Crucifixion
Sculptures
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Virgin and Child
| Artist | |
|---|---|
| Culture | Italian |
| Date | ca. 1510–1511 |
| Object type | sculpture |
| Medium, technique | wax, canvas, gilded |
| Dimensions | 65.5 x 23.5 x 19 cm |
| Inventory number | 1177 |
| Collection | Sculptures |
| On view | Museum of Fine Arts, Second Floor, European Sculpture 1350-1800, Gallery 2 |
When the sculptures adorning public spaces in Renaissance Florence were commissioned, the artist was often selected by an open competition. The participants had to make a model sculpture from clay or wax, which was judged by a jury consisting of artists, town aldermen, or delegates from aristocratic families. This small-scale sculpture by Jacopo Sansovino was made for just such a competition.
Around 1510-11 it was planned to erect a marble statue of the Madonna on the facade of the market Mercato Nuovo, and Sansovino entered the competition with this wax model. Because wax is highly malleable, it was particularly suitable for making models: if the artist wished to alter the form, he simply had to warm it, and he could add or remove the material as he pleased. One unusual technical feature of the statue is that the bodies of the two figures are not supported by an armature. They were so cleverly composed by Sansovino, who was both a sculptor and an architect, that they support one another with their own weight. The artist dipped the drapery serving as the Virgin’s attire in glue and coated it with a layer of wax of varying thickness, then covered the surface of the entire statue in gold.
Although this maquette won Sansovino the competition, the commission went not to him, but to a rival with political connections, Baccio Bandinelli. Sansovino’s winning entry must then have passed to one of his painter friends, Andrea del Sarto, who used it as a model for two works.
Manga Pattantyús
Catalogue entry
In the early 1510s, a competition was announced in Florence for the making of a marble statue of “Our Lady” (the Virgin Mary), which would decorate the facade of what was then the Mercato Nuovo building. Participants in the competition included Baccio Bandinelli (1493–1560) and Jacopo Sansovino, as well as other sculptors from Florence and elsewhere, including Baccio da Montelupo (Bartolomeo di Giovanni d’Astore dei Sinibaldi, 1469– 1523), who had already made a name for himself as the creator of several major works, and Zaccharia Zacchi (1473–1544), a native of Arezzo who was residing in Volterra and who tended to make terracotta statues.
Although born in Florence, Sansovino had returned to the city only shortly before the announcement of the competition. He had come from Rome, the Eternal City, where he spent most of his time, alongside sojourns in Venice. He was linked to his native city by just two periods of artistic activity: the first period was 1502–1505, when he had studied in the workshop of the sculptor Andrea Sansovino (whose name he later adopted, as a mark of his respect for his former teacher), and several years during the period 1510–1518. One of the works completed during the latter period was a statue of the Virgin Mary, which he then submitted as model for the statue competition.
The statuette in Budapest is special not only because it is made from wax, being in fact the oldest of the surviving wax models. A further special feature of the statue is its modelling: it was made without an internal frame. The Virgin’s richly pleated dress was modelled from canvas dipped in stucco, to which a further layer of wax was added. Gilded wax covers the entire surface of the statue.
Sansovino, when making his statues, tended to make models rather than drawings, modelling so not only from wax but also from clay, a material often used for this purpose. In his work on the lives of artists and sculptors, entitled Le Vite, Giorgio Vasari mentions no fewer than ten models made by the sculptor Sansovino, emphasising that his models were held in the same esteem as his finished works. Proof of all this is that the papal chancellor, Giovanni Gaddi, began to collect the models by Sansovino even while the artist was still alive.
In terms of its composition, details, and the Virgin Mary’s facial type, the Budapest statue exhibits an affinity with works by Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530), a childhood friend of Sansovino, including the figure of Caritas in the Chiostro dello Scalzo in Florence and the figure of the Virgin from the Annunciation group in the Monastery of San Gallo (now held at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence). However, there may be a more prosaic reason for the stylistic affinity, namely the fact that the two sculptors ran a joint workshop between 1510 and 1517.
Although the chair of the adjudicative body, the famous Florentine painter Lorenzo di Credi, judged the statue model by Sansovino to be the best of the models submitted by the various contestants, in the end the commission was won by Sansovino’s rival, Baccio Bandinelli, who apparently had better political connections.
Manga Pattantyús
Although born in Florence, Sansovino had returned to the city only shortly before the announcement of the competition. He had come from Rome, the Eternal City, where he spent most of his time, alongside sojourns in Venice. He was linked to his native city by just two periods of artistic activity: the first period was 1502–1505, when he had studied in the workshop of the sculptor Andrea Sansovino (whose name he later adopted, as a mark of his respect for his former teacher), and several years during the period 1510–1518. One of the works completed during the latter period was a statue of the Virgin Mary, which he then submitted as model for the statue competition.
The statuette in Budapest is special not only because it is made from wax, being in fact the oldest of the surviving wax models. A further special feature of the statue is its modelling: it was made without an internal frame. The Virgin’s richly pleated dress was modelled from canvas dipped in stucco, to which a further layer of wax was added. Gilded wax covers the entire surface of the statue.
Sansovino, when making his statues, tended to make models rather than drawings, modelling so not only from wax but also from clay, a material often used for this purpose. In his work on the lives of artists and sculptors, entitled Le Vite, Giorgio Vasari mentions no fewer than ten models made by the sculptor Sansovino, emphasising that his models were held in the same esteem as his finished works. Proof of all this is that the papal chancellor, Giovanni Gaddi, began to collect the models by Sansovino even while the artist was still alive.
In terms of its composition, details, and the Virgin Mary’s facial type, the Budapest statue exhibits an affinity with works by Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530), a childhood friend of Sansovino, including the figure of Caritas in the Chiostro dello Scalzo in Florence and the figure of the Virgin from the Annunciation group in the Monastery of San Gallo (now held at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence). However, there may be a more prosaic reason for the stylistic affinity, namely the fact that the two sculptors ran a joint workshop between 1510 and 1517.
Although the chair of the adjudicative body, the famous Florentine painter Lorenzo di Credi, judged the statue model by Sansovino to be the best of the models submitted by the various contestants, in the end the commission was won by Sansovino’s rival, Baccio Bandinelli, who apparently had better political connections.
Manga Pattantyús
References
Balogh, Jolán, Katalog der ausländischen Bildwerke des Museums der bildenden Künste in Budapest, IV – XVIII. Jahrhundert: 1. Textband Bd. 1, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1975, p. 113., no. 141.
Dal Poggetto, Maria Grazia Ciardi Dupré, “Recensione – Jolán Balogh, Katalog der ausländischen Bildwerke der Museums der bildenden Künste in Budapest. IV-XVIII Jahrhundert Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1975 Vols. 2: I, Textband; II, Bildband.”, Prospettiva 8-11 (1977), p. 63-67.
Szmodisné Eszláry, Éva, A Régi Szoborgyűjtemény kincsei, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 1994, p. 25-26.
Szmodisné Eszláry, Éva, The treasures of the Old Sculpture collection, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 1994, p. 26.
The Museum of Fine Arts Budapest: guide, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2006, p. 141-142, no. 186.
Museum of Fine Arts: highlights from the collection, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 2019, p. 160-161.
Szépművészeti Múzeum: Remekművek az ókortól a 18. század végéig, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 2019, p. 160-161.
Museum of Fine Arts: Highlights from the Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2019, p. 160-161.
Masterpieces: Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2019, p. 77.
Remekművek: Szépművészeti Múzeum, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 2019, p. 77.
Múzeumi kalauz: Vezető a Szépművészeti Múzeum régi gyűjteményeihez, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 2021, p. 125.
Museum Guide: Old collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2021, p. 125.
This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.
Further artworks from this collection