Museo Nazionale del Bargello I
The Bargello has three floors (Click here for the floor plans and click for the architecture of the Bargello) and has many statues, ivory, pottery, silverware, paintings and armour. In short, far too much to see everything. Unfortunately, we have to work selectively and will only look at a small part of the overwhelming amount of art.
Tino di Camaino, ‘Madonna with Child‘ 1321
Paolo di Giovanni ‘Madonna and Child Peter and Paul’ c. 1329
We can do a walk that shows the history of sculpture and start in the room where statues from the Middle Ages are displayed, including the statue by Tino di Camaino, ‘Madonna with Child‘, which we have already discussed. Because of the chronological aspect of this story about sculpture, however, we first walk to the main hall on the ground floor, where three sculptures by Michelangelo, among others, can be seen. In this large room two statues of Bacchus stand next to each other so we can compare them beautifully. First we look at the god of wine, a statue by Buonarroti.
Daniele da Volterra ‘Michelangelo’ Bargello
In this large room two statues of Bacchus stand next to each other so we can compare them beautifully. First we look at the god of wine, a statue by Buonarroti.
Michelangelo has carved a sleeping cupid, a work that has now disappeared. This statue was so beautiful that one Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici proposed to make an antique statue of it and sell it. So to put it this way: the statue was buried for a while and worked on later. Lorenzo sold the ‘classic cupid’ in Rome for a lot of money to Cardinal Riario. ‘Giulio Romano’s Young Jupiter in National Gallery, London, possibly contains a citation of Michelangelo’s Sleeping Cupid.’ Source: Wikipedia Italiano
According to the biographers, Vasari and Condivi, it was of course entirely the fault of that cunning Pierfrancesco. However, the forgery was quickly discovered.
Michelangelo ‘Bacchus’ c. 1496 Side Rear
Riario asked his banker, Jacopo Galli, to visit Michelangelo in Florence and ask him about this forgery. Buonarroti immediately admitted that it was a work by his hand. Galli took Michelangelo to Rome. The cardinal forgave the young sculptor and invited him to live in his villa. Riario, according to a letter from Michelangelo, had asked him what he thought of his sculpture collection. Riario asked Michelangelo to make a sculpture that would be as beautiful as the sculptures in his collection. This ended up being the Bacchus, which was made between 1496 and 1497 for the courtyard of the Palazzo Cancelleria. The client wanted an all’antica statue. What Michelangelo made, however, was certainly not a variant of the classical god of wine, but a highly original and daring Bacchus. This was also the reason the cardinal did not purchase it.
The statue differed too much from the classic statues. This allowed the banker Galli to buy the Bacchus. Galli placed the statue in the garden, where the Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck ended up drawing it, but he did draw a broken arm, which seemed more authentic to him for a ‘classical’ statue. Michelangelo’s statue was the only modern statue in the garden.
Maarten van Heemskerck ‘The garden of Casa Galli’ 1532 – 1536’
Bacchus is accompanied by a small satyr, a common sight in classical sculpture groups. Of course the satyr was placed by the standing leg, because it needed additional support.
The appearance of the modern Bacchus is not at all classic. In terms of interpretation, Condivi writes: ‘its form and appearance corresponds in all respects to what the classical writers intended.’ Each part had to be as the classical writers had described it: the eyes looking slightly tilted and a lustful gaze as if he would surrender completely to wine and love. In his hair are grapes and on the left is a tiger skin (the animal dedicated to Bacchus). Additionally, we see a satyr who holds a bunch of grapes and eats them. It is a classic Dionysos as Pliny and Philostratus describe it. So while Michelangelo does adhere to the literary descriptions, his Bacchus does not resemble the classical statues with this theme or this god in any way.
Vasari describes the god of wine: ‘[…] A ten palm-high Bacchus figure, with in his right hand a drinking bowl and in the left hand a tiger skin and a bunch of grapes, from which a satyr tries to eat; this figure clearly shows how Michelangelo sought a certain mixture of beautiful parts, in particular by giving it the slenderness of male youth together with the fleshiness and curves of the woman: this is so admirably achieved that he showed that he is more outstanding in sculpture than anyone else up to today.’ Translated from: Giorgio Vasari, De Levens van de grootste schilders, beeldhouwers en architecten Van Cimabue tot Giorgione, Contact, Amsterdam, 1990 Deel I blz. 205 (originele editie 1568)’
The not-so-heroic Bacchus not only has ‘the fleshiness and curves of a woman,’ but is above all tipsy. His posture and open mouth indicate that Bacchus has already drunk a lot and is about to take a sip again. His posture does not make a particularly stable impression. It seems as if Michelangelo returns to the centaurs of the battle relief who had also drunk too much which brought out their primal side. The alcohol makes Bacchus look ridiculous and makes him effeminate. The head is clearly too small in relation to the body. A god, once heroic, who has not developed himself mentally and physically.
Michelangelo’s Bacchus is by no means classical, as its divine and idealising character is severely damaged, even mocked. This wine god is unhealthy and amoral. The Bacchus was bought by Francesco de’Medici in 1572 for 240 ducats and in 1873 the statue was placed in Bargello. Now we look at the wine god of Sansovino who is close to the Bacchus of Michelangelo.
Jacopo Sansovino ‘Bacchus’ (left) and Michelangelo ‘Bacchus’ (right)
Jacopo Sansovino ‘Bacchus’ 1515
Sansovino made this sculpture about fifteen years after Michelangelo’s Bacchus. The young up-and-coming sculptor Jacopo Sansovino naturally wanted to surpass Michelangelo. One way to surpass a work of art or artist was to make something that had not been done before and was extremely difficult. We have already seen this in the description of the ‘Sacrifice of Isaac’ by Antonio Manetti of his friend Brunelleschi. The difficulty that Sansovino shows here is the far outstretched left arm of Bacchus and the way in which the drinking dish is partly carried by the tips of the fingers. If you compare this with Michelangelo’s Bacchus, you will notice that Buonarroti has placed the hand holding the dish much closer to the body.
Jacopo Sansovino ‘Bacchus’
Two faces of Bacchus: Sansovino Michelangelo
It will be clear that this Bacchus of Jacopo does not mock or is in conflict with the more heroic Bacchus as the classical sculptors depict their god of wine. Sansovino’s figure is slimmer and his head is no longer a pinhead. The cup is held up by the hand. This does not so much indicate drinking, but rather an attitude of joy.
Sansovino made this sculpture about fifteen years after Michelangelo’s Bacchus. The young up-and-coming sculptor Jacopo Sansovino naturally wanted to surpass Michelangelo. One way to surpass a work of art or artist was to make something that had not been done before and was extremely difficult. We have already seen this in the description of the ‘Sacrifice of Isaac’ by Antonio Manetti of his friend Brunelleschi. The difficulty that Sansovino shows here is the far outstretched left arm of Bacchus and the way in which the drinking dish is partly carried by the tips of the fingers. If you compare this with Michelangelo’s Bacchus, you will notice that Buonarroti has placed the hand holding the dish much closer to the body.
‘[…] commenced studying a pupil of his, Pippo del Fabbro, by having him pose naked for a good part of the day, although it was winter. This Pippo eventually became a skilful master, because he made every effort to match his teacher. But whether it came from posing naked in winter, or from too much study and suffering discomforts, before the Bacchus was completed, he lost his mind from having to always adopt the same posture. And this became clear when one day it rained terribly hard and Sansovino called him. Pippo did not answer, and only then did Sansovino see him on top of the roof on top of a chimney, while he imitated the posture of his Bacchus. On other occasions he grabbed sheets and other large pieces of wet cloth, which he draped around his naked body, as if he were a model of clay or a rag doll and he even arranged the folds. Then he jumped out at the strangest places. And, somehow assuming the position of a prophet, an apostle, a soldier, or something else, he let himself be traced, thus standing still for two hours without saying anything, as if he were nothing but an immobile statue. And he pulled many more such crazy antics. But above all, he could never forget the Bacchus of Sansovino, until he died a few years later.’ Thus Vasari in his Life about Jacopo Sansovino, quoted and translated from: Ghislain Kieft, ‘Het brein van Michelangelo’ Kunst, kunsttheorie en de constructie van het beeld in de Italiaanse Renaissancen’ Proefschrift (Thesis) Utrecht 1994 blz. 30-31
If you look closely at the statue and especially at the hand holding the drinking dish, you can see that the sculptor, Sansovino, indeed had to overcome a real difficultà.
A fire in 1762 destroyed the god of wine. A restoration was inevitable and you can still see this clearly. In the same room where we are now, there are other works by Michelangelo that we are going to see.
Continuation Florence day 4: Museo Nazionale del Bargello II