BENEDETTO DA ROVEZZANO

This statue represents a candle-bearing angel stepping forward, knees slightly bent, portraying a sense of movement and energy, with short, wavy, unadorned hair and clothed in classical drapery gathered up at the back and falling to the base.

This candle-bearing angel is one of four originally designed for the tomb of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the principal prelate of Tudor England. It is a rare example of a large cast bronze figure from the early sixteenth century by an Italian sculptor working in England. In 1524 Cardinal Wolsey commissioned Florentine sculptor Benedetto da Rovezzano to design a magnificent tomb in the Renaissance style which would have been one of the major funerary commissions of the Tudor period. The scale of the tomb and its rich materials of black touchstone, white marble and gilded bronze would have reflected Cardinal Wolsey’s wealth and statesmanship at the height of his powers. After his downfall, the tomb parts were seized by Henry VIII to be used for his own monument.

Two of the four angels are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

This statue represents a candle-bearing angel stepping forward, knees slightly bent, portraying a sense of movement and energy, with wavy hair adorned with a beaded headband the centre of which is decorated with a small Tudor rose, and clothed in classical drapery gathered up at the back and falling to the base.

This candle-bearing angel is one of four originally designed for the tomb of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the principal prelate of Tudor England. It is a rare example of a large cast bronze figure from the early sixteenth century by an Italian sculptor working in England. In 1524 Cardinal Wolsey commissioned Florentine sculptor Benedetto da Rovezzano to design a magnificent tomb in the Renaissance style which would have been one of the major funerary commissions of the Tudor period. The scale of the tomb and its rich materials of black touchstone, white marble and gilded bronze would have reflected Cardinal Wolsey’s wealth and statesmanship at the height of his powers. After his downfall, the tomb parts were seized by Henry VIII to be used for his own monument.

Two of the four angels are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Benedetto da Rovezzano executed the pedestal of the statue of Orpheus by Baccio Bandinelli in the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence. He carved the shield with the Medici arms and the yoked-oxen device of Leo X.

All hope that Michelangelo would execute 12 more than life-size statues of Apostles for the Duomo was abandoned in 1508, when he began to work on the Sistine ceiling. For three years the scheme was in abeyance, and then, in the first half of 1511, it was decided to allot to statues separately to such sculptors as were available. In June the first commission, for the St James, was awarded to Jacopo Sansovino. In the second half of 1513, after a vain attempt to induce Andrea Sansovino to undertake two statues, a figure of St John the Evangelist was commissioned from Benedetto da Rovezzano, who completed it in twelve months, and about the same time a St Andrew was commissioned from Andrea Ferrucci.

In 1514 Ferrucci was unsuccessfully invited to carve a second statue, a St Peter, and when he refused, this was entrusted, early in 1515, to a young and unproved prot�g� of Giuliano de’Medici, Baccio Bandinelli.

The coloured marble tabernacles in which the statues are shown were designed in 1563-65 by Ammanati. Thereafter four further figures were commissioned, two (St Philip, 1577, St James the Less, 1576) from Giovanni Bandini, and two (St Matthew, 1580, St Thomas, c. 1580) by Vincenzo de’ Rossi.

Benedetto’s St John was not successful. He was accustomed to working in relief, and his figure reveals the limitations of a small-scale artist.

All hope that Michelangelo would execute 12 more than life-size statues of Apostles for the Duomo was abandoned in 1508, when he began to work on the Sistine ceiling. For three years the scheme was in abeyance, and then, in the first half of 1511, it was decided to allot to statues separately to such sculptors as were available. In June the first commission, for the St James, was awarded to Jacopo Sansovino. In the second half of 1513, after a vain attempt to induce Andrea Sansovino to undertake two statues, a figure of St John the Evangelist was commissioned from Benedetto da Rovezzano, who completed it in twelve months, and about the same time a St Andrew was commissioned from Andrea Ferrucci.

In 1514 Ferrucci was unsuccessfully invited to carve a second statue, a St Peter, and when he refused, this was entrusted, early in 1515, to a young and unproved prot�g� of Giuliano de’Medici, Baccio Bandinelli.

The coloured marble tabernacles in which the statues are shown were designed in 1563-65 by Ammanati. Thereafter four further figures were commissioned, two (St Philip, 1577, St James the Less, 1576) from Giovanni Bandini, and two (St Matthew, 1580, St Thomas, c. 1580) by Vincenzo de’ Rossi.

Benedetto’s St John was not successful. He was accustomed to working in relief, and his figure reveals the limitations of a small-scale artist.

The Altoviti are a prominent noble family of Florence. Since the Medieval they were one of the most distinguished banking and political families appointed to the highest offices of the Republic of Florence, friends and patrons of Galileo Galilei, Vasari, Raphael and Michelangelo. The House of Altoviti is still present and possesses the title of marquis.

In Florence on Piazza del Limbo they had a palazzo with a large family coat of arms on the fa�ade and detained the patronage of the church Santi Apostoli.

Piero di Tommaso Soderini was Florentine statesman. He was descended from an old Florentine family that had become famous in medicine. In 1502, after the expulsion of Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici and the martyrdom of Savonarola, he was elected gonfalonier for life by the Florentines, who wished to give greater stability to their republican institutions.

The tomb of Soderini in Santa Maria del Carmine was damaged and rebuilt in the 18th century.

In 1505 Benedetto went to Florence and began his most ambitious work, the marble sepulchre of St Giovanni Gualberto (St John Gualbert) for Santa Trinita. Substantially completed by 1515, the monument was wrecked during the Siege of Florence in 1530; several surviving reliefs demonstrate Benedetto’s rather hard, linear figural style.

St Giovanni Gualberto (c. 985-1073) was an Italian Roman Catholic abbot and the founder of the Vallumbrosan Order.

This object is a water fountain (or acquaio). An elliptical basin on a baluster shaped pedestal is framed on each side by two pilasters carved with candelabra, foliage, birds and grotesques, terminating in two foliated capitals. Above is a moulding and a frieze, the latter carved with foliated ornament, in the centre of which is a ribbed shell containing an animal; thought by Pope-Hennessy to be a hind standing on a label, but subsequently identified as a beaver by Brenda Preyer. The frieze is surmounted by a projecting cornice.

The acquaio was a common feature of Florentine palaces in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Although supplied with running water it is not a true fountain as the flow of water is not constant, being controlled by taps.