Bronze sculpture

This book presents a new study of Greek large-scale bronze statuary of the late Archaic and Classical periods. It examines the discovery, origin, style, date, artistic attribution, identification, and interpretation of the surviving bronzes, and focuses in particular on their technical features and casting techniques. It contains over 170 plates of photographs and drawings to illustrate its discussion.

It also places the development of the casting techniques in connection with the stylistic evolution in Greek free-standing sculpture. During the Classical period, artists preferred bronze to marble when creating their contrapposto figures. Indisputably, bronze gave particular freedom to artists in creating three-dimensional figures. In addition, the evolution in style encouraged the development of the uses of bronze to serve the new needs and tendencies in sculpture during the late Archaic and especially the Classical period. Through the examination of how technical matters affect style, this book presents fresh interpretations of these important monuments of Greek art and offers a new approach in the field of Greek free-standing bronze sculpture.

Artículo sobre la serie de relojes monumentales de péndulo cónico ideada por el relojero francés Eugène Farcot. Se estudia en detalle la unidad conservada en el Museo Cerralbo (Madrid, España).

Article in Spanish about the monumental conical pendulum clock series by the French clockmaker Eugène Farcot. It is described in detail the unit preserved in the Museo Cerralbo (Madrid, Spain).

"Reframing Bertoldo and His Legacy" served as the main essay in the exhibition catalogue "Bertoldo di Giovanni: The Renaissance of Sculpture in Medici Florence," accompanying the corresponding show on view at The Frick Collection (September 2019 - January 2020). This essay reviews the extant documents and scholarship on Bertoldo while reconsidering the artist's oeuvre, method of manufacture, and relationship with the Medici family, especially Lorenzo the Magnificent.

In the mid-1400s, the Medici family displayed two bronze sculptures by Donatello in their courtyard: his David, and his Judith and Holofernes. This paper focuses on ways of seeing in Renaissance Florence, in particular how Donatello's Judith represented the Medici, and how Judith as a figure came to represent the republic of Florence.

Il saggio, scritto a quattro mani da due studiose che hanno entrambe approfondito l'éntourage di Antonio Canova, studiando approfonditamente l'una Bartolomeo Ferrari e la sua stirpe di scultori, l'altra Cincinnato Baruzzi, che alla morte del maestro avrà il compito di gestirne lo studio romano per conto del fratello, esamina la vicenda della realizzazione della Pietà. Il gruppo modellato da Canova prima della morte e già tradotto in gesso, venne infatti realizzato dal Ferrari in bronzo per il Tempio canoviano di Possagno e in marmo dal Baruzzi. Entrambe le commissioni sono legate a Giovanni Battista Sartori Canova, ma al marmo venne successivamente  preferita, anche per influenza di Leopoldo Cicognara,  la fusione in bronzo. Il gruppo marmoreo, dopo complesse vicende che qui vengono ricostruite sulla scorta dei documenti, approdò alla chiesa del Santissimo Salvatore a Terracina, dove si trova ancora.

A devotional crucifix, whose model is believed to be the work of Michelangelo, is known preserved by a minority of casts in silver and bronze, the finest of which, is examined here. The crucifix is here suggested as made for Michelangelo's friend, Vittoria Colonna, as a private gift or possible commission. A census of casts of the model are explored, tracing its origins in Rome and later to Seville where it influenced Spanish sculptors and painters during the first decades of the 17th century.

This documentary appendix appeared in the exhibition catalogue "Bertoldo di Giovanni: The Renaissance of Sculpture in Medici Florence," accompanying the corresponding show at The Frick Collection (September 2019 - January 2020). Nearly 100 period documents relating to the life and oeuvre of Bertoldo were compiled and edited by Lorenz Böninger and Alexander J. Noelle, many of which were discovered during archival research conducted for the exhibition, and subsequently published for the first time in the catalogue.

artoloni, G., La Lupa capitolina nuove prospettive di studio; IL PUNTO DI VISTA DELLE SCIENZE: ANALISI RADIOMETRICHE E TECNICHE: Formigli, E., La tecnologia; Giardino, C., Aspetti archeometallurgici; Lombardi, G., Lo studio dei residui di terra di fusione; Martini, M., La datazione dei residui di terra di fusione; Sannibale, M., Per un approccio calibrato all' esame tecnologico; IL PUNTO DI VISTA DELLO STORICO: ICONOGRAFIA E STILE: Carandini, A., L' opinione di uno studioso di Roma antica; Colonna, G., Un monumento pubblico dell' inizio della Repubblica; Cracco Ruggini, L., L' opinione di uno storico; La Rocca, E., Una questione di stile; Mura Sommella, A., Contributo alla lettura dell' opera; Parisi Presicce, C., Un opera bronzea di stile severo; Roncalli, F., Volontà d' arte, stile e téchne.

Although discovered over fifty years ago near Amelia (Italy), a bronze cuirassed statue of Germanicus has gained relatively little attention. Represented on its elaborate breastplate is the death of Trojan Troilus at the hands of Achilles. The author of the principal monograph on the statue proposes that it originally portrayed King Mithridates VI, who saw himself as a new Achilles in his war against Rome. According to this theory, the depiction of the defeat of Troilus would have served as a reference to Mithridates’ victory over Rome, which traced its origins back to Troy.  In the end, Mithridates was himself defeated by Sulla, who supposedly brought the statue back to Rome, where its head was replaced first with a portrait of Sulla and eventually with one of Germanicus.  In my essay, I argue that the portrait head of Germanicus was indeed a substitution, but not for a head of Mithridates/Sulla.  The original portrait would instead have represented Caligula, whose head would have been replaced with that of his father Germanicus after Caligula’s assassination and damnation.  My interpretation is based on decorative motifs, technical considerations, and a very different appraisal of the meaning in this context of the defeat of Troilus.

Giovan Francesco Susini, Galata Morente, Firenze, Museo Nazionale del Bargello;
Pietro Tacca, Luigi XIII di Francia a cavallo, Firenze, Museo Nazionale del Bargello;
Giuseppe Broccetti, Medaglia di Faustina Bordoni, Figline Valdarno, Fondazione Giovanni Pratesi;
Giovan Francesco Pieri, Medaglia di Gian Gastone de'Medici, Grassina (FI), coll. Bruschi;
Giovan Francesco Pieri, Medaglia di Violante Beatrice di Baviera, Grassina (FI), coll. Bruschi;
Lorenzo Maria Weber, Medaglia di Gian Gastone de'Medici, Grassina (FI), coll. Bruschi;
Biografie di Giuseppe Broccetti, Cosimo Cenni, Francesco Conti, Filippo della Valle, Francesco Fanelli e Giovan Francesco Pieri

This paper deals with the term ‘patina’ and the difficulty in defining a priori those materials that should be preserved on a metal surface. Dogmatic and restrictive ideas exist that only patinas, understood as visually pleasant corrosion, should be preserved. This has resulted in treatment criteria that have promoted the loss of important technological, historical and aesthetic information and materials. These comments arise from observation of damage to the sculpture of the Spanish king Carlos IV, known as El Caballito, in Mexico due to a non- professional treatment that caused losses to its surface. This paper proposes the term ‘surface layer’ to identify, describe and assess all materials on a metal surface, especially metal sculptures, irrespective of their nature, intention, origin, temporality or function. The term encourages the understanding that different materials on a metallic surface can be worthy of preservation, even if they do not correspond to a patina.

Upon his death in 1491, Bertoldo di Giovanni was praised by a Florentine official as “a most worthy sculptor and an excellent maker of medals, who always made fine things with Lorenzo il Magnifico . . . who is now very troubled for there is no other artist in Tuscany or perhaps even Italy of such grand ingenuity and artistry.”

Though largely unknown outside of scholarly circles, Bertoldo played a key role in the development of Italian sculpture between the Early and High Renaissance. Occupying a unique position at the heart of the aesthetic and political landscape in Florence, he developed his skills under the aegis of Donatello, gaining the patronage and ultimately the friendship of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the city’s de facto ruler. He moved into the Medici home and was even appointed the custodian and curator of Lorenzo’s famed garden of antiquities near the Church of San Marco. There, he instructed the gifted pupils studying the relics, one of whom was Michelangelo, whose creative genius flourished under his guidance.

The current exhibition is the first to focus on Bertoldo, whose legacy was largely written out of history—first by his student Michelangelo (who promoted himself as a self-taught artist) and subsequently by the sixteenth-century biographer Giorgio Vasari. "Bertoldo di Giovanni: The Renaissance of Sculpture in Medici Florence" offers a comprehensive exploration of Bertoldo’s work in its own right. Reuniting nearly his entire extant oeuvre of more than twenty statuettes, reliefs, medals, a statue, and a monumental frieze, the exhibition asserts Bertoldo’s position as a pioneering sculptor who forged a distinctive identity among the master artists and elite patrons with whom he has long been associated.

Trois campagnes de fouilles conduites par l’École suisse d’archéologie en Grèce (ESAG) entre 2015 et 2017 dans le gymnase d’Érétrie ont été nécessaires pour achever la fouille d’un puits creusé dans le rocher de l’acropole sur plus de 13 mètres de profondeur. Son remplissage a livré un riche ensemble de découvertes, parmi lesquelles un surprenant mélange d’ossements d’une centaine de nouveau-nés, d’une douzaine de lépreux et de différents animaux, accompagnés de plusieurs artéfacts en bronze, dont trois fragments d’une statue d’éphèbe. Cette communication sera consacrée à l’analyse d’une autre sculpture en bronze doré, d’une dizaine de centimètres de hauteur et qui réunit toutes les caractéristiques du type de l’Artémis d’Éphèse. Sa mise au jour avec sa base circulaire au fond du puits pose la question de la raison qui a poussé un-e Érétrien-ne du IIe siècle apr. J.-C. à jeter cette statuette en parfait état avec d’autres objets de valeur. La découverte de milliers d’ossements de nouveau-nés dans les couches recouvrant l’Artémis éphésienne pourrait suggérer une offrande funéraire pour des individus qui n’ont pas eu droit à une sépulture dans la nécropole.

https://www.saka-asac.ch/actualites

https://4ec66a02-1bf1-46f6-99ae-ac5e1f92633f.filesusr.com/ugd/213c25_a1e69025cfcf435fb5d8d6ede24dc7b3.pdf

Während der Restaurierung einer Bronzekopie des sitzenden Hermes aus Herculaneum wurden auch die Hinweise auf den Fertigungsprozess dokumentiert. Die Gießermarke „Fonderia Artistica Sommer, Napoli“ informiert über den Herstellungsort und die Gießerei. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse verdeutlichen den qualitativ hochwertigen Werkprozess in der Gießerei Sommer. Giorgio Sommer, der durch seine Italien-Fotographien zu Ruhm kam, eröffnete um 1875 eine Kunstgießerei, in der Antiken seriell kopiert wurden. Allein der sitzende Hermes war bei ihm in 78 Varianten zu erhalten. Die technologischen Hinweise am sitzenden Hermes gaben Anlass, den Fertigungsprozess von „Kunstgießereien“ näher zu betrachten, die ab der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts Bronzen nach antiken Vorbildern bis hin zu Geschmacklosigkeiten für das groß- und kleinbürgerliche Heim in unterschiedlicher Qualität in Serie produzierten.

The Low Countries once contained many sculptures from the late Gothic and Renaissance period in a variety of materials, sizes, and qualities, and for both indoor and outdoor purposes. During outrages of iconoclasm and other phenomena, stone and wood sculptures were lost as were metal sculptures, possibly to a greater degree proportionally. Despite the current paucity of physical evidence, the Low Countries supported an extraordinary group of artisans specialised in the casting of metal sculpture. My contribution concerns metal sculpture in the Low Countries in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Brass sculpture workshops acquired a prestigious position during the 1450's with Guillaume Lefèvre in Tournai and Jacques de Gérines in Brussels. On a level of elaboration equalling sculptural works by orfèvres, these specialised dinandiers produced monumental sculptures for courtyards and sepulchres as well as for liturgical purposes. This practice lasted until c.1550, when bronze sculpture was introduced by Leone Leoni and continued by Jacques Jonghelinck in Brussels. This paper covers the most important artists, art works, and developments in monumental metal sculpture of the 15th and 16th centuries in the Low Countries.

The book contains the proceedings of the International Conference on Medieval Copper Alloys Production, held at Dinant and Namur on 15, 16 and 17 May 2014. The conference was organised by the Service public de Wallonie (Belgium) and the Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (France). The proceedings include 34 original contributions presented by archaeologists, historians, conservators, art historians, and other specialists, including metallurgists and chemists. Collectively, they show the great diversity of approaches being taken to elaborate the multiple themes associated with copper and its alloys in the material culture of medieval and post-medieval Europe. In the late Middle Ages, there was a gradual increase in the use of copper and its alloys for making everyday objects, whether for dress accessories, such as belt buckles or small decorative studs, or in kitchens and houses where the metal became a cauldron, ewer, basin, or lavabo. In contrast to these common objects fabricated in serial or mass production, were the exceptional, discrete objects satisfying the needs of the aristocracy and liturgy. Such made-to-order masterpieces might include aquamanilia, candelabra, or lecterns. Additionally, copper alloys were used for more colossal works of art such as columns, doors, baptisteries, fountains, funeral monuments and, of course, bells. Copper was equally sought in artisanal contexts, for artillery, for musical instruments, and for coinage. In exploring such a vast subject from multiple points of view, this volume will be of interest not only to archaeologist, but also to those involved in the history of techniques, art history, economic history, and social history. It is aimed both at an informed public and to those simply curious about the history of the Middle Ages in Europe.

Entre les pontificats de Sixte Quint (1585-1590) et d’Urbain VIII (1623-1644), l’art du bronze connaît un véritable épanouissement à Rome, sous la forme de statues colossales et de décors monumentaux, dont le baldaquin de Saint-Pierre par le Bernin est l’exemple le plus spectaculaire. Personnages clés de ce renouveau du bronze dans la Ville éternelle, les fondeurs demeurent méconnus. Loin d’être de simples artisans, les meilleurs d’entre eux étaient pourtant célèbres en leur temps, comme Bastiano Torrigiani, Orazio Censore ou Gregorio De’ Rossi. Formant souvent des dynasties, ils élaboraient des stratégies pour obtenir des commandes, et entretenaient des rapports privilégiés avec l’administration pontificale, les commanditaires privés, les architectes ou les sculpteurs. Ce sont ces hommes de l’ombre que cet ouvrage fait revivre, tant sur les grands chantiers de construction – Saint-Pierre, Sainte-Marie-Majeure ou Saint-Jean-de-Latran – qu’au sein des fonderies officielles ou de leurs ateliers personnels. En analysant leur activité dans toute sa diversité, et en tentant de définir leur savoir-faire, en particulier dans le domaine de la sculpture, ce livre aborde ainsi une page essentielle de l’histoire artistique de Rome, sous l’angle d’un matériau noble et prestigieux, et de ceux qui en étaient les maîtres, au croisement de l’art et de la technique.

This essay appeared in the exhibition catalogue "Bertoldo di Giovanni: The Renaissance of Sculpture in Medici Florence," accompanying the corresponding show at The Frick Collection (September 2019 - January 2020). Bertoldo's two Shield Bearers were reunited for the first time in the exhibition; this essay explores the pendant pair in depth for the first time by examining their relationship, multivalent iconography, and supposed connection to the Hercules on Horseback bronze, also by Bertoldo.