Bartolommeo Bandinelli

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Bartolommeo Bandinelli

Bartolommeo (or Baccio) Bandinelli, actually Bartolommeo Brandini (17 October 1493 – shortly before 7 February 1560), was a Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
sculptor, draughtsman and painter.

inelli was the son of a prominent Florentine

Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
goldsmith

Goldsmith

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a Goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards....
, and first apprenticed in his shop. As a boy, he was apprenticed under Giovanni Francesco Rustici

Giovanni Francesco Rustici

Giovanni Francesco Rustici was an Italy Italian Renaissance and sculptor.He was born into a noble family of Florence, with an independent income....
, a sculptor friend of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italy polymath, being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, Painting, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
. Among his earliest works was a Saint Jerome in wax, made for Giuliano de' Medici

Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici

Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian nobleman, one of three sons of Lorenzo de' Medici....
, identified as Bandinelli's by John Pope-Hennessy

Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari was an Italy Painting and architect, who is today famous for his biography of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art history writing....
, a former pupil in Bandinelli's workshop, claimed Bandinelli was driven by jealousy of Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini was an Italy goldsmith, Painting, sculpture, soldier and musician of the Renaissance, who also wrote a famous autobiography....
and Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
; and recounts that:

Bandinelli's lifelong obsession with Michelangelo is a recurring theme in assessments of his career.

Bandinelli was a leader in the group of Florentine Mannerists who were inspired by the revived interest in Donatello

Donatello

Donatello was a famous early Renaissance Italy artist and sculpture from Florence. He is, in part, known for his work in bas-relief, a form of shallow relief sculpture that, in Donatello's case, incorporated significant 15th-century developments in perspectival illusionism....
attendant on the installation of Donatello's bas-relief panels for the pulpit in San Lorenzo

Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze

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Bartolommeo (or Baccio) Bandinelli, actually Bartolommeo Brandini (17 October 1493 – shortly before 7 February 1560), was a Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
Italian

Italy

Biography

Bandinelli was the son of a prominent Florentine

Florence

Goldsmith

Giovanni Francesco Rustici

Giovanni Francesco Rustici was an Italy Italian Renaissance and sculptor.He was born into a noble family of Florence, with an independent income....
, a sculptor friend of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici

Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian nobleman, one of three sons of Lorenzo de' Medici....
, identified as Bandinelli's by John Pope-Hennessy

Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari

Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini was an Italy goldsmith, Painting, sculpture, soldier and musician of the Renaissance, who also wrote a famous autobiography....
and Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Donatello

Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze

The Basilica di San Lorenzo is one of the largest churches of Florence, Italy, situated at the centre of the city?s main market district, and the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III....
, 1515. The artist presented his relief of the Deposition to Charles V at Genoa in 1529; though the relief has been lost, a bronze from it by Antonio Susini in 1600 (Musée du Louvre) shows the decisive inspiration of Donatello's emotional pitch and intensity; Bandinelli made several drawings of the Donatello reliefs, though later in life he disparaged them in a letter to Cosimo I de' Medici.

His sculptures have never inspired the admiration given those of Michelangelo, specially the colossal (5.05 m) marble group of Hercules
Hercules

Hercules is the Ancient Rome name for the mythical Ancient Greece hero Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. Early Roman sources suggest that the imported Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italian shepherd called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his strength....
and Cacus
Cacus

In Roman mythology, Cacus was a fire-breathing monster and the son of Vulcan . He lived in a cave in the Aventine Hill in Italy, the future site of Rome....
(completed in 1534) in the Piazza della Signoria

Piazza della Signoria

Piazza della Signoria is an L-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio....
, Florence, and Adam and Eve in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, which both stand within sight of some of Michelangelo's masterworks. Vasari said of him "He did nothing but make bozzetti and finished little", and modern commentators have remarked on the vitality of Bandinelli's terracotta models contrasted with the finished marbles: "all the freshness of his first approach to a subject was lost in the laborious execution in marble... A brilliant draughtsman and excellent small-scale sculptor, he had a morbid fascination for colossi which he was ill-equipped to execute. His failure as a sculptor on a grand scale was accentuated by his desire to imitate Michelangelo."

Hercules and Cacus was commissioned by the Medici

Medici

The M?dici family was a powerful and influential Florence family from the 14th to 18th century. The family had three popes , numerous rulers of Florence and later members of the French and English royalty....
pope Clement VII, who had been shown a wax model. The supplied block of Carrara

Carrara

Carrara is a city in the province of Massa-Carrara , famous for the white or blue-gray marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione river, some 100 km west-northwest of Florence....
marble was not big enough to execute Bandinelli's wax model. He had to make new wax models, one of which was chosen by the pope as the final draft. Bandinelli had already carved the sculpture as far as the abdomen of Hercules, when during the 1527 Sack of Rome

Sack of Rome

The city of Rome has been lootinged on several occasions. Among the most famous:*Battle of the Allia - Rome is sacked by the Gauls after the Battle of the Allia...
, the pope was taken prisoner. Meanwhile, in Florence, republican enemies of the Medici took advantage of the chaos to exile Ippolito de' Medici

Ippolito de' Medici

Ippolito de' Medici was the illegitimate only son of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici.Ippolito was born in Florence. His father died when he was only five , and was subsequently raised by his uncle Pope Leo X and his cousin Giulio....
. Bandinelli, a supporter of the Medici, was also exiled. In 1530 Emperor Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I of Spain, of the Spanish realms from 1516 until his abdication in 1556....
retook Florence after a long siege. Pope Clement VII subsequently installed his illegitimate son Alessandro de' Medici as duke of Tuscany. Bandinelli then returned to Florence and continue work on the statue till completed in 1534, and transported from the Opera del Duomo to its present marble pedestal

Pedestal

Pedestal is a term generally applied to the support of a statue or a vase.Although in Syria, Asia Minor and Tunisia the Romans occasionally raised the columns of their temples or propylaea on square pedestals, in Rome itself they were employed only to give greater importance to isolated columns, such as those of Trajan's Column and Anton...
. But from the moment it was unveiled, it faced ridicule; Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini was an Italy goldsmith, Painting, sculpture, soldier and musician of the Renaissance, who also wrote a famous autobiography....
compared the ponderous group to 'a sac full of melons'. Afterwards, the Bandinelli tried to sabotage Cellini's career. The statue was restored between February and April 1994.

Bandinelli's drawings, which have in the past masqueraded as Michelangelos in connoisseurs' collections, have come into their own in the later twentieth century.

Among Bandinelli's pupils were Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari

Francesco de' Rossi (Il Salviati)

Francesco de' Rossi was an italy Mannerism painter from Florence, also active in Rome. He is known by many names, prominently the adopted name Francesco Salviati or as Il Salviati, but also Francesco Rossi and Cecchino del Salviati....
. His sons Clemente Bandinelli, a collaborator in Baccio's studio, and Michelangelo Bandinelli were also sculptors.

Selected works

Baccio Bandinelli's works include:

copy of Laocoon, at the time in the Cortile del Belvedere
Cortile del Belvedere

Donato Bramante's Cortile del Belvedere, the Courtyard of the Belvedere, designed from 1506 onwards, was a major project of the High Renaissance at Rome, reverberating in its details in courtyards, formalized piazzas and garden plans throughout Western Europe for centuries....
, commissioned by Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X

Pope Leo X, born Giovanni de' Medici was Pope from 1513 to his death. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known primarily for the sale of indulgences to reconstruct St....
as a gift to François I
Francis I of France

Francis I , was crowned King of France in 1515 in the cathedral at Reims and reigned until 1547.Francis I is considered to be France's first Renaissance monarch....
. Bandinelli boasted that he would exceed the original, and when he was finished, after a hiatus during the pontificate of Adrian VI
Pope Adrian VI

Pope Adrian VI , born Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens, served as Bishop of Rome from 9 January 1522 until his death some 18 months later. He was the last non-Italian pope until John Paul II, 456 years later....
, the Medici Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII

Pope Clement VII , born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was a Cardinal from 1513 to 1523 and was Pope from 1523 to 1534....
could not bear to part with it, sent some antiquities to the King of France in its stead, and sent Baccio's Laocoon to Florence. It remains at the Uffizi
Uffizi

The Uffizi Gallery , one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world, is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a palazzo in Florence, Italy, Italy....
.
Tombs of the Medici
Medici

The M?dici family was a powerful and influential Florence family from the 14th to 18th century. The family had three popes , numerous rulers of Florence and later members of the French and English royalty....
popes Leo X
Pope Leo X

Pope Leo X, born Giovanni de' Medici was Pope from 1513 to his death. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known primarily for the sale of indulgences to reconstruct St....
and Clement VII
Pope Clement VII

Pope Clement VII , born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was a Cardinal from 1513 to 1523 and was Pope from 1523 to 1534....
in Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Santa Maria sopra Minerva

Santa Maria sopra Minerva is a basilica churches of Rome Rome. The church, located in the Piazza della Minerva in the Campus Martius region, is considered the only Gothic architecture church in Rome, and is the city's principal Dominican Order church....
(1536-41).
Bust of Cosimo I de' Medici (c. 1539-40) (Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile, New York City in New York City, USA....
, acc. no. 1987.280)
Monument to Giovanni delle Bande Nere (1540-54), a seated figure on a magnificent pedestal, in piazza San Lorenzo, Florence
Pietà in the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata
Basilica della Santissima Annunziata di Firenze

The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata is a Roman Catholic minor basilica in Florence and the mother church of the Servite order. It is located at the northeastern side of the Piazza Santissima Annunziata....
, Florence, where Bandinelli portrayed himself in the figure of Joseph of Arimathea. Bandinelli is buried in the chapel, with his wife Giacoma Doni.
Ceres and Apollo (1552-1556) for niches in the façade of Buontalenti
Bernardo Buontalenti

Bernardo Buontalenti, byname of Bernardo Delle Girandole was an Italy stage designer, architect, theatrical designer, military engineer and artist....
's grotto in the Boboli Gardens
Boboli Gardens

The Boboli Gardens, in Italian Giardino di Boboli, form a famous park in Florence, Italy, that is home to a distinguished collection of sculptures dating from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, with some Roman antiquities....
Orpheus for Palazzo Vecchio, now in the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. One of Bandinelli's few signed works.
Works for the Duomo
Santa Maria del Fiore

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is the cathedral church of Florence, Italy, begun in 1296 in the Gothic architecture style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi....
, Florence, including the high altar and its Adam and Eve (1551), now in the Bargello
Bargello

The Bargello, also known as the Bargello Palace or Palazzo del Popolo is a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy....
and Pietà now in the crypt of Santa Croce; much-praised bas-reliefs made for the enclosure of the choir, designed by the architect Giuliano di Baccio d'Angnolo (1555), now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo

In Italian cities, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, the "Museum of the Cathedral works", houses works of art formerly in the city cathedral, the "Duomo"....
; Saint Peter, one of eight apostles by various sculptors in the piers of the crossing.
Works in Palazzo Vecchio
Palazzo Vecchio

The Palazzo Vecchio is the City hall of Florence, Italy. This massive, romanesque architecture, Crenellation fortress-palace is among the most impressive town halls of Tuscany....
, including, in the Audience Hall, a statue of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici and one of Pope Leo X blessing (finished after Bandinelli's death by Vincenzo de' Rossi)
God the Father (1549) in Santa Croce cloister
"Statua del Gigante", outside Carrara Cathedral
Carrara Cathedral

The Carrara Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Carrara, northern Italy. Nearly all the exterior is covered by local Carrara marble....
.
In the Bargello are also a number of lesser works: Noah (bas-relief), portrait busts of Eleonora di Toledo and Cosimo I de' Medici, Venus, Leda, Hercules, Bacchus Cleopatra and a portrait bust of an unknown man.

A youthful portrait by Andrea del Sarto

Andrea del Sarto

Andrea del Sarto was an Italy painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early-Mannerism. Though highly regarded by his contemporaries as an artist "senza errori" , he is overshadowed now by equally talented contemporaries like Raphael....
ca 1517 is conserved at the Uffizi

Uffizi

The Uffizi Gallery , one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world, is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a palazzo in Florence, Italy, Italy....
.

Bartolommeo Bandinelli

Biography

Selected works

Further reading