudite in its theme; it was called by Michelangelo ‘una bella fantasia’.

The handsome seated Juno, one of the six over life-size marble fountain figures (all in Bargello), has the active contrapposto pose and animated drapery characteristic of Ammanati.

Ammanati received a major commission for the spectacular Fountain of Juno for the Sala Grande of the Palazzo Vecchio. The fountain was never erected in the hall but was set up out of doors at Pratolino; a drawing after Ammanati by Giovanni Guerra (Vienna, Albertina) shows six figures mounted around a rainbow, a fantastic design recalling the table decorations made by Mannerist goldsmiths. This was technically ingenious and amusingly erudite in its theme; it was called by Michelangelo ‘una bella fantasia’.

The handsome seated Juno, one of the six over life-size marble fountain figures (all in Bargello), has the active contrapposto pose and animated drapery characteristic of Ammanati.

The handsome seated Juno, one of the six over life-size marble fountain figures, has the active contrapposto pose and animated drapery characteristic of Ammanati.

The core idea for Ammanati’s Fountain of Juno was provided by the relevant passage of Aristotle’s Meteorologica which was, by 1580, the standard account of how the water cycle operated. Ammanati seems to have completed the figures for this project over an eight-year period beginning in 1555, though Cosimo I de’ Medici, its patron, never installed the fountain in its intended location, the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Duke Francesco erected the fountain in 1582 at Pratolino.

The Fountain of Juno choreographed its water to emerge from the tipped urns of the Arno (left, sitting on a Marzocco and originally paired with a now lost personification of Florence) and the Hippocrene (right, sitting on the Pegasus that caused this to flow, and originally paired with a figure of Temperance). At the centre stood Ceres (Earth) squeezing water from her breasts. Juno, at the top, holds a tambourine meant to suggest the thunder of gods could cause.

The core idea for Ammanati’s Fountain of Juno was provided by the relevant passage of Aristotle’s Meteorologica which was, by 1580, the standard account of how the water cycle operated. Ammanati seems to have completed the figures for this project over an eight-year period beginning in 1555, though Cosimo I de’ Medici, its patron, never installed the fountain in its intended location, the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Duke Francesco erected the fountain in 1582 at Pratolino.

The Fountain of Juno choreographed its water to emerge from the tipped urns of the Arno (left, sitting on a Marzocco and originally paired with a now lost personification of Florence) and the Hippocrene (right, sitting on the Pegasus that caused this to flow, and originally paired with a figure of Temperance). At the centre stood Ceres (Earth) squeezing water from her breasts. Juno, at the top, holds a tambourine meant to suggest the thunder of gods could cause.

Ammanati’s best-known sculpture is the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence. The central figure was carved out of a colossal block of marble that had been begun by Bandinelli before his death (1560), and this inhibited Ammanati’s treatment. Consequently (by general consent) the Neptune is neither characteristic nor aesthetically satisfactory. More successful are the surrounding bronze figures of four recumbent deities and a troop of gesticulating fauns and satyrs (all 1571-75), modelled and cast under his supervision by a team of assistants. The general design and character of these figures, as well as an allegorical female nude statuette personifying Ops (1572-73), which Ammanati contributed to the studiolo of Francesco de’ Medici, epitomize his mature style, which, while distantly derived from Michelangelo, Bandinelli and Sansovino, concentrated on grace of form and movement at the expense of emotion in a way that was typical of Mannerism.

The fountain was designed and sculpted for the most part by Ammanati. It was unveiled in 1565 on the occasion of the marriage between Francesco I dei Medici and Giovanna d’Austria. Dominating the fountain in the centre is the huge mass of Neptune, christened by the Florentines “Il Biancone” (Big White Man). The bronze statues arond the rim of the fountain, depicting naiads and satyrs are mostly by Ammanati and Giambologna, followers of Michelangelo.

The Neptune Fountain was a legacy from the ageing Bandinelli who had decided on the model. On his death a competition was won by Ammanati over aspirants as famous as Cellini, Vincenzo Danti and Giambologna. Ammanati was forced to use the block of marble chosen by Bandinelli for the central figure and his Neptune, unveiled in 1565, was no more than the archaising heir of a misunderstood classicism.

During the next decade, however, Ammanati, assisted by the best sculptors and casters in Florence, placed around the fountain’s octagonal basin a circle of male and female river gods reclining at their ease, framed by laughing satyrs, while sea-horses emerged from the foam in the centre. The bronze contrasts with the marble and the shimmering water. It brings out the dynamic expression of the figures, the mettlesomeness of the sea-horses and the bantering whimsy of the satyrs. Thus a coherent whole is formed, in which the monumentality of the composition is united with the contrasting movement of the bodies. All future fountain-makes, whether Mannerist or, later, Baroque, looked to it as their source and point of reference.

Since 1550 there was a rivalry between Bandinelli, Cellini and Ammanati to make a fountain in the Piazza della Signoria. After Bandinelli’s death in 1560 Cellini and Ammanati both sought the commission, which Michelangelo and Vasari ultimately secured for Ammanati, an experienced carver. In 1565 Ammanati’s model for the giant was set up for the wedding of Francesco de’ Medici and Giovanna d’Austria, although the marble was only completed in 1570 and the fountain unveiled in 1575.

Ammanati’s Neptune stands on a sea-shell chariot, pulled by four horses rising out of the water, and carries a general baton. Neptune is presented as a civic protector, alluding to Cosimo’s efforts to increase the water supply and to establish a viable port at Livorno. The eight-sided marble basin seems small compared with the figure of Neptune.

Ammanati’s best-known sculpture is the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence. The central figure was carved out of a colossal block of marble that had been begun by Bandinelli before his death (1560), and this inhibited Ammanati’s treatment. Consequently (by general consent) the Neptune is neither characteristic nor aesthetically satisfactory. More successful are the surrounding bronze figures of four recumbent deities and a troop of gesticulating fauns and satyrs (all 1571-75), modelled and cast under his supervision by a team of assistants.

The large fountain, commissioned for the marriage of Francesco I de’ Medici to Joanna, the natural daughter of Charles V the Habsburg emperor, features a huge statue of the sea god surrounded by triton spouts and standing on a chariot, pulled by sea horses. Despite the damage over time, the monument still presents itself today as it did in the sixteenth century.

Ammanati’s best-known sculpture is the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence. The central figure was carved out of a colossal block of marble that had been begun by Bandinelli before his death (1560).

The photo was taken from the balcony of Palazzo Vecchio.

Ammanati was documented as active in Padua and Vicenza intermittently between 1544 and 1548. He carved a colossal Hercules for the courtyard of the Paduan palazzo of the humanist jurist and antiquarian Marco Mantova Benavides.

In 1559-60 Ammanati successfully cast in bronze the great terminal group of Hercules and Antaeus for Niccolò Tribolo’s Fountain of Hercules on the lowest terrace of the gardens behind Cosimo’s villa of Il Castello; this technical feat had previously defeated Vincenzo Danti on account of the complexity of the composition. The giant Antaeus is represented as being lifted bodily off the ground by Hercules, his head is thrown back in the throes of death, and from his mouth a great spout of water gushes vertically upwards, symbolizing his last gasp of life. The flow of the fountain is thus rationalized by its iconography, and the water splashing down over the figures into the basins below gives an effect of life and movement to the drily mythological composition.

The Villa Giulia was built in 1551 at the request of Pope Julius III (1550-1555) who called on three eminent architects: Vasari, Vignola and Ammanati. The villa has a first inner courtyard with a semicircular portico whose vault is frescoed. The wall paintings imitate an arbour full of vine shoots, roses and jasmine.

In 1552, Bartolomeo Ammanati created a second space with a loggia with a horseshoe staircase, a nymphaeum with rock gardens, false caves and caryatids, all decorated with Roman sculptures.

The photo shows the Nymphaeum with re-using an Ancient Roman mosaic of a triton.

View the ground plan of the Villa Giulia, Rome.

Leda wears a long robe with a belt and fringe over her thighs. Her left arm is raised, and she is gazing downwards over her right shoulder at the swan, which touches her arm with its beak. Her right foot is raised and rests on a shell, and her right hand rests on the neck of the swan. Her left arm is raised above her head, and in her left hand she holds a piece of drapery. The figures stand on a shallow octagonal base. The left leg of Leda and the wings of the swan are unfinished.

Formerly the statue was attributed to Vincenzo Danti and dated 1572-73.

Ammanati was a Mannerist sculptor and architect. He studied and worked in Venice and Rome before settling in Florence in 1555. His most important works are in the latter city. Ammanati’s masterpiece is the gracefully arched Ponte Santa Trinità (1567-70; bombed 1944, rebuilt 1957) spanning the Arno River. He also built the enlargements of the Palazzo Pitti (1558-70), including the heavily Mannerist three-story courtyard entirely in rusticated (rough) stone. The suave bronze basin figures of his colossal Neptune Fountain (1576, Piazza della Signoria) are admired more than the stiffly posed marble figure of the sea god in its centre.

The sculpture of Leda is essentially a study piece, a small-scale work that translates a now lost Michelangelo design into three-dimensions. It shows Ammanati attempting to master the kinds of figural inventions that defined Michelangelo’s artistry, but the choice to carry out the composition in stone also reflects an awareness that the sculptor did not work in absolute liberty, that he always had to deal with the given block.

Ammanati sent the statue to Francesco Maria della Rovere, the Duke of Urbino.

The majestic statue known as “Mars Gradivus” - characteristic that indicates his divinity or his battle stance - is one of Bartolomeo Ammannati’s masterpieces, a virtuous example of the cultured assimilation of Michelangelo’s lessons in the accurate rendering of the anatomy and torsion of the torso. It represents the god Mars marching at the head of an army with a baton in his right hand and a sword in his left, originally with a blade.

This work is one of the several statues in marble and bronze made by Ammanati for Cosimo I de’ Medici. Its size lead to the assumption that it was intended for exhibition in a public place in the city.

Ammanati was documented as active in Padua and Vicenza intermittently between 1544 and 1548. He carved a colossal Hercules for the courtyard of the Paduan palazzo of the humanist jurist and antiquarian Marco Mantova Benavides. This was followed by the tomb of Marco Mantova Benavides (unveiled 1546) in the church of the Eremitani, Padua.

The tomb is reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Medici wall tombs (New Sacristy, San Lorenzo, Florence) with a tiered architectural setting. It is topped with a statue of Immortality flanked by nude youths. In the middle zone are three pedimented embrasures (like blank windows) framing statues of the deceased flanked by Honour and Fame. Below stands a sarcophagus with an unusual segmental lid, ending in volutes (again like the Medici tombs), and on either side of this are allegorical figures of Work and Wisdom. The figures are solidly built, with bold poses and simple gestures: the torsions of their contrapposti and diagonals of their limbs balance symmetrically to create a visual unity within the sculptural components. They animate the austere, but noble, classical architecture; Ammanati here achieved an exact balance between the two diverse art forms, which makes his tomb a masterpiece.

The allegorical female nude statuette personifying Ops (1572-73), which Ammanati contributed to the studiolo of Francesco de’Medici, epitomize his mature style, which, while distantly derived from Michelangelo, Bandinelli and Sansovino, concentrated on grace of form and movement at the expense of emotion in a way that was typical of Mannerism.

Ops, more properly Opis, (Latin: “plenty”) is a fertility deity and earth-goddess in Roman mythology of Sabine origin. Her husband is Saturn, the bountiful monarch of the Golden Age.

In ancient Roman religion, Ops or Opis, (Latin: “Plenty”) was a fertility deity and earth-goddess of Sabine origin. Husband of Ops was Saturn, the bountiful monarch of the Golden Age. Just as Saturn was identified with the Greek deity Cronus, Ops was identified with Rhea, Cronus’s wife and sister.

This owl is one of the bronze birds Giambologna and Ammanati together produced for the grotto of the Medici garden at Castello. The grotto can be regarded as a kind of collection, one conceived on analogy with the ‘studiolo’ or ‘Kunstkammer.’

The present palazzo was erected on the site of a medieval fortress. In 1577 Bartolomeo Ammanati planned a four-cornered building with a central courtyard. This palazzo was unfinished; the north and west wings were not built because of a lack of funds. It remained unfinished until 1728, when a local architect carried out a plan for a second courtyard.

The Cortile degli Svizzeri (Courtyard of the Swiss Guard) is the central courtyard of the ducal palace. It is surrounded by a portico with two rows of pillars.

The picture shows the loggia of the courtyard inside the Palazzo Ducale with a rusticated stone portico.

The courtyard of the Palazzo Pitti, representing the grandiosity of the late Cinquecento architecture, was added by Ammanati to the original Quattrocento structure after it was purchased in 1549 by Cosimo I de’ Medici for his duchess, Eleonora da Toledo. Ammanati had worked in Venice under Jacopo Sansovino, and doubtless had the Zecca (the Mint of the Republic of Venice, built by Sansovino) in mind when designing the Pitti courtyard.

The picture shows a view toward the Boboli Gardens.

The picture shows the corner of the courtyard, completed by Ammanati between 1558 and 1570. The courtyard is closed on three sides, and on the fourth it is opening into the Boboli Gardens.

The history of the building which looks over the city from the banks of the Arno started in 1418 when Luca Pitti, a wealthy banker, bought the home and lands of the Boboli family, determined on building a home equal to the Medici palazzo in the Via Larga. He entrusted the job to Brunelleschi, however, the architect’s death meant that the design never got past the blueprint stage. One of his students, Luca Fancelli, took over the project and started work in 1458. The result was the central part of the present-day building, an enlargement of the original two-storied house which now boasted seven bays, a central portal, and two flanking doors. The palazzo was still unfinished when Luca Pitti died in 1472. His descendants made no additions to the building, and in 1549 it was sold to Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. The duchess saw that the Boboli house with its gardens could be turned into the most fabulous city palazzo that Florence had ever seen.

The gardens received attention first. They were completely re-landscaped by Tribolo. His design involved woods, pathways, orchards, and an amphitheatre. Baccio Bandinelli and Giovanni Fancelli took part in the work, laying out the central lawn and a new network of waterways for the fountains. After the death of Tribolo, Bartolomeo Ammanati took over and connected the palace and the gardens with a splendid courtyard. It was closed in on three sides and gave on to the internal fa�ade of the palazzo and the two high wings that stretched out towards the Boboli Gardens.

Then the palazzo itself was expanded, and the rooms were graced by a collection of art treasures. The new residence was fit for the elaborate celebrations which until then, had been held at the Palazzo della Signoria. From 1565 the Medici family lived in the Palazzo Pitti.

This is a detail of the Fountain of Juno which was planned for a room of the Palazzo Vecchio. Though all the components were complete by 1563, the fountain was never erected as planned. It was installed first at the Medici Villa at Pratolino and later behind the Pitti Palace and is now partly reconstructed in the Bargello.

Ammanati took his original designs for the Ponte Santa Trinità to Michelangelo shortly before the latter’s death, and the older artist criticized and corrected them. The soaring flight of the roadway over the river, the tension of the flattened arches, and the potent simplicity of the wedge-shaped pylons should be credited to Michelangelo.

The bridge was blown up by the Germans in 19443 and rebuilt after the war, using the original plans, and the same quarry, located in the Boboli Gardens behind Palazzo Pitti.

The photo shows the Mule beneath the Roman statue Weary Hercules. Hercules is shown here resting on his club, while in his right hand, which is behind his back, he his holding the apples from the garden of the Hesperides, which were one of his famous “twelve labours”. The lion’s skin and the vigorously shaped body, together with the club are the attributes that identify the mythical hero with no doubt. The Florentine example is a mid-2nd-century AD copy of the statue known as the “Farnese Hercules” by sculptor Lysippos in the latter part of the 4th century BC and called this because it is the copy of the more famous statue - now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples - once owned by the noble Farnese family.

At the end of the portico on the left side of the courtyard, under the niche occupied by the weary Hercules, is a two-tone bas-relief plaque showing the outline of the so-called “she-mule”, the famous female mule that, as commemorated in the Latin inscription above, “with her sacrifice, pulled and transported stone, marble, wood and columns”, labouring for years on the site of Palazzo Pitti, during the works directed by Bartolomeo Ammannati. Above the bas-relief of the mule, in a niche adapted for the occasion, is the imposing marble statue of the weary Hercules: this placement perhaps aims to moralise, juxtaposing the mule’s hard work and effort with the large, exhausted body of the hero, resting after his feats. The background of the white marble slab uses a “stiacciato” technique, which is a very low, barely sketched-out bas-relief, used in Florence from the early decades of the 15th century to depict scenes in perspective. The Pitti Palace courtyard is shown under construction, providing us with evidence of the different types of equipment used on site during the period, such as the hoisting machines driven by the mule.

The bas-relief is not particularly elegant or detailed when it comes to the anatomical detail of the animal, a fact that seems to point to the work of a member of the workshop and not Ammannati.

The fountain was designed and sculpted for the most part by Ammanati.The bronze statues arond the rim of the fountain, depicting naiads and satyrs are mostly by Ammanati and Giambologna, followers of Michelangelo.

In 1572 Ammanati was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII to create a tomb for his nephew, Giovanni Buoncompagni, which was erected in the Camposanto of Pisa. It consists of an aedicula framing a central statue of the Risen Christ, draped and showing his wounds. This is derived from a similar statue (1558), wearing only a loincloth, carved by Montorsoli for the high altar of Santa Maria dei Servi, Bologna. Flanking Christ at a lower level are allegorical statues of Peace and Justice in the guise of lightly draped females. There is no effigy, only a white marble sarcophagus; the architecture is multicoloured and patterned with variegated marbles, giving a sumptuous appearance and setting off the three white marble statues and the sarcophagus to good effect.

The picture shows the figure of Christ.

Ammanati’s decision to cover Christ’s body with a voluminous drapery moves his sculpture away from the emphasis on the nude typified by Michelangelo’s Risen Christ.

The picture shows the figure of Peace.

The picture shows the figure of Justice.

Santa Maria del Parto was founded by Jacopo Sannazaro, on land (Mergellina) donated to him by King Frederick I of Aragon in 1497. Jacopo Sannazaro (1458-1530) was an Italian poet, humanist and epigrammist from Naples. His tomb, made by Montorsoli assisted by Ammanati, is in the church.

At the sides, under the sarcophagus, are seated figures of Apollo and Minerva, in the centre is a mythological relief with Pan, Marsyas, Euterpe, Neptune and Amphitrite, and at the top is the laureated bust of Sannazaro, between two putti balanced on the lid of the sarcophagus.

An epitaph by the Venetian cardinal Pietro Bembo, secretary to Pope Leo X, on the tomb base reads: “From flower to sacred ashes, here lies the famous and sincere Sannazaro, near to Virgil in poetry as in sepulchre.” Virgil’s tomb is found nearby in Naples.

Both Montorsoli and Ammanati worked under the spell of Michelangelo, whose statue of Giuliano de’Medici was adopted by Ammanati as the basis of the Apollo on the tomb. Montorsoli’s two putti on the sarcophagus, each with its outer arm thrown expansively across the body, also stem from Michelangelo. The bust was worked up by Montorsoli from a cast of the poet’s face and skull.

Ammanati worked under the spell of Michelangelo, whose statue of Giuliano de’Medici was adopted by Ammanati as the basis of the Apollo on the tomb.

The picture shows the figure of Minerva (or Judith?).

In 1550 Giovan Maria del Monte was elected Pope as Julius III. He commissioned Vasari for a commemorative chapel in San Pietro in Montorio to house a pair of tombs, for the Pope’s uncle, Cardinal Antonio Maria Ciocchi del Monte, and for Fabiano del Monte. Vasari designed the Cappella del Monte under the supervision of Michelangelo, the sculptor of the tombs was Ammanati. The arrangement, with allegorical statues (Religion, Justice) standing in the niches over each effigy, recumbent below, is closer to Ammanati’s own earlier monument to Nari than to the design that had been supplied by Vasari.

In 1550 Giovan Maria del Monte was elected Pope as Julius III. He commissioned Vasari for a commemorative chapel in San Pietro in Montorio to house a pair of tombs, for the Pope’s uncle, Cardinal Antonio Maria Ciocchi del Monte, and for Fabiano del Monte. Vasari designed the Cappella del Monte under the supervision of Michelangelo, the sculptor of the tombs was Ammanati. The arrangement, with allegorical statues (Religion, Justice) standing in the niches over each effigy, recumbent below, is closer to Ammanati’s own earlier monument to Nari than to the design that had been supplied by Vasari.

In 1550 Giovan Maria del Monte was elected Pope as Julius III. He commissioned Vasari for a commemorative chapel in San Pietro in Montorio to house a pair of tombs, for the Pope’s uncle, Cardinal Antonio Maria Ciocchi del Monte, and for Fabiano del Monte. Vasari designed the Cappella del Monte under the supervision of Michelangelo, the sculptor of the tombs was Ammanati. The arrangement, with allegorical statues (Religion, Justice) standing in the niches over each effigy, recumbent below, is closer to Ammanati’s own earlier monument to Nari than to the design that had been supplied by Vasari.

This is a stucco model for the restoration of an ancient Venus for Cosimo I. The model seems to have represented Ammanati’s initial proposal for the restoration. Ercole Ferrata restored the statue a century later, so we no longer know exactly what Ammanati produced.

This group is perhaps one of the most noble and graceful works made by the sculptor. So light is the step of the symbolic Victory that it barely seems to be felt. The weight of the female figure dominating the vanquished male seems to be measured in moral and idealistic rather than merely physical terms.

The statue was part of a funeral monument which was destroyed by Ammanati’s jealous competitor, Baccio Bandinelli.