CIOLI, Valerio

The villas and gardens of Rome and Florence vied with their antique prototypes of statuary and fountains, not only in the display of Classical sculpture, but also in new commissions for sculpture along similar lines. By the turn of the seventeenth century, villa fountains had begun to shed much of their architectural structure and were assuming more naturalistic forms. Notable examples of this type were created by Valerio Cioli with his tableaux of country pursuits - a peasant digging, scenes of wine-making and a woman washing a child’s hair (this picture) - all in the Boboli Gardens in Florence.

Following Cosimo I’s visit to Rome in 1561, when Valerio gave him a marble statue of Venus (untraced), he and his father were summoned to Florence to undertake the restoration of the Grand Duke’s collection of Classical statuary. Other Medici commissions include the grotesque marble statue of the court dwarf Morgante, depicted nude and seated on the back of a tortoise, which was later adapted as a fountain in the Boboli Gardens (now called the Fountain of Bacchus.

The grotesque marble statue on the Fountain of Bacchus depicts Braccio di Bartolo, also called Morgante, the most famous of the five buffoons who lived at the court of Cosimo I de’ Medici. He spent most of his life in the Palazzo Pitti. He was a very popular character during Cosimo I’s rule; he was famous and well-liked because of his sharp, witty tongue. Bronzino painted full-length nude portrait of him, with the front on one side, and the back on the other side of the same canvas.

This grotesque-style fountain represents Braccio di Bartolo, the dwarf at the court of Cosimo I de’ Medici. Because of his nudity and potbellied shape, the figure is sometimes identified as Bacchus. However, it is certainly a portrait of Braccio di Bartolo, known as Il Morgante, the most famous of the five buffoons who lived at the Medici court.

The statue, a Medici commission, was only later adapted as a fountain.

Following the solemn funeral of Michelangelo held in the church of San Lorenzo on 14 July 1564, Vasari began his project for the structure of the monument to Michelangelo. The elaborate allegorical decoration for the project was drawn up by Vincenzo Borghini and included contributions by Battista Lorenzi, who sculpted the statue of Painting and the bust of Michelangelo, and Valerio Cioli the statue of Sculpture. The marble personification of Architecture was made by Giovanni Bandini.

This bronze statuette recalls the marble Venus - the so-called Medici Venus - exhibited in the Tribune in the Uffizi. The antique works of art were reproduced in numerous versions by Florentine artists in the sixteenth century.