DANTI, Vincenzo

During his final years in Florence, Danti returned to bronze sculpture on a monumental scale, completing the Beheading of St John the Baptist group over the south portal of the Baptistery in 1571. This is one of the masterpieces of what can properly be called Mannerist sculpture and combines Danti’s virtuosity and inventive mastery of modelling in wax with the restrained statement of volume of his works in marble.

This group marks a high point in Danti’s career. The central St John kneels awaiting his martyrdom, while on the right the elegantly poised executioner holds his sword aloft and on the left is Salome, Herod’s daughter. Her elongated form and elaborate costume are emphasized at the expense of cruelty and horror in her face.

The bronzes were placed over the southern doors of the Baptistery. The group stood there until the restoration in 2008; then the statues were replaced by copies and the original group is now in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence.

The photo shows the group over the south doors of the Baptistery.

During his final years in Florence, Danti returned to bronze sculpture on a monumental scale, completing the Beheading of St John the Baptist group over the south portal of the Baptistery in 1571. This is one of the masterpieces of what can properly be called Mannerist sculpture and combines Danti’s virtuosity and inventive mastery of modelling in wax with the restrained statement of volume of his works in marble.

This group marks a high point in Danti’s career. The central St John kneels awaiting his martyrdom, while on the right the elegantly poised executioner holds his sword aloft and on the left is Salome, Herod’s daughter. Her elongated form and elaborate costume are emphasized at the expense of cruelty and horror in her face.

The bronzes were placed over the southern doors of the Baptistery. The group stood there until the restoration in 2008; then the statues were replaced by copies and the original group is now in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence.

The photo shows the group in the museum.

This statue was commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici for the cross-arm of the Uffizi, Florence. It repeats the pose of Michelangelo’s Bacchus which Francesco de’ Medici bought for the ducal collection in 1572. Francesco seems to have been involved with this commission, at least in its early stage. He replaced the statue in 1595 with Giambologna’s figure of a standing Cosimo I now still in place.

In 1564 Danti began the Medici coat of arms with allegories of Equity and Rigour and a commanding portrait of Cosimo I for the entrance of Vasari’s Uffizi. The svelte reclining allegories are still in place, but the large seated allegorical portrait of Cosimo I that was to have topped the group ended up as a fountain in the Boboli Gardens. Danti’s second attempt, the standing, strongly idealized portrait of Cosimo I as Augustus, must have been carved in the early 1570s and was replaced about 10 years later by the present much more straightforward portrait by Giambologna.

The relief is nearly square in format, and Danti draws attention to its borders with elements of the narrative. Nearly in the round, the foreground figures’ awkward, off-balance poses are accentuated to convey in a physical way the wrenching force of emotion. By contrast, the two thieves crucified with Christ nearly merge into the background, the crosses only incised on the surface. It is easy to understand these lines as drawn through the soft wax model from which the bronze was cast.

The frame is not original, a later collector wanted to frame this relief, perceiving the work as an analogue to the gallery picture, independent of any larger ensemble.

In 1564 Danti began the Medici coat of arms with allegories of Equity and Rigour and a commanding portrait of Cosimo I for the entrance of Vasari’s Uffizi. The svelte reclining allegories are still in place, but the large seated allegorical portrait of Cosimo I that was to have topped the group ended up as a fountain in the Boboli Gardens. Danti’s second attempt, the standing, strongly idealized portrait of Cosimo I as Augustus, must have been carved in the early 1570s and was replaced about 10 years later by the present much more straightforward portrait by Giambologna.

The photo shows the reclining allegories with the standing portrait of Cosimo I by Giambologna.

In 1564 Danti began the Medici coat of arms with allegories of Equity and Rigour and a commanding portrait of Cosimo I for the entrance of Vasari’s Uffizi. The svelte reclining allegories are still in place, but the large seated allegorical portrait of Cosimo I that was to have topped the group ended up as a fountain in the Boboli Gardens. Danti’s second attempt, the standing, strongly idealized portrait of Cosimo I as Augustus, must have been carved in the early 1570s and was replaced about 10 years later by the present much more straightforward portrait by Giambologna.

The photo shows the reclining allegories with the standing portrait of Cosimo I by Giambologna.

In 1561 Danti carved his group Honour Triumphant over Falsehood for Cosimo I de’ Medici’s chamberlain, the fellow Perugian Sforza Almeni. This is one of the finest works of 16th-century Italian sculpture and Danti’s best work in marble. It is often used to reconstruct missing figures for Michelangelo’s tomb of Julius II, but, beyond its psychomachic theme, the sculpture bears little relation to Michelangelo’s.

With Giambologna and Ammanati, Vincenzo Danti was one of the major sculptors after the death of Bandinelli. He designed the catafalque for Michelangelo’s funeral and structures for weddings and triumphal processions. The Honour Triumphant over Falsehood was his first Florentine sculpture. The quickly carved work was from a single block; it lead to a series of commissions from Sforza Almeni, the chamberlain of Cosimo I.

With Giambologna and Ammanati, Vincenzo Danti was one of the major sculptors after the death of Bandinelli. He designed the catafalque for Michelangelo’s funeral and structures for weddings and triumphal processions. The Honour Triumphant over Falsehood was his first Florentine sculpture. The quickly carved work was from a single block; it lead to a series of commissions from Sforza Almeni, the chamberlain of Cosimo I.

The Cappella di San Luca in Santissima Annunziata has belonged to the artists confraternity or the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno since 1565. Many artists are buried in its vault, including Benvenuto Cellini, Pontormo, Franciabigio, Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli and Lorenzo Bartolini. The chapel is decorated with paintings by Pontormo, Alessandro Allori, Vasari and Santi di Tito. Ten large stucco figures were sculpted by Vincenzo Danti, Montorsoli and others.

Vincenzo Danti contributed in 1571 two stucco figures, those of St Luke and Cosimo I as Joshua.

The Honour group having established his credentials, Danti began a series of marble commissions that occupied him through the next decade. Between 1562 and 1566 he worked at the monument to Carlo de’Medici in the cathedral at Prato. This is a stiff reprise of the composition of Michelangelo’s Madonna in Onze Lieve Vrouw, Bruges, accompanied by two more supple putti and a delicate low relief portrait of Carlo de’Medici (d. 1492).

The monument to Carlo de’Medici is a stiff reprise of the composition of Michelangelo’s Madonna in Onze Lieve Vrouw, Bruges, accompanied by two more supple putti and a delicate low relief portrait of Carlo de’Medici (d. 1492).

The detail shows the relief portrait of Carlo de’Medici.

The monument to Blessed Giovanni da Salerno is the most extreme of all Danti’s essays in the duplication of earlier styles.

Founder of the Convent of Santa Maria Novella, Blessed Giovanni Guarna (1190-1242)was born in Salerno. He received the Dominican habit from the hands of the Founder of the Order, Saint Dominic of Guzm�n in 1219, and was sent along with 12 other Friars to introduce the Order in Tuscany. Although he was the youngest of them all, Giovanni was assigned as the head of the group by Saint Dominic himself. His remains are found beneath the altar of the Cappella Tornabuoni, also known as the Cappella Maggiore inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.

While establishing his reputation as a sculptor in marble, Danti continued to work in bronze. The large relief of Moses and the Brazen Serpent (Florence, Bargello), cast in two parts, was completed in late 1559 and may have been associated with the decorations of the Palazzo Vecchio, or with a failed project to make bronze reliefs a part of Bandinelli’s choir in Florence Cathedral.

This relief suggests the hasty, sketchy style Michelangelo’s composition drawings translated into bronze. The relief offer a wide variety of projections and a free handling of detail that produce, as light moves over the bronze, an equivalent of chiaroscuro effects and floating contours of rapid drawing in charcoal or chalk.

Whatever its original destination, the Brazen Serpent panel displays a freedom and variety in the treatment of relief, together with a lightness of hand and attenuation of form comparable to the best drawings of Florentine Mannerist artists.

Roman gods and goddesses were popular subjects for sculpture as they could be shown nude. Their elongated yet muscular bodies demonstrate the elegance of the Mannerist style. Their poses highlight the interest in complicated compositions shared by both artists and patrons.

This statuette depicts Neptune, the God of water and the sea in Roman mythology. Neptune strides forward on his left foot, his body twisted to the left, looking over his right shoulder. His right arm is raised, his left dropped behind his back. Between his feet is a sea-horse on a huge shell. The narrow base represents waves.

The opposed torsion between the head and right arm of Neptune gives to the body a spiraling motion that continues through the arched neck of the attendant seahorse and on to the back of the statuette. The compositional movement is fully three-dimensional, and the figure is designed to be viewed from many angles.

Formerly this statuette was attributed to Alessandro Vittoria.

After completing Equity and Rigour for the entrance of Vasari’s Uffizi, in 1568 Danti sculpted a Perseus which was to be placed at the centre of the two figures. It was left incomplete and finished by others, then transferred to the Boboli Gardens.

After completing Equity and Rigour for the entrance of Vasari’s Uffizi, in 1568 Danti sculpted a Perseus which was to be placed at the centre of the two figures. It was left incomplete and finished by others, then transferred to the Boboli Gardens.

The first relief Danti undertook in Florence was a safe door that consisted almost entirely of framing elements. Its central scene shows a ruler burning books, but the designer gave the majority of the space over to commentaries on the episode.

The Cappella di San Luca in Santissima Annunziata has belonged to the artists confraternity or the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno since 1565. Many artists are buried in its vault, including Benvenuto Cellini, Pontormo, Franciabigio, Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli and Lorenzo Bartolini. The chapel is decorated with paintings by Pontormo, Alessandro Allori, Vasari and Santi di Tito. Ten large stucco figures were sculpted by Vincenzo Danti, Montorsoli and others.

Vincenzo Danti contributed in 1571 two stucco figures, those of St Luke and Cosimo I as Joshua.

Danti’s first important work, the seated bronze statue of Pope Julius III outside the Duomo in Perugia, was commissioned jointly from him and from his father in 1553, but is signed by Vincenzo alone. It was finished by the summer of 1556.

The statue is an exuberantly ornate and ambitious work and shows the impact of Guglielmo della Porta’s tomb of Paul III in St Peter’s, Rome, underway at the same time. Danti’s remarkable low-relief style is already fully evident in the allegorical figures encrusting the Pope’s vestments.

Danti’s first important work, the seated bronze statue of Pope Julius III outside the Duomo in Perugia, was commissioned jointly from him and from his father in 1553, but is signed by Vincenzo alone. It was finished by the summer of 1556.

The statue is an exuberantly ornate and ambitious work and shows the impact of Guglielmo della Porta’s tomb of Paul III in St Peter’s, Rome, underway at the same time. Danti’s remarkable low-relief style is already fully evident in the allegorical figures encrusting the Pope’s vestments.

Danti’s first important work, the seated bronze statue of Pope Julius III outside the Duomo in Perugia, was commissioned jointly from him and from his father in 1553, but is signed by Vincenzo alone. It was finished by the summer of 1556.

The statue is an exuberantly ornate and ambitious work and shows the impact of Guglielmo della Porta’s tomb of Paul III in St Peter’s, Rome, underway at the same time. Danti’s remarkable low-relief style is already fully evident in the allegorical figures encrusting the Pope’s vestments.

Venus Anadyomene (“Venus Rising From the Sea”) is one of the iconic representations of Aphrodite, made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Pliny’s Natural History. Danti’s statuette is from the ‘studiolo’ of Francesco I de’ Medici. It was produced after Danti’s successful completion of the monumental Beheading group on the Florence Baptistery.

During his final years in Florence, Danti returned to bronze sculpture on a monumental scale, completing the Beheading of St John the Baptist group over the south portal of the Baptistery in 1571. This is one of the masterpieces of what can properly be called Mannerist sculpture and combines Danti’s virtuosity and inventive mastery of modelling in wax with the restrained statement of volume of his works in marble. In the same late period, and in a similar vein, he also cast the small bronze statue Venus Anadyomene for the studiolo of Francesco I in the Palazzo Vecchio.

Venus Anadyomene (from Greek, “Venus Rising From the Sea”) is one of the iconic representations of the goddess Venus (Aphrodite).

Formerly this statue was in the Palazzo Pitti.