Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Sixteenth-Century Italian Tomb Marbles

Benedetto da Rovezzano
Tomb of Oddo Altoviti
1507
marble
Chiesa di Santi Apostoli, Florence

Benedetto da Rovezzano
Tomb of Oddo Altoviti (detail)
1507
marble
Chiesa di Santi Apostoli, Florence

Jacopo Sansovino
Sepulchral Monument to Cardinal Giovanni Michiel and Antonio Orso (detail)
ca. 1505
marble
Chiesa di San Marcello al Corso, Rome

Bartolomeo Spani
Tomb of Francesco Molza (detail)
1516
marble relief
Duomo di Modena

Bartolomeo Spani
Tomb of Beltrando Rossi (detail)
ca. 1531-36
marble
Basilica di Santa Maria della Steccata, Parma

Gian Francesco Ferrari d'Agrate
Tomb of Sforzino Sforza
1528-35
marble
Basilica di Santa Maria della Steccata, Parma

Valerio Cioli
Sepulchral Monument to Pietro Paolo Mignanelli
1583
marble
Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace, Rome

On Marble

Was liquid once that, smooth or coarse,
Though cool now to the cheek, still embeds
In ignorance its igneous past,
Being made of what it was not: the cut slabs
Displaying shells locked in cold embrace,
Lightning on water, darkest onyx
Glinting in sluices of rose.

Through exposure to other
Types – Travertines pearl-green as lichen,
Spring dawns of Rosa do Monte, Parians
Translucent white – one learns to distinguish
Stones expressing such variety
That the range within one kind may seem more
Disparate than the difference between kinds.

Yet, despite extremes of shade,
Texture, density, its present state portrays
Its change of nature: the enunciation
Of time's heat and pressure congealing
Into beauty resulting simply
From streaks of impurities spread
When the earth was an accident pouring.

So this stunning Rorschach, garbled
Mass of fire and ice, unintended
Pathos of natural formations,
Bespeaks – the way certain sounds and faces,
Rather than dissolving or merging,
Remain intact, constant as imperfections,
Anachronistic as eyes.

– Phillis Levin (1987)

Valerio Cioli
Tomb of Michelangelo
Personification of Painting
ca. 1564-74
marble
Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence

Valerio Cioli
Tomb of Michelangelo
Personification of Painting (detail)
ca. 1564-74
marble
Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence

Battista di Domenico Lorenzi
Tomb of Michelangelo
Personification of Architecture
ca. 1564-74
marble
Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence

Battista di Domenico Lorenzi
Tomb of Michelangelo
Personification of Sculpture
ca. 1564-74
marble
Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence

Battista di Domenico Lorenzi
Tomb of Michelangelo
Personification of Sculpture (detail)
ca. 1564-74
marble
Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence

Battista di Domenico Lorenzi
Tomb of Michelangelo
Bust of Michelangelo
ca. 1564-74
marble
Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence

Battista di Domenico Lorenzi
Tomb of Michelangelo
Escutcheons of Michelangelo and of the Florentine Accademia del Disegno
ca. 1564-74
marble
Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence

Michelangelo
Tomb of Pope Julius II
Moses (detail)
ca. 1513-15
marble
Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome