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Giovanni Bandini’s bronze Crucifix and candlesticks made for Cathedral

by LORENZO PRINCIPI

IN 1584, THE year that Raffaello Borghini’s Il Riposo was pub- account books, however, no longer survive: the golden lantern lished, the sculptor Giovanni Bandini, also known as Giovanni (1588–90) for the Marian basilica of the Santa Casa in Loreto, the dell’Opera (1539/40–1599), was yet to make most of the works seven silver saints for which Giovanni was paid for supplying wax he created for Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino models in 1592,5 and the golden Crucifix mounted on a jasper (1549–1631), at his court at , where the sculptor spent long cross with two candlesticks also in jasper for which the Duke paid periods between 1582 and his death in 1599.1 Concluding his him between 29th December 1592 and 1st January 1593, biography of Bandini, who has been called the ‘last great sculptor although without naming the sculptor.6 During his years at the in the territory of Urbino, during those dying days of ducal civil- ducal court, Bandini also made various works in bronze, of isation’,2 Borghini refers to one of the first commissions Bandini which only the Hunt of Meleager in the Prado has been identified. made for the Duke – the bronze Hunt of Meleager (1583; Museo The payments for these bronzes are also in the Duke’s account del Prado, Madrid) – and expresses confidence in his progress: books, where Bandini is often referred to simply as ‘sculptor’, without being named.7 it is to be hoped that this work will be done very beautifully On 29th June 1589 Bandini was paid 125 scudi for a ‘Crucified as are all of his others since he understands design very well and Christ in bronze’;8 on 3rd October 1590, ‘for two candlesticks in is very experienced in working and carefully observing all the bronze and for a Cross with mound in the same’ (187 scudi);9 on good considerations that the sculptor is given to have. And 13th July 1592, ‘for the manufacture of 4 candlesticks in bronze’ finding himself at forty-four years of age, it can be believed (187.30 scudi);10 on 26th January 1595, for a ‘Crucified living that he will come to greater perfection in working so that he Christ in bronze’ (68.10 scudi);11 on April 1596, ‘for two candle- will be able to climb a little higher.3 sticks in the form of Angels, and a cross with mound all in The works Bandini produced in the Marche are recorded in bronze’ (27 scudi);12 in May 1596, for a ‘Crucifix in bronze the Duke’s account books; those carved in marble were the busts already made by the sculptor Giovanni’ (12 scudi);13 and, finally, of Francesco Maria I della Rovere (1582) and Francesco Maria II della on 14th October 1598: ‘To Giovanni Bandini sculptor for a Cru- Rovere (1583; modified by Giovan Battista Foggini in 1691; both cifix and two Angels for candlesticks in bronze’ (99 scudi).14 Villa del Poggio Imperiale, ), the statue of Francesco Maria The payments Bandini received for bronze sculptures relate to I della Rovere (1585–87; Doge’s Palace, Venice), the Pietà (1585– two separate commissions. In the first instance, the sculptor was 88; Oratorio della Grotta, Urbino) and the tomb of Francesco commissioned to make a bronze Christ on the Cross with Mount Maria I della Rovere (1587), the fragments of which are in the Calvary which was completed between 29th June 1589 and 3rd church of the former monastery of S. Chiara in Urbino.4 October 1590; it was accompanied by six bronze candlesticks exe- The works in precious metals mentioned in the Duke’s cuted in two consignments between 3rd October 1590 and 13th

I would like to thank Dimitrios Zikos who has guided me in this research. I would Marche e Toscana’, Nuovi studi III, 6 (1999), pp.57–103 (hereafter cited as Schmidt); also like to thank Davide Gambino, Giancarlo Gentilini, Francesca Girelli, Marian- R. Morselli: ‘In the Service of Francesco Maria II della Rovere in Pesaro and Urbino gela Guido, Carlo and Giacomo Montanari, Ruth Taylor and Lucio Tomei for their (1549–1631)’, in E. Fumagalli et. al., eds.: The Court Artistin Seventeenth-century , invaluable assistance. I am also grateful to Sara Bartolucci, Emanuela Bracconi and Rome 2014, pp.49–93, passim; F. Loffredo: ‘Giovanni Bandini’s “Venus” and “Ado- Mons. Davide Tonti at the Ufficio Arte Sacra e Beni Culturali della Diocesi di nis” for the Sevillian House of Juan de Arguijo in a Sonnet by Lope de Vega’, THE Urbino, Luigi Bravi and Mons. Eugenio Gregoratto at the Archivio Diocesano in BURLINGTON MAGAZINE 157 (2015), pp.758–63. Urbino, Federico Marcucci at the Biblioteca Universitaria di Urbino and P. 2 Rotondi, op. cit. (note 1), p.18: ‘l’ultimo grande scultore in suolo urbinate, in quegli ulti- Francesco Merletti OFM Conv. at the Archivio Storico della Curia Provinciale dei mi palpiti di civiltà ducale’. Frati Minori Conventuali in Ancona. The photographs of the sculptures in Urbino 3 R. Borghini: Il Riposo, Florence 1584, p.640: ‘la qual opera si spera che sarà bellissima, were taken by Mauro Magliani and Barbara Piovan, to whom I express my sincere sicome sono tutte l’altre sue; perciocché egli benissimo intende il disegno et è pratichissimo in thanks. This article is dedicated to Maichol Clemente, in memory of our fruitful visit lavorare e diligente osservatore di tutte le buone considerationi, che haver dee lo scultore: e to Urbino. ritrovandosi in età di 44 anni, si può credere che in operando sarrà a maggior perfettione, come che poco più in alto possa salire’; the translation is from idem: Il Riposo, ed. L.H. Ellis Jr, 1 On Bandini’s activity in Urbino, see E. Calzini: ‘Documenti relativi, tra l’altro, Toronto, Buffalo and London 2007, p.315. all’autore del “Cristo morto” nella cripta del duomo di Urbino’, Rassegna bibliografica 4 Schmidt, passim; M. Visonà: ‘Un ritratto di Anna Maria Luisa dei Medici bambina e dell’arte italiana 17 (1914), pp.93–95; idem: ‘Ancora del “Cristo morto” erroneamente i lari del Poggio Imperiale (riflessioni sul Foggini)’, Paragone 59 (1998), pp.19–30, esp. p.25. attribuito al Giambologna’, Rassegna bibliografica dell’arte italiana 19 (1916), pp.133–35; 5 For Bandini’s involvement in the making of the lantern, see Schmidt, p.66. The A. Alippi: ‘Documenti: lavori eseguiti da Giovanni Bandini detto Giovanni dell’ silver saints have been identified with the sculptures ‘d’altezza più d’un palmo’, Opera, fiorentino, per Franc. Maria II° della Rovere’, ibid., pp.135–37; U. Middel- approximately 30 cm., of Sts John the Baptist, Francis, Archangel Michael, Stephen, dorf: ‘Giovanni Bandini detto Giovanni dell’Opera’, Rivista d’arte 9, 4 (1929), Andrew, Peter and Apollonia, which were still in the Palazzo Ducale in Pesaro in pp.481–518, repr. in idem: Raccolta di scritti, I, 1924–1938, Florence 1979, pp.77–92; G. 1623–24; see Schmidt, p.91, note 120; and mentioned among the items in the Castel- Gronau: ‘Appendice: documenti concernenti i rapporti del Duca Francesco Maria II durante inventory of 1631, see G. Semenza: ‘La quadreria roveresca da Casteldurante d’Urbino con Giovanni Bandini e con Giovanni Bologna’, Rivista d’arte 11 (1929), a Firenze: l’ultima dimora della collezione di Francesco Maria II’, in T. Biganti: pp.519–24; P. Rotondi: ‘Contributi all’attività urbinate di Giovanni Bandini detto L’eredità dei Della Rovere: inventari dei beni di Casteldurante (1631), Urbino 2005, pp.69– dell’Opera’, Urbinum 17, 21 (1942), pp.8–18; L. Moranti: Bibliografia urbinate, Flor- 137, esp. p.134. On Giovanni Bandini as a silver sculptor, see Schmidt, pp.65–66; G. ence 1959, pp.85–86; C. Avery: ‘Giovanni Bandini (1540–99) Reconsidered’, Anto- Gentilini (and L. Principi): ‘“Ercole e il centauro” ed altre “Fatiche”:una proposta logia di Belle Arti 48–51 (1994), pp.16–27; E.D. Schmidt: ‘Giovanni Bandini tra per Giovanni Bandini scultore in argento’, Commentari d’arte 18 (2013), pp.50–59.

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8. Crucifix and a set of six candlesticks, by Giovanni Bandini. 1589–92. Bronze. Crucifix 160 by 57 cm.; height of candlesticks, from left to right: 84 cm.; 99 cm.; 113 cm.; 112 cm.; 95 cm.; and 94 cm.; all dimensions include the bases (Museo Diocesano Albani, Urbino).

July 1592.15 In the case of the second commission, however, the the works at Casteldurante that were subsequently dispersed,17 the Duke paid Bandini for a bronze Crucifix, probably representing bronzes of the first commission still survive in Urbino. Christ ‘vivo’ on the Cross,16 paired with two candlesticks in the This group of bronzes can be identified with a Crucifix on form of angels. While the second group of sculptures is now lost, Mount Calvary and six altar candlesticks in the form of spiralling although the present writer believes it can be identified with the intertwined oak branches now in the Museo Diocesano Albani ‘one crucifix in bronze with its base and with two angels made of in Urbino (Fig.8). Given that Bandini was in the Marche in 1589 the same, for the altar’ listed at no. 2152 in the 1631 inventory of and 1590, it is reasonable to suppose that he produced the Cru-

6 Schmidt, p.77. This group should be identified with the ‘croce di diaspro con il Christo Crocifisso d’oro del Museo Poldi Pezzoli: Giambologna e Gasparo Mola, Milan (Museo d’oro et altri ornamenti d’oro’ and the ‘candelieri doi di diaspro, simili con l’istesso ornamento Poldi Pezzoli) 2011, pp. 9–22, esp. p.12. It might otherwise refer to the Flemish sculp- d’oro’ listed at numbers 1116 and 1117 in the 1631 Casteldurante inventory, now tor Adriaen de Vries, who in March 1581 received silver from the ducal Guardaroba dispersed, see Biganti, op. cit. (note 5), p.247 ; see also note 17. to cast, on Giambologna’s instructions, two Crucifixes to be sent to Spain; see F. 7 Bandini is referred to simply as ‘scultore’ in almost all the payments for the works Scholten: ‘Adriaen de Vries, Imperial Sculptor’, in F. Scholten: exh. cat. Adriaen de he executed for the Duke of Urbino still extant; see Schmidt, pp.71–72 and 76. Vries, 1556–1626, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum), Stockholm (Nationalmuseum) and Los 8 Archivio di Stato di Firenze (cited hereafter as ASF), Ducato di Urbino, classe III, Angeles (J. Paul Getty Museum) 1998–2000 (ed. 1999), pp.13–45, esp. p.15. vol.23, fol.699v: 29th June 1589, ‘Per il Cristo crocifisso di bronzo nel dì medesimo: 125 12 Document cited at note 8, fol.735r, April 1596, ‘Per doi cand[elie]ri fatti a Angeli et scudi’; see Schmidt, p.76. una croce col monte tutti di bronzo: 27 scudi’; see Schmidt, p.77. 9 Document cited at note 8, fol.717r, 3rd October 1590, ‘Al scultore per doi candel[ie]ri 13 Document cited at note 8, fol.735r: May 1596, ‘Crocifisso di bronzo fatto già da Gio- di bronzo e per una Croce col monte del medesimo a 3 d’ottobre: 187 scudi’; see Schmidt, p.77. vanni scultore: 12 scudi’; see Schmidt, p.77. 10 Document cited at note 8, fol.723r, 13th July 1592, ‘Per fattura di 4 candel[ier]i di 14 Document cited at note 8, fol.743r, 14th October 1598, ‘A Giovanni Bandini scul- bronzo a 13 di luglio: 187.30 scudi’; see Schmidt, p.77. tore per un Crocifisso et doi Angeli per cand[elie]ri di bronzo a 14 d’ottobre: 99 scudi’; see 11 Document cited at note 8, fol.731r, 26th January 1595, ‘Al scultore per un Crocifisso Schmidt, p.77. vivo di bronzo a 26 di gennaio: 68.10 scudi’; see Schmidt, p.77. In August of the same year 15 Considering that in the payment made on 3rd October 1590, Bandini received 187 (ibid., fol.733r), 14 scudi were paid for ‘un Crocifisso di bronzo fatto da un allievo di Gio- lire for two candlesticks, the cross and the mount, while on 13th July 1592 he vanni Bologna’; see Schmidt, p.77; see also note 16 below; Calzini 1914 op. cit. (note received a further 187.30 lire for the four remaining candlesticks, we can assume that 1), p.95, has attempted to identify this pupil of Giambologna as Bandini. No trace of the first payment must refer to the two larger ones. this work remains but, conceivably, the sculptor of this Crucifix may have been Anto- 16 It is more difficult to guess to which of the three Crucifixes executed for the Della nio Susini, Giambologna’s favourite pupil at the time; see D. Zikos: ‘Giovanni Bolo- Rovere court the Duke is referring when he recorded the expenditure of 12 scudi in gna and Antonio Susini: An Old Problem in the Light of New Research’, in P. May 1596 for a ‘Crocifisso di bronzo fatto già da Giovanni scultore’ (see note 13), but this Motture et. al., eds.: Carvings, Casts & Collectors: The Art of Sculpture, Lon- was probably an additional payment for the ‘Crocifisso vivo’ already paid for on 26th don 2013, pp.194–209. Susini was already identified as a pupil ‘di molta eccellenza’ January 1595; see note 11, above. whom Simone Fortuna recommended to the Duke of Urbino in a letter of 27th Octo- 17 Biganti, op. cit. (note 5), p.355, no.2152: ‘crocifisso uno di bronzo col suo piede et con ber 1580; see P. Barocchi et. al., eds.: Collezionismo mediceo: Cosimo I, Francesco I e il car- doi angeli del medesimo, per l’altare’. The gold Crucifix on the jasper cross and the dinale Ferdinando. Documenti 1540–1587, Modena 1993, p.182, doc.196; D. Gasparotto: matching candlesticks paid for between 29th December 1592 and 1st January 1593 ‘I Crocifissi di Giambologna e la tradizione fiorentina’, in A. Di Lorenzo: exh. cat. Il also ended up in Casteldurante; see note 6, above.

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9. Detail of the Crucifix illustrated in Fig.8.

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cifix and the two candlesticks in his Pesaro workshop.18 Follow- left-hand, more visible side shows signs of a light cold-finishing, ing a sojourn in Florence probably made between October 1590 also evident in the treatment of the hair, particularly in the and September 1591,19 as can be inferred from documents, the flowing locks on the left of the head (Figs.13 and 15). The surface sculptor returned to the Adriatic coast in order to make the silver of the body is chiselled and more highly polished, and there are statues and also to cast the remaining four candlesticks. That the traces of a red varnish still visible on the body and the loincloth, Christ now in the Museo Diocesano Albani should be identified confirming the bronzecaster’s Florentine origin. As is well with the one paid for on 29th June 1589, and not with the pay- known, in 1586 Antonio Susini had already adopted this tech- ment in October 1598,20 can be inferred from the account of Fra’ nique for the bronzes that were transferred from the Studiolo of Orazio Civalli who visited the Cathedral between 1594 and 1597 Francesco I de’ Medici in to the Tribuna in the and recalls the bronzes already being in place on the high altar. Uffizi.22 Bandini’s cross, adorned with an elegant titulus crucis, Civalli describes ‘a large Cross with its Crucified Christ and six rests on a bronze mount imitating the irregular terrain. In a cavity Candlesticks in bronze made of oak branches’ on the ‘high altar’ at the centre of Mount Calvary are placed a realistic skull and two of the ‘Archidiocese church’,21 namely the cathedral of S. Maria tibiae, alluding to Adam’s burial place. The considerable size of Assunta. the Crucifix23 would suggest that it was destined for an altar. The Crucified Christ is characterised by the meticulous ren- Similar technical characteristics can also be seen in the candle- dering of the anatomical and facial details, the hair, the beard and sticks, which are divided into three pairs of differing sizes,24 and the crown of thorns (Fig.9). The bronze was cast using the lost- which were evidently intended to flank the Crucifix. The candle- wax method, and close examination reveals the joints between sticks evoke the trunk of an oak tree – an obvious reference to the shoulders and the arms, suggesting that the work may have the Della Rovere emblem – its roots emerging from the ground, been cast in three separate pieces that were subsequently fused. and dividing into three sinuously intertwined branches that grad- The face reveals different degrees of finish: its right-hand side, ually become more slender towards the tips, which support the almost resting on the chest, has no sign of repolishing, while the socles for the candles. Sections of the trunks and many of the

10. Detail of a candlestick illustrated in Fig.8. 11. Detail of a candlestick illustrated in Fig.8. 12. Detail of a candlestick illustrated in Fig.8.

18 Schmidt, pp.62–63. Archivio del Capitolo Metropolitano di Urbino and of the Archivio della Curia 19 Schmidt, pp.68–69; L. Zangheri: Gli Accademici del Disegno: Elenco alfabetico, Flor- Arcivescovile di Urbino there is no mention of the Crucifix and candlesticks in the ence 2000, p.20. pastoral visits of Mons. Antonio Giannotti (6th–13th March 1595, fols. 46v–58r), 20 The possiblity that the Crucifix discussed here might be identified as the ‘Crocifisso Mons. Carretto, provisor Mons. Giuseppe Ferrerio (fasc.II, 15th April 1608, vivo’ mentioned in January 1595 can be excluded for iconographical reasons. pp.153–65), Mons. Benedetto Ala (classe di città, Decreti, busta no.58, fasc.D, 1613– 21 O. Civalli: Visita triennale di F. Orazio Civalli maceratese dell’ordine de’ Minori 17, pp.1–28) and Mons. Paolo Santorio (busta no. 8, Visita alla Metropolitana, 24th Conventuali Ministro Provinciale nella Marca Anconitana parte istorica ossia Memorie stori- March 1625, pp.I–VII). The first evidence of the bronzes is in the 1601 inventory che riguardanti i diversi luoghi di essa provincia raccolte dall’autore nel tempo del suo provin- where they are recorded ‘to be found among the books kept in the choir’ (tra i libri cialato, in G. Colucci: Antichità picene 25 (1795), pp.155–215, esp. p.189: ‘All’altar che stanno in coro). maggiore vi è una Croce grande con il suo Crocifisso e Candelieri sei di bronzo fatti a rame di 22 D. Heikamp: ‘Zur Geschichte der Uffizien-Tribuna und der Kunstschränke in cerqua’. As can be inferred from the unpublished typescript in the Archivio dell’ Florenz und Deutschland’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 26 (1963), pp.193–268, esp. Ordine dei Frati Minori Conventuali della Curia Provinciale di Ancona, F. Merletti: p.245, docs. 5–6; Zikos, op. cit. (note 11), p.204. Dizionario bio-bibliografico dei Frati Minori Conventuali della Provincia delle Marche (secoli 23 The Cross and Calvary measures 142.8 by 52.3 cm. without its base. The Crucified XIII–XX), 2007, p.135, Civalli was provincial minister of the Conventual Franci- Christ measures 61 by 47 cm. scans in the Marche from 1594 to 1597. The manuscript is identical to the published 24 The length of the leaves varies between 4.5 and 8 cm.: ten are complete, one lacks text. Mons. Eugenio Gregoratto and Luigi Bravi report that among the papers in the a point and another is in a fragmentary condition.

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13. Detail of Fig.9. 14. Detail of Fig.17.

branches were cast separately and subsequently fused, anticipa- According to a Miscellanea written in 1744 by Ubaldo Tosi, a ting a technique used by other Florentine sculptors such as Pietro scholar and priest from Urbino who enjoyed a benefice and must Tacca.25 Originally, much of the surface of each of the six bron- have officiated in the city’s Cathedral, the ‘set of large bronze zes was embellished with oak leaves that had been ‘cast almost Candlesticks, and Crucifix for the high altar, which form three from nature’, to borrow the words of Ulrich Middeldorf,26 as oak branches with leaves, and acorns around them, with stable well as with acorns;27 unfortunately, only ten leaves now triangular bases in wood coloured as bronze’, kept at that time in remain28 – probably executed using moulds taken from leaves, in the sacristy, were ‘presented [to the Cathedral] by our most accordance with a practice widely employed in Florence since Serene Signor Duke Francesco Maria on 5th October 1529’.30 the time of Cennini and Ghiberti29 – but the mastery of their To this, Tosi adds: ‘nowadays somewhat damaged’,31 referring, execution is admirable. The sculptor used screws, still partially as we shall see, to the candlesticks’ extensive loss of the leaves and visible, at the time of the modelling process to join the wax acorns that must have been separately cast and entwined around models of the branches (Fig.10). Examination of the bronzes the trunks. While it would seem obvious to identify the bronzes revealed that no cold-polishing occurred at the base of the trunk, described by Tosi with those now in the Museo Albani, the date while the surface is more highly polished as the trunk separates of the ducal gift that Tosi recorded, 5th October 1529, seems into branches. The extraordinary invention and plastic quality of improbable. Given the the style of the bronzes, which stylistically these bronzes are immediately apparent, and it seems evident, appear much later than the 1520s, we must presume that Tosi comparing Christ’s crown of thorns to the slender branches sup- misread the date and inverted the 9 and the 2: indeed, as we porting the socle (Fig.12), that the Crucifix and the candlesticks have seen, 1592 was the year in which the commisson was com- were the work of one craftsman. pleted.32 In 1708, Pope Clement XI (Albani), a native of Urbino,

25 D. Zikos: ‘“Ars sine scientia nihil est”: il contributo di Pietro Tacca al bronzo ital- published in the conference proceedings. iano’, in F. Falletti: exh. cat. Pietro Tacca. Carrara, la Toscana, le grandi corti europee, Car- 27 See notes 30 and 31 below. rara (Centro Internazionale delle Arti Plastiche) 2007, pp.55–73, esp. pp.66 and 68. 28 There are holes on the bowl and along the branches of the candlesticks that be- 26 The shape of the leaves suggests identification with the Irish oak (Quercus petraea, fore the removal of the core pins served to attach the leaves and – probably – the rovere in Italian). For botanical representation in sculpture in the fifteenth and six- acorns. Of the ten leaves that remain, some are still fixed in this way, others are inser- teenth centuries, see G. Caneva et al.: ‘La fitoiconologia per il riconoscimento e l’in- ted. On the surface of some of the branches, sections of the sprues that might have terpretazione delle rappresentazioni artistiche’, in G. Caneva, ed.: La biologia vegetale been used to attach the acorns are visible. per i beni culturali, Florence 2005, II, pp.85–128. The expression ‘fusione quasi di natura’ 29 M. Ciardi Duprè Dal Poggetto, in exh. cat. Lorenzo Ghiberti: ‘materia e ragionamenti’, was used by Middeldorf in an unpublished typescript entitled Intervista con il prof. Bear- Florence (Museo dell’Accademia and Museo di San Marco) 1978–79, pp.396–97. zi, autunno 1969 in the scholar’s archive at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. 30 Urbino, Biblioteca Universitaria (cited hereafter as BUU), Urbino 93, U. Tosi: The text was discussed by Alfredo Bellandi, to whom I am grateful for having shared Miscellanea non nullarum notitiarum ad civitatem Urbini spectantium atque collectarum per his work with me, in a lecture entitled ‘La scultura fiorentina del Rinascimento nell’ me Ubaldum Tosi sacerdotem beneficiatum ex non nullis auctoribus ac notariorum rogitibus archivio di Ulrich Middeldorf al Getty Research Institute for the History of Art di que viam sternunt ad enixe demonstrandas antiquitatem excellentiamque eiusdem civitatis. Los Angeles’ given at a conference at Palazzo Manzoni, Perugia, and at the Fonda- MDCCXLIV, fol. 376v: ‘Una muta di Candelieri e Crocifisso di bronzo grandi per l’altare zione Orintia Carletti Bonucci (17th–19th November 2015); Bellandi’s article will be maggiore che formano tre branconi di quercia con foglie e ghiande intorno con zocche stabili

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15. Detail of Fig.9. 16. Detail of Fig.17.

donated a magnificent altar and a set of silver candlesticks to the Girolamo Genga.36 This attribution was accepted in the Della Cathedral.33 In 1789, the dome of the Cathedral collapsed, caus- Rovere exhibition catalogue of 2004,37 despite the fact that there ing extensive damage to the building and destroying the altar, is no proof that Genga practised as a sculptor.38 This was the sec- which was subsequently rebuilt in a similar style and using the ond time that a work by Bandini had been erroneously attributed same materials in 1796.34 It is probable that the sixteenth-century to Genga. Vasari claimed that the monument to Francesco Maria bronzes were moved to the sacristy, where they were recorded I della Rovere, the remains of which are in the church of the for- by Tosi in 1744. mer monastery of S. Chiara, was designed by Genga and sculpted Since the date given by Tosi has never been challenged before, by Bartolomeo Ammannati.39 But it was in fact the sculpture for scholars who have examined the bronze Crucifix and candle- which Bandini was paid in 1587.40 sticks have accepted that they dated from before 1529. They are To confirm the attribution of the bronze Crucifix and candle- not mentioned in any of the publications devoted to Bandini by sticks to Bandini and to identify them with the bronzes for which Ulrich Middeldorf (1929), Pasquale Rotondi (1942), Charles he was paid between 1589 and 1592, we must turn to the figure Avery (1994) or Eike D. Schmidt (1998). They were first men- of the dead Christ from the marble Pietà sculpted by Bandini tioned in 1962 by Franco Mazzini in the Guida di Urbino as being between 1585 and 1588 (Fig.17):41 the anatomical conception among the works kept in the Cathedral’s sacristy and dating from and the faces of the two Christs viewed from the front and in the fifteenth century.35 They were moved to the Museo Albani profile (Figs.13–16) are identical, and the harmonious propor- sometime before 1984: Franco Negroni and Giuseppe Cucco tions, the definition of the torso, the musculature of the limbs first published Tosi’s reference in the museum’s catalogue and and the loincloths are also very similar. Both faces have narrow, somewhat unconvincingly suggested that they were the work of elongated eyes in round sockets, natural volume of the cheeks,

a triangolo di legno colorite di bronzo. Regalati [to the Cathedral] dal Serenissimo e le arti a Urbino e a Roma 1700–1721, Urbino (Palazzo del Collegio) and Rome (S. Sal- nostro Signor Duca Francesco Maria sotto li 5 ottobre 1529’, see opac.uniurb.it/ODIG- vatore) 2001–02, pp.318–23. IT/AU/tosi_02/album0.html; no.P1030543; last accessed 10th August 2016. 35 F. Mazzini: Guida di Urbino, Vicenza 1962, p.83. 31 ‘In oggi assai logori’: ibid. 36 G. Cucco, in F. Negroni and G. Cucco: Urbino: Museo Albani, Bologna 1984, 32 The Crucifix was paid for on 29th June 1589, while it and two of the six candle- p.122, cat. no.555. sticks were probably completed by 3rd October 1590 and it cannot therefore be 37 M. Giannatiempo López, in P. Dal Poggetto: exh. cat. I Della Rovere: Piero della excluded that the date of 5th October 1589 could refer simply to money advanced by Francesca, Raffaello, Tiziano, (Palazzo del Duca), Urbino (Palazzo Ducale), the Duke for work in progress. Pesaro (Palazzo Ducale) and Urbania (Palazzo Ducale) 2004, pp.313–14, cat.V.9. 33 BUU, Urbino 54, A. Rosa: Serie cronologica di tutti li signori canonici della chiesa d’Urbino: 38 Vasari claimed that Genga ‘Fece anco alcune opere di scultura e figure tonde di terra e di opuscolo che prende il suo cominciamento dall’anno 1481 fino al corrente 1815 corredato di storiche cera’; G. Vasari: Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori, nelle redazioni del 1550 interessanti notizie con in fine un’appendice degli opportuni autentici documenti, pp.764–76; e del 1568, ed. R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi, Florence 1984, V, pp.349–50. See also M. BUU, Urbino 55, fol.184r–v; BUU, Archivio del Comune, Chiesa Metropolitana, Grasso: ‘Genga, Gerolamo’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 1999, LIII, pp.88–93. 183, fols.109r–123r and 132v; F. Negroni: Il Duomo di Urbino, Urbino 1993, p.90. 39 Vasari, op. cit. (note 38), p.350. 34 B. Ligi: Memorie ecclesiastiche di Urbino, Urbino 1938, pp.281 and 287. On Pope 40 Rotondi, op. cit. (note 1), pp.16–18; Schmidt, pp.63–66. Clement XI’s patronage and work on the Cathedral in the sixteenth century, see 41 See note 1 above, and A. Fucili, in D. Tonti et al., eds.: exh. cat. Imago pietatis: Negroni, op. cit. (note 33), passim; E. Debenedetti, in G. Cucco: exh. cat. Papa Albani Il Corpo, Urbino (Oratorio della Grotta) 2008, pp.72–75.

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17. Detail of the Pietà, by Giovanni Bandini. 1585–88. Marble, 212 by 185 cm. (Oratorio della Grotta, Urbino).

the soft and half-open mouth, while the divided beard recalls Crucifix by four or five years and throws light on Giambologna’s Verrocchio’s work of the late quattrocento.42 The treatment of own artistic development, anticipating his style in the 1590s with hair terminating in curls is similar in both, which cascades over its increasingly abstract and idealised forms. In an exchange of the shoulders in the bronze and falls down the back in the letters between Simone Fortuna and Francesco Maria II della marble. Comparison with the marble bust of the Saviour by the Rovere between October 1581 and June 1583, the Duke same artist, now in the monastery of S. Vincenzo in Prato, also expressed his wish to acquire autograph works by Giam- supports the attribution of the bronze Crucifix to Bandini.43 bologna,48 writing on 27th March 1583: ‘I greatly desire to have It is evident that stylistically this Crucifix is close to those of some work by the hand of Gio. Bologna, and so I would be very Giambologna, and can be compared both to his of c.1573 pleased if you might discover whether he might undertake to (Museo dell’Antico Tesoro della Santa Casa di Loreto)44 – his make me a large Crucifix in marble measuring approximately only work in the Marche – and to that in S. Lorenzo at the two palmi without the cross [c.50 cm.] in a single piece’.49 Escorial,45 which, despite traces of Della Porta’s influence, Fortuna replied that Giambologna would prefer to make the provides a significant antecedent for the sculpture in Urbino, as Crucifix ‘in silver, bronze or copper’,50 rather than in marble. does Giambologna’s Crucifix of similar dimensions in the Salviati After much negotiation, the Duke declined ‘the model that chapel in S. Marco, Florence (1579–89; Fig.18).46 The Urbino [Giambologna] is offering, in order to then have the work done Crucifix seems to lie mid-way between Giambologna’s S. Marco by my sculptor [Giovanni Bandini], because I am fully satisfied sculpture, with its naturalistic anatomical definition, and the with his ability and worth’.51 In February 1582, Fortuna had monumental bronze in St Michael’s church in Munich (1593– recommended that Francesco Maria II welcome ‘Gio. dell’ 94).47 The Urbino bronze would seem to antedate the Munich Opera’ to his court, who:

42 For the influence of quattrocento art on Bandini and his contemporary Florentines, (Museo Nazionale del ) 2006, pp.107–25, esp. p.111; idem, in R. Eikelmann, see A. Giannotti: ‘Lo stile puro dei fiorentini, da Andrea del Sarto a Santi di Tito’, in ed.: exh. cat. Bella figura: Europäische Bronzekunst in Süddeutschland um 1600, Munich A. Giannotti et al., eds.: exh. cat. Puro, semplice e naturale nell’arte a Firenze tra Cinque e (Bayerische Nationalmuseum) 2015, pp.264–67, cat. no.37. Seicento, Florence (Galleria degli Uffizi) 2014, pp.27–55, esp. pp.41 and 46–47. 48 Further evidence of the Duke’s relationship with artists belonging to Giambolo- 43 Borghini, ed. Ellis op. cit. (note 3), p.314; S. Bellesi: La scultura nel Seicento, in gna’s circle is to be found in a letter sent by Girolamo Portigiani from Florence to C. Cerretelli et al., eds.: Il Seicento a Prato, Prato 1998, pp.311–22, esp. pp.311–12; Francesco Maria II on 28th June 1581; see D. Zikos: ‘Die Ausbildung von Adriaen Schmidt, pp.66–67. de Vries zum Bronzeplastiker in Florenz (ca.1581–1586)’, in S. Adelmann et al., eds.: 44 The Crucifix stands 23.8 cm. high, see K.J. Watson, in C. Avery et al., eds.: exh. Neue Beiträge zu Adriaen de Vries, Symposiums vom 16. bis 18. April 2008 in Stadthagen cat. Giambologna: Sculptor to the Medici, Edinburgh (Royal Scottish Museum), London und Bückeburg, Bielefeld 2008, pp.179–93, esp. p.187. (Victoria and Albert Museum) and Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1978–79, 49 Letter from the Duke of Urbino to Simone Fortuna, 27th March 1583, in Gronau, p.144, cat. no.106; Gasparotto, op. cit. (note 11), p.11. op. cit. (note 1), p.522 doc. XII: ‘Io ho molto desiderio d’haver qualche opera di mano di 45 The Crucifix measures c.42 cm. high, ibid., p.11. Gio. Bologna et però mi farete piacer assai d’intendere destramente se potesse attendervi et farmi 46 The Crucifix stands 46.8 cm. high, see K.J. Watson, in Avery et al., op. cit. (note un Crocifisso grande di marmo senza la croce d’intorno a due palmi d’un sol pezzo’. 44), p.144, cat. no.107; Gasparotto, op. cit. (note 11), p.12. 50 Letter from Simone Fortuna to the Duke of Urbino, 9th April 1583, in Barocchi, op. 47 D. Diemer: ‘Giambologna in Germania’, in B. Paolozzi Strozzi et al. eds.: exh. cat. cit. (note 11), pp.240–41, doc. 265, esp. p.241 doc. 265: ‘d’argento, di bronzo o di rame’. Giambologna: gli dei, gli eroi. Genesi e fortuna di uno stile europeo nella scultura, Florence 51 Letter from the Duke of Urbino to Simone Fortuna, 22nd May 1583, in Gronau,

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is a hardworking, consistent and trustworthy man and whose works have already achieved excellence, acquiring much renown, and having overcome his limitations everyone believes that he will continue to improve and the capacity that he has to sculpt from nature is a singular gift and much liked by Princes. He has not spent much time casting, having found it quite easy [. . . ]. In short it seems to me that in the said Gio- vanni, Your Excellency, will have the best and most valiant man in Tuscany after Gio. Bologna.52

It would seem that the commission of the Crucifix and the candlesticks for Urbino Cathedral was prompted by the Duke’s desire to have a Crucifix by Giambologna and the arrival, some seven years later, of Giovanni Bandini in the Marche. It seems increasingly likely that, Bandini, following his apprenticeship with Baccio Bandinelli, who died in 1560,53 may subsequently have worked with Giambologna: the horse in his Meleager is closely related to that in Giambologna’s Rape of Deianira (Musée du Louvre, Paris) of 1576.54 In the letter to workmen in the Fab- brica del Duomo in Orvieto written by Girolamo Seriacopi, provveditore del castello in Florence of 24th September 1595, he states that ‘Gio. Bandini known as Giov. dell’Opera, Bandinelli’s pupil, has gone to Livorno and Carrara and has taken with him the model and measurements of the Apostle’:55 this was the St Matthew and the that Giambologna was to make for Orvieto Cathedral. Now that the Urbino Crucifix can be dated to 1589, it also illustrates how Giambologna’s ideas were disseminated throughout Italy; there were no other known examples in Italy of such close derivation from Giambologna’s work. Between the late 1580s and 1595 Giambologna’s Crucifixes were made almost exclusively in metal on an increasingly monumental scale. All Giambologna’s large-scale Crucifixes – in Munich (1593–94), in 18. Crucifix, by Giambologna. 1579–89. Bronze, 46.8 cm. high. (S. Marco, Florence). his funerary chapel in SS. Annunziata, Florence (1594), and in Pisa Cathedral (1597) – post-date his journey to Venice in Octo- ber 1593,56 during which he could have seen Girolamo Cam- Redentore’, and still in situ.58 pagna’s magnificent Crucifix for the church of the Redentore in The bronze candlesticks outclass other examples in their Venice, cast in 1590.57 This was the first example of a monumen- inventiveness and the sharp, fresh detail of the wax model, which tal Christ on the Cross in metal to be made in Italy since renders the knots in the trunk and the pattern of the wood in a Donatello’s work for the altar of the Santo in Padua (1443–49) highly naturalistic manner (Fig.11). In the conception of these and that of Niccolò Baroncelli and Domenico di Paris for the works, Bandini shows his debt to the artists of the Studiolo of cathedral in Ferrara (1450–55). Campagna made his great statue Francesco I, but also to Jacopo Ligozzi. His freedom of invention of Federico da Montefeltro in 1604–06 for the Palazzo Ducale in in its mimetic and striking naturalism anticipates the great Urbino and, in a letter sent to the duke from Venice on 19th June Baroque inventions of the following century, and the candle- 1604, he mentions with pride that he was also the author of the sticks find an echo, for example, in the golden rose that Gian ‘very famous bronze Crucifix’ made ‘in the church of the Lorenzo Bernini designed for Alexander VII, ‘with the roots

op. cit. (note 1), p.524, doc. XVI: ‘non ricercherei altrimenti il modello che [Giambologna] 55 Fumi, op. cit. (note 53), p.721, doc. LXIII: ‘Giovanni Bandini, detto Giovanni dell’ offerisce per far poi fare il lavoro dal mio scultore [Giovanni Bandini], perché della sufficienza Opera, allievo del cavalier Bandinelli, è andato a Livorno e a Carrara e con se ha portato il et valor suo io mi ritrovo veramente a pieno sodisfatto’. modello et misure de l’Apostolo’. See also note 53. 52 Letter from Simone Fortuna to the Duke of Urbino, 10th February 1582, in 56 E. Dhanens: Jean Boulogne: Giovanni Bologna Fiammingo, Douai 1529–Florence 1608. Gronau, op. cit. (note 1), p.521, doc. VIII: ‘è huomo sodo, saldo et sicuro et l’opere sue sono Bijdrage tot de studie van de kunstbetrekkingen tussen het graafschap Vlaanderen en Italië, già riuscite in eccellenza, acquistando molto fama et havendo superato la povertà ogn’un crede Brussels 1956, pp.41–43, and see also Giambologna’s letter to Girolamo Seriacopi sent che sempre migliorerà et la felicità ch’ha di scolpire del naturale è in lui dono singulare et piace from Venice on 7th October 1593, ibid., p.357. molto a i Principi. Nel getto egli non s’è molto esercitato, havendola per cosa assai facile [. . .]. 57 W. Timofiewitsch: Girolamo Campagna: Studien zur venezianischen Plastik um das In somma a me pare che, concludendo, dicto Giovanni, Vostra Eccellenza, habbi il migliore et Jahr 1600, Munich 1972, pp.47–59 and 253–55, cat. no.12; A. Bacchi: ‘Girolamo più valoroso huomo che sia ora in Toscana doppo Gio. Bologna’. Campagna’, in idem, ed.: La scultura a Venezia da Sansovino a Canova, Milan 2000, 53 For Bandini’s training with Baccio Bandinelli, see Borghini, ed. Ellis, op. cit. (note pp.715–19, esp. p.716. 3), p.313; for Seriacopi’s letter, see L. Fumi: Statuti e regesti dell’Opera di Santa Maria di 58 G. Gronau: ‘Die Statue des Federigo di Montefeltro im herzoglichen Palast von Orvieto: Il Duomo di Orvieto e i suoi restauri, Orvieto 1891, rev. ed. L. Riccetti, Orvieto Urbino’, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 3, 5 (1919–32, but and Perugia 2002, p.721, doc. LXIII; see also note 55, and Schmidt, p.57. 1930), pp.254–67, esp. p.257: ‘nella chiesa del Redentore, fatta dalla Signoria per voto, 54 M. Leithe Jasper: ‘Rapimenti. Nesso e Deianira’: in Paolozzi Strozzi, op. cit. (note all’altar maggiore quel famosissimo Crocifisso di bronzo con le due statue’. 47), p.165.

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raising the plant (the Chigi oak tree, on which the roses bloom) above the base with exactly the same daring that he had used in the rocky support for the obelisk in his Four Rivers fountain in the Piazza Navona’.59 In these candlesticks, Bandini combines Niccolò Tribolo’s60 sculptural tradition of the late 1540s during the construction of the Medici villa at Castello with Giambologna’s realism, evident in some of the bronze birds he made around 1567 for the grotto at the same villa.61 Bandini’s naturalism may have also influenced the Vicentine Camillo Mar- iani (c.1567–1611), who was in Bandini’s workshop in the Marche in the 1590s and appears in the Duke’s accounts in 1595 and 1596;62 he sculpted the fountain in the Villa Miralfiore in Pesaro, of which four bronze monkeys survive (three in the Boboli Gardens, Florence, and one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).63 Finally, it is worth considering the chronology of this com- mission in the context of Urbino around 1590.64 Following Archbishop Giannotti’s departure for Avignon in 1585,65 Paolo Pagani arrived in Urbino as apostolic vicar and, in November 1592, inaugurated the episcopal seminary, initiated by his pre- decessor,66 and also established the Orations, in which the ven- eration of the Holy Sacrament was central.67 During Pagani’s time in Urbino, and concerned that the Papacy was imposing its influence on the Duchy, Francesco Maria II gave his patronage to the chapel of the Sacrament, with, as its altarpiece, Barocci’s Last Supper (1590–99).68 Thus it seems probable that Bandini’s bronzes, and the candle- sticks in particular, which were intended to be placed on the Cathedral’s high altar, which had to be rebuilt ex novo,69 were part of an extensive programme glorifying the Della Rovere dynasty that the Duke was keen to promote, culminating with the payment of 745.41 scudi made by Francesco Maria II on 4th January 1605 for a ‘gold censer with oak leaves’.70 Just as the trunk of the oak tree supports the candles in Bandini’s candle- sticks, so Federico Barocci in his Last Supper 71 also glorified the Della Rovere: on the right a youth carries a vase with oak leaves engraved around its rim, while a young boy rushing to stoke the blazing fire carries branches of oak, ready to warm Christ’s final 19. Detail of The Last Supper, by Federico Barocci. 1590–99. Canvas, 299 by 322 repast (Fig.19). cm. (Cathedral of S. Maria Assunta, Urbino).

59 J. Montagu: Roman Baroque Sculpture: The Industry of Art, New Haven and London devoluzioni alla Santa Sede, Fermo 1795, p.393: ‘Orazioni dette della Settimana’. 1989, p.122. See also idem: Gold, Silver and Bronze: Metal Sculpture of the Roman Bar- 68 Negroni, op. cit. (note 33), pp.95–107; B. Bohn, J.W. Mann and C. Plazzotta, in oque, New Haven and London 1996, p.17. See also A. González-Palacios: Arredi e J.W. Mann et al., eds.: exh. cat. Federico Barocci: Renaissance Master of Color and Line, ornamenti alla corte di Roma, 1560–1795, Milan 2004, pp.36–41. Saint Louis (Saint Louis Art Museum) and London (National Gallery) 2012–13, 60 A. Giannotti: Il teatro di natura: Niccolò Tribolo e le origini di un genere. La scultura di pp.224–37, cat. no.12. animali nella Firenze del Cinquecento, Florence 2007, passim. 69 This can be inferred from a report, ASF, Ducato di Urbino, classe I, 4, fols.778r– 61 D. Heikamp, in Paolozzi Strozzi, op. cit. (note 47), pp.249–52, cat. no.50. 785v; see F. Piperno: L’immagine del Duca: musica e spettacolo alla corte di Guidubaldo II 62 Schmidt, pp.72–73. duca d’Urbino, Florence 2001, p.234, note 4; F. Biferali et al.: Battista Franco ‘pittore vini- 63 On this group, the monkeys and Mariani’s collaboration with Giovanni Bandini, ziano’ nella cultura artistica e nella vita religiosa del Cinquecento, Pisa 2007, p.112; the see M.T. De Lotto: ‘Camillo Mariani’, Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte 32 (2008), report, ‘Quanto alla Fabrica della Chiesa Cathedrale d’Urbino’, fol.778r, dated 1592, pp.21–233, esp. pp.22, 23, 47–49, 76, 123–125, cat. nos.4–4b.; I. Wardropper: Euro- requests that the Archbishop of Urbino carry out work in the church, including the pean Sculpture, 1400–1490, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven 2011, pp.98– high altar. 100, cat. no.31. 70 Document cited at note 8, fol.685r: 4th January 1605, ‘Per un Turibolo d’oro a foglie 64 I am grateful to Davide Gambino for providing me with vital information. di quercia’. 65 G. Montinaro: Fra Urbino e Firenze: politica e diplomazia nel tramonto dei della Rovere 71 S. Cuppini: ‘“L’Ultima cena” di Federico Barocci, dettagli iconografici’, in (1574–1631), Florence 2009, p.45. G. Cucco: the conference proceedings ed. Iconografie eucaristiche: testimonianze dall’ 66 BUU, Urbino 54, document cited at note 33, p.46. Arcidiocesi di Urbino–Urbania–Sant’Angelo in Vado, Urbino (10th–17th April 2005), Urbi- 67 A. Lazzari: Memorie istoriche dei conti e duchi di Urbino, delle donazioni, investiture e no 2005, pp.157–63, esp. p.158.

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