Thursday, December 24, 2020

Gods and Heroes in Marble from 16th-Century Italy

Antonio Lombardo
Mars in Repose (detail)
ca. 1510-15
marble
Palazzo dei Musei, Modena

Antonio Lombardo
Mars in Repose (detail)
ca. 1510-15
marble
Palazzo dei Musei, Modena

Francesco Camilliani
Heroic Figures flanking Escutcheon of Cosimo I de' Medici
ca. 1563
marble
Fortezza Medicea, Siena

Francesco Camilliani
Heroic Figures flanking Escutcheon of Cosimo I de' Medici (detail)
ca. 1563
marble
Fortezza Medicea, Siena

Giovanni Maria Mosca
Death of Porcia Catonis
ca. 1550
marble
Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca' d'Oro, Venice

Brutus:    O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs.

Cassius:  Of your philosophy you make no use,
                if you give place to accidental evils.

Brutus:   No man bears sorrow better.  Portia is dead.

Cassius:  Ha!  Portia!

Brutus:   She is dead.

Cassius:  How 'scaped I killing when I cross'd you so?
               O insupportable and touching loss!
               Upon what sickness?

Brutus:   Impatient of my absence,
               And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony
               Have made themselves so strong – for with her death
               That tidings came – with this she fell distract
               And, her attendants absent, swallowed fire.

– Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1599)

Jacopo Sansovino
Neptune
1554
marble
Palazzo Ducale, Venice

Jacopo Sansovino
Mars
1554
marble
Palazzo Ducale, Venice

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
ca. 1590
marble
Museo di Casa Romei, Ferrara

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Emperor Antoninus Pius
ca. 1590
marble
Museo di Casa Romei, Ferrara

Battista di Domenico Lorenzi
Perseus slaying the Sea Monster
ca. 1574-78
marble
Palazzo Nonfinito, Florence

Battista di Domenico Lorenzi
Perseus slaying the Sea Monster (detail)
ca. 1574-78
marble
Palazzo Nonfinito, Florence

Giambologna
Fountain of Oceanus (River Gods)
1576
marble
Giardino di Boboli, Florence

Giambologna
Fountain of Oceanus (River Gods)
1576
marble
Giardino di Boboli, Florence

Tiziano Aspetti
Heroic Figure (Entrance Guardian)
ca. 1595
marble
Biblioteca Marciana, Venice

Girolamo Campagna
Heroic Figure (Entrance Guardian)
ca. 1595
marble
Biblioteca Marciana, Venice