POGGINI, Domenico
Italian sculptor, medallist, die-engraver, goldsmith, bronze-caster and poet, part of a family of artists. Michele Poggini (1487-1527) was a gem-engraver whose two sons Giampaolo Poggini (1518-1582) and Domenico Poggini worked together in Florence as goldsmiths and gem-carvers at the court of Cosimo I de’ Medici. In 1556 the two brothers were appointed die-engravers at the Florentine Mint.
Domenico’s earliest training probably came from his father Michele. Benvenuto Cellini (Vita) describes a gold cup with low reliefs made c. 1545-46 by Domenico and his brother under his direction for Cosimo I de’ Medici. A letter of 1548 from Domenico to Cosimo mentions a sword hilt and the reverse of a medal he had been working on for Cosimo. Domenico worked mostly with his brother until Giampaolo’s departure between 1553 and 1555 to work for Philip II, King of Spain, in the Netherlands and Spain. In 1554 Domenico made a pair of silver candlesticks for Cosimo, and in 1556 he was appointed diecutter for the Florentine mint.
His earliest signed and dated marble sculpture, the Bacchus (1554; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), is from this period. In 1564 he modelled a terracotta Poetry, which, along with similar figures of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture by three other sculptors, formed part of the temporary decorations for Michelangelo’s catafalque. Later that year Domenico was a candidate to execute the figure of Sculpture for Michelangelo’s permanent tomb (Santa Croce, Florence), but Valerio Cioli was chosen by Cosimo instead. Domenico also made temporary decorations for the wedding in 1565 of Cosimo’s son Francesco I de’ Medici to Joanna of Austria. A bust of Francesco (Uffizi, Florence), which is convincingly attributed to Domenico, probably dates from shortly before this time.
In 1570 eight bronzes were commissioned for Francesco’s studiolo (Palazzo Vecchio, Florence). Domenico’s signed Pluto, made between February 1572 and July 1573, was one of these. It reflects an influence from the circle of Bartolomeo Ammanati, especially in the attempt to capture movement. Like the other works for the studiolo, especially Giambologna’s Apollo, it is an attempt at the conventional figura serpentinata but is designed essentially for a single viewpoint. Poggini contributed to the decoration of the Cappella di San Luca in Santissima Annunziata with his stucco figure of St Peter.
Domenico’s skill as a medallist was praised by Vasari. His medals, some struck and some cast, number about 40. They include a series of struck depictions of Cosimo. Domenico also struck medals of Francesco I de’ Medici and Joanna of Austria (British Museum, London). Among Domenico’s last works was a series of struck medals of Pope Sixtus V, as well as one of the Pope’s sister Camilla Peretti (British Museum, London). These were made in Rome, where the Pope called him around 1585 and where he became chief engraver of the mint.
Other widely-accepted attributions to Domenico include a marble statue of Lex (Florence, Palazzo Medici–Riccardi) and a marble bust of Virginia Pucci–Ridolfi (Bargello, Florence).
