(a) Florence and Rome.
Less attention was paid to the production of statuettes
during the High Renaissance, because of Michelangelo's obsession
with marble statuary. Nevertheless, some of his models (notably
Samson Slaying Two Philistines; Rotterdam, Mus. Boymans-van
Beuningen) were copied by others in bronze. Furthermore,
Leonardo da Vinci and his close associate Giovanni Francesco
Rustici were interested in the medium, because of its relationship
to the modelled, rather than carved, sculpture that they
practised. Francesco da Sangallo also produced a notable
statuette of St John the Baptist (New York, Frick).
With the departure of Michelangelo from Florence in 1534,
artists again turned to the statuette as a valid branch
of sculpture and one suited to the aims of the Medici, by
then established as dukes, for it provided a link with their
'democratic' forebears, as well as handsome ornamentation
for their private studies and agreeable and prestigious
diplomatic gifts. Such rivals of Michelangelo as Baccio
Bandinelli and Benvenuto Cellini produced excellent statuettes
in the Mannerist idiom c. 1540, while his followers of the
younger generation, Niccolo Tribolo and Pierino da Vinci,
also created notable examples.
Still younger sculptors who came to maturity around the
date of Michelangelo's death in 1564, for example Giovanni
Bandini, Valerio Cioli, Bartolomeo Ammanati and Vincenzo
Danti, all famous for their monumental contributions to
the decoration of the city of Florence, were also capable
of brilliant work on a small scale (e.g. in the studiolo
of Francesco I de' Medici in the Palazzo Vecchio.) They
were active at the period when Giambologna made his momentous
appearance on the Florentine art scene and perfected the
bronze statuette as a medium of sculptural expression. He
addressed a far wider range of subjects than had his predecessors,
extending his repertory beyond the standard nude figures
of Classical deities (e.g. Mercury, Bologna, Mus. Civ.;
or Astrology, Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.) to struggling groups,
for example the Labours of Hercules series (Vienna, Ksthist.
Mus.;, or equestrian ones (e.g. Nessus Abducting Deianeira,
San Marino, CA, Huntington Lib. & A.G.; Dresden, Skulpsamml.).
He portrayed real people, animals and country-folk, with
a positively Breughel-like delight (e.g. The Fowler, Paris,
Louvre); and treated a number of religious themes, notably
the crucified Christ. For compositional subtlety, sensuous
tactile values and sheer technical virtuosity, Giambologna's
statuettes have never been surpassed. Diffused as diplomatic
gifts by his patrons, and later through purchase by collectors,
they spread his style all over Europe.
In Rome, meanwhile, the principal exponent of high-quality
statuettes was Guglielmo della Porta, who produced several
designs of crucifixes and a Christ in Limbo (Vienna, Ksthist.
Mus.). Leone Leoni, the Milanese sculptor and goldsmith,
also executed a number of statuettes, sensitively modelled
in the wax before casting and then carefully chased.
(b) North Italy.
Several little-known goldsmiths and sculptors contributed
to the success of the bronze statuette in North Italy in
the first third of the 16th century, notably Viltor Camelio,
Maffeo Olivieri, Desiderio da Firenze, Antonio Lombardo,
Francesco da Sant'Agata and Giovanni Fonduli da Crema (e.g.
Seated Nymph, London, Wallace). Their collected oeuvre represents
an important and characteristic, though all too often neglected,
aspect of High Renaissance art. Thus, when Jacopo Sansovino
arrived in Venice after 1527, he found a thriving artistic
tradition and technical infrastructure at his disposal,
which he utilized chiefly for narrative reliefs and statuettes,
as these could be modelled rapidly in wax and the tedious
process of casting and chasing delegated to juniors: for
the altar-rail in S Marco he made the Four Evangelists.
He also signed a group of the Virgin and Child (Cleveland,
OH, Mus. A.).
It was really left to Jacopo's numerous assistants to benefit
from the tradition, chief among whom was Alessandro Vittoria,
who found statuettes to be an ideal vehicle for his combination
of Michelangelesque muscularity with Sansovino's suaver,
Raphaelesque modelling and the Mannerist elongation and
spiralling poses of Parmigianino, some of whose works he
owned: his work ranges in size and subject from a signed
St Sebastian (New York, Met.) down to little figures of
Winter (versions, c. 1585; Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.; Toronto,
Royal Ont. Mus.), an old man muffled up in heavy robes.
Others of Jacopo's immediate circle, Tiziano Minio and Danese
Cattaneo, also produced statuettes, often depicting Classical
marine deities, for example Minio's Neptune (London, V&A)
and Cattaneo's Venus Marina (Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.). The
Campagna brothers and Nicolò Roccatagliata, Francesco
Segala and Tiziano Aspetti are all credited with the production
of an amazing range of statuettes and other types of bronze
domestic artefacts. The dearth of such objects produced
in other Italian centres suggests that the Venetians gained
a virtual monopoly over the manufacture and distribution
of such useful items throughout the peninsula; this lasted
well into the 17th century and probably even later, as such
items were easy to reproduce from moulds and did not demand
quite the degree of finish of statuettes proper. In Milan
a similar repertory of ornamental bronzes was produced by
Annibale Fontana.
