Unknown Italian Faces by Unknown Italian Artists

Anonymous Italian Artist
Young Woman from the Campagna
19th century
oil on canvas
National Gallery, Athens

Anonymous Italian Artist
Veiled Nun
ca. 1863
marble
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Italian Artist
Portrait of a Nobleman
ca. 1830-40
marble
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Anonymous Venetian Artist
Head of a Man
ca. 1775
drawing
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Anonymous Roman Artist
Portrait of a Cleric
ca. 1660
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Artist
Portrait of a Young Man
17th century
drawing
Princeton University Art Museum

Anonymous Venetian Artist
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1560
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Artist
Portrait of a Nobleman
1556
terracotta
Milwaukee Art Museum

Anonymous Italian Artist
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1550
oil on panel
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Anonymous Florentine Artist
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1540
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Artist
Three Heads
ca. 1540
drawing
Yale University Art Gallery

Anonymous Milanese Artist
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1530-40
oil on panel
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Venetian Artist
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1515
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Anonymous Venetian Artist
Portrait Study of a Youth
ca. 1500
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Anonymous Italian Artist
Portrait of a Young Man
1472
oil on panel
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon

Anonymous Florentine Artist
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1430-50
tempera on panel
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

 from The Island of Statues

Have I not seen a thousand seasons ebb and flow
The tide of stars? Have I not seen a thousand years
The summers fling their scents? Ah, subtle and slow,
The warmth of life is chilling, and the shadows grow
More dark beneath the poplars, where yon owl
Lies torn and rotting. The fierce kestrel birds
Slew thee, poor sibyl: comrade thou and I;
For ah, our lives were but two starry words
Shouted a moment 'tween the earth and sky.
Oh, death is horrible! and foul, foul, foul!                              

– W.B. Yeats (1885)

Renaissance Marbles photographed by Clarence Kennedy

Clarence Kennedy
Angel
(Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte, Florence)
1933
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Angel bearing Crown
(Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte, Florence)
1933
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Lion Head supporting Angel
(Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte, Florence)
1933
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Cornice
(Basilica di San Lorenzo, Florence)
1929
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Figure supporting Candelabrum
(Basilica di San Lorenzo, Florence)
11929
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Frieze
(Basilica di San Lorenzo, Florence)
1929
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Keystone of Arch
(Basilica di San Lorenzo, Florence)
1929
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Pilaster
(Basilica di San Lorenzo, Florence)
1929
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Pilaster Base
(Basilica di San Lorenzo, Florence)
1929
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Angel
(Cattedrale di San Zeno, Pistoia)
1932
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Angel Wing
(Cattedrale di San Zeno, Pistoia)
1932
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Foot of Christ the Redeemer
(Cattedrale di San Zeno, Pistoia)
1932
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Figure of Hope
(Cattedrale di San Zeno, Pistoia)
1932
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence Kennedy
Figure of Hope - Veil and Wing
(Cattedrale di San Zeno, Pistoia)
1932
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

"Trained as both an art historian and a photographer, Clarence Kennedy (1892-1972) cautioned that "the photographer dare not allow himself to use the sculpture for spectacular effects of his own invention.  . . .  He is not creating something of his own."  

He began to experiment with lighting and photographing sculpture while a student at the American School in Athens. Returning to the United States, he took a position in 1916 teaching art history at Smith College, where he remained for forty-four years.  During this time Kennedy taught photography and made photographs, producing eight volumes of The History and Criticism of Sculpture to be used as teaching aids at Smith." 

– from biographical notes at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Figure Drawings by Florentine Sculptor Baccio Bandinelli

Baccio Bandinelli
Torso of Hercules, after Antique Statuette
ca. 1511-15
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Hercules
with Apples of the Hesperides
ca. 1545
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Hercules with Lion Skin
ca. 1545
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Study for Hercules
ca. 1526-34
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Study for Atlas
ca. 1521-23
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Figure Study, after Antique Vase Painting
ca. 1550
drawing
Musée du Louvre

attributed to Baccio Bandinelli
Figure Study, after Antique Statue
before 1560
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Study of Kneeling Figure
ca. 1539-40
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Study of Kneeling Figure with Urn
ca. 1526-34
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Sleeping Figure, after the Antique
before 1560
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Figure Study
before 1560
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Figure Study for Massacre of the Innocents
ca. 1520-21
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Figure Study for Massacre of the Innocents
ca. 1520-21
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Figure Study for Dead Christ, after Antique Relief
ca. 1552
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Neptune
ca. 1540
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Two Studies after Antique Statues
ca. 1540-60
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Two Studies of Figures in Motion
before 1560
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Studies of Three Figures
ca. 1529
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Men battling Centaurs, after Antique Sarcophagus
before 1560
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli
Group of Figures reacting with Fear
before 1560
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Baccio Bandinelli (1493-1560) – Ambitious but neurotic and technically deficient Florentine sculptor, who was an early (1530s) proponent of academic training.  A portégé of the Medici from their return to power in 1512, he became, in all but name, court sculptor to Cosimo I after Michelangelo's final departure from Florence in 1534.  His monumental Hercules and Cacus of the same year (Florence, Piazza della Signoria) designed as a pendant to Michelangelo's David was deservedly criticized, not least by Bandinelli's bitter rival Cellini.  Trained by his father as a goldsmith and inlay expert, Bandinelli was apprenticed to Rustici, but, despite his ability to attract major monumental commissions, remained most successful working on a small scale and as a draftsman and carver in relief.  . . .  Temperamentally and technically ill-equipped to produce naturalistic and expressive statues in the Florentine tradition, Bandinelli was able, however, to copy well from the antique. 

– Erika Langmuir and Norbert Lynton, Yale Dictionary of Art and Artists (2000)