FOGGINI, Giambattista

The vogue for marble reliefs made itself felt in Florence in the 1670s, with the work of Giambattista Foggini in the Corsini Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine. The chapel was erected by the noblemen Bartolomeo and Neri Corsini in honour of their collateral ancestor, Andrea Corsini, who had died in 1374 and been canonized in 1629. Neri Corsini was a career churchman and a proteg� of Alexander VII, who had made him a cardinal in 1664. Thus the chapel was conceived to celebrate the strong connection of the Corsini with Rome, and the patrons found the perfect exponent of the High Baroque style in Foggini.

Foggini’s approach to narrative was influenced by examples of Cortona and Algardi. These influences emerge in the Corsini Chapel, which was initially to have only one relief, St Andrea in Glory, above the altar. Foggini’s success there led to the decision to complete the decoration of the lateral walls with further reliefs rather than paintings. Their subject matter, the First Mass of St Andrea and the Battle of Anghiari, gave scope for pictorial effects probably intended to recall the ‘paragone’. Both the lateral panels of the Corsini Chapel take Algardi’s Meeting of St Leo the Great and Attila as their touchstone; in the Battle of Anghiari, there are references to Cortona’s battle scenes as well. The Florentine troops are massed in low relief on the right, much like Attila’s soldiers, while St Andrea looms above them wielding a metal sword, like Algardi’s apostles.. The levels of relief become more complicated on our left where the Milanese cavalry and foot soldiers pile into a terrorized heap, threatening to spill into our space.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 12 minutes):

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: The Battle, suite

Florence in the last years of the seventeenth century (and in the first quarter of the eighteenth) was the scene of considerable sculptural activity, led by Giambattista Foggini and Massimiliano Soldani, who were both pupils of Ferrata. Foggini was a first-rate marble sculptor, as is attested by the bust of Cardinal Gian Carlo de’ Medici. However, he is chiefly important for his small-scale bronzes.

Foggini studied at the Florentine Academy in Rome. The influence of Roman sculpture arrived at Florence about 1680 when Foggini did there his marble bas-reliefs and carvings of angels completely in the style of Bernini for the Corsini chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine and for SS. Annunziata.

Foggini adapted Bernini’s model (the bust of Francesco I d’Este) for his bust of Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici. The general proportions of head to torso are similar to Bernini’s example ; the drapery, flowing hair and elaborate cravat distract us from the features of the melancholy sitter, while the very remoteness of his gaze underscores a sense of distance, suggestive of a higher sphere of duty. Such an image remained the preferred icon of state portrait in marble or bronze until the age of King Louis XV of France.

This portrait bust represents Cosimo III de’ Medici (1642-1723), Grand Duke of Tuscany, the head of the Florentine family. Foggini had trained in Rome and there he absorbed the vigour and drama of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s style.

The statue has a pendant, the bust of Ferdinando de’ Medici (1663-1713), Grand Prince of Tuscany, the son of Cosimo III. Although it is assumed by some scholars that the pair belonged to a series of busts of members of the house of Medici, it is more probable that they were independent of a larger set.

The Feroni Chapel in Santissima Annunziata was inaugurated in 1693. It is an invention by Foggini, overloaded at the patron’s wishes. The abundance of reliefs and marble sculptures and the white and gilded stuccoes of the dome are new elements in Florence previewing later Rococo decorations. Eight artists worked on the decoration under the guidance of Foggini.

The picture shows the works of three of the eight artists: St Francis by Giovanni Camillo Cateni (1666-1733), Fidelity (with the dog) by Anton Francesco Andreozzi (1663-1731), Diligence by Isidoro Franchi (died 1719), and the bronze portrait medallion by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi (1656-1740). The other artists were the sculptors Giuseppe Piamontini (1664-1742) and Carlo Marcellini (1644-1713), the painter Johann Karl Loth (1632-1698), and an unknown goldsmith working from a design by Foggini.

The cabinet is one of the most important pieces made by the Galleria dei Lavori, master craftsmen specialising in working with semiprecious stones, founded by Ferdinando de’ Medici in 1588 and located in the so-called “short arm” of the Uffizi, and which was given its name of Opificio delle Pietre Dure (Workshop of semiprecious stones) under the Lorraine dynasty. The cabinet was commissioned by Cosimo III de’ Medici and made from designs by Giambattista Foggini. The ebony wood cabinet is developed in height and width, as occurs in the majority of these creations. It stands out for the unity of the architectural design aiming to enhance the presence of the figure in the central niche, as well as by numerous bronzes, also made by Foggini.

The accent is of course on the portrait of the Elector Palatine, carved in chalcedon, dressed in gilded bronze armour and seated on the military trophies that symbolise martial virtues, in a coiled pose that brings dynamism to the whole structure. Above, he is praised by the allegories of Magnanimity and Strength, located to the sides of the Medici emblem quartered with that of the German prince, while at the top, a triumph of arms with heraldic symbols and the motto Dominus virtutum nobiscum (The Lord of the armies is with us), held by putti that return into two symmetrically placed rounds on the sides, hidden by doors, covered with mirrors and accessorised by small but genuine crystal chandeliers.

This portrait bust represents Ferdinando de’ Medici (1663-1713), Grand Prince of Tuscany. Foggini had trained in Rome and there he absorbed the vigour and drama of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s style.

The statue has a pendant, the bust of Cosimo III de’ Medici (1642-1723), Grand Duke of Tuscany, the father of Ferdinando. Although it is assumed by some scholars that the pair belonged to a series of busts of members of the house of Medici, it is more probable that they were independent of a larger set.

The vogue for marble reliefs made itself felt in Florence in the 1670s, with the work of Giambattista Foggini in the Corsini Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine. The chapel was erected by the noblemen Bartolomeo and Neri Corsini in honour of their collateral ancestor, Andrea Corsini, who had died in 1374 and been canonized in 1629. Neri Corsini was a career churchman and a proteg� of Alexander VII, who had made him a cardinal in 1664. Thus the chapel was conceived to celebrate the strong connection of the Corsini with Rome, and the patrons found the perfect exponent of the High Baroque style in Foggini.

Foggini’s approach to narrative was influenced by examples of Cortona and Algardi. These influences emerge in the Corsini Chapel, which was initially to have only one relief, St Andrea in Glory, above the altar. Foggini’s success there led to the decision to complete the decoration of the lateral walls with further reliefs rather than paintings. Their subject matter, the First Mass of St Andrea and the Battle of Anghiari, gave scope for pictorial effects probably intended to recall the ‘paragone’. Both the lateral panels of the Corsini Chapel take Algardi’s Meeting of St Leo the Great and Attila as their touchstone.

The almost three-dimensional bust is on a background of black marble. The frame is made of the yellow marble of Siena. The white bust recalls not only the cameos and gems of antiquity, but also the classicism of the Florentine sculpture of Luca della Robbia or Ghiberti.

This prie-dieu was made to the design of architect and sculptor Giambattista Foggini in the Galleria dei Lavori (grand ducal semi-precious stones workshop) in Florence. It is now in the King’s Bedroom of Royal and Imperial Apartments in Palazzo Pitti.

In an elegant contrast of colours and materials, the gilded bronze appliqu�s and the triumph of decorations in semiprecious stones stand out against the black ebony of the wooden structure, alternating the plastic impetus of two soft junction volutes with the more schematic shape of the linear support surfaces.

Together with the Elector Palatine’s cabinet and the stoup decorated with the Annunciation, the prie-dieu was part of a collection of masterpieces in semiprecious stones sent to D�sseldorf in 1707 as a gift from Cosimo III to his daughter, Anna Maria Luisa, who had gone there as bride to the Elector Palatine. Like the other pieces, this too made its return to Pitti Palace in 1717, when the widowed Electress Palatine came back to Florence.

This reliquary is dedicated to St Sigismund, the first Christian king of Burgundy. The central scene portrays his miraculous appearance to a group of injured youths. The structure of the reliquary is made of ebony, the figures are silver, the decorations in gilded bronze, while the small fruits are made of semiprecious stones. This combination of precious materials with different chromatic effects is typical of late baroque art at the Florentine court. The reliquary was produced in the grand ducal workshops under the direction of Foggini.

This stoup, now in the Queen’s Bedroom of the Royal and Imperial Apartments in Palazzo Pitti, was designed for private worship by Giambattista Foggini. The flamboyant gilded bronzes, cast under the direct supervision of Foggini, almost dominates the semiprecious stone elements used to create the dove representing the Holy Spirit (chalcedony from Volterra), the holy water stoup in the form of a shell valve (chalcedony from Graub�nden), the fruits used on the festoons, and the Annunciation in the two mosaic oval medallions.

Foggini concentrated on bronzes and small-scale works. Many of these were created as diplomatic gifts to be sent abroad or presented to the visitors at the court of Cosimo III. Almost exclusively Classical in subject matter, the best preserved still retain a reddish-brown patination and translucent lacquer; they display basic formulae derived from Giambologna and newly energized by the example of Bernini.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 5 minutes):

Alessandro Stradella: Sinfonia avanti il Barcheggio

One of the supreme ironies of the period can be found in Foggini’s design for the tomb of Galileo, whose astronomical writings were condemned by the Church under Urban VIII but whose monument borrowed significantly from Algardi’s tomb of Leo XI. Galileo’s attendant allegories are of course Astronomy and Geometry; these are not cardinal virtues, and despite the monument’s presence in the Florentine basilica of Santa Croce, it commemorates the astronomer as a secular saint, showing him gazing to the sky foe scientific rather than religious enlightenment.