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Giovanni Bandini’s bronze Crucifix and candlesticks
made for Urbino Cathedral
b y LORENZO PRINCIPI
IN 1584, THE year that Raffaello Borghini’s Il Riposo was published, the sculptor Giovanni Bandini, also known as Giovanni
dell’Opera (1539/40–1599), was yet to make most of the works
he created for Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino
(1549–1631), at his court at Pesaro, where the sculptor spent long
periods between 1582 and his death in 1599.1 Concluding his
biography of Bandini, who has been called the ‘last great sculptor
in the territory of Urbino, during those dying days of ducal civilisation’,2 Borghini refers to one of the first commissions Bandini
made for the Duke – the bronze Hunt of Meleager (1583; Museo
del Prado, Madrid) – and expresses confidence in his progress:
it is to be hoped that this work will be done very beautifully
as are all of his others since he understands design very well and
is very experienced in working and carefully observing all the
good considerations that the sculptor is given to have. And
finding himself at forty-four years of age, it can be believed
that he will come to greater perfection in working so that he
will be able to climb a little higher.3
The works Bandini produced in the Marche are recorded in
the Duke’s account books; those carved in marble were the busts
of Francesco Maria I della Rovere (1582) and Francesco Maria II della
Rovere (1583; modified by Giovan Battista Foggini in 1691; both
Villa del Poggio Imperiale, Florence), the statue of Francesco Maria
I della Rovere (1585–87; Doge’s Palace, Venice), the Pietà (1585–
88; Oratorio della Grotta, Urbino) and the tomb of Francesco
Maria I della Rovere (1587), the fragments of which are in the
church of the former monastery of S. Chiara in Urbino.4
The works in precious metals mentioned in the Duke’s
I would like to thank Dimitrios Zikos who has guided me in this research. I would
also like to thank Davide Gambino, Giancarlo Gentilini, Francesca Girelli, Mariangela Guido, Carlo and Giacomo Montanari, Ruth Taylor and Lucio Tomei for their
invaluable assistance. I am also grateful to Sara Bartolucci, Emanuela Bracconi and
Mons. Davide Tonti at the Ufficio Arte Sacra e Beni Culturali della Diocesi di
Urbino, Luigi Bravi and Mons. Eugenio Gregoratto at the Archivio Diocesano in
Urbino, Federico Marcucci at the Biblioteca Universitaria di Urbino and P.
Francesco Merletti OFM Conv. at the Archivio Storico della Curia Provinciale dei
Frati Minori Conventuali in Ancona. The photographs of the sculptures in Urbino
were taken by Mauro Magliani and Barbara Piovan, to whom I express my sincere
thanks. This article is dedicated to Maichol Clemente, in memory of our fruitful visit
to Urbino.
1
On Bandini’s activity in Urbino, see E. Calzini: ‘Documenti relativi, tra l’altro,
all’autore del “Cristo morto” nella cripta del duomo di Urbino’, Rassegna bibliografica
dell’arte italiana 17 (1914), pp.93–95; idem: ‘Ancora del “Cristo morto” erroneamente
attribuito al Giambologna’, Rassegna bibliografica dell’arte italiana 19 (1916), pp.133–35;
A. Alippi: ‘Documenti: lavori eseguiti da Giovanni Bandini detto Giovanni dell’
Opera, fiorentino, per Franc. Maria II° della Rovere’, ibid., pp.135–37; U. Middeldorf: ‘Giovanni Bandini detto Giovanni dell’Opera’, Rivista d’arte 9, 4 (1929),
pp.481–518, repr. in idem: Raccolta di scritti, I, 1924–1938, Florence 1979, pp.77–92; G.
Gronau: ‘Appendice: documenti concernenti i rapporti del Duca Francesco Maria II
d’Urbino con Giovanni Bandini e con Giovanni Bologna’, Rivista d’arte 11 (1929),
pp.519–24; P. Rotondi: ‘Contributi all’attività urbinate di Giovanni Bandini detto
dell’Opera’, Urbinum 17, 21 (1942), pp.8–18; L. Moranti: Bibliografia urbinate, Florence 1959, pp.85–86; C. Avery: ‘Giovanni Bandini (1540–99) Reconsidered’, Antologia di Belle Arti 48–51 (1994), pp.16–27; E.D. Schmidt: ‘Giovanni Bandini tra
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account books, however, no longer survive: the golden lantern
(1588–90) for the Marian basilica of the Santa Casa in Loreto, the
seven silver saints for which Giovanni was paid for supplying wax
models in 1592,5 and the golden Crucifix mounted on a jasper
cross with two candlesticks also in jasper for which the Duke paid
him between 29th December 1592 and 1st January 1593,
although without naming the sculptor.6 During his years at the
ducal court, Bandini also made various works in bronze, of
which only the Hunt of Meleager in the Prado has been identified.
The payments for these bronzes are also in the Duke’s account
books, where Bandini is often referred to simply as ‘sculptor’,
without being named.7
On 29th June 1589 Bandini was paid 125 scudi for a ‘Crucified
Christ in bronze’;8 on 3rd October 1590, ‘for two candlesticks in
bronze and for a Cross with mound in the same’ (187 scudi);9 on
13th July 1592, ‘for the manufacture of 4 candlesticks in bronze’
(187.30 scudi);10 on 26th January 1595, for a ‘Crucified living
Christ in bronze’ (68.10 scudi);11 on April 1596, ‘for two candlesticks in the form of Angels, and a cross with mound all in
bronze’ (27 scudi);12 in May 1596, for a ‘Crucifix in bronze
already made by the sculptor Giovanni’ (12 scudi);13 and, finally,
on 14th October 1598: ‘To Giovanni Bandini sculptor for a Crucifix and two Angels for candlesticks in bronze’ (99 scudi).14
The payments Bandini received for bronze sculptures relate to
two separate commissions. In the first instance, the sculptor was
commissioned to make a bronze Christ on the Cross with Mount
Calvary which was completed between 29th June 1589 and 3rd
October 1590; it was accompanied by six bronze candlesticks executed in two consignments between 3rd October 1590 and 13th
Marche e Toscana’, Nuovi studi III, 6 (1999), pp.57–103 (hereafter cited as Schmidt);
R. Morselli: ‘In the Service of Francesco Maria II della Rovere in Pesaro and Urbino
(1549–1631)’, in E. Fumagalli et. al., eds.: The Court Artist in Seventeenth-century Italy,
Rome 2014, pp.49–93, passim; F. Loffredo: ‘Giovanni Bandini’s “Venus” and “Adonis” for the Sevillian House of Juan de Arguijo in a Sonnet by Lope de Vega’, THE
BURLINGTON MAGAZINE 157 (2015), pp.758–63.
2 Rotondi, op. cit. (note 1), p.18: ‘l’ultimo grande scultore in suolo urbinate, in quegli ultimi palpiti di civiltà ducale’.
3 R. Borghini: Il Riposo, Florence 1584, p.640: ‘la qual opera si spera che sarà bellissima,
sicome sono tutte l’altre sue; perciocché egli benissimo intende il disegno et è pratichissimo in
lavorare e diligente osservatore di tutte le buone considerationi, che haver dee lo scultore: e
ritrovandosi in età di 44 anni, si può credere che in operando sarrà a maggior perfettione, come
che poco più in alto possa salire’; the translation is from idem: Il Riposo, ed. L.H. Ellis Jr,
Toronto, Buffalo and London 2007, p.315.
4 Schmidt, passim; M. Visonà: ‘Un ritratto di Anna Maria Luisa dei Medici bambina e
i lari del Poggio Imperiale (riflessioni sul Foggini)’, Paragone 59 (1998), pp.19–30, esp. p.25.
5 For Bandini’s involvement in the making of the lantern, see Schmidt, p.66. The
silver saints have been identified with the sculptures ‘d’altezza più d’un palmo’,
approximately 30 cm., of Sts John the Baptist, Francis, Archangel Michael, Stephen,
Andrew, Peter and Apollonia, which were still in the Palazzo Ducale in Pesaro in
1623–24; see Schmidt, p.91, note 120; and mentioned among the items in the Casteldurante inventory of 1631, see G. Semenza: ‘La quadreria roveresca da Casteldurante
a Firenze: l’ultima dimora della collezione di Francesco Maria II’, in T. Biganti:
L’eredità dei Della Rovere: inventari dei beni di Casteldurante (1631), Urbino 2005, pp.69–
137, esp. p.134. On Giovanni Bandini as a silver sculptor, see Schmidt, pp.65–66; G.
Gentilini (and L. Principi): ‘“Ercole e il centauro” ed altre “Fatiche”: una proposta
per Giovanni Bandini scultore in argento’, Commentari d’arte 18 (2013), pp.50–59.
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8. Crucifix and a set of six candlesticks, by Giovanni Bandini. 1589–92. Bronze. Crucifix 160 by 57 cm.; height of candlesticks, from left to right: 84 cm.; 99 cm.; 113 cm.;
112 cm.; 95 cm.; and 94 cm.; all dimensions include the bases (Museo Diocesano Albani, Urbino).
July 1592.15 In the case of the second commission, however, the
Duke paid Bandini for a bronze Crucifix, probably representing
Christ ‘vivo’ on the Cross,16 paired with two candlesticks in the
form of angels. While the second group of sculptures is now lost,
although the present writer believes it can be identified with the
‘one crucifix in bronze with its base and with two angels made of
the same, for the altar’ listed at no. 2152 in the 1631 inventory of
the works at Casteldurante that were subsequently dispersed,17 the
bronzes of the first commission still survive in Urbino.
This group of bronzes can be identified with a Crucifix on
Mount Calvary and six altar candlesticks in the form of spiralling
intertwined oak branches now in the Museo Diocesano Albani
in Urbino (Fig.8). Given that Bandini was in the Marche in 1589
and 1590, it is reasonable to suppose that he produced the Cru-
6 Schmidt, p.77. This group should be identified with the ‘croce di diaspro con il Christo
d’oro et altri ornamenti d’oro’ and the ‘candelieri doi di diaspro, simili con l’istesso ornamento
d’oro’ listed at numbers 1116 and 1117 in the 1631 Casteldurante inventory, now
dispersed, see Biganti, op. cit. (note 5), p.247 ; see also note 17.
7 Bandini is referred to simply as ‘scultore’ in almost all the payments for the works
he executed for the Duke of Urbino still extant; see Schmidt, pp.71–72 and 76.
8 Archivio di Stato di Firenze (cited hereafter as ASF), Ducato di Urbino, classe III,
vol.23, fol.699v: 29th June 1589, ‘Per il Cristo crocifisso di bronzo nel dì medesimo: 125
scudi’; see Schmidt, p.76.
9 Document cited at note 8, fol.717r, 3rd October 1590, ‘Al scultore per doi candel[ie]ri
di bronzo e per una Croce col monte del medesimo a 3 d’ottobre: 187 scudi’; see Schmidt, p.77.
10 Document cited at note 8, fol.723r, 13th July 1592, ‘Per fattura di 4 candel[ier]i di
bronzo a 13 di luglio: 187.30 scudi’; see Schmidt, p.77.
11 Document cited at note 8, fol.731r, 26th January 1595, ‘Al scultore per un Crocifisso
vivo di bronzo a 26 di gennaio: 68.10 scudi’; see Schmidt, p.77. In August of the same year
(ibid., fol.733r), 14 scudi were paid for ‘un Crocifisso di bronzo fatto da un allievo di Giovanni Bologna’; see Schmidt, p.77; see also note 16 below; Calzini 1914 op. cit. (note
1), p.95, has attempted to identify this pupil of Giambologna as Bandini. No trace of
this work remains but, conceivably, the sculptor of this Crucifix may have been Antonio Susini, Giambologna’s favourite pupil at the time; see D. Zikos: ‘Giovanni Bologna and Antonio Susini: An Old Problem in the Light of New Research’, in P.
Motture et. al., eds.: Carvings, Casts & Collectors: The Art of Renaissance Sculpture, London 2013, pp.194–209. Susini was already identified as a pupil ‘di molta eccellenza’
whom Simone Fortuna recommended to the Duke of Urbino in a letter of 27th October 1580; see P. Barocchi et. al., eds.: Collezionismo mediceo: Cosimo I, Francesco I e il cardinale Ferdinando. Documenti 1540–1587, Modena 1993, p.182, doc.196; D. Gasparotto:
‘I Crocifissi di Giambologna e la tradizione fiorentina’, in A. Di Lorenzo: exh. cat. Il
Crocifisso d’oro del Museo Poldi Pezzoli: Giambologna e Gasparo Mola, Milan (Museo
Poldi Pezzoli) 2011, pp. 9–22, esp. p.12. It might otherwise refer to the Flemish sculptor Adriaen de Vries, who in March 1581 received silver from the ducal Guardaroba
to cast, on Giambologna’s instructions, two Crucifixes to be sent to Spain; see F.
Scholten: ‘Adriaen de Vries, Imperial Sculptor’, in F. Scholten: exh. cat. Adriaen de
Vries, 1556–1626, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum), Stockholm (Nationalmuseum) and Los
Angeles (J. Paul Getty Museum) 1998–2000 (ed. 1999), pp.13–45, esp. p.15.
12 Document cited at note 8, fol.735r, April 1596, ‘Per doi cand[elie]ri fatti a Angeli et
una croce col monte tutti di bronzo: 27 scudi’; see Schmidt, p.77.
13 Document cited at note 8, fol.735r: May 1596, ‘Crocifisso di bronzo fatto già da Giovanni scultore: 12 scudi’; see Schmidt, p.77.
14 Document cited at note 8, fol.743r, 14th October 1598, ‘A Giovanni Bandini scultore per un Crocifisso et doi Angeli per cand[elie]ri di bronzo a 14 d’ottobre: 99 scudi’; see
Schmidt, p.77.
15 Considering that in the payment made on 3rd October 1590, Bandini received 187
lire for two candlesticks, the cross and the mount, while on 13th July 1592 he
received a further 187.30 lire for the four remaining candlesticks, we can assume that
the first payment must refer to the two larger ones.
16 It is more difficult to guess to which of the three Crucifixes executed for the Della
Rovere court the Duke is referring when he recorded the expenditure of 12 scudi in
May 1596 for a ‘Crocifisso di bronzo fatto già da Giovanni scultore’ (see note 13), but this
was probably an additional payment for the ‘Crocifisso vivo’ already paid for on 26th
January 1595; see note 11, above.
17 Biganti, op. cit. (note 5), p.355, no.2152: ‘crocifisso uno di bronzo col suo piede et con
doi angeli del medesimo, per l’altare’. The gold Crucifix on the jasper cross and the
matching candlesticks paid for between 29th December 1592 and 1st January 1593
also ended up in Casteldurante; see note 6, above.
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9. Detail of the Crucifix illustrated in Fig.8.
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cifix and the two candlesticks in his Pesaro workshop.18 Following a sojourn in Florence probably made between October 1590
and September 1591,19 as can be inferred from documents, the
sculptor returned to the Adriatic coast in order to make the silver
statues and also to cast the remaining four candlesticks. That the
Christ now in the Museo Diocesano Albani should be identified
with the one paid for on 29th June 1589, and not with the payment in October 1598,20 can be inferred from the account of Fra’
Orazio Civalli who visited the Cathedral between 1594 and 1597
and recalls the bronzes already being in place on the high altar.
Civalli describes ‘a large Cross with its Crucified Christ and six
Candlesticks in bronze made of oak branches’ on the ‘high altar’
of the ‘Archidiocese church’,21 namely the cathedral of S. Maria
Assunta.
The Crucified Christ is characterised by the meticulous rendering of the anatomical and facial details, the hair, the beard and
the crown of thorns (Fig.9). The bronze was cast using the lostwax method, and close examination reveals the joints between
the shoulders and the arms, suggesting that the work may have
been cast in three separate pieces that were subsequently fused.
The face reveals different degrees of finish: its right-hand side,
almost resting on the chest, has no sign of repolishing, while the
10. Detail of a candlestick illustrated in Fig.8.
18
11. Detail of a candlestick illustrated in Fig.8.
Schmidt, pp.62–63.
Schmidt, pp.68–69; L. Zangheri: Gli Accademici del Disegno: Elenco alfabetico, Florence 2000, p.20.
20 The possiblity that the Crucifix discussed here might be identified as the ‘Crocifisso
vivo’ mentioned in January 1595 can be excluded for iconographical reasons.
21 O. Civalli: Visita triennale di F. Orazio Civalli maceratese dell’ordine de’ Minori
Conventuali Ministro Provinciale nella Marca Anconitana parte istorica ossia Memorie storiche riguardanti i diversi luoghi di essa provincia raccolte dall’autore nel tempo del suo provincialato, in G. Colucci: Antichità picene 25 (1795), pp.155–215, esp. p.189: ‘All’altar
maggiore vi è una Croce grande con il suo Crocifisso e Candelieri sei di bronzo fatti a rame di
cerqua’. As can be inferred from the unpublished typescript in the Archivio dell’
Ordine dei Frati Minori Conventuali della Curia Provinciale di Ancona, F. Merletti:
Dizionario bio-bibliografico dei Frati Minori Conventuali della Provincia delle Marche (secoli
XIII–XX), 2007, p.135, Civalli was provincial minister of the Conventual Franciscans in the Marche from 1594 to 1597. The manuscript is identical to the published
text. Mons. Eugenio Gregoratto and Luigi Bravi report that among the papers in the
19
left-hand, more visible side shows signs of a light cold-finishing,
also evident in the treatment of the hair, particularly in the
flowing locks on the left of the head (Figs.13 and 15). The surface
of the body is chiselled and more highly polished, and there are
traces of a red varnish still visible on the body and the loincloth,
confirming the bronzecaster’s Florentine origin. As is well
known, in 1586 Antonio Susini had already adopted this technique for the bronzes that were transferred from the Studiolo of
Francesco I de’ Medici in Palazzo Vecchio to the Tribuna in the
Uffizi.22 Bandini’s cross, adorned with an elegant titulus crucis,
rests on a bronze mount imitating the irregular terrain. In a cavity
at the centre of Mount Calvary are placed a realistic skull and two
tibiae, alluding to Adam’s burial place. The considerable size of
the Crucifix 23 would suggest that it was destined for an altar.
Similar technical characteristics can also be seen in the candlesticks, which are divided into three pairs of differing sizes,24 and
which were evidently intended to flank the Crucifix. The candlesticks evoke the trunk of an oak tree – an obvious reference to
the Della Rovere emblem – its roots emerging from the ground,
and dividing into three sinuously intertwined branches that gradually become more slender towards the tips, which support the
socles for the candles. Sections of the trunks and many of the
12. Detail of a candlestick illustrated in Fig.8.
Archivio del Capitolo Metropolitano di Urbino and of the Archivio della Curia
Arcivescovile di Urbino there is no mention of the Crucifix and candlesticks in the
pastoral visits of Mons. Antonio Giannotti (6th–13th March 1595, fols. 46v–58r),
Mons. Carretto, provisor Mons. Giuseppe Ferrerio (fasc.II, 15th April 1608,
pp.153–65), Mons. Benedetto Ala (classe di città, Decreti, busta no.58, fasc.D, 1613–
17, pp.1–28) and Mons. Paolo Santorio (busta no. 8, Visita alla Metropolitana, 24th
March 1625, pp.I–VII). The first evidence of the bronzes is in the 1601 inventory
where they are recorded ‘to be found among the books kept in the choir’ (tra i libri
che stanno in coro).
22 D. Heikamp: ‘Zur Geschichte der Uffizien-Tribuna und der Kunstschränke in
Florenz und Deutschland’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 26 (1963), pp.193–268, esp.
p.245, docs. 5–6; Zikos, op. cit. (note 11), p.204.
23 The Cross and Calvary measures 142.8 by 52.3 cm. without its base. The Crucified
Christ measures 61 by 47 cm.
24 The length of the leaves varies between 4.5 and 8 cm.: ten are complete, one lacks
a point and another is in a fragmentary condition.
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13. Detail of Fig.9.
14. Detail of Fig.17.
branches were cast separately and subsequently fused, anticipating a technique used by other Florentine sculptors such as Pietro
Tacca.25 Originally, much of the surface of each of the six bronzes was embellished with oak leaves that had been ‘cast almost
from nature’, to borrow the words of Ulrich Middeldorf,26 as
well as with acorns;27 unfortunately, only ten leaves now
remain28 – probably executed using moulds taken from leaves, in
accordance with a practice widely employed in Florence since
the time of Cennini and Ghiberti29 – but the mastery of their
execution is admirable. The sculptor used screws, still partially
visible, at the time of the modelling process to join the wax
models of the branches (Fig.10). Examination of the bronzes
revealed that no cold-polishing occurred at the base of the trunk,
while the surface is more highly polished as the trunk separates
into branches. The extraordinary invention and plastic quality of
these bronzes are immediately apparent, and it seems evident,
comparing Christ’s crown of thorns to the slender branches supporting the socle (Fig.12), that the Crucifix and the candlesticks
were the work of one craftsman.
According to a Miscellanea written in 1744 by Ubaldo Tosi, a
scholar and priest from Urbino who enjoyed a benefice and must
have officiated in the city’s Cathedral, the ‘set of large bronze
Candlesticks, and Crucifix for the high altar, which form three
oak branches with leaves, and acorns around them, with stable
triangular bases in wood coloured as bronze’, kept at that time in
the sacristy, were ‘presented [to the Cathedral] by our most
Serene Signor Duke Francesco Maria on 5th October 1529’.30
To this, Tosi adds: ‘nowadays somewhat damaged’,31 referring,
as we shall see, to the candlesticks’ extensive loss of the leaves and
acorns that must have been separately cast and entwined around
the trunks. While it would seem obvious to identify the bronzes
described by Tosi with those now in the Museo Albani, the date
of the ducal gift that Tosi recorded, 5th October 1529, seems
improbable. Given the the style of the bronzes, which stylistically
appear much later than the 1520s, we must presume that Tosi
misread the date and inverted the 9 and the 2: indeed, as we
have seen, 1592 was the year in which the commisson was completed.32 In 1708, Pope Clement XI (Albani), a native of Urbino,
25 D. Zikos: ‘“Ars sine scientia nihil est”: il contributo di Pietro Tacca al bronzo italiano’, in F. Falletti: exh. cat. Pietro Tacca. Carrara, la Toscana, le grandi corti europee, Carrara (Centro Internazionale delle Arti Plastiche) 2007, pp.55–73, esp. pp.66 and 68.
26 The shape of the leaves suggests identification with the Irish oak (Quercus petraea,
rovere in Italian). For botanical representation in sculpture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, see G. Caneva et al.: ‘La fitoiconologia per il riconoscimento e l’interpretazione delle rappresentazioni artistiche’, in G. Caneva, ed.: La biologia vegetale
per i beni culturali, Florence 2005, II, pp.85–128. The expression ‘fusione quasi di natura’
was used by Middeldorf in an unpublished typescript entitled Intervista con il prof. Bearzi, autunno 1969 in the scholar’s archive at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.
The text was discussed by Alfredo Bellandi, to whom I am grateful for having shared
his work with me, in a lecture entitled ‘La scultura fiorentina del Rinascimento nell’
archivio di Ulrich Middeldorf al Getty Research Institute for the History of Art di
Los Angeles’ given at a conference at Palazzo Manzoni, Perugia, and at the Fondazione Orintia Carletti Bonucci (17th–19th November 2015); Bellandi’s article will be
published in the conference proceedings.
27 See notes 30 and 31 below.
28 There are holes on the bowl and along the branches of the candlesticks that before the removal of the core pins served to attach the leaves and – probably – the
acorns. Of the ten leaves that remain, some are still fixed in this way, others are inserted. On the surface of some of the branches, sections of the sprues that might have
been used to attach the acorns are visible.
29 M. Ciardi Duprè Dal Poggetto, in exh. cat. Lorenzo Ghiberti: ‘materia e ragionamenti’,
Florence (Museo dell’Accademia and Museo di San Marco) 1978–79, pp.396–97.
30 Urbino, Biblioteca Universitaria (cited hereafter as BUU), Urbino 93, U. Tosi:
Miscellanea non nullarum notitiarum ad civitatem Urbini spectantium atque collectarum per
me Ubaldum Tosi sacerdotem beneficiatum ex non nullis auctoribus ac notariorum rogitibus
que viam sternunt ad enixe demonstrandas antiquitatem excellentiamque eiusdem civitatis.
MDCCXLIV, fol. 376v: ‘Una muta di Candelieri e Crocifisso di bronzo grandi per l’altare
maggiore che formano tre branconi di quercia con foglie e ghiande intorno con zocche stabili
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15. Detail of Fig.9.
16. Detail of Fig.17.
donated a magnificent altar and a set of silver candlesticks to the
Cathedral.33 In 1789, the dome of the Cathedral collapsed, causing extensive damage to the building and destroying the altar,
which was subsequently rebuilt in a similar style and using the
same materials in 1796.34 It is probable that the sixteenth-century
bronzes were moved to the sacristy, where they were recorded
by Tosi in 1744.
Since the date given by Tosi has never been challenged before,
scholars who have examined the bronze Crucifix and candlesticks have accepted that they dated from before 1529. They are
not mentioned in any of the publications devoted to Bandini by
Ulrich Middeldorf (1929), Pasquale Rotondi (1942), Charles
Avery (1994) or Eike D. Schmidt (1998). They were first mentioned in 1962 by Franco Mazzini in the Guida di Urbino as being
among the works kept in the Cathedral’s sacristy and dating from
the fifteenth century.35 They were moved to the Museo Albani
sometime before 1984: Franco Negroni and Giuseppe Cucco
first published Tosi’s reference in the museum’s catalogue and
somewhat unconvincingly suggested that they were the work of
Girolamo Genga.36 This attribution was accepted in the Della
Rovere exhibition catalogue of 2004,37 despite the fact that there
is no proof that Genga practised as a sculptor.38 This was the second time that a work by Bandini had been erroneously attributed
to Genga. Vasari claimed that the monument to Francesco Maria
I della Rovere, the remains of which are in the church of the former monastery of S. Chiara, was designed by Genga and sculpted
by Bartolomeo Ammannati.39 But it was in fact the sculpture for
which Bandini was paid in 1587.40
To confirm the attribution of the bronze Crucifix and candlesticks to Bandini and to identify them with the bronzes for which
he was paid between 1589 and 1592, we must turn to the figure
of the dead Christ from the marble Pietà sculpted by Bandini
between 1585 and 1588 (Fig.17):41 the anatomical conception
and the faces of the two Christs viewed from the front and in
profile (Figs.13–16) are identical, and the harmonious proportions, the definition of the torso, the musculature of the limbs
and the loincloths are also very similar. Both faces have narrow,
elongated eyes in round sockets, natural volume of the cheeks,
a triangolo di legno colorite di bronzo. Regalati [to the Cathedral] dal Serenissimo
nostro Signor Duca Francesco Maria sotto li 5 ottobre 1529’, see opac.uniurb.it/ODIGIT/AU/tosi_02/album0.html; no.P1030543; last accessed 10th August 2016.
31 ‘In oggi assai logori’: ibid.
32 The Crucifix was paid for on 29th June 1589, while it and two of the six candlesticks were probably completed by 3rd October 1590 and it cannot therefore be
excluded that the date of 5th October 1589 could refer simply to money advanced by
the Duke for work in progress.
33 BUU, Urbino 54, A. Rosa: Serie cronologica di tutti li signori canonici della chiesa d’Urbino:
opuscolo che prende il suo cominciamento dall’anno 1481 fino al corrente 1815 corredato di storiche
interessanti notizie con in fine un’appendice degli opportuni autentici documenti, pp.764–76;
BUU, Urbino 55, fol.184r–v; BUU, Archivio del Comune, Chiesa Metropolitana,
183, fols.109r–123r and 132v; F. Negroni: Il Duomo di Urbino, Urbino 1993, p.90.
34 B. Ligi: Memorie ecclesiastiche di Urbino, Urbino 1938, pp.281 and 287. On Pope
Clement XI’s patronage and work on the Cathedral in the sixteenth century, see
Negroni, op. cit. (note 33), passim; E. Debenedetti, in G. Cucco: exh. cat. Papa Albani
e le arti a Urbino e a Roma 1700–1721, Urbino (Palazzo del Collegio) and Rome (S. Salvatore) 2001–02, pp.318–23.
35 F. Mazzini: Guida di Urbino, Vicenza 1962, p.83.
36 G. Cucco, in F. Negroni and G. Cucco: Urbino: Museo Albani, Bologna 1984,
p.122, cat. no.555.
37 M. Giannatiempo López, in P. Dal Poggetto: exh. cat. I Della Rovere: Piero della
Francesca, Raffaello, Tiziano, Senigallia (Palazzo del Duca), Urbino (Palazzo Ducale),
Pesaro (Palazzo Ducale) and Urbania (Palazzo Ducale) 2004, pp.313–14, cat.V.9.
38 Vasari claimed that Genga ‘Fece anco alcune opere di scultura e figure tonde di terra e di
cera’; G. Vasari: Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori, nelle redazioni del 1550
e del 1568, ed. R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi, Florence 1984, V, pp.349–50. See also M.
Grasso: ‘Genga, Gerolamo’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 1999, LIII, pp.88–93.
39 Vasari, op. cit. (note 38), p.350.
40 Rotondi, op. cit. (note 1), pp.16–18; Schmidt, pp.63–66.
41 See note 1 above, and A. Fucili, in D. Tonti et al., eds.: exh. cat. Imago pietatis:
Il Corpo, Urbino (Oratorio della Grotta) 2008, pp.72–75.
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17. Detail of the Pietà, by Giovanni Bandini. 1585–88. Marble, 212 by 185 cm. (Oratorio della Grotta, Urbino).
the soft and half-open mouth, while the divided beard recalls
Verrocchio’s work of the late quattrocento.42 The treatment of
hair terminating in curls is similar in both, which cascades over
the shoulders in the bronze and falls down the back in the
marble. Comparison with the marble bust of the Saviour by the
same artist, now in the monastery of S. Vincenzo in Prato, also
supports the attribution of the bronze Crucifix to Bandini.43
It is evident that stylistically this Crucifix is close to those of
Giambologna, and can be compared both to his of c.1573
(Museo dell’Antico Tesoro della Santa Casa di Loreto)44 – his
only work in the Marche – and to that in S. Lorenzo at the
Escorial,45 which, despite traces of Della Porta’s influence,
provides a significant antecedent for the sculpture in Urbino, as
does Giambologna’s Crucifix of similar dimensions in the Salviati
chapel in S. Marco, Florence (1579–89; Fig.18).46 The Urbino
Crucifix seems to lie mid-way between Giambologna’s S. Marco
sculpture, with its naturalistic anatomical definition, and the
monumental bronze in St Michael’s church in Munich (1593–
94).47 The Urbino bronze would seem to antedate the Munich
Crucifix by four or five years and throws light on Giambologna’s
own artistic development, anticipating his style in the 1590s with
its increasingly abstract and idealised forms. In an exchange of
letters between Simone Fortuna and Francesco Maria II della
Rovere between October 1581 and June 1583, the Duke
expressed his wish to acquire autograph works by Giambologna,48 writing on 27th March 1583: ‘I greatly desire to have
some work by the hand of Gio. Bologna, and so I would be very
pleased if you might discover whether he might undertake to
make me a large Crucifix in marble measuring approximately
two palmi without the cross [c.50 cm.] in a single piece’.49
Fortuna replied that Giambologna would prefer to make the
Crucifix ‘in silver, bronze or copper’,50 rather than in marble.
After much negotiation, the Duke declined ‘the model that
[Giambologna] is offering, in order to then have the work done
by my sculptor [Giovanni Bandini], because I am fully satisfied
with his ability and worth’.51 In February 1582, Fortuna had
recommended that Francesco Maria II welcome ‘Gio. dell’
Opera’ to his court, who:
42 For the influence of quattrocento art on Bandini and his contemporary Florentines,
see A. Giannotti: ‘Lo stile puro dei fiorentini, da Andrea del Sarto a Santi di Tito’, in
A. Giannotti et al., eds.: exh. cat. Puro, semplice e naturale nell’arte a Firenze tra Cinque e
Seicento, Florence (Galleria degli Uffizi) 2014, pp.27–55, esp. pp.41 and 46–47.
43 Borghini, ed. Ellis op. cit. (note 3), p.314; S. Bellesi: La scultura nel Seicento, in
C. Cerretelli et al., eds.: Il Seicento a Prato, Prato 1998, pp.311–22, esp. pp.311–12;
Schmidt, pp.66–67.
44 The Crucifix stands 23.8 cm. high, see K.J. Watson, in C. Avery et al., eds.: exh.
cat. Giambologna: Sculptor to the Medici, Edinburgh (Royal Scottish Museum), London
(Victoria and Albert Museum) and Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1978–79,
p.144, cat. no.106; Gasparotto, op. cit. (note 11), p.11.
45 The Crucifix measures c.42 cm. high, ibid., p.11.
46 The Crucifix stands 46.8 cm. high, see K.J. Watson, in Avery et al., op. cit. (note
44), p.144, cat. no.107; Gasparotto, op. cit. (note 11), p.12.
47 D. Diemer: ‘Giambologna in Germania’, in B. Paolozzi Strozzi et al. eds.: exh. cat.
Giambologna: gli dei, gli eroi. Genesi e fortuna di uno stile europeo nella scultura, Florence
(Museo Nazionale del Bargello) 2006, pp.107–25, esp. p.111; idem, in R. Eikelmann,
ed.: exh. cat. Bella figura: Europäische Bronzekunst in Süddeutschland um 1600, Munich
(Bayerische Nationalmuseum) 2015, pp.264–67, cat. no.37.
48 Further evidence of the Duke’s relationship with artists belonging to Giambologna’s circle is to be found in a letter sent by Girolamo Portigiani from Florence to
Francesco Maria II on 28th June 1581; see D. Zikos: ‘Die Ausbildung von Adriaen
de Vries zum Bronzeplastiker in Florenz (ca.1581–1586)’, in S. Adelmann et al., eds.:
Neue Beiträge zu Adriaen de Vries, Symposiums vom 16. bis 18. April 2008 in Stadthagen
und Bückeburg, Bielefeld 2008, pp.179–93, esp. p.187.
49 Letter from the Duke of Urbino to Simone Fortuna, 27th March 1583, in Gronau,
op. cit. (note 1), p.522 doc. XII: ‘Io ho molto desiderio d’haver qualche opera di mano di
Gio. Bologna et però mi farete piacer assai d’intendere destramente se potesse attendervi et farmi
un Crocifisso grande di marmo senza la croce d’intorno a due palmi d’un sol pezzo’.
50 Letter from Simone Fortuna to the Duke of Urbino, 9th April 1583, in Barocchi, op.
cit. (note 11), pp.240–41, doc. 265, esp. p.241 doc. 265: ‘d’argento, di bronzo o di rame’.
51 Letter from the Duke of Urbino to Simone Fortuna, 22nd May 1583, in Gronau,
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is a hardworking, consistent and trustworthy man and whose
works have already achieved excellence, acquiring much
renown, and having overcome his limitations everyone
believes that he will continue to improve and the capacity that
he has to sculpt from nature is a singular gift and much liked
by Princes. He has not spent much time casting, having found
it quite easy [. . . ]. In short it seems to me that in the said Giovanni, Your Excellency, will have the best and most valiant
man in Tuscany after Gio. Bologna.52
It would seem that the commission of the Crucifix and the
candlesticks for Urbino Cathedral was prompted by the Duke’s
desire to have a Crucifix by Giambologna and the arrival, some
seven years later, of Giovanni Bandini in the Marche. It seems
increasingly likely that, Bandini, following his apprenticeship
with Baccio Bandinelli, who died in 1560,53 may subsequently
have worked with Giambologna: the horse in his Meleager is
closely related to that in Giambologna’s Rape of Deianira (Musée
du Louvre, Paris) of 1576.54 In the letter to workmen in the Fabbrica del Duomo in Orvieto written by Girolamo Seriacopi,
provveditore del castello in Florence of 24th September 1595, he
states that ‘Gio. Bandini known as Giov. dell’Opera, Bandinelli’s
pupil, has gone to Livorno and Carrara and has taken with him
the model and measurements of the Apostle’:55 this was the St
Matthew and the angel that Giambologna was to make for Orvieto
Cathedral. Now that the Urbino Crucifix can be dated to 1589,
it also illustrates how Giambologna’s ideas were disseminated
throughout Italy; there were no other known examples in Italy
of such close derivation from Giambologna’s work. Between the
late 1580s and 1595 Giambologna’s Crucifixes were made almost
exclusively in metal on an increasingly monumental scale. All
Giambologna’s large-scale Crucifixes – in Munich (1593–94), in
his funerary chapel in SS. Annunziata, Florence (1594), and in
Pisa Cathedral (1597) – post-date his journey to Venice in October 1593,56 during which he could have seen Girolamo Campagna’s magnificent Crucifix for the church of the Redentore in
Venice, cast in 1590.57 This was the first example of a monumental Christ on the Cross in metal to be made in Italy since
Donatello’s work for the altar of the Santo in Padua (1443–49)
and that of Niccolò Baroncelli and Domenico di Paris for the
cathedral in Ferrara (1450–55). Campagna made his great statue
of Federico da Montefeltro in 1604–06 for the Palazzo Ducale in
Urbino and, in a letter sent to the duke from Venice on 19th June
1604, he mentions with pride that he was also the author of the
‘very famous bronze Crucifix’ made ‘in the church of the
op. cit. (note 1), p.524, doc. XVI: ‘non ricercherei altrimenti il modello che [Giambologna]
offerisce per far poi fare il lavoro dal mio scultore [Giovanni Bandini], perché della sufficienza
et valor suo io mi ritrovo veramente a pieno sodisfatto’.
52 Letter from Simone Fortuna to the Duke of Urbino, 10th February 1582, in
Gronau, op. cit. (note 1), p.521, doc. VIII: ‘è huomo sodo, saldo et sicuro et l’opere sue sono
già riuscite in eccellenza, acquistando molto fama et havendo superato la povertà ogn’un crede
che sempre migliorerà et la felicità ch’ha di scolpire del naturale è in lui dono singulare et piace
molto a i Principi. Nel getto egli non s’è molto esercitato, havendola per cosa assai facile [. . .].
In somma a me pare che, concludendo, dicto Giovanni, Vostra Eccellenza, habbi il migliore et
più valoroso huomo che sia ora in Toscana doppo Gio. Bologna’.
53 For Bandini’s training with Baccio Bandinelli, see Borghini, ed. Ellis, op. cit. (note
3), p.313; for Seriacopi’s letter, see L. Fumi: Statuti e regesti dell’Opera di Santa Maria di
Orvieto: Il Duomo di Orvieto e i suoi restauri, Orvieto 1891, rev. ed. L. Riccetti, Orvieto
and Perugia 2002, p.721, doc. LXIII; see also note 55, and Schmidt, p.57.
54 M. Leithe Jasper: ‘Rapimenti. Nesso e Deianira’: in Paolozzi Strozzi, op. cit. (note
47), p.165.
18. Crucifix, by Giambologna. 1579–89. Bronze, 46.8 cm. high. (S. Marco, Florence).
Redentore’, and still in situ.58
The bronze candlesticks outclass other examples in their
inventiveness and the sharp, fresh detail of the wax model, which
renders the knots in the trunk and the pattern of the wood in a
highly naturalistic manner (Fig.11). In the conception of these
works, Bandini shows his debt to the artists of the Studiolo of
Francesco I, but also to Jacopo Ligozzi. His freedom of invention
in its mimetic and striking naturalism anticipates the great
Baroque inventions of the following century, and the candlesticks find an echo, for example, in the golden rose that Gian
Lorenzo Bernini designed for Alexander VII, ‘with the roots
55 Fumi, op. cit. (note 53), p.721, doc. LXIII: ‘Giovanni Bandini, detto Giovanni dell’
Opera, allievo del cavalier Bandinelli, è andato a Livorno e a Carrara e con se ha portato il
modello et misure de l’Apostolo’. See also note 53.
56 E. Dhanens: Jean Boulogne: Giovanni Bologna Fiammingo, Douai 1529–Florence 1608.
Bijdrage tot de studie van de kunstbetrekkingen tussen het graafschap Vlaanderen en Italië,
Brussels 1956, pp.41–43, and see also Giambologna’s letter to Girolamo Seriacopi sent
from Venice on 7th October 1593, ibid., p.357.
57 W. Timofiewitsch: Girolamo Campagna: Studien zur venezianischen Plastik um das
Jahr 1600, Munich 1972, pp.47–59 and 253–55, cat. no.12; A. Bacchi: ‘Girolamo
Campagna’, in idem, ed.: La scultura a Venezia da Sansovino a Canova, Milan 2000,
pp.715–19, esp. p.716.
58 G. Gronau: ‘Die Statue des Federigo di Montefeltro im herzoglichen Palast von
Urbino’, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 3, 5 (1919–32, but
1930), pp.254–67, esp. p.257: ‘nella chiesa del Redentore, fatta dalla Signoria per voto,
all’altar maggiore quel famosissimo Crocifisso di bronzo con le due statue’.
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raising the plant (the Chigi oak tree, on which the roses bloom)
above the base with exactly the same daring that he had used in
the rocky support for the obelisk in his Four Rivers fountain in
the Piazza Navona’.59 In these candlesticks, Bandini combines
Niccolò Tribolo’s60 sculptural tradition of the late 1540s during
the construction of the Medici villa at Castello with
Giambologna’s realism, evident in some of the bronze birds he
made around 1567 for the grotto at the same villa.61 Bandini’s
naturalism may have also influenced the Vicentine Camillo Mariani (c.1567–1611), who was in Bandini’s workshop in the
Marche in the 1590s and appears in the Duke’s accounts in 1595
and 1596;62 he sculpted the fountain in the Villa Miralfiore in
Pesaro, of which four bronze monkeys survive (three in the
Boboli Gardens, Florence, and one in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York).63
Finally, it is worth considering the chronology of this commission in the context of Urbino around 1590.64 Following
Archbishop Giannotti’s departure for Avignon in 1585,65 Paolo
Pagani arrived in Urbino as apostolic vicar and, in November
1592, inaugurated the episcopal seminary, initiated by his predecessor,66 and also established the Orations, in which the veneration of the Holy Sacrament was central.67 During Pagani’s
time in Urbino, and concerned that the Papacy was imposing its
influence on the Duchy, Francesco Maria II gave his patronage
to the chapel of the Sacrament, with, as its altarpiece, Barocci’s
Last Supper (1590–99).68
Thus it seems probable that Bandini’s bronzes, and the candlesticks in particular, which were intended to be placed on the
Cathedral’s high altar, which had to be rebuilt ex novo,69 were
part of an extensive programme glorifying the Della Rovere
dynasty that the Duke was keen to promote, culminating with
the payment of 745.41 scudi made by Francesco Maria II on 4th
January 1605 for a ‘gold censer with oak leaves’.70 Just as the
trunk of the oak tree supports the candles in Bandini’s candlesticks, so Federico Barocci in his Last Supper 71 also glorified the
Della Rovere: on the right a youth carries a vase with oak leaves
engraved around its rim, while a young boy rushing to stoke the
blazing fire carries branches of oak, ready to warm Christ’s final
repast (Fig.19).
19. Detail of The Last Supper, by Federico Barocci. 1590–99. Canvas, 299 by 322
cm. (Cathedral of S. Maria Assunta, Urbino).
59 J. Montagu: Roman Baroque Sculpture: The Industry of Art, New Haven and London
1989, p.122. See also idem: Gold, Silver and Bronze: Metal Sculpture of the Roman Baroque, New Haven and London 1996, p.17. See also A. González-Palacios: Arredi e
ornamenti alla corte di Roma, 1560–1795, Milan 2004, pp.36–41.
60 A. Giannotti: Il teatro di natura: Niccolò Tribolo e le origini di un genere. La scultura di
animali nella Firenze del Cinquecento, Florence 2007, passim.
61 D. Heikamp, in Paolozzi Strozzi, op. cit. (note 47), pp.249–52, cat. no.50.
62 Schmidt, pp.72–73.
63 On this group, the monkeys and Mariani’s collaboration with Giovanni Bandini,
see M.T. De Lotto: ‘Camillo Mariani’, Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte 32 (2008),
pp.21–233, esp. pp.22, 23, 47–49, 76, 123–125, cat. nos.4–4b.; I. Wardropper: European Sculpture, 1400–1490, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven 2011, pp.98–
100, cat. no.31.
64 I am grateful to Davide Gambino for providing me with vital information.
65 G. Montinaro: Fra Urbino e Firenze: politica e diplomazia nel tramonto dei della Rovere
(1574–1631), Florence 2009, p.45.
66 BUU, Urbino 54, document cited at note 33, p.46.
67 A. Lazzari: Memorie istoriche dei conti e duchi di Urbino, delle donazioni, investiture e
devoluzioni alla Santa Sede, Fermo 1795, p.393: ‘Orazioni dette della Settimana’.
68 Negroni, op. cit. (note 33), pp.95–107; B. Bohn, J.W. Mann and C. Plazzotta, in
J.W. Mann et al., eds.: exh. cat. Federico Barocci: Renaissance Master of Color and Line,
Saint Louis (Saint Louis Art Museum) and London (National Gallery) 2012–13,
pp.224–37, cat. no.12.
69 This can be inferred from a report, ASF, Ducato di Urbino, classe I, 4, fols.778r–
785v; see F. Piperno: L’immagine del Duca: musica e spettacolo alla corte di Guidubaldo II
duca d’Urbino, Florence 2001, p.234, note 4; F. Biferali et al.: Battista Franco ‘pittore viniziano’ nella cultura artistica e nella vita religiosa del Cinquecento, Pisa 2007, p.112; the
report, ‘Quanto alla Fabrica della Chiesa Cathedrale d’Urbino’, fol.778r, dated 1592,
requests that the Archbishop of Urbino carry out work in the church, including the
high altar.
70 Document cited at note 8, fol.685r: 4th January 1605, ‘Per un Turibolo d’oro a foglie
di quercia’.
71 S. Cuppini: ‘“L’Ultima cena” di Federico Barocci, dettagli iconografici’, in
G. Cucco: the conference proceedings ed. Iconografie eucaristiche: testimonianze dall’
Arcidiocesi di Urbino–Urbania–Sant’Angelo in Vado, Urbino (10th–17th April 2005), Urbino 2005, pp.157–63, esp. p.158.
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