Case 3 (2010-11) : A relief of Ugolino imprisoned with his sons and grandsons by Pierino da Vinci

Expert Adviser’s Statement

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. Brief Description of item(s)

A relief of Ugolino imprisoned with his sons Bronze Measurements: 64.5 x 46 cm By Pierino da Vinci (c.1529-1553) c.1549 The bronze is in very good condition, with two apparent casting flaws confined to the lower edge of the piece, and two small holes near the upper edge, now filled with lead.

2. Context

Provenance: Luca Martini (1507-61), Pisa, c.1549; probably Henry Trench, c. 1715-19; probably Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694-1753) and then by descent from his daughter Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Boyle (1731-1754; m. to William Cavendish, 4th Earl of Devonshire (1720-64); transferred to The Chatsworth Settlement Trustees, set up by Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire (1920-2004) in 1946.

Key literature:

William Adam, Gem of the Peak; or Matlock Bath and its Vicinity, A Tour from Derby to Matlock; Excursions to Chatsworth, Haddon […], London and Derby, [first published 1838, revised editions 1840, 1843, 1845, 1851, 1857], 1843, pp. 139-140.

Marco Cianchi (ed.), Pierino da Vinci. Atti della giornata di studio. Vinci, Biblioteca Leonardiana, 26 maggio 1990, Florence, 1995, notably:

Charles Avery, ‘Pierino da Vinci’s ‘Lost’ Bronze Relief of ‘The Death by Starvation of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and his Sons’ rediscovered at Chatsworth’, pp. 57-65, reprinted in Avery, Studies in Italian Sculpture, London, 2001, pp. 167-190.

Jonathan Nelson, ‘Luca Martini, dantista, and Pierino da Vinci’s relief of the Death of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and his sons, pp. 39-43.

James Fenton, Leonardo’s Nephew. Essays on Art and Artists, London, 1998, pp. 68-87.

Britta Kusch-Arnhold, Pierino da Vinci, Münster, 2008, esp. pp. 51-69; cat. 7 with list and analysis of versions in various materials, and related works, pp. 124-148.

Charles Noble and Alison Yarrington, ‘Like a Poet’s Dreems’. The redisplay of the 6th Duke of Devonshire’s Sculpture Gallery at Chatsworth’ in Apollo, November 2009, pp. 45-53.

Nicholas Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum. 1540 to the Present Day, Volume I: Italian, Oxford, 1992, cats 72 and 73, pp. 95-100.

[Richard Westmacott], Catalogue [of] Marbles, Bronzes, and Fragments, at Chatsworth, London, 1838, no. 173

Frances A. Yates, ‘Transformations of Dante’s Ugolino’ in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 14, no. ½ (1951), pp.92-117

3. Waverley criteria

The relief fulfils criteria one, two and three, being of outstanding importance aesthetically, for British heritage and for the study of the patronage, making and collecting of sculpture.

Summary

This exceptionally high quality bronze relief, subtly modelled and beautifully cast, was made by Pierino da Vinci, one of the most talented sculptors of the first half of the sixteenth-century, whose early death curtailed a budding and significant career. The relief has been identified as the first known individual scene from Dante’s Divina Commedia to have been illustrated, and is undoubtedly the work described in detail by Giorgio Vasari in his Life of Pierino. Vasari recounted that it was made in c. 1549 for Luca Martini dell’Ala, who was then in Pisa in the service of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. A cartouche with the Martini arms, a wing, cast integrally on the reverse of the relief, was revealed when it was recently removed from the plinth into which it had been embedded at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, confirming its identity. The story of Ugolino and his sons, imprisoned and left to die by the Pisans, is a tragic one in the history of that city that had captured the imagination of Martini, who was then engaged on annotating a copy of Dante’s epic poem.

Avery has convincingly argued that it was this bronze relief, then ascribed to Michelangelo, that was brought into England by the painter Henry Trench (c.1685-1726) before 1719 (when it was described by Jonathan Richardson), and sold to the Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, entering the Devonshire collection in 1764, through his daughter’s inheritance and marriage to William Cavendish, 4th Earl of Devonshire. It has therefore formed part of two of Britain’s most important collections. This ‘noble’ relief, still attributed to Michelangelo, was praised in the literature of the time, and, as argued by Yates, its appearance in England not only coincided with the development of Dante scholarship here, but was instrumental in the proliferation of the image, primarily through Richardson’s account, which notably inspired Joshua Reynolds’ painting of the subject (1773, Knole, Kent).

The relief has effectively been on public display since at least 1833 when it was most likely set within the grit-stone base made for a pair of bronze dogs after the antique displayed in the Sculpture Gallery at Chatsworth House. Although it was not specifically mentioned by the 6th Duke in his Handbook of Chatsworth and Hardwick (London, 1845), the Duke took great pride in the bases on which his works were displayed, and they were generally catalogued along with the sculptures themselves. The relief is described fully in Richard Westmacott’s Catalogue (1838), and, following Westmacott, in William Adam’s Gem of the Peak (1843 edition consulted), still attributed to Michelangelo.

Access to the back of the work in particular provides an insight into how the bronze was made and the significance of what was, effectively, a hidden identity in the coat of arms. The precise relationship between this bronze and versions in other media has yet to be unravelled, including the relationship with and dating of the wax version in the Ashmolean Museum. A terracotta version, also in the Ashmolean, has a seal with a different, as yet unidentified, coat of arms on the back, which has not been fully investigated. Already a celebrated work, recently rediscovered, the bronze provides a fresh insight into the nature of the production of sculpture in sixteenth-century Italy. DETAILED CASE

1. Detailed description of item(s) if more than in Executive summary, and any comments.

Description The bronze relief illustrates a scene from Dante’s Inferno, which recounts the story of how the Florentine Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and his sons were imprisoned in a tower and left to starve by the Pisans. The powerful figure of Ugolino sits at the right of the relief, clasping a draped cloth across his stomach, reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Moses on the Julius II tomb in S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. He is accompanied by four naked male figures, representing his sons (sometimes referred to as his sons and grandsons). The nearest to Ugolino crouches anxiously just behind him, another lies apparently dead in front, his head nestled against a third son, who gazes down at him. The third and fourth sons are seated in complementary twisting poses, reminiscent of the ignudi from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling in Rome. Above them, dominating the upper part of the relief, hovers a screeching hag representing Hunger, wrapped in billowing drapery and with scrawny, pendulous breasts. The flowing water running along the lower section of the relief represents the river Arno, personified as a reclining, classical River God, his left hand resting on an urn and lion head. On the left of the main casting flaw, a rocky promontory emerges from the water, and above, along the edge of the rocky river bank, the verse reference is inscribed, ‘DANTE XXXIII INFERNO’.

The Artist Pierino da Vinci was Leonardo da Vinci’s nephew, the son of his second youngest half-brother. He trained briefly under the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli (1493-1560), and, more significantly, with Niccolò Tribolo (1500-50), working in the orbit of the leading Mannerist artists of the day at the Medici court. He died of a fever in his early twenties.

Number of comparable items already in the UK There are no comparable items within the UK, this being apparently a unique cast in bronze. See below for related items, notably the wax and terracotta versions in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Other works by the artist include two sculptures securely attributed to him, as well as a later bronze based on one of his designs, in the V&A; a bronze candlestick in the British Museum, and a drawing at Chatsworth.

2. Detailed explanation of the outstanding significance of the item(s).

Significance of figures associated with the item: maker/client/owners

Vasari’s Life is testament to Pierino da Vinci’s fame during his own lifetime. His precocious talent attracted the interest of one of Cosimo I de’ Medici’s leading courtiers, the engineer and scholar Luca Martini, who clearly held Pierino in high regard. Luca presented Pierino’s marble River God to Eleanora of Toledo, wife of Cosimo I, who in turn gave it to her brother, Don García for his gardens in Naples, and such gifts between members of the elite would have enhanced Pierino’s reputation. Both artist and patron, who shared a particularly close relationship, were part of the artistic and cultural elite of Florence. Martini’s coat of arms also appears on a base signed by Pierino that once held figures of Bacchus and Pomona (or Venus or Eve) (the base and both figures, now separated, are in the Ca’d’Oro, Venice). Nelson suggested that his choice of sculpture to illustrate the scene was relevant also to Luca’s reading of Dante, noting that one of Martini’s annotations to the text connected Dante’s praise of a life-like sculptural relief with the work of ‘the divine Buonarroti’. Pierino’s short career and the misattribution of some of his works to the great master had overshadowed Pierino’s later reputation until the studies of recent decades redressed the balance.

Although doubtless due to the belief that it was by Michelangelo and despite its disappearance from view, this relief has held a particular place in art history, notably in the eighteenth century. There now seems no doubt that it was this bronze rather than the Ashmolean wax relief that was brought from Italy by Henry Trench and described by Richardson in 1719, and particularly as it was referred to as ‘a noble Basrelief’ by the English traveller John Breval in 1738, an adjective more usually applied to a costly material such as bronze (see Appendix). It was presumably sold to Lord Burlington, a noted Grand Tourist, most significant collector and himself an architect, passing through marriage into one of the most important private collections in Britain, that of the Dukes of Devonshire.

Richardson’s description was fundamental, as he used it to throw out a challenge to painters to illustrate the scene, reviving the Paragone, or comparison between sculpture and painting. This led to a series of paintings by leading artists, notably that by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1773, Knole, Kent). There are several references to the relief in European literature, albeit sometimes following Richardson, although other versions were known in the eighteenth century, notably the terracotta in the Gherardesca collection in Florence, and an engraving of that relief from 1770.

Significance of subject-matter

The relief of Ugolino and his sons dates from after 15 October 1548, when Martini borrowed a manuscript of Dante, which he began annotating. According to Vasari, Martini ‘pointed out to Vinci the cruelty described by Dante, which the Pisans and Archbishop Ruggieri showed towards Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, causing him to die of hunger with his four sons in the tower that is therefore called the Tower of Hunger’. It was undoubtedly Martini’s interest in Dante, coupled with his position as Provveditore in Pisa, that led to Pierino creating a scene in wax ‘more than a braccio in height and three-quarters in breadth, to be cast in bronze’. Vasari’s description of the actual scene does not accord with the finished work (see Appendix), as has been frequently noted and variously explained, but it is evidently to this work that he referred.

The scene has also been interpreted as a piece of anti-Pisan propaganda by Cosimo’s representative in Pisa, a town that resisted Florentine rule, here represented by the lion’s head, or Marzocco. It was a poignant reminder of this dark point in Pisa’s history, when the Florentine count and most particularly his innocent sons were left to starve. Pierino sensitively captures the father’s realisation of their fate - the horror of which is personified in the figure of Hunger - as well as his crouching son’s anguish.

Significance of materials/process/usage

The facture of the bronze requires further investigation. It is not immediately evident whether the bronze is a direct or indirect lost wax casting, as it is feasible that either method was used. However, the artist clearly had access to the back of the wax before casting, when the coat of arms was carefully modelled.

Pierino was clearly an expert wax modeller, exemplified in the subtlety with which he moves from drawing into the wax, seen in the strands of hair, for example, through to the high relief of some of the most powerful figures. The figure of Hunger, for instance, is extraordinarily characterised, with sharp, elongated finger and toe-nails, the dramatic open mouth revealing a single tooth, and wiry flowing hair. The treatment varies according to the nature of the figure, from the softness of the flesh to the sharp edges of the reeds held by the River God – the reeds imitated in the underlayers of his flowing beard.

The bronze was probably cast by an expert founder – Zanobi Lastricati (1508- 90), for instance, had cast the bronze putti after Vinci’s models for Tribolo’s Fountain of the Labyrinth at Castello (later moved to Petraia). Most of the modelling and detailing was, however, captured in the wax, with relatively little after-working, for example, in the lettering, and some of the sharp edges that delineate the limbs.

Local/regional/national importance

Although not shown to its best advantage, and still misattributed, the bronze has been displayed in the Sculpture Gallery at Chatsworth since the time of the 6th Duke of Devonshire, famed for his outstanding collection and the development of the Devonshire estate. The house was described as ‘a princely palace’ by Adam who specifically mentioned the relief in his Gem of the Peak, an important guide to the area that was republished several times in the mid nineteenth century.

The relief was embedded in an oval base, made from local grit-stone, that supported the bronze dogs after the antique, as now, and as described by Westmacott and Adam. It is recorded in several photographs of the Sculpture Gallery, where it was at times displayed under the Gott Greyhound and her Puppies and, more recently, supporting the monumental head of Napoleon (Noble/Yarrington, fig. 7, the Gallery in 2002).

Its recent rediscovery as the ‘lost’ Pierino has prompted considerable interest and study. The relief looms large in Pierino’s small oeuvre, and given its place in collecting history, together with the existence of key related works at Oxford, the bronze is of great significance to the study of Renaissance art in British collections.

Summary of related items in public/private ownership in the UK

After Pierino da Vinci, wax relief of ‘Ugolino and his sons’, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. (Penny, no. 72; Kusch-Arnhold, cat. 7.2).

Variously considered a cast taken by Pierino to record the bronze, and (more likely) an eighteenth-century cast. Differences between the Chatsworth bronze and the other versions have been noted by several authors. Kusch- Arnhold has grouped the various versions, placing this one in Group B.

Pierino da Vinci, terracotta relief of ‘Ugolino and his sons”, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. (Penny, no. 73; Kusch-Arnhold, cat. 7.4, as Group B)

Acquired by Charles Drury Fortnum in Florence, 1864-5, and said to have been ‘for many years in the house of a Del Agata in Via Ghibellina’. Described as a cast by Penny, with a seal on the reverse with a coronet and unidentified coat of arms.

Pierino da Vinci, black chalk, Various studies, including those probably for the ‘Ugolino’ relief, British Museum, London,.

Two anonymous drawings at the Ashmolean show the same subject, one of which was acquired in connection with the reliefs there. However, neither drawing directly relates to the composition of the bronze.

Plaster Cast of ‘Ugolino and his sons’, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (see http//hy.edelman.org)

Name of Expert Adviser and Institution: Dr Paul Williamson, Victoria and Albert Museum Author of report: Ms Peta Motture, Victoria and Albert Museum Date: 30 April 2010