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LEONE LEONI , ca. 1509 – Milan, 22 July 1590

Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, and Mary Magdalene

Bronze with a natural light brown patina

Christ: 35 cm (from head to toe); 32.5 cm (from hand to hand) Virgin: 30 cm; Saint John: 30 cm; Mary Magdalene: 16.5 cm Ebony wood cross on a pedestal of the same material. Overall height of the scene: 110 cm. Height of cross: 76 cm; wooden base: 33.5 cm. Inscription on the base of the bronze figure of the Virgin: “OPVS V B...”

PROVENANCE Depictions of the Crucifixion including the figures of the Virgin, Private Collection Saint John and Mary Magdalene were extremely popular in the Counter-Reformation period. Leone’s holy figures are idealized and LITERATURE restrained in their grief. Particular attention is paid to the articulation Rosario Coppel, Margarita Estella, and Kelley and fall of the heavy, voluminous drapery, which dictates the flow Helmstutler Di Dio, Leone and Pompeo Leoni: Faith and Fame of the scene. Details of features, hair, hands, and feet are often (: Coll & Cortés, 2013), pp. 56-113. schematically rendered, with a greater concern for the overall visual effect created by the figures’ postures, gazes, and gestures.

In 1563, Vasari executed an expressive treatment of the same subject now in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in .1 In Venice, Leoni might have seen Giuseppe Salviati’s treatment of the scene dating to the 1550s, now in San Giovanni e Paolo. This work was reproduced by the artist in a woodcut (fig. 10.1), which would have disseminated the design among a broad audience; the gesture of Leoni’s youthful Saint John resembles that of the figure in Salviati’s painting and woodcut.2 There are several sculptural examples of this figure group, including one by Alessandro Vittoria that once decorated the high

90 91 altar of the Oratory of San Girolamo at San Fantin, Venice. Of this sculptural group, only the Virgin and Saint John survive (figs. 10.2- 10.3) now both in San Giovanni e Paolo.3

Ultimately, all these works are to some extent indebted to ’s drawings representing the Crucifixion, including a study for a marble Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John (see intro. fig. 12) and a presentation drawing (fig. 10.4) made for the artist’s spiritual mentor, the Roman noblewoman, Vittoria Colonna, both now in the British Museum.4 The upward gaze and expression of Leoni’s Virgin also recalls Michelangelo’s Pietà drawing (Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), also a gift for Colonna.

Leone Leoni was born in Arezzo, where he probably received his early training as a goldsmith and befriended fellow Aretines, and . The latter may have encouraged him to journey Rome in the 1520s, and it was probably in his wake that Leoni travelled to Venice following the sack of Rome in 1527. Working in Milan in the 1540s, Leoni came to the attention of the imperial court, through a commission from , Governor of Milan, for an equestrian monument of Charles V. From this point, Charles and his successor, Philip II, became the principal patrons of Leone and subsequently his son, Pompeo. The Fig. 10.2 Alessandro Vittoria, Virgin, ca. 1580s, bronze, Venice, San Giovanni e Paolo. high regard in which Charles and his son held Leone is evident by Fig. 10.1 Giuseppe Salviati, Crucifixion, 1556, woodcut, 31 x 21.2 cm, the many favours they conferred upon him, including the charge New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. of the imperial mint, a handsome annual stipend, a knighthood,

and a large property in Milan. 1. See Coppel, Estella, and Helmstutler, Leone and Pompeo, p. 89. 2. See David Rosand and Michelangelo Muraro, and the Venetian Woodcut, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: , 1976), pp. 274-275, no. 85. Leoni Although, it would appear from Leoni’s documented projects from and Salviati probably knew each other through their connections to Aretino. the 1550s onwards that he primarily worked on a large-scale, the When Francesco Salviati arrived in Venice with Giuseppe Porta, then his assistant, Aretino reported it in a letter to Leoni. Pietro Aretino, Lettere sull’Arte, Crucifixion presents important evidence of his later production ed. Ettore Camesasca, 4 vols. (Milan: Edizioni del Milone, 1957-1960), I, pp. of small bronzes, which would have featured prominently in his 129-131, no. 83. 3. The altar was described by Flamino Corner, Notizie Storiche delle chiese di monasteri di Fig. 10.3 Alessandro Vittoria, Saint John, ca. 1580s, bronze, Venice, training as a goldsmith and for which there continued to be a taste Venezia (Padua: Giovanni Manfrè, 1758), p. 319. San Giovanni e Paolo. among collectors throughout the sixteenth century.5 Indeed, Leoni 4. See most recently Carmen C. Bambach, ed., Michelangelo, Divine Draftsman and Designer, exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017), pp. 194- himself appears to have sought them ought for the impressive 199, 222-231. collection that he amassed in his Milanese palace.6 5. Leo Planiscig, “Bronzi minori di Leone Leoni,” Dedalo VII (1926-1927): pp. 544- 567, attributed several bronze statuettes to Leoni. 6. For Leoni’s collection see Kelly Helmstutler Di Dio, Leone Leoni and the Status of the Artist Irene Brooke at the End of the Renaissance (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 133-158.

92 93 Fig. 10.4 Michelangelo, Crucifixion, ca. 1538-1541, black chalk, 36.8 x 26.8 cm, London, British Museum.

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