TRIBOLO, Niccolò

Tribolo, a sculptor and engineer, designed the terraced garden, and the fountains of the lower level for the Medici Villa di Castello in Rifredi, near Florence. The Fountain of Hercules and Antaeus, executed by various sculptors after 1536, is the earliest of fully-developed Renaissance fountain complex. From that time onwards the decoration of fountains provided one of the major outlets for sculpture.

So well organized was Tribolo’s workshop that his Fountain of Hercules at Castello, now judged to be his masterpiece, was executed largely by assistants from his models, much of it posthumously. Larger, more richly decorated and with a more copious flow of water than the Fountain of the Labyrinth, it consists of an octagonal marble basin and two tazze decorated with marble and bronze putti, masks and claws. The whole is topped by a heroic bronze group of Hercules and Antaeus, which contrasts in typical fashion with the animated denizens of Tribolo’s fairyland below.

The monumental bronzes for Castello were cast in a somewhat perfunctory fashion in the 1560s: the Hercules and Antaeus and a colossal Appennine by Bartolomeo Ammanati’s assistants and the small statue of Florence by Giambologna’s. They nevertheless retain important vestiges of Tribolo’s models.

Tribolo, a sculptor and engineer, designed the terraced garden, and the fountains of the lower level for the Medici Villa di Castello in Rifredi, near Florence. The Fountain of Hercules and Antaeus, executed by various sculptors after 1536, is the earliest of fully-developed Renaissance fountain complex. From that time onwards the decoration of fountains provided one of the major outlets for sculpture.

So well organized was Tribolo’s workshop that his Fountain of Hercules at Castello, now judged to be his masterpiece, was executed largely by assistants from his models, much of it posthumously. Larger, more richly decorated and with a more copious flow of water than the Fountain of the Labyrinth, it consists of an octagonal marble basin and two tazze decorated with marble and bronze putti, masks and claws. The whole is topped by a heroic bronze group of Hercules and Antaeus, which contrasts in typical fashion with the animated denizens of Tribolo’s fairyland below.

The monumental bronzes for Castello were cast in a somewhat perfunctory fashion in the 1560s: the Hercules and Antaeus and a colossal Appennine by Bartolomeo Ammanati’s assistants and the small statue of Florence by Giambologna’s. They nevertheless retain important vestiges of Tribolo’s models.

The fountain consists of an octagonal marble basin and two tazze decorated with marble and bronze putti, masks and claws.

The Fountain of Hercules and Antaeus at the lower level for the Medici Villa di Castello in Rifredi, near Florence was designed by Tribolo and executed by various sculptors after 1536. The Putto shown on the picture was made by Pierino da Vinci (1520-1554).

At his mother’s villa, where Grand Duke Cosimo had spent his youth, the Villa di Castello at Rifredi near Florence, Cosimo entrusted Tribolo from 1536 with the layout of a garden that was to illustrate, with an elaborate iconological program worked out by one of Cosimo’s court humanists: the beneficent influence of the recently-ennobled Medici, watering Tuscany as a source of water fertilizes a garden. With the aid of hydraulic engineer Piero da San Casciano, Tribolo engineered a sequence of terraces with fountains that began at the upper end in the “wild” garden - where the civilizing Medici touch had not yet been felt - with a sculpture of The Apennines by Ammanati; once in the formal terraces the tamed water passed in formal canals to two sculptural fountains placed on the central axis. The marble bases of both were sculpted by Tribolo and his assistant Pierino da Vinci. The figure of Fiorenza was executed by Giambologna.

The fountains were the earliest fully sculptural fountain complexes set at the centre of garden spaces, and they set the example for the seamless development of fountains as major settings for figure sculpture, in a sequence that extended unbroken into the early 20th century.

As taste changed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a fashion grew up for moving fountains about, and as a result of this the smaller and earlier of the Castello fountains, the Fountain of the Labyrinth (Fontana di Fiorenza), was moved to the terrace of the Medici villa of Petraia only a short walk away.

In 1525-27 Tribolo collaborated on fa�ade sculpture for San Petronio, Bologna, where his portal relief of Joseph Interpreting Pharoah’s Dreams, part of the Old Testament reliefs, is located on the right pillar of the right lateral portal. This relief combines recollections of the antique Laoco�n (Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican) and Michelangelo with an archaising quality inspired by Jacopo della Quercia’s sculptures on the middle portal.

In 1509 Pope Julius II commissioned Donato Bramante to construct a rectangular structure within the basilica of Santa Maria to enclose the Santa Casa (Holy House).

The sculpture of the Holy House comprises in all twenty figures in niches and nine exceptionally large marble panels carved in a horizontal format in high relief depicting scenes from the Life of the Virgin.

The nine marble reliefs seem to have been begun before Bramante’s death (1514) and are conceived in a single style. Two of the reliefs, the Adoration of the Shepherds (#1) and the Annunciation (#2), were carved by Andrea Sansovino between 1518 and 1523. The Marriage of the Virgin (#3) was begun by Sansovino and completed by Tribolo. The Birth of the Virgin (#4) was begun by Baccio Bandinelli (1518-19) and completed by Raffaello da Montelupo (1533). The Adoration of the Magi (#5) by Raffaello da Montelupo dates from the period when he and Baccio Bandinelli worked on the Birth of the Virgin. In 1533 Tribolo and Francesco da Sangallo collaborated on the Translation of the Holy House of Nazareth (#6). In the same year Montelupo completed his Visitation (#7) and Sangallo added the relief of Mary and Joseph Completing the Census (#8). The last narrative, the Dormition of the Virgin (#9) was finished by Sangallo in 1536.

Tribolo’s last documented and entirely autograph work is this small, exuberantly twisting figure of Pan, shown playing on the pipes and seated on a vase. It has been described as one of the most beautiful Florentine bronzes of the Renaissance and should also be seen as an indispensable paradigm for the evolution of the free-standing statue in the art of Giambologna and his contemporaries. Tribolo after 1534 was working under the heavy shadow of Michelangelo, and there is something truly Michelangelesque in the structure and modelling of this bronze.

During his dozen years’ service with Cosimo I, Tribolo undertook an extraordinary miscellany of tasks. These included decorations for state occasions, firework displays, theatrical costumes and d�cor as well as water conservation and other hydraulic projects. More specifically, he was also responsible for the design and supervision of the monumental tomb of Matteo Corte (marble, 1544-48; Pisa, Campo Santo), which was executed by Antonio Lorenzi (d 1583); the installation of Michelangelo’s sculpture in the Medici Chapel at San Lorenzo (1546); the design and installation of the elaborate pavement in the Biblioteca Laurenziana at San Lorenzo; new gardens for the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano, near Florence; and the continuing work at Castello.

In 1525-27 Tribolo collaborated on fa�ade sculpture for San Petronio, Bologna, where his portal relief of Joseph Interpreting Pharoah’s Dreams, part of the Old Testament reliefs, is located on the right pillar of the right lateral portal.

The photo shows the right part of the right lateral portal with Old Testament reliefs.

The Amphitheatre was designed by Tribolo for Eleonora di Toledo as a garden or rather an amphitheatre of greenery (Anfiteatro di Verzura) which involved the ingenious transformation of the quarry used to supply the material for the Pitti Palace. It was Cosimo II who, during the enlargement works of the Palace, decided to transform the quarry into a walled amphitheatre. Ferdinando II later ordered the continuation of the works in 1630 under the guidance of Giulio Parigi, and the project was concluded in 1634. At that time the Amphitheatre would have been similar to its current appearance, as documented by numerous engravings showing festival and parade stage sets.

After the performance held in 1739 to celebrate the arrival of Grand Duke Francis Stephen of Lorraine, the stalls were transformed into a landscaped or Italian Renaissance garden and the Amphitheatre was no longer used for plays or performances. In the mid-eighteenth century, the Amphitheatre was restored and a wide boulevard suitable for carriages was constructed between 1764 and 1765 to provide a more convenient link between the garden and the Bacchus Courtyard (Cortile di Bacco). The stalls were also raised, resulting in part of the vomitoria, or access passageways, being buried. On Peter Leopold’s arrival in 1765, it became the perfect setting for country festivals, events which were very popular in that period and which the Grand Duke occasionally wished to open to the public.

During the Lorraine era, the Egyptian obelisk and the red granite basin located in the centre of the stalls and originating from the collections of Villa Medici in Rome were added: the obelisk was erected in 1790 under Peter Leopold on a design by Niccolò Gaspero Paoletti, while the basin was installed on its base in 1840 under the direction of Leopold II and according to a design by Pasquale Poccianti.

The Amphitheatre’s current appearance is not dissimilar to that of the late Lorraine period, although during the 1900s the structure was extensively renovated and many of stone facings were restored.

The Amphitheatre was designed by Tribolo for Eleonora di Toledo as a garden or rather an amphitheatre of greenery (Anfiteatro di Verzura) which involved the ingenious transformation of the quarry used to supply the material for the Pitti Palace. It was Cosimo II who, during the enlargement works of the Palace, decided to transform the quarry into a walled amphitheatre. Ferdinando II later ordered the continuation of the works in 1630 under the guidance of Giulio Parigi, and the project was concluded in 1634. At that time the Amphitheatre would have been similar to its current appearance, as documented by numerous engravings showing festival and parade stage sets.

After the performance held in 1739 to celebrate the arrival of Grand Duke Francis Stephen of Lorraine, the stalls were transformed into a landscaped or Italian Renaissance garden and the Amphitheatre was no longer used for plays or performances. In the mid-eighteenth century, the Amphitheatre was restored and a wide boulevard suitable for carriages was constructed between 1764 and 1765 to provide a more convenient link between the garden and the Bacchus Courtyard (Cortile di Bacco). The stalls were also raised, resulting in part of the vomitoria, or access passageways, being buried. On Peter Leopold’s arrival in 1765, it became the perfect setting for country festivals, events which were very popular in that period and which the Grand Duke occasionally wished to open to the public.

During the Lorraine era, the Egyptian obelisk and the red granite basin located in the centre of the stalls and originating from the collections of Villa Medici in Rome were added: the obelisk was erected in 1790 under Peter Leopold on a design by Niccolò Gaspero Paoletti, while the basin was installed on its base in 1840 under the direction of Leopold II and according to a design by Pasquale Poccianti.

The Amphitheatre’s current appearance is not dissimilar to that of the late Lorraine period, although during the 1900s the structure was extensively renovated and many of stone facings were restored.

This stand for an antique vase was designed by Tribolo. The attributes of Artemis of Ephesus have been adopted in highly explicit terms to create a Goddess of Nature.

Sixteenth-century French artists emphasized the link between nature and femininity in the polymast (many-breasted) figure of the goddess Nature, often depicted with many breasts, and draped in plants and many animals. A telling example is the polymast statue of Nature by Tribolo, designer of the Boboli Gardens, sent to Fran�ois I around 1529 for the Palace of Fontainebleau.

Tribolo was famously unassertive and often adapted his art to suit established or collaborative projects. His plump and lissom putto (marble, c. 1524) on the lower right of Baldassare Peruzzi’s tomb of Hadrian VI indicates his exposure both to antique sculpture and to contemporary Roman work, especially that of Michelangelo’s maturity.

In 1509 Pope Julius II commissioned Donato Bramante to construct a rectangular structure within the basilica of Santa Maria to enclose the Santa Casa (Holy House).

The sculpture of the Holy House comprises in all twenty figures in niches and nine exceptionally large marble panels carved in a horizontal format in high relief depicting scenes from the Life of the Virgin.

The nine marble reliefs seem to have been begun before Bramante’s death (1514) and are conceived in a single style. Two of the reliefs, the Adoration of the Shepherds (#1) and the Annunciation (#2), were carved by Andrea Sansovino between 1518 and 1523. The Marriage of the Virgin (#3) was begun by Sansovino and completed by Tribolo. The Birth of the Virgin (#4) was begun by Baccio Bandinelli (1518-19) and completed by Raffaello da Montelupo (1533). The Adoration of the Magi (#5) by Raffaello da Montelupo dates from the period when he and Baccio Bandinelli worked on the Birth of the Virgin. In 1533 Tribolo and Francesco da Sangallo collaborated on the Translation of the Holy House of Nazareth (#6). In the same year Montelupo completed his Visitation (#7) and Sangallo added the relief of Mary and Joseph Completing the Census (#8). The last narrative, the Dormition of the Virgin (#9) was finished by Sangallo in 1536.

The most influential accomplishment of Tribolo’s last years was the laying out of the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace in Florence.

The gardens of the Palazzo Pitti were designed on several levels with wild and cultivated vegetation, pools and fountains. They comprise two principal sections, the original one commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici. In 1550 Niccolò Tribolo designed the waterworks and the basic lines of the central axis, which extends behind the Palazzo Pitti up to the Forte di Belvedere. After 1560 Bartolomeo Ammanati linked the palace and the garden by a courtyard and ramp. Bernardo Buontalenti created the fanciful tripartite great grotto (Grotto Grande) between 1583 and 1585.

A painting of 1599 by Giusto Utens shows Tribolo’s scheme as originally set out before later additions to the south destroyed the logic of the composition. The symmetrical architectonic layout of the big urban palace was continued into the gardens along an impressive receding central axis.

The most influential accomplishment of Tribolo’s last years was the laying out of the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace in Florence.

The photo shows the amphitheatre.