GIAMBOLOGNA

Many of the bronzes Giambologna made for export, such as the Abduction Scene, were useful in diplomatic exchange because they took up a mythological repertory shared across Europe. The repetitiveness of Giambologna’s small bronze production, the creation and dispersion of multiples or of closely related figures with only slight variations, inherently worked against the idea that inventions reflected the places for which they were made. This made it possible to ship those works to different centres or to place them in different settings, as a collector wished.

This statuette of a young woman represents an allegory of Astronomy with her attributes (prism, armillary sphere, compass). In old inventories it was called Venus Urania. The statuette marks a high point in Giambologna’s endeavour to present a beautiful, naked female body which is “equally beautiful from all views”.

It was created c. 1573, around the time when the artist created his Apollo figurine for the Studiolo of Francesco de’Medici.

The left-hand side of the relief is crowded with figures of demise: an old man tries to warm himself by a fire, a river god exhausts his waters, Saturn eats his children, the Parcae weave the thread of fate. The primary narrative, however, is that of Mercury leading an armoured figure away from his realm out of a space of ruins and into a modern loggia. Most scholars have identified the figure as Cosimo Medici’s surviving son Francesco. It is certainly a Medici portrait resembling Michelangelo’s Lorenzo and Giuliano in the Medici Chapel.

This relief, with its complicated and enigmatic iconography, was probably given to Francesco de’ Medici by the artist. It would have been intended to show Francesco’s incipient power in the city of Florence. Giambologna employed the entire Renaissance esthetic in this work. Especially notable, here, is how he solved the architectural perspective on the right.

Giambologna’s Allegory of Francesco I de’ Medici (now in the Prado, Madrid) responded to a Medici family tragedy. The vagueness of the subject-matter, though, allowed it to resonate beyond the Florentine context, and Cosimo I de’ Medici had Giambologna and his assistants produce a bronze copy for Emperor Maximilian II in 1564. The bronze is far more hard-edged than the alabaster, a result of the careful reworking it underwent at the hand of a goldsmith after it was cast.

The Altar of Liberty to the left of the high altar of the Duomo of Lucca was dedicated in 1369 to celebrate the freedom regained by the city in that year. In 1577 it was decided that it should be replaced by an altar by Giambologna. Work on the altar was completed by 1579.

The figure sculpture on the altar comprises a central figure of Christ as the Redeemer, lateral figures of St Peter (left) and St Paulinus (right) and two angels (above). The Christ is an autograph work of high quality; the lateral figures, on the other hand, seem to have been executed mainly by Francavilla.

In the 1560s and 1570s Giambologna regarded his activities as belonging to the domain of architecture. In 1577, he was commissioned for the construction of a large marble altar in the Cathedral of Lucca to commemorate Lucca’s 1369 victory over Pisa. The final work was completed in 1579.

Giambologna employed a monumental architectural framework, its tripartite scheme evoking the form of a triumphal arch, though a sepulchral quality also pervades the whole composition. Christ stands in the narrow, shallow niche in the centre. The two flanking figures are in more conventional niches. It seems that Christ, rather than emerging from a sarcophagus, has stepped forward from a tomb chamber.

The patrons referred to the composition from the beginning as the Altar of Liberty: Christ, liberated from mortality, becomes a liberator for all.

In the Salviati Chapel over the altar are two bronze putti and an angel pointing with one arm towards heaven and extending the other towards the tomb of St Antoninus. The picture shows the angel.

Born in Flanders, the artist was the favourite sculptor of Francesco I de’ Medici, after working earlier for his father, Cosimo I, and establishing a highly profitable workshop of his own.

The statue representing Apollo is in the Studiolo of Francesco I de’ Medici in the Palazzo Vecchio.

Giambologna designed the Appenine, a fountain of sorts set in a garden of titillating marvels at the Medici Villa at Pratolino. The theatrical work combined several Mannerist themes: the colossus, the fountain, the interaction between art and nature. It was carved partly out of living rock and embellished with dripped stucco, lava and other materials to appear organic.

Giambologna designed the Appenine, a fountain of sorts set in a garden of titillating marvels at the Medici Villa at Pratolino. The theatrical work combined several Mannerist themes: the colossus, the fountain, the interaction between art and nature. It was carved partly out of living rock and embellished with dripped stucco, lava and other materials to appear organic.

The giant was constructed in brick and covered with a skin of mortar and sponges, in the Mannerist fashion.

The figure reflects Giambologna’s initial architectural interest. It was probably invented in the 1560s but it exists in several versions. Personifying Architecture, this figure holds a framing square, protractor, and compass. The bronze’s surface finish is of the highest quality, and the graceful, twisting pose and turn of the head encourage viewing from all sides.

For half a century Giambologna dominated Florentine sculpture, carving an ever more impressive series of statue groups in marble. In addition, he produced several extraordinary bronze statues, among them Bacchus (1560-61).

Giambologna adopted for his god of wine a new physical type, older, more muscular and generally more heroic than the Bacchuses earlier Renaissance sculptors had produced.

This statuette, belonging to Giambologna’s earliest independent small bronzes, represents a nude woman in the act of stroking herself with a piece of cloth. It was identified with the statuette sent to Maximilian I as a diplomatic gift in 1565.

The statuette, belonging to Giambologna’s earliest independent small bronzes, represents a nude woman in the act of stroking herself with a piece of cloth. It is considered as Venus, but the action itself has divided scholars, and the statues of the type have gone under names ranging from “Venus drying herself” to “Venus after the bath” to “woman bathing.”

There exist several copies of this statuette in museums and private collections.

At the end of the XVI century, Giambologna decorated the Grimaldi Chapel in the church of San Francesco di Castelletto, Genoa. Six life-size statues depicting Charity, Justice, Hope, Fortitude, Faith, and Temperance; seven bas-reliefs; and six winged representations of putti are what remains of the original monumental project. The bronze statues of the Virtues are now at the University of Genoa.

The picture shows Charity, one of the six bronze statues.

The figure sculpture on the Altar of Liberty in Lucca comprises a central figure of Christ as the Redeemer, lateral figures of St Peter (left) and St Paulinus (right) and two angels (above). The figure of Christ, an autograph work of high quality, is shown in movement; it could be related to the painting of the Resurrection by Bronzino in Santissima Annunziata, Florence.

In 1589, Ferdinando I de’ Medici married Christina of Lorraine. When their wedding procession turned at the Canto de’ Carnesecchi in Florence, it passed through a triumphal gateway. This was an ephemeral construction, and no trace of it remained by 1600 when Giambologna unveiled his marble Hercules and the Centaur at the Canto de’ Carnesecchi. Still, the relief Giambologna eventually added to the side of the Equestrian Portrait of Cosimo I underscored the importance of gateways to the idea of ‘entrata’, the procession that established the advent of a new ruler.

The picture shows a detail (Marching Soldiers) of the relief on the base of the equestrian monument to Cosimo I. The proto-Baroque tendencies of the late style of the Mannerist Giambologna are strongly apparent in this work.

In 1564 Vincenzo 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.

Among Giambologna’s principal projects as architect were the Grimaldi Chapel in San Francesco di Castelletto, Genoa (largely destroyed in the 19th century); the Salviati Chapel in San Marco, Florence; and his own funeral chapel in Santissima Annunziata, Florence. All show a distinct, personal style of Mannerist architecture, evolved from the work of Vasari, Bartolomeo Ammanati and ultimately Michelangelo.

The Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso (Madonna of Succour) was designed by Giambologna between 1594 and 1598 as his own tomb and is richly adorned with frescoes, statuary and reliefs.

Giambologna’s private chapel follows the example set by artists such as Baccio Bandinelli, who also in the church of the Annunziata, was able to prepare a chapel-mausoleum for himself that would remain as testimony to his nobility and to the devoted spirit behind his art. In 1594, the Servites granted Giambologna the middle chapel in the octagonal choir of the church, to be used both for his burial and for that of other Flemish artists working in Florence.

For the walls of his chapel, Giambologna commissioned paintings from Giambattista Paggi, Jacopo Ligozzi, and Passignano. Each of these painting was to be flanked by a pair of sculptures (made by Francavilla); below the figures he installed copies of the passion reliefs he had designed for the Grimaldi family in Genoa a decade before. All the reliefs centred on the figure of Christ.

The most important work inside the chapel, however, is the large bronze Crucifix showing the dead Christ, head reclining and eyes closed. The image, towering over those who entered the space, is majestic and the body is elegant but athletic and free from the marks of the Passion.

Among Giambologna’s principal projects as architect were the Grimaldi Chapel in San Francesco di Castelletto, Genoa (largely destroyed in the 19th century); the Salviati Chapel in San Marco, Florence; and his own funeral chapel in Santissima Annunziata, Florence. All show a distinct, personal style of Mannerist architecture, evolved from the work of Vasari, Bartolomeo Ammanati and ultimately Michelangelo.

The Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso (Madonna of Succour) was designed by Giambologna between 1594 and 1598 as his own tomb and is richly adorned with frescoes, statuary and reliefs.

Giambologna’s private chapel follows the example set by artists such as Baccio Bandinelli, who also in the church of the Annunziata, was able to prepare a chapel-mausoleum for himself that would remain as testimony to his nobility and to the devoted spirit behind his art. In 1594, the Servites granted Giambologna the middle chapel in the octagonal choir of the church, to be used both for his burial and for that of other Flemish artists working in Florence.

For the walls of his chapel, Giambologna commissioned paintings from Giambattista Paggi, Jacopo Ligozzi, and Passignano. Each of these painting was to be flanked by a pair of sculptures (made by Francavilla); below the figures he installed copies of the passion reliefs he had designed for the Grimaldi family in Genoa a decade before. All the reliefs centred on the figure of Christ.

The most important work inside the chapel, however, is the large bronze Crucifix showing the dead Christ, head reclining and eyes closed. The image, towering over those who entered the space, is majestic and the body is elegant but athletic and free from the marks of the Passion.

The Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso (Madonna of Succour) was designed by Giambologna between 1594 and 1598 as his own tomb and is richly adorned with frescoes, statuary and reliefs.

Giambologna’s private chapel follows the example set by artists such as Baccio Bandinelli, who also in the church of the Annunziata, was able to prepare a chapel-mausoleum for himself that would remain as testimony to his nobility and to the devoted spirit behind his art. In 1594, the Servites granted Giambologna the middle chapel in the octagonal choir of the church, to be used both for his burial and for that of other Flemish artists working in Florence.

For the walls of his chapel, Giambologna commissioned paintings from Giambattista Paggi, Jacopo Ligozzi, and Passignano. Each of these painting was to be flanked by a pair of sculptures (made by Francavilla); below the figures he installed copies of the passion reliefs he had designed for the Grimaldi family in Genoa a decade before. All the reliefs centred on the figure of Christ.

The most important work inside the chapel, however, is the large bronze Crucifix showing the dead Christ, head reclining and eyes closed. The image, towering over those who entered the space, is majestic and the body is elegant but athletic and free from the marks of the Passion.

The most important work inside Giambologna’s private chapel is the large bronze Crucifix showing the dead Christ, head reclining and eyes closed.

An extension of Giambologna’s repertory in bronze was a commission in 1567 for a series of life-size - and extremely life-like - figures of birds (e.g. Turkey, Eagle, Kestrel; all Florence, Bargello) to decorate a grotto at the Medicean Villa di Castello. For these he invented an ‘impressionistic’ rendering in the original wax of plumage, which was faithfully translated by skilful casting into the final bronze versions. He treated similarly the fur of some Monkeys, which he made to go in niches under the fountain basin that he carved as a mounting for his earlier marble group of Samson.

Giambologna’s vivacious and sympathetic studies of birds and animals, from the life, pointed the way for the French school of ‘animaliers’ in the 19th century.

Giambologna made numerous equine studies before he was commissioned for an equestrian. In 1587 Ferdinando I commissioned the bronze equestrian of Cosimo I in the Piazza della Signoria. He was given a studio wit a foundry for the project where the horse and rider were cast separately. Three reliefs on the base depict political events in Cosimo’s reign in the unadulterated propaganda of absolutism. This was the first time in Florence that a sculpture praising a leader was displayed publicly and treated historically rather than allegorically.

The statue is closer to the Marcus Aurelius than Renaissance prototypes. The horse’s billowing mane contrasts with its static body, while the Duke governs his horse and implicitly the state. Cosimo’s portrait is idealized.

The statue influenced all subsequent equestrians of sovereigns.

Giambologna made numerous equine studies before he was commissioned for an equestrian. In 1587 Ferdinando I commissioned the bronze equestrian of Cosimo I in the Piazza della Signoria. He was given a studio wit a foundry for the project where the horse and rider were cast separately. Three reliefs on the base depict political events in Cosimo’s reign in the unadulterated propaganda of absolutism. This was the first time in Florence that a sculpture praising a leader was displayed publicly and treated historically rather than allegorically.

The statue is closer to the Marcus Aurelius than Renaissance prototypes. The horse’s billowing mane contrasts with its static body, while the Duke governs his horse and implicitly the state. Cosimo’s portrait is idealized.

The statue influenced all subsequent equestrians of sovereigns.

Having achieved by the 1580s a complete mastery of the human form, Giambologna turned to the subject that had fascinated the ancient Greeks and Romans almost as much, the horse. He addressed the subject with a scientific approach and created his masterpiece in bronze, the equestrian statue of Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was an immediate success and was replicated on the much reduced scale of statuettes, with a variety of different riders. A full-size variant showing Ferdinando I de’ Medici was commissioned shortly afterwards for Piazza Santissima Annunziata; others followed for the kings of France and Spain.

His chosen model of horse was compact and rotund, with a short body and well-rounded rump, its contours enlivened by the raised front hoof and wildly curling mane, as well as by the sinuous tail. The lively character and alertness of the beast are conveyed by its swollen veins, rolling eyes and pricked-up ears.

Having achieved by the 1580s a complete mastery of the human form, Giambologna turned to the subject that had fascinated the ancient Greeks and Romans almost as much, the horse. He addressed the subject with a scientific approach and created his masterpiece in bronze, the equestrian statue of Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany. It was an immediate success and was replicated on the much reduced scale of statuettes, with a variety of different riders. A full-size variant showing Ferdinando I de’ Medici was commissioned shortly afterwards for Piazza Santissima Annunziata; others followed for the kings of France and Spain.

His chosen model of horse was compact and rotund, with a short body and well-rounded rump, its contours enlivened by the raised front hoof and wildly curling mane, as well as by the sinuous tail. The lively character and alertness of the beast are conveyed by its swollen veins, rolling eyes and pricked-up ears.

At the end of the XVI century, Giambologna decorated the Grimaldi Chapel in the church of San Francesco di Castelletto, Genoa. Six life-size statues depicting Charity, Justice, Hope, Fortitude, Faith, and Temperance; seven bas-reliefs; and six winged representations of putti are what remains of the original monumental project. The bronze statues of the Virtues are now at the University of Genoa.

The picture shows Faith, one of the six bronze statues.

Though this sculpture as a whole does not look like any other single work, its parts derive from several antique sources. The vertical orientation of the figure and the arrangement of its arms indicate an antique ‘Venus pudica,’ while other details come from various ancient Venus figures. The inventory of the sources from which Giambologna derived his statue would suggest that he thought about its identity largely in reference to depictions of Venus. However, the original patron of the statue framed the marble unambiguously as a representation of an entirely different personage: Fata Morgana (Morgan le Fay, sorceress of Arthurian legend).

This nude female, like other contemporary figures sculpted by Giambologna, is associated with a vase. The vase was regarded as an exemplary architectural product, an illustration of geometrical principles and of the use of compass. All were derived from circles.

This is one of the three statues of boys executed for a fountain in the Palazzo del Casino di San Marco.

This relief is on the base of the equestrian monument to Cosimo I.

The wedding of Prince Francesco de’ Medici to Joanna of Austria in 1566 required grandiose decorations for the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. The idea was thus conceived of commissioning Giambologna to create an allegorical group as a pair to Michelangelo’s Victory; its subject was to be politically relevant, Florence Triumphant over Pisa. A tiny preliminary model in wax and a larger one in terracotta (both Victoria and Albert Museum, London) show his first thoughts on the subject, while a full-scale working model in plaster (Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence) was ready in time to be painted white to resemble marble and exhibited at the wedding.

A marble version (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence) was carved considerably later (1575), and then largely by his assistant, Pietro Francavilla. The original little wax model is wonderfully spontaneous, its elongated proportions corresponding with those of Michelangelo’s Victory, which it had to match. Its destination against a wall in the Salone del Cinquecento meant that it would be seen only from the front and sides, but its axis was arranged spirally, within a block of marble of pyramidal shape, like the Victory.

This group was commissioned from Giambologna for the Sala del Cinquecento (the Great Council Hall) of the Palazzo Vecchio. In preparation for the wedding of Francesco I and Joanna of Austria, Cosimo I de’ Medici had the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio decorated with scenes relating to Florentine military triumphs: the marble Victory which Michelangelo had abandoned when he had departed Florence three decades earlier would go against a wall showing the conquest of Siena, and the new statue by Giambologna the wall opposite, which Vasari’s team was painting with scenes showing the city’s triumph over Pisa.

This wax model is the earliest recorded stage in a series of surviving models for Giambologna’s colossal marble group, Florence Triumphant over Pisa, now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. It represents the city of Florence, personified as a powerful but elegant female, triumphing over the crushed figure of Pisa, the nearby rival city then under Florentine rule, and clearly precedes the terracota model dated to 1565, also held in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The group was originally commissioned in 1565 as a pendant to Michelangelo’s Victory, and was intended to be displayed with it in the Salone del Cinquecento of the Palazzo Vecchio at the festivities of Francesco’s marriage to Joanna of Austria in December that year. However, there was insufficient time even for the marble block to be chosen and transported from the quarry and instead the full-sized plaster model (currently in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence) was substituted for the final work, which was not completed until 1575.

In the last decades of the sixteenth century, the category of sculptural labour that emerged most prominently was that of modeling the figures in wax and clay. There exists dozens of these works by Giambologna who put a certain amount of stock in fragile, ephemeral objects, and he regarded them as things worth preserving.

This model forms the second stage in the preparation of the design for Giambologna’s colossal marble group. The marble is 2.6 metres high and is now in the Bargello museum in Florence. It represents the city of Florence, who is personified as a powerful but elegant female, triumphing over the crushed figure of the elderly male figure of Pisa. This nearby rival city was then under Florentine rule.

At the end of the XVI century, Giambologna decorated the Grimaldi Chapel in the church of San Francesco di Castelletto, Genoa. Six life-size statues depicting Charity, Justice, Hope, Fortitude, Faith, and Temperance; seven bas-reliefs; and six winged representations of putti are what remains of the original monumental project. The bronze statues of the Virtues are now at the University of Genoa.

The picture shows Fortitude, one of the six bronze statues.

Three years after the competition for the Fountain of Neptune in Florence, the authorities in Bologna approached Giambologna to make a statue of Neptune and many subsidiary figures and ornaments for a fountain designed by Tommaso Laureti that they were erecting in the centre of their city. The young sculptor’s full powers seem to have been released in the making of this Fountain of Neptune (completed 1566), perhaps because the artistic milieu of Bologna was less competitive than that of Florence. He was able to give rein to his imagination and sure sense of composition in the mighty figure of Neptune itself, with its energetic pose and sharp turn of the head.

At the feet of Neptune are four boys struggling with dolphins, which spout water, interspersed with grotesquely puffing heads of childlike wind-gods, also spouting water. At the four corners of the pedestal below are four sensuous figures of Sirens, with bulbous curving fishy tails for legs, expressing water from their full breasts into the basin below. In between are many grotesque masks and shells articulating the several smaller basins.

The decorative fountain erected on the main square in Bologna is the first major work of the sculptor. Several models in clay and bronze record its evolution. With a vertical rather than horizontal emphasis, the format is pyramidal and architectonic. Consistent proportions and the use of bronze throughout create an unity. The fantastic lower figures allow the viewer’s eyes to ascend to the Neptune, silhouetted against the sky depicted in a striding pose. His trident certifies his identity. Mermaids whose breasts spout water rise from the basin at the corners. Since the jets are integrated with all the figures, the play of water unifies the fountain, the most sophisticated in Italy and anticipatory, therefore, of the Baroque.

The detail shows the figure of Neptune at whose are four boys struggling with dolphins, which spout water, interspersed with grotesquely puffing heads of childlike wind-gods, also spouting water.

The detail shows one of the corners of the pedestal with a sensuous figure of Siren, with bulbous curving fishy tails for legs, expressing water from her full breasts into the basin below. In between are many grotesque masks and shells articulating the several smaller basins.

At the feet of Neptune are four boys struggling with dolphins, which spout water, interspersed with grotesquely puffing heads of childlike wind-gods, also spouting water. The detail shows one of the boys.

The detail shows the head of Neptune looking vital and compelling.

The detail shows the head of Neptune looking vital and compelling.

Giambologna’s chapel projects represented a kind of extension of his activities as a fountain designer. By contrast to the independent, autonomous figures he was making at the same time, they were three-dimensional compositions that centred on sculpture but put the primary emphasis on the conditions of its display.

The Salviati family had been linked by marriage to the Medici (Pope Leo XI was the son of Francesca Salviati, the daughter of Giacomo Salviati and Lucrezia de’ Medici). The Salviati family chapel centred on the sepulchre of the Florentine archbishop Antonino Pierozzi (Saint Antoninus); a bronze effigy topped the ark that contained his remains. Each of the three walls feature a large painting; flanking these were marble figures of saints that had ties to the patrons, the church, and the city, and above each of the marble figures was a corresponding bronze relief showing an episode from St Antoninus’s life. The images set into the dome filled in further elements from the bishop’s biography.

Giambologna was the architect and the sculptor of the statues, furthermore, he oversaw the execution of the work by other artists. On the back wall, a canvas by Alessandro Allori depicts Christ in Limbo, while on the left and right walls Christ Healing the Leper by Francesco Morandini and Calling of Matthew by Giovan Battista Naldini, respectively, can be seen. The walls of the vestibule was decorated in fresco by Domenico Passignano following the completion of the chapel proper. The dome of the chapel is by Bernardino Poccetti. The chapel was completed in May 1589.

Giambologna’s chapel projects represented a kind of extension of his activities as a fountain designer. By contrast to the independent, autonomous figures he was making at the same time, they were three-dimensional compositions that centred on sculpture but put the primary emphasis on the conditions of its display.

The Salviati family had been linked by marriage to the Medici (Pope Leo XI was the son of Francesca Salviati, the daughter of Giacomo Salviati and Lucrezia de’ Medici). The Salviati family chapel centred on the sepulchre of the Florentine archbishop Antonino Pierozzi (Saint Antoninus); a bronze effigy topped the ark that contained his remains. Each of the three walls feature a large painting; flanking these were marble figures of saints that had ties to the patrons, the church, and the city, and above each of the marble figures was a corresponding bronze relief showing an episode from St Antoninus’s life. The images set into the dome filled in further elements from the bishop’s biography.

Giambologna was the architect and the sculptor of the statues, furthermore, he oversaw the execution of the work by other artists. On the back wall, a canvas by Alessandro Allori depicts Christ in Limbo, while on the left and right walls Christ Healing the Leper by Francesco Morandini and Calling of Matthew by Giovan Battista Naldini, respectively, can be seen. The walls of the vestibule was decorated in fresco by Domenico Passignano following the completion of the chapel proper. The dome of the chapel is by Bernardino Poccetti. The chapel was completed in May 1589.

Following Vincenzo de’ Rossi’s example, Giambologna executed some of the scenes from the series of twelve labours of Hercules. However, by contrast to De’ Rossi, he never had any intention of finishing a whole series. The first two scenes from the cycle he chose to treat those showing the hero’s battle with the centaur and with the giant Antaeus.

Following Vincenzo de’ Rossi’s example, Giambologna executed some of the scenes from the series of twelve labours of Hercules. However, by contrast to De’ Rossi, he never had any intention of finishing a whole series. The first two scenes from the cycle he chose to treat those showing the hero’s battle with the centaur and with the giant Antaeus.

The proto-Baroque tendencies of the late style of the Mannerist Giambologna are strongly apparent in this work. His movement away from the grace and elegance of the mannerist style and into the realism of the Early Baroque is complete in this group.

This marble group was unveiled by Giambologna in 1600 at the Canto de’ Carnesecchi in Florence. It was moved in 1842 from its original site to the Loggia dei Lanzi

The proto-Baroque tendencies of the late style of the Mannerist Giambologna are strongly apparent in this work. His movement away from the grace and elegance of the mannerist style and into the realism of the Early Baroque is complete in this group.

This marble group was unveiled by Giambologna in 1600 at the Canto de’ Carnesecchi in Florence. It was moved in 1842 from its original site to the Loggia dei Lanzi

For the fourth labour, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the Erymanthian boar alive. The boar lived on a mountain called Erymanthus. Every day the boar would come crashing down from his lair on the mountain, attacking men and animals all over the countryside, gouging them with its tusks, and destroying everything in its path. Hercules trapped the boar in a net, and carried it all the way to Mycenae.

At the end of the XVI century, Giambologna decorated the Grimaldi Chapel in the church of San Francesco di Castelletto, Genoa. Six life-size statues depicting Charity, Justice, Hope, Fortitude, Faith, and Temperance; seven bas-reliefs; and six winged representations of putti are what remains of the original monumental project. The bronze statues of the Virtues are now at the University of Genoa.

The picture shows Hope, one of the six bronze statues.

At the end of the XVI century, Giambologna decorated the Grimaldi Chapel in the church of San Francesco di Castelletto, Genoa. Six life-size statues depicting Charity, Justice, Hope, Fortitude, Faith, and Temperance; seven bas-reliefs; and six winged representations of putti are what remains of the original monumental project. The bronze statues of the Virtues are now at the University of Genoa.

The picture shows Justice, one of the six bronze statues.

An extension of Giambologna’s repertory in bronze was a commission in 1567 for a series of life-size - and extremely life-like - figures of birds (e.g. Turkey, Eagle, Kestrel; all Florence, Bargello) to decorate a grotto at the Medicean Villa di Castello. For these he invented an ‘impressionistic’ rendering in the original wax of plumage, which was faithfully translated by skilful casting into the final bronze versions. He treated similarly the fur of some Monkeys, which he made to go in niches under the fountain basin that he carved as a mounting for his earlier marble group of Samson.

Giambologna’s vivacious and sympathetic studies of birds and animals, from the life, pointed the way for the French school of ‘animaliers’ in the 19th century.

This statue is related to Giambologna’s groups from the Hercules series: it is an independent figure that seems to extract one of the hero’s performances from the context of an encounter with any individual enemy. It could be also remarked that the figure’s pose is nearly identical to the marble Samson and a Philistine.

This figure was supposedly made during the period when the artist was working in Bologna on the Neptune fountain; it is considered the model for a larger bronze statue, perhaps never realized. This was the first version of a theme which Giambologna re-proposed in numerous variations and dimensions. One of the most lovely among the larger examples is that conserved in the Bargello in Florence.

Giambologna’s earliest statuette of Mercury in Bologna was later developed into a life-size figure despatched in 1564-65 to Emperor Maximilian II (survived in Stockholm), and in 1580 into the so-called Medici Mercury in the Bargello. The signed statuette in Vienna (c. 1585) from the Kunstkammer (art chamber) represents the most mature composition.

The origins of the beautiful, balanced pose may be found in bronzes of the 15th century by Antonio del Pollaiuolo and Andrea del Verrocchio, as well as in the statuette of Mercury on the base of Benvenuto Cellini’s statue of Perseus with the Head of Medusa.

The most celebrated sculpture by Giambologna is the Mercury, known in four versions whose chronology is uncertain. His first design, a heavy wingless figure, is preserved in a model in Bologna. When Giambologna returned to Florence, he referred to his earlier work in a second version, a flying Mercury, now lost or identical to one in Vienna. This bronze was send by Cosimo as a diplomatic gift to the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian II, when they were negotiating the marriage of Maximilian’s sister Giovanna to Francesco de’ Medici. The messenger god was Maximilian’s protector and the pose was based on a medal of Maximilian by Leone Leoni (1551).

The fourth, a flying variant in Florence (shown in the picture) was completed by 1580, when it became a fountain figure at the Villa Medici, Rome. Mercury balances on a bronze column of air issuing from the mouth of Zephyr, over which flowed water, increasing the illusion that he was floating. The work shows a study of Verrocchio’s Putto and Dolphin and Rusitici’s Mercury, both for the Medici and is indebted to the Mercury on the base of Cellini’s Perseus but has more dynamism.

The god assumes an arabesque, balanced precariously on his toes, and points upward to Jupiter. It is Mannerist in that it can be appreciated from all angles and is elongated and elegant; yet these features contrast with its amazing physicality and an evident study of weights and balances. The preciosity of “Maniera” is blended with what became Baroque illusionism and the freedom derived from wax.

This is another view fo Mercury. As a Mannerist sculpture, it can be appreciated from all angles.

Giambologna invented an ‘impressionistic’ rendering in the original wax of plumage and fur, which were faithfully translated by skilful casting into his final bronze versions of birds and monkeys.

This statuette is from a niche in the base of Giambologna’s marble group “Samson Slaying a Philistine”, commissioned by Francesco de Medici, son of Cosimo I, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, as a fountain decoration for the Casino San Marco in Florence.

This small bronze is considered as a model for the Neptune fountain in Bologna. But this work also had served as a basis for the replicas now in private collections.

An important fountain by Giambologna, carved in marble, was designed for the piazza in front of the Pitti Palace and later erected on the axis of the Boboli Garden behind, only to be moved early in the 17th century to its present site on the Isolotto, near the Porta Romana. The finial was a great marble figure of Neptune, probably reflecting his early model made in connection with the competition for the Fountain of Neptune for Piazza della Signoria. The original marble statue, shown in the picture, is now preserved in the Bargello.

This statue Perseus on his horse Pegasus is located at the western end of the park, in the middle of a large water basin. It was transferred from another location around 1636-37, and at this point it underwent some restoration.

The Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso (Madonna of Succour) was designed by Giambologna between 1594 and 1598 as his own tomb and is richly adorned with frescoes, statuary and reliefs.

Giambologna’s private chapel follows the example set by artists such as Baccio Bandinelli, who also in the church of the Annunziata, was able to prepare a chapel-mausoleum for himself that would remain as testimony to his nobility and to the devoted spirit behind his art. In 1594, the Servites granted Giambologna the middle chapel in the octagonal choir of the church, to be used both for his burial and for that of other Flemish artists working in Florence.

For the walls of his chapel, Giambologna commissioned paintings from Giambattista Paggi, Jacopo Ligozzi, and Passignano. Each of these painting was to be flanked by a pair of sculptures (made by Francavilla); below the figures he installed copies of the passion reliefs he had designed for the Grimaldi family in Genoa a decade before. All the reliefs centred on the figure of Christ. The present picture shows the scene Pilate Washing His Hands.

Giambologna’s third great marble group, the Rape of a Sabine, represented the climax of his career as a figure sculptor, combining three figures into a cohesive group, an idea that had obsessed Michelangelo without his ever having been permitted to realize it in marble. Giambologna’s first thoughts are embodied in a bronze group with a standing man and a woman raised in his arms, which he produced in 1579 for Ottavio Farnese, 2nd Duke of Parma and Piacenza (reg 1550–86). ‘The subject’, wrote Giambologna to this patron, ‘was chosen to give scope to the knowledge and a study of art’, suggesting that it was a conceptual rather than a narrative composition. Giambologna’s contemporaries subsequently compelled him to identify the particular episode that was shown in the full-scale marble sculpture, by supplying a bronze relief with an unambiguous narrative to go below it, to act as a sort of visual label.

The development from a group of two to one with three figures is plotted in preliminary wax models (Victoria and Albert Museum, London). The three figures are linked psychologically by the directions of their glances, as well as formally by the arrangement of their limbs and bodies. The spiral composition means that the group cannot be fully comprehended from any single viewpoint. Technically, the sculpture is a masterpiece of virtuosity, pushing to its furthest limits the technique of undercutting, which Giambologna had observed in Hellenistic carving, and the use of which distinguishes his work so sharply from Michelangelo’s.

The Rape of a Sabine marked the climax of Giambologna’s career as an official Medici sculptor. This great marble was unveiled in the Loggia dei Lanzi in January 1583 in place of Donatello’s Judith. The group is indebted to Giambologna’s study of Hellenistic sculpture, particularly in the voids which penetrate the three interlocked figures. On a technical level it represents the fullfilment of an aspiration from antiquity. Ancient sources record sculptures made from a single block, a claim which the Renaissance discovered was not true. Giambologna intended to surpass antiquity by sculpting a large group from a single block that also involved a complicated lift. The result is the first sculpture with no principal viewpoints, it forms a spiral that is the culmination of the “figura serpentina”.

Giambologna added his own contributions to the statuary of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, including the Rape of the Sabine Woman, placed in 1583 by Grand Duke Francesco I under the Loggia dei Lanzi in the spot once occupied by Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes. The identification of the subject mattered so little to Giambologna that he called earlier versions of the same group Paris and Helen, Pluto and Proserpina, and Phineus and Andromeda. His chief interest lay in the energy of the spiral movement and the vitality of the male and female figures, and he succeeded so well in their rendition that Baroque sculptors, particularly Bernini, never forgot this group.

The Rape of a Sabine marked the climax of Giambologna’s career as an official Medici sculptor. This great marble was unveiled in the Loggia dei Lanzi in January 1583 in place of Donatello’s Judith. The group is indebted to Giambologna’s study of Hellenistic sculpture, particularly in the voids which penetrate the three interlocked figures. On a technical level it represents the fullfilment of an aspiration from antiquity. Ancient sources record sculptures made from a single block, a claim which the Renaissance discovered was not true. Giambologna intended to surpass antiquity by sculpting a large group from a single block that also involved a complicated lift. The result is the first sculpture with no principal viewpoints, it forms a spiral that is the culmination of the “figura serpentina”.

The Rape of a Sabine marked the climax of Giambologna’s career as an official Medici sculptor. This great marble was unveiled in the Loggia dei Lanzi in January 1583 in place of Donatello’s Judith. The group is indebted to Giambologna’s study of Hellenistic sculpture, particularly in the voids which penetrate the three interlocked figures. On a technical level it represents the fullfilment of an aspiration from antiquity. Ancient sources record sculptures made from a single block, a claim which the Renaissance discovered was not true. Giambologna intended to surpass antiquity by sculpting a large group from a single block that also involved a complicated lift. The result is the first sculpture with no principal viewpoints, it forms a spiral that is the culmination of the “figura serpentina”.

This is an earlier, two-figure version of Giambologna’s famous abduction group (Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence). It was cast by Antonio Susini c. 1585.

Giambologna’s third great marble group, the Rape of a Sabine, represented the climax of his career as a figure sculptor, combining three figures into a cohesive group, an idea that had obsessed Michelangelo without his ever having been permitted to realize it in marble.

Once the subject of the Rape of the Sabines in the Loggia dei Lanzi had been decided on, it became necessary to define it, and with this in mind Giambologna made for its base a bronze relief (corresponding with the relief beneath Cellini’s Perseus), which could only depict the Rape of the Sabines and would thus remove all ambiguity. The bronze relief with an unambiguous narrative below the marble group acted as a sort of visual label.

In style the relief conforms to the great group above. The figures are breaking up into lucid, self-consistent units, each with a drama of its own. The foreground figures are modelled almost in the round, and each of the four main groups into which the figures are divided is planned with resilience and resource.

Among Giambologna’s principal projects as architect were the Grimaldi Chapel in San Francesco di Castelletto, Genoa (largely destroyed in the 19th century); the Salviati Chapel in San Marco, Florence; and his own funeral chapel in Santissima Annunziata, Florence. All show a distinct, personal style of Mannerist architecture, evolved from the work of Vasari, Bartolomeo Ammanati and ultimately Michelangelo.

In the Salviati Chapel round the walls are six niches with marble figures, all of them carved by Francavilla, two on the facing wall from models by Giambologna; above them are six bronze reliefs with scenes from the St Antoninus’s life, and over the altar are two bronze putti and an angel pointing with one arm towards heaven and extending the other towards the tomb of St Antoninus.

The picture shows one of the six reliefs depicting scenes from the life of St Antoninus.

This is a terracotta figure, a ‘sketch-model’ of a river god, roughly modelled and half-reclining. Part of the left arm, between the biceps and the wrist, is missing. This model was most probably made in connection with an idea for a giant River Nile for Francesco de’ Medici’s villa at Pratolino.

This composition is a dramatic re-working of a classical River God, usually shown lying down and supported on one elbow. The sculptor, Giambologna, would have been familiar with the numerous surviving examples from his intensive study of sculpture in Rome between 1550 and 1553, and again in 1572, when he was sent there by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, along with Vasari, and his fellow sculptor Ammanati.

The group shows two nude men in combat, and represents Samson slaying a Philistine, an episode from the Old Testament ‘Book of Judges’. This marble is related to a lost model by Michelangelo.

The photograph shows the effigy of St Antoninus upon its original reliquary, later dismantled.

In designing the effigy of St Antoninus, Giambologna followed such Quattrocento models as Rossellino’s tomb for the Cardinal of Portugal and Donatello’s tomb for the Antipope John XXIII. He did not attempt to enliven his figure any way, perhaps to adopt a style that evoked Antoninus’s own period.

Giambologna’s bronze (cast by Fra Domenico Portigiani from the monastery of San Marco) was moved from the Salviati Chapel into the Sacristy during the eighteenth-century reconfiguration of the chapel.

Among Giambologna’s principal projects as architect were the Grimaldi Chapel in San Francesco di Castelletto, Genoa (largely destroyed in the 19th century); the Salviati Chapel in San Marco, Florence; and his own funeral chapel in Santissima Annunziata, Florence. All show a distinct, personal style of Mannerist architecture, evolved from the work of Vasari, Bartolomeo Ammanati and ultimately Michelangelo.

In the Salviati Chapel round the walls are six niches with marble figures, all of them carved by Francavilla, two on the facing wall from models by Giambologna; above them are six bronze reliefs with scenes from the St Antoninus’s life, and over the altar are two bronze putti and an angel pointing with one arm towards heaven and extending the other towards the tomb of St Antoninus.

The picture shows one of the six reliefs depicting scenes from the life of St Antoninus.

From his earliest days in Florence, Giambologna’s relief sculptures had shown his attraction to urban settings. Some of his reliefs evoke specific Florentine squares: in the Salviati Chapel, for example, we see Antoninus in the Piazza della Signoria.

The picture shows one of the six reliefs depicting scenes from the life of St Antoninus.

This is one of the few drawings that have been persuasively assigned to Giambologna. It shows a design of the Oceanus Fountain in the Boboli Gardens, Florence. It features specific sculptures by Giambologna in more or less finished state. The drawing is a design for installation, not for statues as such.

This is one of the few drawings that have been persuasively assigned to Giambologna. It shows an elevation of the Salviati Chapel in San Marco, Florence. It features specific sculptures by Giambologna in more or less finished state. The drawing is a design for installation, not for statues as such.

At the end of the XVI century, Giambologna decorated the Grimaldi Chapel in the church of San Francesco di Castelletto, Genoa. Six life-size statues depicting Charity, Justice, Hope, Fortitude, Faith, and Temperance; seven bas-reliefs; and six winged representations of putti are what remains of the original monumental project. The bronze statues of the Virtues are now at the University of Genoa.

The picture shows Temperance, one of the six bronze statues.

This is Giambologna most important later fountain. The marble statue of Neptune (the original is at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence) stands above three crouching river gods with upturned urns. The entire group sits on top of a large granite ‘tazza’ representing the ocean, which gave this fountain its name to distinguish it from the several other fountains of Neptune.

This is Giambologna most important later fountain. The marble statue of Neptune (the original is at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence) stands above three crouching river gods with upturned urns. The entire group sits on top of a large granite ‘tazza’ representing the ocean, which gave this fountain its name to distinguish it from the several other fountains of Neptune.

An important fountain by Giambologna, carved in marble, was designed for the piazza in front of the Pitti Palace and later erected on the axis of the Boboli Garden behind, only to be moved early in the 17th century to its present site on the Isolotto, near the Porta Romana. The finial was a great marble figure of Neptune, probably reflecting his early model made in connection with the competition for the Fountain of Neptune for Piazza della Signoria. The original marble statue is now preserved in the Bargello.

Lower down the stem are perched three crouching river-gods holding upturned urns, which pour water, above a huge granite tazza, which had been the raison d’être of the commission. This represented the ocean, which was believed in those days to surround the earth, and so the complex is called the Fountain of the Ocean to distinguish it from the several other fountains of Neptune.

Lower down the stem are perched three crouching river-gods holding upturned urns, which pour water, above a huge granite tazza, which had been the raison d’être of the commission. This represented the ocean, which was believed in those days to surround the earth, and so the complex is called the Fountain of the Ocean to distinguish it from the several other fountains of Neptune.

Giambologna was a great modeller in the wax, as seen in his bronze birds from the late 1560s for the volcanic grotto of Francesco de’ Medici’s Villa at Castello. They manifest an interest in nature and the nascent scientific experiments encouraged by the Medici. Perhaps the Turkey is the most original of the group; the textures of its wonderful neck, ruffled feathers and fanned tail all derive from the wax model, which was directly cast.

Giambologna executed several figures of Venus, mostly for fountains. In these he achieves the Mannerist ideal in elongation and in conscious courtly elegance. This extraordinary marble statue of a bathing Venus, one of Giambologna’s masterpieces, occupies the centre of the third and last grotto in the Buontalenti Grotto. The finely polished surface of her elongated body contrasts effectively with the roughly hewn stones of the pedestal and the overall rustic environment.

Giambologna executed several figures of Venus, mostly for fountains. In these he achieves the Mannerist ideal in elongation and in concious courtly elegance. This statue belongs to a fountain in the Boboli Gardens.

The Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso (Madonna of Succour) was designed by Giambologna between 1594 and 1598 as his own tomb and is richly adorned with frescoes, statuary and reliefs.

Giambologna’s private chapel follows the example set by artists such as Baccio Bandinelli, who also in the church of the Annunziata, was able to prepare a chapel-mausoleum for himself that would remain as testimony to his nobility and to the devoted spirit behind his art. In 1594, the Servites granted Giambologna the middle chapel in the octagonal choir of the church, to be used both for his burial and for that of other Flemish artists working in Florence.

For the walls of his chapel, Giambologna commissioned paintings from Giambattista Paggi, Jacopo Ligozzi, and Passignano. Each of these painting was to be flanked by a pair of sculptures (made by Francavilla); below the figures he installed copies of the passion reliefs he had designed for the Grimaldi family in Genoa a decade before. All the reliefs centred on the figure of Christ. The present picture shows the scene Way to Calvary.