ANTICO

This bust of exquisite execution embodies ideal beauty as perceived by the aesthetic of Antiquity. It was probably made for Isabella d’Este.

On a profiled, disc-shaped plinth, Cupid stands on the left foot that is placed forward and with the heel of the right foot slightly away from the plinth. He holds the left arm out in front of him and the bent right one up. The curly hair, tied together in a tuft on the forehead, falls to the neck. He has small wings. A band runs from the right shoulder, which is held together on the left.

The surface of this statuette is highly finished and the hair and the band across the chest are gilt.

Working almost exclusively for the members of the Gonzaga family, frequently at their court in Mantua, Antico earned his nickname by specializing in interpretations of antique Greek and Roman sculpture. Isabella d’Este, wife of Francesco II Gonzaga, had owned five busts by Antico dating between 1519 and 1522, among them the present work. All of these share a scrupulous definition of the curls of hair within a flowing treatment of the whole; and strong noses and polished lips.

The deep, crisply executed locks of hair create a vibrant pattern; such technical virtuosity confirms Antico’s presumed training as a goldsmith. The curls on the head join those of the beard to frame the emperor’s rather pensive face.

This statuette is a free copy of the Roman equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius at Piazza Campidoglio in Rome.

The statue was executed for Isabella d’Este on the occasion of her marriage to Francesco Gonzaga.

The bronze Gonzaga Vase bears Gianfrancesco Gonzaga’s and his wife Antonia’s personal devices. The design of the bronze vase was probably influenced by Mantegna, who was recorded in 1483 as having designed vases to be produced by the goldsmith Gian Marco Cavalli.

Antico was inspired by works from antiquity; he based this group on a classical marble of Hercules and Antaeus now in the courtyard of Palazzo Pitti, Florence. The group is fixed to an original oval bronze base without mouldings. The bearded figure of Hercules holds the younger Antaeus aloft. The eyes of both figures are inlaid with silver.

Antico created the most technically advanced bronzes of the period. He was a court artist who spent his life working for the Gonzaga family as a goldsmith and sculptor of elegant bronze reductions of large-scale ancient marbles. He was among the strictest of the Classicizing artists of the late Quattrocento, continuing the tradition of Mantegna. He was the first sculptor to realize the advantages of casting replicas of his bronzes and thus marks a turning point in Western sculpture. He invented or mastered indirect casting to preserve his original models of wax on wire armatures. With this innovation he he established the supremacy of the north in casting: a comparable technique was not used in central Italy until the end of Cinquecento by Giambologna.

Antico produced a series of roundels depicting the exploits of Hercules. Hercules was a popular d’Este name, the roundels have been linked with Ercole I, who died in 1505. The picture shows one of the two surviving parcel-gilt examples.

Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (1446-1496) was the third son of Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and Barbara of Brandenburg. He was the first Count of Sabbioneta from 1479 until his death. When his father Ludovico died in 1478, the Gonzaga lands between the Po and Oglio rivers were inherited by his sons cardinal Francesco and Gianfrancesco. When Francesco died, the latter became the only lord, adding to them the county of Rodigo.

Inscription around circumference: IOHANNES FRANCISCVS GONZ[aga].

The reverse of the medal shows Fortune, Mars, and Minerva.

Inscription around top circumference: FORVICTRICI; across bottom in exergue: ANTI.

Antonia del Balzo (1441-1538) was the wife of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga di Rodigo (1445-1496).

The obverse of the medal represents the portrait of Antonia del Balzo, while the reverse shows Hope on the Prow of a Broken-Masted Vessel.

Inscription around circumference on the obverse: DIVA ANTONIA BAVTIA DE GONZ[aga] MAR[chionissa]. Inscription on the reverse lower right on side of vessel: MAI PIV; around top circumference: SVPEREST M[ihi] SPES; across bottom in exergue: ANTI.

Antico’s first recorded commission (1479) was for a pair of medals to celebrate the wedding of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, Conte di Rodigo and Lord of Bozzolo, with Antonia del Balzo. These are signed with the abbreviated form of Antico, ANTI, implying that by this time his pseudonym was widely recognized.

Antonia del Balzo (1441-1538) was the wife of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga di Rodigo (1445-1496).

Inscription around circumference: DIVA ANTONIA BAVTIA DE GONZ[aga] MAR[chionissa].

The reverse of the medal shows Hope on the Prow of a Broken-Masted Vessel.

Inscription lower right on side of vessel: MAI PIV; around top circumference: SVPEREST M[ihi] SPES; across bottom in exergue: ANTI.

Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (1446-1496) was the third son of Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and Barbara of Brandenburg. He was the first Count of Sabbioneta from 1479 until his death. When his father Ludovico died in 1478, the Gonzaga lands between the Po and Oglio rivers were inherited by his sons cardinal Francesco and Gianfrancesco. When Francesco died, the latter became the only lord, adding to them the county of Rodigo.

The obverse of the medal represents the portrait of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga di Rodigo, while the reverse shows Fortune, Mars, and Minerva.

Inscription around circumference on the obverse: IOHANNES FRANCISCVS GONZ[aga]. Inscription on the reverse around top circumference: FORVICTRICI; across bottom in exergue: ANTI.

Antico’s first recorded commission (1479) was for a pair of medals to celebrate the wedding of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, Conte di Rodigo and Lord of Bozzolo, with Antonia del Balzo. These are signed with the abbreviated form of Antico, ANTI, implying that by this time his pseudonym was widely recognized.

A major formative influence for North Italian Classicism in sculpture came through painting. Andrea Mantegna’s cool plastic style largely reflects current trends in North Italian Humanist thought, and played an important role in forming the style of sculptors, in particular Il Antico. In the early Cinquecento Il Antico took over and interpreted classical models (hence his name), and the intricate surface working and gilding he lavished on such bronzes as his Meleager reflects the taste of the highly sophisticated Mantuan court for which they were created. But in contrast to his contemporary, Riccio, Antico always remained spiritually a Quattrocento artist.

Antico made this statuette for Isabella d’Este, who was a great patron of the arts. This is, however, the only known version of the Meleager. The figure’s hair, moustache, beard, teeth, tunic and sandals are inlaid with silver. This rich decorative treatment is characteristic of Antico’s work and reflects the taste of his Gonzaga patrons. It contrasts with the rougher but more vibrant handling of bronzes produced at the time in the humanist circle at Padua.

The companion figure of a boar to Meleager is lost, but the statuette illustrates well the type created for Isabella d’Este.

Paris is identified by the golden apple of the Hesperides that he conferred on Venus to mark his choice of her as the most beautiful of the goddesses. Originally the figure was seated on a stone base, long missing.

Antico developed a sophisticated technique of reproducing small-scale bronzes. This involved taking moulds from his original model and casting the statuettes from them. The moulds could be reused. Antico was therefore able to provide copies of several of his bronzes about 20 years after he had made the originals.

For this bronze Antico adapted the torso of an ancient marble for what may have been a lamp made for one of his foremost patrons, the Gonzaga family of Mantua.

This is the best surviving example of Antico’s Spinario - a boy pulling a thorn from his foot - which takes as its starting point a long-celebrated bronze figure, executed in the 3rd century BC and now, as in Antico’s day, to be admired in Rome. The composition is the same as that of the Hellenistic bronze, but this is much more than a reproduction.

A favourite of the Gonzaga family, the sculptor-goldsmith Antico earned - or perhaps adopted - the soubriquet Antico to signal his dedication to the art of ancient Greece and Rome, and in particular by his brilliant bronze reductions of famous antique statuary. In many instances his sources were Roman marble fragments, more or less complete. These were ‘restored’ by Antico who by rendering them in bronze evoked both the Greek large-scale originals that the Romans had copied and the exquisite Greek statuettes described by Pliny. Antico’s works are therefore equivalent to contemporary humanist scholars’ accurate reconstructions of ancient texts. But this is more than dry antiquarianism; Antico subtly animates the figure, conveying the boy’s tension as he performs his tricky - and potentially painful - task. And he renders the piece, and the past itself, more precious by gilding the boy’s curling hair and silvering his eyes.

This is one of the artist’s bronze statuettes after antique originals, always highly worked and often with gold and silver inlays and rich gilding. There are two other copies of this Apollo, one in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and another in the Cà d’Oro, Venice.

The copy in the Liebighause is the earliest), for which Antico had to reconstruct the statue’s missing arm (not restored on the original marble until later).

Antico was one of the most refined makers of Renaissance bronzes. He was nicknamed l’Antico (“ancient”) for his skill in producing exquisitely elegant figures inspired by the bronzes of classical antiquity, perfectly modeled and smoothly finished.

As with many neo-classical sculptors, Antico’s work needs to be closely compared with its prototypes to discover where his sculptural talent lay, as distinct from a mere facility in copying what was before his eyes. So damaged were his models that great scope existed for the imaginative reintegration of missing arms, legs and attributes: these, as in the case of his Apollo Belvedere, may differ from the subsequent restorations that are familiar today. Antico had to use much imagination and archaeologically orientated surmise in order to re-create the imagined perfection of the lost or damaged originals. Through sometimes gross marble copies, his enthusiast’s eye could discern the pristine magnificence of lost ancient Greek bronze originals.

Antico was one of the most refined makers of Renaissance bronzes. He was nicknamed l’Antico (“ancient”) for his skill in producing exquisitely elegant figures inspired by the bronzes of classical antiquity, perfectly modeled and smoothly finished.

Antico drew on the antique, showing it meticulous respect. Attached to the humanist court of the Gonzagas at Mantua, dominated by the personality of Mantegna and an archeological interest in decoration, he went to Rome to study the great marbles. The Apollo Belvedere inspired him to make an extremely faithful reduction of it, whereas the somewhat stiff and heavy Belvedere Venus Felix gave him an opportunity to correct the antique, transforming the drapery, softening the attitude and suppressing the genius which accompanied her.

The limewood base is inset with Roman coins.

Antico drew on the antique, showing it meticulous respect. Attached to the humanist court of the Gonzagas at Mantua, dominated by the personality of Mantegna and an archeological interest in decoration, he went to Rome to study the great marbles. The Apollo Belvedere inspired him to make an extremely faithful reduction of it, whereas the somewhat stiff and heavy Belvedere Venus Felix gave him an opportunity to correct the antique, transforming the drapery, softening the attitude and suppressing the genius which accompanied her.

The limewood base is inset with Roman coins.