BULLETIN
OF THE METROPOLITAN
MUSEUM
OF ART
With the advent of machine-made net
many needleworkers turned their skill to
embroidering net grounds in simulation of
lace. A handsome veil worked in such manner with an all-over pattern of small sprays
and a border of floral forms and scrolls in
black silk is the gift of Mrs. Alexander G.
Cummins.5 The piece was made by Elizabeth Houghton (1794-1872) of Guilford,
Vermont, great-grandmother of the donor,
possibly as an effective accessory to her
fashionable poke bonnet.
at the very foundation of female virtue and
domestic accomplishment. One, a sampler,
dated i8o6, records the achievements of a
ten-year-old, in gay, if somewhat faded,
silks on a linen ground with the familiar
elements of alphabet, verse, and running
borders in cross-, satin-, and tent-stitch.3
The other, in its original gilt frame, is
MARSHALLDAVIDSON.
ALPHEUS AND ARETHUSA
A MARBLE GROUP BY
BATTISTA LORENZI
SILVER
CASTER
RHODE
BY NATHANIEL
ISLAND,
ABOUT
The Museum has recognized for some
years the need of strengthening its collection of renaissance sculpture. With this end
in view it purchased in 1936 the great figure
of Adam from the tomb of Doge Andrea
Vendramin, thereby coming into possession
of what has rightly been held to be Tullio
Lombardo's masterpiece. The installation
of this fine Venetian fifteenth-century
marble in the gallery of renaissance sculpture (C 22) had an immediate tonic effect
on the collection as a whole. It is with considerable elation, therefore, that announcement is made of another distinguished
acquisition in this field-a marble group
representing Alpheus and Arethusa (fig. 2)1
by the sixteenth-century Florentine sculptor Battista Lorenzi (1527? -1594). This
is now shown for the first time in the Room
of Recent Accessions.
The history of the Museum's new sculpture, like that of the Adam by Lombardo,
is fortunately complete. Presumably the
group was made between the years 1568
and 1584; for it is not mentioned among
Lorenzi's works in the 1568 edition of
Vasari's Lives (an indication that it probably did not then exist), whereas sixteen
years later, it is noted by Raffaello Borghini
in II Riposo (Florence, I584). Borghini in
speaking of Lorenzi says: "By his hand
are two graceful marble figures, the one
HELME
1785
several years later in date.4 It also is worked
in bright-colored silks and depicts a pastoral
scene with typical romantic properties-a
piping shepherd attended by his eager dog,
his flock, and the inevitable shepherdess
with her crook. The sky, the dog, and the
features of the principals are water-colored
on the silk ground, but the main parts of
the composition are worked in outline
stitch and French knots. On the covering
glass, painted to an oval, is inscribed
Evelina Hull CharlestownAcademy.
5Acc. no. 39.1 51.2. H. i834 in., w. 42/4 in.
1 Acc. no. 40.33. Fletcher Fund. H. 582 in.
Acc. no. 39.126.2. H. 16'2 in., w. I6' in.
4 Acc. no.
39.126. I. H. 162 in., w. 184 in.
3
6i
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PUBLISHED
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BULLETIN
THE
CENTS
OF
METROPOLITAN
MUSEUM
ART
OF
NEW
VOLUMEXXXV
HEAD OF ALPHEUS.
ALPHEUS
YORK,
DETAIL
MARCH,
OF A MARBLE
AND ARETHUSA
NUMBER 3
1940
GROUP REPRESENTING
BY BATTISTA
LORENZI
BULLETIN
OF THE METROPOLITAN
intended to represent the river Alpheus,
the other the fountain Arethusa, above the
fountain in the beautiful garden of Messer
Alamanno Bandini, Knight of Malta, at
his villa called I1 Paradiso."2 In 1653 this
villa-at Pian di Ripoli on the outskirts
of Florence-and with it Lorenzi's group,
passed by marriage to the Niccolini family,3
in whose possession it remained until 1830.
In that year the estate was sold, but the
sculpture was transported to the Niccolini
town house in Florence. Shortly after 1865
MUSEUM
OF ART
temptation, she cast aside her garments and
stepped into the cool waters. But her
pleasure was all too brief; for scarcely had
she commenced to bathe when a voice
called faintly from the stream's mysterious
depths. Frightened, she fled to the bank
and across the countryside, the river-god
Alpheus close in pursuit. At last, nearly
overcome with exhaustion, Arethusa called
upon Diana for help and the goddess came
to her aid, transforming her into a fountain
just as she was finally overtaken.
PHOTOGRAPH,
FIG.
I. GROTTO IN THE GARDEN
OF THE VILLA IL PARADISO
it was lent to the newly founded Museo
Nazionale in the Bargello, where it was
exhibited
continuously
NEAR
ALINARI
FLORENCE
Lorenzi's group portrays that thrilling
instant before the metamorphosis. Alpheus
has caught up with his fair quarry and is
in the act of restraining her. They are both
still running as he passes his left arm over
her shoulder in a final attempt at capture.
In his right hand he carries a vase, the
traditional attribute of a river-god. His
handsome head is turned toward Arethusa,
and his face wears an expression of intense
longing. She looks upward beseechingly as
she implores Diana to protect her.
The subject was obviously appropriate to
the purpose for which the sculpture was
designed. The figures stood upon a high
pedestal at the back of a large basin in an
arcaded grotto (fig. I). Water poured forth
from the vase in Alpheus's hand and prob-
until 1927. At this
time the Marchese Paolo Niccolini, to
whom it had descended, withdrew the
group from the Bargello and removed it
to his villa at Carmignano. From there it
came directly to the Museum.
For this subject Lorenzi chose the most
dramatic moment in one of the most delightful of classical myths. The story goes
that the lovely wood nymph Arethusa,
heated after a day of strenuous hunting,
found herself at the edge of a clear and
silent-flowing stream. Unable to resist the
2 Page 598.
3 Or, according to one authority, by inheritance in 1685.
62
FIG. 2. ALPHEUS
MARBLE
FLORENTINE,
GROUP
SECOND
AND ARETHUSA
BY BATTISTA
LORENZI
HALF OF THE XVI CENTURY
BULLETIN
OF THE METROPOLITAN
ably dripped upon the group from above.4
High up in the back wall an irregular opening permitted a glimpse of the Italian sky.
The spacious grotto, which provided a dim,
cool setting for the gleaming marble pair,
was thoroughly redecorated with rococo
ornament in the eighteenth century, but
the original pedestal, undisturbed, still remains in testimony to the vanished group.
Lorenzi is a sculptor little known today,
chiefly because much of his work has disappeared. Vasari describes him as "a young
man no less excellent in sculpture than
remarkable for his goodness, modesty, and
fine character."5 Giovanni Battista di
Domenico Lorenzi, to give him his full
name, was born at Settignano in 1527 or
1528. He was a pupil of the celebrated
Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli (14931560); and as the result of close association
with his master, who bore the title cavaliere,
he came to be generally known as Battista
del Cavaliere.
The following works by him are mentioned by either Vasari6or Borghini7:
(A) A (marble ?) figure of a boy, part of
the decoration of a statue of Pope Paul IV
in the Campidoglio in Rome. Executed
presumably before I559. (Probably destroyed.)
(B) The allegorical figure of Painting8
and the portrait bust of Michelangelo,9 both
in marble, on the latter's tomb in the
Church of Santa Croce in Florence. Also
the architectural elements of the tomb after
designs by Giorgio Vasari. Executed between 1563 and 1574. (Still in place.)
(c) Four marble statues representing the
Seasons. Executed prior to 1568 for a gar4 A certainamountof corrosionof the marble
indicatesthis. At sometime in the past the group
was completelypainted as a protectionagainst
the water.Whatwas left of this paintwas pretty
muchremovedin 1927,andonly a few tracesnow
remain.
5GiorgioVasari,LeVitede'piueccellenti
pittori,
scultori, ed architettori (Florence, 1568), part 3,
vol. 2, p. 790.
6
Op.cit., pp. 796,879.
7 Op. cit., pp. o8, o09,598, 599.
8 Bertha Harris Wiles, The Fountains of Florentine Sculptors and Their Followers from Donatello
to Bernini (Harvard University Press, 1933),
fig. 68.
9 Adolfo Venturi, Storia dell' arte italiana
(Milan, 1936), vol. x, part 11,fig. 376.
64
MUSEUM
OF ART
den on the French estate of one of the
Guadagni family of Florence. (Location
now unknown.)
(D) A marble fountain in the form of a
great tazza, on which was seated the figure
of a Triton supported by three dolphins.
Presented to a Spanish acquaintance by the
Grand Duke Cosimo I. Executed presumably between 1569 and 1571. (Location un-
certain; possibly the group now in the
courtyard of the Museo Nazionale at
Palermo [cf. Wiles, op. cit., p. 137].)
(E) A marble statue of Perseus.l1 Executed presumably between 1568 and 1584
for Jacopo Salviati. (Now in the Palazzo
Nonfinito in Florence.)
(F) A statue in Macigno stone representing a river-god. Executed for Jacopo
Salviati presumably between 1568 and
1584. (Location now unknown )
(c) A marble statue representing Alpheus
and Arethusa. Executed presumably between 1568 and 1584 for a fountain in the
garden of Alamanno Bandini at his villa,
II Paradiso. (Now in the Metropolitan
Museum.)
(H) A marble statue of Saint Michael
and the Devil. Executed about 1584 for
Giulio Riccio da Montepulciano for export
to Spain. (Location now unknown.)
In addition to the sculptures listed above,
certain works executed by Lorenzi for the
cathedral at Pisa still exist. In 1583 and at
various times thereafter he was in the employ of the cathedral authorities and. indeed, was in Pisa at the time of his death in
1594. He worked upon the architectural
decoration of several chapels there and
made the marble statue of Sant' Efiso,1l the
patron saint of Pisa, in the chapel of San
Ranieri. In 1584 he supplied the cathedral
with the model for the bronze lantern12
traditionally associated with Galileo's discovery of the law of the pendulum. This,
although the tradition is now discredited,
is still, ironically enough, Lorenzi's greatest
claim to fame.
Presumably, during the sixty-seven years
of his life, Lorenzi carried out other projects than those mentioned, but unfortu10Wiles,op.cit.,fig.67.
11 Roberto Papini,Pisa (Rome, 1912), fig. 37.
12
Venturi,op.cit.,fig. 377.
BULLETIN
OF THE METROPOLITAN
nately they are now lost sight of. Our
knowledge of his sculptural style must,
therefore, be gained from some half a dozen
examples of his work. All these are in the
mannered pseudoclassical style that prevailed in Italy in the second half of the
sixteenth century. They are all graceful and
happily avoid the pompousness and somewhat empty strength which too frequently
mar the style of his master, Bandinelli.
In the group of Alpheus and Arethusa
Lorenzi succeeded in representing movement with an effectiveness and conviction
rarely encountered in the period. In fact,
the suddenly arrested flight has been here
set forth with a verisimilitude which is
nothing short of startling. Bernini's familiar
Apollo and Daphne, a related composition
executed some fifty years later,13 becomes
by comparison saccharine and artificial.
The figures themselves are carried out with
admirable sensitivity and reserve. Classical
influence is most apparent in the heads,
especially in that of Arethusa, which if detached from her body might almost pass
for a fragment of classical antiquity. Its
expression, though one of pleading, is
stylized and impersonal. The head of Alpheus (see the cover), on the other hand, is
less eclectic, the face flooded with serious
and tense emotion. The two bodies are
beautifully modeled. The torso of Alpheus,
its muscles strained with the exertion of
running, presents an unusually responsive
surface to the play of light and shade. To
this the simple planes of Arethusa's body
provide an effective contrast.
In conclusion attention may rightly be
called to the happy relation between theme
and style which the group of Alpheus and
Arethusa displays. The engaging subject of
the classical myth and the pleasing pseudoclassical style of the sculpture are ideally
suited to each other. It is, indeed, difficult
to see how Lorenzi's group can fail, both in
sentiment and in beauty, to have a wide
appeal.
PRESTON REMINGTON.
13 The
Apollo and Daphne was completed in
1625 and is now in the Borghese Gallery in Rome.
It has been suggested that Bernini may have
known the group of Alpheus and Arethusa and
based his composition upon it.
65
MUSEUM OF ART
A FAIENCE BROAD COLLAR OF
THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY
The discovery of vitreous glaze in Egypt,
which took place at a very remote period,
was probably accidental, and its advantages
were not recognized until the chance combination with a copper compound turned
the glaze blue or green. It then became easy
to produce beads and other ornaments
which closely resembled those cut from
lapis lazuli, turquoise, and green felspar.
Instead of working laboriously at shaping
his beads in these hard stones, the craftsman cut them from the much softer steatite
and coated them with the glaze, thus giving
them a hard surface and colors close enough
to those of the stones they imitated to
satisfy most of his customers. Such beads
are found in graves of the Badarian period
and date at least as early as the beginning
of the fourth millennium B.C.
A development of the art of glazing was
the substitution of a paste of ground quartz
for the steatite base and the molding of the
material not only into beads but into vessels, tiles, and figures of animals and human
beings. This ware, which we call Egyptian
faience, was manufactured throughout the
history of ancient Egyptian civilization.
The craftsmen developed increasingly elaborate forms and extended the range of
colors as they discovered the effect which
the addition of various metallic compounds
would have on the vitreous glaze. Red as a
substitute for the favorite carnelian was
attempted as early as the Old Kingdom;
but the color produced then was fugitive,
and carnelian is often found used in necklaces where the other beads are made of
blue and green faience. It was not until the
Eighteenth Dynasty that the artisan had a
full palette, so to speak, at his disposal. At
this period, too, he developed whatever
forms his fancy might dictate, having progressed beyond the spheres, cylinders, barrels, and other simple shapes to which the
worker in hard stone had been limited.
The most ostentatious piece of jewelry
generally worn by the Egyptians, both men
and women, was the broad collar.1 It must
1 So called becauseof its
shape. The ancient
Egyptiansgaveit the samename.