Giambologna and the “Climax of the Florentine Tradition”
Unusually, Giovanni Bologna was a Flemish sculptor who had visited Rome in order to familiarise himself with the antique style as well as new developments. He spent two years in Rome (1555-7) where he encountered the aged Michelangelo who encouraged him. On his return journey Giovanni passed through Florence where a rich patron prevailed upon him to prolong his stay. After working on a Neptune Fountain in Bologna, Giovanni was recalled to Florence in 1565, one year after Michelangelo’s death. That great master’s closing statements had been two pietas, one made just for himself in which he carved his own features; and the Rondanini Pieta which seems to anticipate modern sculpture. With Michelangelo dead, Giambologna as he became known was the leading sculptor in Florence. For that city he created a number of masterpieces, some known, some not so familiar. In the latter category sits the sculptor’s bronze turkey, cast straight from the original wax model.[1] More famously he created the Rape of the Sabines group which ambitiously integrates three figures into “an action group” (Avery). Derived from Michelangelo’s experiments with the figura serpentinata, this is one of the most renowned examples of mannerist sculpture ever conceived and sets the standard for a new kind of sculpture.
[1] Avery, Florentine Renaissance Sculpture, 245.
Comments