Thomas - Academy of Baccio Bandinelli PDF

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The Academy of Baccio Bandinelli

Author(s): Ben Thomas
Source: Print Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 1 (MARCH 2005), pp. 3-14
Published by: Print Quarterly Publications
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41826335
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The Academy of Baccio Bandinelli
Ben Thomas
The writer and printer Anton Francesco was Donicriticized by Andrea Sansovino, who pointed out
(1513-74) introduced the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli
that 'good design does not consist in the paper but in
(I493_ i56°) as a character in the sixth book of
thehis
perfection of the finished stone'.4 Vasari is also our
dialogue Disegno of 1549. Described as a 'miraculous source for the anecdote of how Bandinelli complained
draughtsman' possessing both 'the science of colouringto Pope Clement VII that the engraver had committed
and sculpting', Bandinelli was ideally placed to bringmany to faults in the execution of his design for the
a resolution the principal subject of the dialogue: Martyrdom
the of St Lawrence. However, when Raimondi
controversy about whether painting or sculpture went
was to Clement 'and showed him Baccio 's original
the better art form.1 According to Doni, the artistdrawing
had and then the print . . . the Pope perceived that
acquired the 'il principato del disegno' by means of he the
had not made any errors, but had corrected many
of Baccio's
prints of the Massacre of the Innocents and the Martyrdom of of no small importance, and his engraving
St Lawrence , engraved after his designs by Marcowas more skilful than Baccio's drawing'.5
Dente
da Ravenna and Marcantonio Raimondi respectively.2 It can be argued, therefore, that Bandinelli's fame
Giorgio Vasari, in his biography of the sculptor,derived also to some extent from prints and was certainly
attributed Bandinelli's fame as an artist - in part sustained
at by them. Perhaps the sculptor's somewhat
least - to the medium of printmaking: the Massacre of disengaged,
the if elevated, conception of disegno can also
Innocents had 'showed good design in the figuresbe andassociated
a with the processes of printmaking, exem-
knowledge of the muscles and the limbs which brought plified by the arrangement between Raphael as design-
him great fame in Europe'.3 er and Raimondi as executor that he was emulating in
Bandinelli's ability as a draughtsman was seen his as
own collaboration with engravers. What we can
somewhat unusual for a sculptor, and the quality of surmise
his of Bandinelli's views on art theory depends
largely
design was, according to his critics, not always realized on Doni's Disegno , a text that was probably con-
in his sculptural works. Vasari records that while ceived as a response to the sculptor's exclusion from
Bandinelli was working at the Holy House in Loreto Benedetto
he Varchi's survey of artistic opinion on the
redazioni del 1550 e 1568, edited by R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi,

My thanks are due to the staff of the British Museum and
Florence 1984, v, p. 245: 'la quale . . . fece conoscere il buon dis-
Ashmolean Museum print rooms. I am most grateful to Michael
Bury and Louis Waldman, both of whom read earlier drafts of egno
this che aveva nelle figure e l'intelligenza de' muscoli e di tutte
le membra, e gli recò per tutta Europa gran fama'.
article and generously shared their knowledge and expertise with
me. 4. Vasari, op. cit., v, p. 244: '... che'l buon disegno non sta nelle
carte, ma nella perfezzione dell'opera finita nel sasso
5. Vasari,
i. A. F. Doni, Disegno , 1549, edited by M. Pepe, Milan 1970, op. cit.,
p. 39 p. 13: '. . . perciò che avendo finita Marcantonio la
carta,
(cited hereafter as Disegno). On Bandinelli, see R. prima che Baccio lo sapesse, andò, essendo del tutto
Goffen,
Renaissance Rivais , New Haven and London 2002, pp. avisato, al Papa,L.che infinitamente si dilettava delle cose del dis-
339-85;
egno,
Barkan, Unearthing the Past : Archaeology and Aesthetics in the e gli mostrò
Making of l'originale stato disegnato dal Bandinello, e
Renaissance Culture , New Haven and London 1999, pp. poi la carta J.
270-338; stampata; onde il Papa conobbe che Marcantonio
Woods-Marsden, Renaissance Self-Portraiture , Newcon molto giudizio
Haven and avea non solo non fatto errori, ma correttone
London 1998, pp. 139-48; K. Weil-Garris Brandt, molti'Thefatti dal Bandinello e di non piccola importanza, e che più
Self-
avea saputo
Created Bandinelli', in World Art. Themes of Unity in Diversity et operato egli coll'intaglio che Baccio col disegno'.
, edit-
For discussions of this print and incident, see I. H. Shoemaker
ed by I. Lavin, London 1989, n, pp. 497-508; K. Weil-Garris
Brandt, 'Bandinelli and Michelangelo: A Problem and
of E.Artistic
Broun, The Engravings of Marcantonio Raimondi, Lawrence,
Identity', in Art the Ape of Nature: Studies in Honor of H.KSW.Janson,
1981, pp. 14-15; and L. Pon, Raphael j Dürer, and Marcantonio
edited by M. Barasch and L. F. Sandler, New York Raimondi,
1981, New pp. Haven and London 2004, pp. 36-38 (although
Pon's book
227-33; R* Ward, 'Baccio Bandinelli as a Draughtsman', touches only briefly on Bandinelli, its argument has
Ph.D.
thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1982.
parallels with that of this article, for example p. 68: 'If a new con-
2. A. von Bartsch, Le Peintre Graveur , Vienna 1803-21, xiv,
ception
24,of21 theand
artist was emerging in the early Cinquecento, it was
89, 104. See also The Illustrated Bartsch, edited by K.atOberhuber,
every step held back by widespread collaborative processes,
New York 1978, xxvi, 21 (24), p. 33 and 104-I (89) andthe ubiquity(89),
104-II of copies and versions of works, and the production
pp- 135-36. of multiple images among other things.').
3. G. Vasari, Le Vite de 3 più eccellenti pittori , scultori e architettori nelle
PRINT QUARTERLY, XXII, 2OO5, I
4 THE ACADEMY OF BACCIO BANDINELLI
i. Agostino Veneziano, Academy of Baccio Bandinelli , 1531, engraving, B.xiv, 314, 418, 2
paragone question in 1547. Here, a come into

theory ofbeing - in other words, throu
disegno
emerges from the dialogue between that ultimately derive
personifications of from the three-d
Nature and Art: conceived in abstract terms that
'sculpture' (according
is the natural world.6
Itprocess
to Nature), disegrio is an intellectual seems,analogous
therefore, that Bandinelli w
to divine creation, but conceived ground
in practical terms
his theory of disegno as divine in th
that
(according to Art), it is the means by drawing
which worksderived
of art its outlines, lights and
co del Bandinelli.'
6. Disegno , op. cit., p. 8: 'Il primo disegno è un'inventione Wazbinski's views on Bandi
di tutto l'u-
niverso, imaginato perfettamente nella mente authorship
della prima ofcausa,
Disegno have been substantiat
inanzi che venisse all'atto del rilievo, & delWaldman's important
colore; il quale rilie- discovery of a manuscrip
Bandinelli
vo volgarmente si chiama scoltura'. Z. Wazbinski, on 'disegno', for which see L. Wald
L'Accademia
Medicea del Disegno a Firenze nel Cinquecento: Idea eand
Bandinelli istituzione
Art at the ,Media Court : A Corpus of Early M
American
Florence 1987, 1, p. 71: 'Il dialogo di Doni era Philosophical
stato ideato pro- Society (forthcoming).
prio per presentare le opinioni sull'arte e sul patrimonio artisti-
THE ACADEMY OF BACCIO BANDINELLI 5
2. Agostino Veneziano, Academy of Baccio Bandinella 1530. engraving, 274 x 3
the three-dimensional relief constituting

Martyrdom the of Stintrinsic
Lawrence , an improvem
difference,
nature of sculpture. He was thereby able toa transformation
root his of the
abilities as a draughtsman in his art, while
design, whichsimultane-
in the case of prints mig
ously aspiring to rise above the egno
traditional lowlyas
of the burin status
distinct from a diseg
of the sculptor. However, betweenchalk. No otherand
conception print
exe-so clearly addre
cution, between the origination of the design
dissonance and art
between its theory and pri
dissemination, the artist and his contemporaries
Academy per-
of Baccio Bandinelli engraved b
ceived a falling short, or even, knownin the case of the
as Veneziano.7 In the process o
7. Bartsch, op. cit., xiv, 314, 418; The Illustrated Bartsch

im Italien , xxvii,
des 16. 418
Jahrhunderts, Bonn 1999, no. 2
(314), p. 106: ACADEMIA DI BACCHIO BRANDIN
and IN The
P. Parshall, ROMA IN
Renaissance Print 1470-15
LUOGO DETTO BELVEDERE MDXXXI London A. V, 274x301
1994, p. mm. For
286; E. Borea, 'Stampe da mod
Cinquecento'
Veneziano's academy print, see E. Fiorentini, in II Primato
Ikonographie eines del disegno , Flore
Wandels: Form und Intention von Selbstbildnis und
p. 264. Porträt des Bildhauers
print in its different states table,

and variants,
by the light this of article
a centrally plac
absorption
explores a particularly informative of theof
instance young
the men in th
nocturnal
problematic dynamics of the print medium setting that for these activities,
proved
useful in disseminating a pictorial
phere quite statement
different of fromthe a craftsm
artist as originator of disegno mood, but conveyed
which also is instead
had the one of reve
effect of calling into question to
the that found of
integrity in the
depictions
image of saint
and the identity of its author.Jerome (for example, the well-know
In the academy print engraved Albrecht Dürer, which
by Veneziano (fig. i), like the acad
Bandinelli is shown seated atperspectivally
a table, elegantly recedingdressed wooden boa
The use
in a coat with a thick fur collar, and ofholding
a table in to hisunite the com
hands the statuette of a female nude.
with theHecentral
is surroundedlight source, sugge
by apprentices who are drawing that from this model,
the revelation of a and mystery is u
also from a statuette of a malelated to those
nude that occur around the tables
standing onfound
thein
3. Anonymous Artist, copy of Agostino Veneziano, Academy of Baccio Bandinelli , engraving, 275 x 297 mm (London, British
Museum).
representations of the Last Supper or cycle
lectual the represented.
Supper at This effect is achieved by
Emmaus. There is even a hint of adoration such motifs asinthethecombination
eager of the back view of one
expression of the garzone peeringdraughtsman over hisalongside
master'sthe outward gaze of the figure
shoulder at the nude female formatheld the farup for
left of theinspec-
composition, and above all by the
tion. Nor can it be coincidental that theexpression
steady two sculptural
of Bandinelli himself acknowledging
models placed on either side of the light source, and
our presence.
which are enveloped in its luminescence, Above the are male
table, and
arrayed on stepped shelves, is an
female nudes, nor that their poses recall Apollo and
intriguing collection of objects. Three further sculptur-
Venus as much as Adam and Eve. The subdy
al models, two male and varied
one female, cast long shadows
rhythm of facial orientation and physiognomic onto the wall behind them. The alternation of shadow
expres-
sion around the table creates a sense of different and sculptural form, and the reiterated upward-point-
degrees of engagement in the process of design: ques-ing gestures, create an ascending rhythm, almost like a
tioning observation, creative involvement and commu- musical phrase, denoting inspiration. Such a sustained
nicative understanding. This strongly recalls, if it does
exploration of cast shadows is unusual and must surely
not directly quote, Raphael's treatment of philosophi-
refer in this context to Pliny's anecdotes concerning the
cal enquiry, theological argument and poetic inspira-origins of the visual arts, as well as to Bandinelli's own
tion in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican. As in
opinions concerning the derivation of disegno from
Raphael's frescoes, the viewer is addressedrelief.8 by Alongside these statuettes, one of which appears
Veneziano's print, and invited to take part in the intel-
to rest on a book with an antique fragment of a foot, are
8. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia , xxxv, 15: 'The origin of paint- abroad 'she drew the silhouette on the wall round the shadow of
ing is uncertain . . . but there is universal agreement that it began his face cast by the lamp'. The Elder Pliny's Chapters on the History
by the outlining of a man's shadow'; xxxv, 151: the daughter of of Art, edited by K. Jex-Blake and E. Sellers, London 1896, pp.
Butades of Sicyon so loved a young man that when he went 84-85, 174-75.
4. Anonymous Artist after Baccio Bandinelli, An Artist and His Assistants, pen and brown ink on light tan paper, 268 x 418 mm
(London, British Museum).
5. Enea Vico, Academy of Baccio Bandinelli , engraving, B.xv, 305, 49-I, 306 x 525
variously shaped vases and goblets and a Firenzuola's

Agnolo water bottle. dialogue on the beau
There is a homely still-life quality to these
(first details,
published in but
1548, but dating earli
the juxtaposition of human form with
the print thecould
abstractedeven be considered a re
beauty of the vases recalls Bandinelli's design images
more practical for a of artistic creativi
print of Cleopatra , also engraved by Veneziano
Dürer's Underwessung (dated der Messung of 1525.
I5I5? establishing an early, pre-Roman date foron
An inscription the
the base of the table i
association of sculptor and engraver), together with
artist represented as Bacchio Brandin , dat
other motifs in Raphael's work, such1531asabove
the woman car-
the engraver's A. V. monogra
rying two vases at the right of the fresco
the roomof The Fire inin
as being thethe Belvedere in Ro
Borgo in the Vatican's Stanza dell'Incendio.9
dignifying thď The gathering
juxta- with the nam
position of the female form with antique-style
While this term vases had previously been us
occurs in other prints from the Roman
mental milieu,
'knot' and
engravings after designs b
suggests that this comparison informs
Vinci, this an was
aspiration
the first time that drawin
towards idealized form, implied by the study
ly linked withof the sculp-
idea of an academy (at
tural models rather than the life emies were not
model - aformal institutions with educational
comparative
process of aesthetic judgement programmes,
made quite explicit
but consisted inof friends sharing
of groups
9. The Illustrated Bartsch , op. cit., xxvi, 193 (158), p. 190, boccio, fiorenti- Agnolo Firenzuola , edited by D. Maesti, Turin 1977, pp. 781-83,
no. iventor. A. V. 1515. See Landau and Parshall, op. cit., p. 144, for and also E. Cropper, 'On Beautiful Women, Parmigianino,
doubts relating to the date. Petrarchismo and the Vernacular Style', Art Bulletin , Lvra, 1976,
10. For Firenzuola s comparisons of female beauty to vases, see PP- 374-94-
'Dialogo delle bellezze delle Donne intitolato Celso', in Opere di
6. Enea Vico, Academy of Baccio Bandinella engraving, B.xv, 305, 49-II, 306 x 525
a dedication to vernacular literature or antiquity).11

was variously called Brandini and Bandinelli. The for-
Given the date, it is curious that
merBandinelli,
name is on his who had Later on he preferred
engravings.
been made a Knight of St James by and
Bandinelli, the Emperor
he kept it to the end, saying that his
ancestors
Charles V in 1530, is not identified were the
as such. Bandinellihe
Indeed, of Siena, who came to
is identified here as Bacchio Brandini rather than Gaiuole and thence to Florence.'13 Benvenuto Cellini
Bandinelli, the name of the noble Sienese familyalsoto
commented - in much less measured tones -
onqual-
whom the artist claimed to be related in order to Bandinelli's adoption of noble nomenclature, and
ify for membership of the Order of Santiago.12itVasari
is a frequent point of criticism in the many satirical
commented in his biography of the sculptor that poems'he directed against the sculptor's Hercules and
II. On the evidence provided by the Veneziano and Vico academy an institution: Carmen Bambach Cappel, 'Leonardo, Tagliente
and Dürer: "La scienza del far di groppi'", Achademia Leonardi
prints, that Bandinelli was at the centre of a precursor institution
to the late sixteenth-century academies, see N. Pevsner, Academies
Vinci, IV, 1991, pp. 72-98.
12. Bandinelli
of Art, Past and Present , Cambridge 1940, pp. 39-42; Wazbinski, op. met the Emperor Charles V in Genoa in 1529
(between
cit., i, pp. 53-69; and K. Barzman, The Florentine Academy and the 12 August and 26 September) and presented him with
a bronze
Early Modern State: The Discipline of Disegno , Cambridge 2000, pp. relief of the Deposition. He then joined Pope Clement
4-6. For the six interlace 'knot' engravings, and an engraving of Bologna in 1530 for the Emperor's coronation. Charles V
VII in
a profile bust of a young woman with a garland of ivy, all of departed
which from Bologna on 22 March 1530, and subsequendy sent
carry forms of the inscription Achademia Leonardi Vinci , seeword
A. M.from Innsbruck to Bandinelli that he was conferring on
Hind, Early Italian Engravings , London 1948, v, pp. 83-86, him93-95,
a Knighthood of the Order of Santiago. For a documented
nos. 19-25, p. 90, no. 13. Carmen Bambach Cappel has argued, chronology of Bandinelli's career, see Ward, op. cit., 1982, pp.
by comparing these engravings with needlework pattern books, 24-39. For important clarifications concerning the chronology of
Bandinelli's ennoblement and Florentine style dates, see also
that the inscription credits Leonardo not only with 'the invention
but also with the teaching of the design', and that the term Weil-Garris
acad- Brandt, 1989, op. cit., p. 499 and n. 26, p. 501.
emy should be understood here as meaning a lesson rather than op. cit., v, p. 276.
13. Vasari,
IO THE ACADEMY OF BACCIO BANDINELLI
Cacus when it was revealed

the textin
refers1534, prominently
to the later academy engraving by Enea signed
on the plinth, BacciusVicoBandirteli. Floren
(discussed below), but this would also be an inac-. Facieba
MDXXXIIIL 14 curate reference with regard to the inscription on that
A textual source that provides much information print, which simply credits Bandinelli as inventor and
about the related issues of the artist's ennoblement and does not use the term academia as the Veneziano print
subsequent name change, his views on the social statusdoes. Similarly, the inscription on the Martyrdom of St
of artists, his academy and the value of his drawings,Lawrence {BACCIUS BRANDLN. INVEN.) was not an
exists in a single manuscript copy in the Biblioteca 'error' at the time that it was engraved, shordy after
Nazionale in Florence.15 The Memoriale , ostensibly Marcantonio Raimondi's imprisonment for engraving
an autobiographical account written c. 1552 for Giulio Romano's I Modi in 1524, nor does a smaller
Bandinelli's descendants, discusses prints after hisversion with a corrected inscription exist. Vasari, who
designs on two occasions. First, a print designed by mecredits Bandinelli with helping to secure Raimondi's
and printed at Rome with the words: Accademia Baccii exrelease from prison, relates the production of this
Senarum comitibus Bandinella is stated to record 'my par-engraving to unexecuted designs for frescoes of Saints
ticular Academy of Design' in the context of the artist'sLawrence, Cosmas and Damian intended for the
disputes with Averardo Zati, the overseer of the OperaChurch of San Lorenzo in Florence, and also to the
del Duomo in Florence.16 In the second instance, the artist's first knighthood, the Order of St Peter,
high repute and wide dispersal of Bandinelli's drawingsbestowed on him by Clement VII.18 The unreliability
is connected to the fact that some of them were also of the Memoriale with regard to prints is one aspect of
engraved, including the design for the Martyrdom of Stthe text's general historical inaccuracy, and, together
Lawrence. Bandinelli's descendants are alerted here to a with handwriting analysis, it has prompted Louis
mistake made by the engraver, who instead of writingWaldman to argue convincingly that it is a retrospec-
Band, inscribed Brand, on the plate. As a result, the tive forgery of sorts by Bandinelli's own grandson,
Memoriale claims, many people ignorandy misreadBaccio Bandinelli il Giovane.19 This retrospective and
his name as Brandi, Brandini or Brandinelli, so justificatory quality of the Memoriale explains its confu-
consequently the design was re-engraved in a smaller sion concerning prints, where the details of different
and better form with the name of its creator spelt engravings have been conflated inaccurately. The
correctiy.17 safest conclusion to draw from this text's account of
The account given in this text of prints after prints is that it records a general dissatisfaction felt by
Bandinelli's designs is very confused. The Latin Bandinelli and his descendants that the continuing
inscription referred to in the Memoriale on a print pro- demand for engravings after his designs perpetuated a
viding a visual record of Bandinelli's academy does not previous artisanal identity, while simultaneously dis-
match that on the Veneziano academy print, nor does seminating his inventions. It is only from the point of
the context of Florentine struggles dating to the 1540s view of the sculptor's widely mocked social pretensions
coincide with the print's date of 153 1. It is probable that that the inscriptions on prints naming him as Brandini
14. B. Cellini, Opere di Benvenuto Cellini , edited by G. G. Ferrero, Turin storiare e ritardava le provisioni concesse dal sig[no]re Duca a'
1971, p. 596: 'Michelangelo orefice . . . Questo uomo fu il padre giovani che nella mia Accademia particolare del Disegno sotto di
di Baccino, il quale fu fatto da papa Clemente Cavaliere di Santo me studiavono, come si vede in una carta da me disegniata e fatta
Iacopo, e da per sé si cercò del casato de' Bandinelli. E perché stampare in Roma con le parole: Academia Baccii ex Senarum
egli non aveva né casata né arme, si prese quell segno, ch'ei si comitibus Bandinellus'
portava del cavalieri, per arme'. On the satirical poems written 17. Scritti, op. cit., p. 1396: 'avertendovi però di uno errore che nacque
against Bandinelli, see D. Heikamp, 'Poesie in vituperio del nella stampa di S.o Lorenzo, ove l'intagliatore, in cambio di
Bandinelli', Paragone, clxxv, 1964, pp. 59-68; L. Waldman, intagliare Band., intagliò Brand., onde molti che non sapevano lo
"'Miracol' novo et raro": Two Unpublished Contemporary interpretavano per Brandi, Brandini e Brandinelli, onde io ne
Satires on Bandinelli's Hercules', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorisches feci ristampare un'altra in più piccola e migliore forma, col nome
Institut in Florenz* xxxvm, IQQ4., dd. ¿IQ- 27. finito Bandinelli.'
15. Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence: Cod. Pal. Bandinelli 12. For18. Vasari, op. cit., v, p. 247. For the two states of the Martyrdom of St
modern editions, see A. Colasanti, 'Il memoriale di Baccio Lawrence print, and two copies by Giulio Sanuto and Michele
Bandinelli', Repertorìum fiir Kunstwissenschaft, xxvra, 1905, pp. Greco, see Illustrated Bartsch , xxvi, 104 (89), pp. 1 <55-38.
406-46, and Scritti d'arte del Cinquecento , edited by P. Barocchi,19. L. Waldman, Rewriting the Past: The Memoriale attributed to Baccio
Milan and Naples 1971-77, n, pp. 1359- 141 1. Barocchi's edition is Bandinelli and the Culture of Forgery in Early Modern Europe (forth-
cited hereafter as Scritti. coming).
16. Scritti, op. cit., pp. 1384-85: 'Al Zati perché nell'Opera mi faceva
THE ACADEMY OF BACCIO BANDINELLI II
can be considered mistaken; engravers

a learned were
antiquarian scholar lecturingperfectly
or dictating
text. It is also
correct to identify the inventor ofworth
the remarking
designs on the of
form prints
of the
by this name. inscription, which recalls those on Diirer's portrait
The questions raised by the inscription on the engravings of famous men and scholars, such as his
Veneziano academy print are further complicated by 1526 engraving of Erasmus writing at his desk, where
the existence of a hitherto unpublished earlier state, in the inscription is prominently framed and carefully laid
a worn and stained impression in the Ashmolean out like a colophon, with the artist's monogram 'sup-
Museum, Oxford (fig. 2). In this state, there is no porting' the date in Roman numerals. The inscription
inscription on the table; instead, the large tablet hang- could equally be compared with those on other prints
ing from the wall at the right is signed with the from the Raimondi school or to Venetian prints, such
engraver's monogram and dated 1530. Also, the faint as the woodcut of The Sacrifice of Abraham of 15 15 by Ugo
sketches of figures visible in the drawings being pro- da Carpl. One consequence of the addition of the
duced around the table in the state described by inscription beneath the table is that it deprives the
Bartsch do not exist in this earlier state. If Veneziano empty frame hanging from the wall of its original pur-
engraved the plate in Rome in 1530, then it would have pose, leaving it as a somewhat curious detail in the
been one of the first that he made after his return, pos- composition.
sibly from a period in Mantua, following the Sack of If, as suggested above, the inscription was added by
Rome in 1527. The combination of A. monogram and Veneziano to the academy print in order to securely
date is typical of how Veneziano signs his prints, as is identify the subject and to prevent possible misreading
the combination of his monogram with an empty of the image, then it must have been galling to
framed tablet - a characteristic signature device of the Bandinelli to find his name 'incorrecdy' spelt by the
school of Marcantonio, possibly deriving from that engraver. A later engraved portrait of Bandinelli by
engraver's earlier copies of prints by Dürer, although Niccolò della Casa shows the artist three-quarter
here the empty tablet is unusually large.20 The earlier length, standing among sculptural models and wearing
date of 1530 would coincide with a period when the shell-and-cross insignia of the Order of Santiago.
Bandinelli was resident in Rome, and based at the This print is inscribed Baccio Bandinel Flo.s., and Erna
Belvedere in order to work on a commission from Fiorentini and Raphael Rosenberg have argued that it
Clement VII for a group of colossal bronze statues is cen-
based on a self-portrait drawing in the Uffizi, whose
tred around a victorious St Michael for Castel Sanť design has been reversed in the process of executing the
Angelo. Vasari also informs us that at this time print (Bandinelli's collaboration with this engraver can
Bandinelli was active in making numerous bronze stat- be dated to the mid- 1540s, on the basis of a portrait
engraving of Duke Cosimo I dated 1544).22 This image
uettes of the type we see in the print.21 The inscription
added to the second state is, strictly speaking, not would,
an on the evidence of the inscription, appear to
invertit but the identification of a group portrait. Thebe an attempt by Bandinelli to disseminate through the
print medium an authentic self-image, along with his
centrality of the inscription, its geographical specificity
(IN ROMA IN LUOGO DETTO BELVEDERE) and its
newly acquired noble status and name. It would in
enhanced Roman-style dating, appear to invest the part, therefore, represent a response to the type of 'mis-
image with the value of a historical document - and take' regarding nomenclature made by Veneziano in
indeed it is often interpreted in this way as providing
the academy print, executed by a more closely super-
evidence of Bandinelli's presence in Rome in 1531. The
vised engraver. Such 'mistakes' remained in circulation
on impressions of earlier prints, and continued to
addition of small sketches of figures to the two visible
drawing surfaces on the table also clarifies that thisbe
is made by printmakers working in Rome from
an artistic academy and not a literary one, preventingBandinelli's designs: for example, Nicolas Beatrizet's
the possible misinterpretation that the print represents
Combat of Love and Reason of 1545. 23
20. On the issue of the 'empty tablet' signature that appears inof the shelf was based on a bronze of Hercules Holding the Apples of
Marcantonio 's prints c. 1515, and also in Agostino Veneziano's the Hesperides in the Victoria and Albert Museum: M. G. Ciardi
œuvre , see Shoemaker and Broun, op. cit., p. 11, p. 18, note 24, and Duprè, 'Per la cronologia dei disegni di Baccio Bandinelli fino al
p. 22; Landau and Parshall, op. cit., pp. 144-45; and Pon, op. cit., 1540', Commentari , xvn, 1066, pp. 160-61.
especially chapter three. 22. E. Fiorentini and R. Rosenberg, 'Baccio Bandinelli's Self-
21. Vasari, op. cit., v, p. 251: '. . . per passarsi tempo e per vedere come Portraiť, Print Quarterly , xix, 2002, pp. 34-44.
gli doveva riuscire il getto, fece molte figurine alte due terzi
23.e Bartsch, op. cit., xv, 262, 44. The print is inscribed BACCIUS
tonde, come Ercoli, Venere, Apollini, Lede, et altre sue BRANDLN INVEN halfway along its base.
fantasie. . ..' Ciardi Duprè noted that the male statuette to the left
A copy of the state of thethis engraving

Venezianocarries Lafréry's name as publisher.26
academy print A
described by Bartsch canvery also be identified
worn impression (fig.
of Veneziano 's academy print 3).
in
Although the oudines of thethe collection
designof the Davison
appear Arts Center
to ofbe the iden-
tical, and do not reverse Wesleyan
it, the far cruder
University, CT, has the nameexecution,
of the publish-
lack of tonal subtlety, ander Antonio Salamanca added at differences
the significant the bottom right,
that a sustained comparisondemonstrating
reveals, the existence of a third state that
demonstrate and the
absorption
this is a copy. For example, the grain of the plate
of theinto the stock of
wood ina prolific
the
Roman publisher.27 The
bays of the ceiling, the physiognomies of continued presence and
the artist of the
his pupils and even of the plate in statuettes have
Rome raises the question all Bandinelli
of whether been
had any
altered and simplified, while the control over the marketing
hatching on the of thetable-
print, and
cloth no longer reaches itsalso whether theedge.
bottom plate hadAnother
ever been in his possession.
inter-
esting detail in the copy isPerhaps
the he was supplied
shadow with impressions
cast by the while right the
hand of the central, female statuette
engraver retained theon the
plate? With shelf
regard to above
its intend-
ed audience, implausibly
the table: this no longer points Veneziano 's academy print would cer-
upwards,
having been 'corrected' by tainly
the
have been
copyist.
of interest On
to othertheartists,
otherone of
whom
hand, there is a literal loss ofmay have been in
disegno Titian,
thesince there are some
disappear-
ance of the figures sketchedinteresting
by the parallels between it and Titian's
draughtsmen from late
the drawing surfaces they portrait
hold. of Jacopo
In the Strada in the Kunsthistorisches
inscription, the
word Belvedere is no longer Museum, Vienna. A muchand
underlined, less sophisticated
significant- record of
ly the A. V monogram is omitted.
the print's artistic reception exists in the form of a weak
The copying of prints was pen-and-ink
a commondrawing in thepractice
British Museum in (fig. 4),
the Roman school of printmakers associated
which Roger Ward has correctly with
identified as a pas-
Marcantonio, and Davidtiche of elements ofand
Landau both thePeter
Veneziano and Vico
Parshall
have convincingly arguedprints.28 that it was prompted by the
control over the plates exerted A consideration
byof theRaphael's
three states of the Veneziano
agent,
Baviero Carocci or II Baviera, on
print and its his behalf.24
one copy In
raises a whole series of the case
intriguing
of the Veneziano academyquestions print, concerning
a copy the nature of its creation, the
probably indi-
cates a similar need to reproduce the image
degree to which Bandinelli was directly on anoth-
involved in its
er plate, because the original publication,was controlled
the extent of its circulation andby one
the subse-
print-seller, while demand quent history
for of theprint
the plate. If theexceeded
unprecedented sub- this
source of supply. However, ject-matter of the print and the
establishing sophistication
the extent of its to
which the academy print circulated
treatment and
indicate Bandinelli how
as the itofwas
originator the
marketed is difficult: neither Doni nor Vasari mentions design, then the complicated circumstantial details
it in their discussion of prints, and it is not listed in later raised in the foregoing discussion certainly make the
catalogues of the Vaccari and De Rossi firms. The 1572evidential nature of the print more problematic. These
printed catalogue of Antonio Lafréry's stock records a issues arise more forcefully if we turn to the closely
portrait of Bandinelli, but not explicitly the academy related print representing Bandinelli's academy
print.25 This probably refers to the three-quarter-lengthengraved by Enea Vico of Parma (fig. 5).29 This
portrait by Niccolò della Casa, because a later state ofversion is a clarification and an amplification of the
24. Landau and Parshall, op. cit., pp. 131-32. Drawings by Baccio Bandinelli in the Department of Prints and
25. Vasari, op. cit., v, pp. 11-14; Disegno , op. cit., pp. 52-53; E Ehrle, Drawings in the British Museum', MA Report, Courtauld
Roma prima di Sisto V. La pianta du Pérac-Lafréry del 1577, Rome 1908, Institute, University of London 1978, no. 27, p. 52: . . clearly a
pp. 53-59. The portrait of Bandinelli is mentioned among drawing derived from the prints.' The drawing is not
'effigie diverse' at p. 59, no. 567. The Vaccari stock list is also Bandinelli's preparatory sketch for the print as suggested by
reproduced in Ehrle. For the printed catalogues of the De Rossi Olsewski and Fiorentini: E.J. Olszewski, 'Distortions, Shadows
firm, see A. Grelle lusco, Indice delle Stampe De* Rossi: Contributo alla and Conventions in Sixteenth Century Italian Art', Artibus et
storia di una Stamperia romana , Rome 1996. Historiae, vi, 1985, pp. 101-24, and in particular p. 123, n. 13;
26. See, for example, the impression in the National Gallery of Art, Fiorentini, op. dt., no. 29, p. 145.
Washington DC, reproduced in Woods-Marsden, op. cit., p. 145.29. On the Vico academy print, see M. Cazort, M. Korneli and K.
27. Reproduced in Barkan, op. cit., p. 290. Other impressions of the B. Roberts, The Ingenious Machine of Nature: Four Centuries of Art and
Salamanca state of the Veneziano academy print are noted by Anatomy, Ottawa 1996, no. 35, pp. 142-43; Fiorentini, op. cit., no.
Fiorentini, op. cit., no. 29, p. 145, and Borea, op. dt., no. 687, 30, p. 146; Borea, op. dt., no. 688, p. 264; Ciardi Dupré, op. dt.,
p. 264. For Salamanca, see Landau and Parshall, op. dt., p. 303. pp. 163-65 (the dating of 1531-32 given there for the Vico print
28. Bntish Museum, 1868-8-8-3178. R. Ward, A Catalogue of the is not sustainable).
Veneziano academy print (ratherhave thanexecuted the plate then.34 In this

a repetition),
since it demonstrates the artist's interesting
noble statusto note that the engraver's 's
through
an inscription and coat of arms, and
onlyhis elevated
added in theartis-
second state, in a differe
tic status through a multiplicationusing a formulation
of the elements of that is otherwise
the previous design: there are nowVico's œuvre
five books (the engraver
instead of usually signs E
or instead
one, six male statuettes, tight garzoni some variant
of five,of AENEAS VIC US, but no
four
mature artists instead of one, three A number
lightof sources,
links can be made
two between motifs in
the Vico
'philosophers' dressed in togas, and print and related
additional anatom- Bandinelli drawings and
ical material. Bandinelli's presence is,For
works. however, curi- drawing in Chicago
example, a pen-and-ink
ously marginal: a portrait in profile
of Twoat the
Studies of far right
the Head of can be compared with
of a Youth
the print, wearing the emblem of those of two
his garzoni to order
chivalric the right of the print.35 Less
and recalling the sculpted portraitdirectly,
on his thetomb.30
Ashmolean's red chalk drawing of a Woman
Three states of this engraving are known.
Reading The
by Lamplight first
recalls the figures seated around the
table.36
state (Bartsch xv, 305, 49-I) has the The cross-legged
inscription poses of the youths standing
Baccius
Bandinellus invent, on the left-hand page
and sitting of the
around the open
fireplace are favoured motifs in
book to the right of the cornice. Bandinelli's
Then, atart: they can left,
bottom be found in the series of
below the sleeping dog, a publisherprophets carved for the Romae
is identified: choir screen in the Duomo in
Petrus Paulus Palumbus formis (fig.Florence,
5). In somethe of which are
second signed and dated 1555,
state
the name of the engraver is added and on
the sculptor is represented in a similar pose in the
the right-hand
portrait of the artist
page of the open book: Enea vigo Parmegiano in the .31
sculpsit Isabella Stewart Gardner
Museum
Finally, in the third state (Bartsch xv,in305,
Boston, variously
49-II) theattributed to Bandinelli
himself and, more
transfer of the plate from one publisher recendy, tois
to another Jacopino del Conte.
recorded below two skulls: Gaspar Albertus
Occurring, as they successor
do, alongside motifs derived from
Palumbi (fig. 6). While Passavant the
was correct
prints of Dürer -in
the point-
meditating man and the sleep-
ing out the existence of a second ing dog from
state with Melencolia /, the shadows cast by stools
an inscrip-
tion identifying the engraver, Bartsch
from St Jerome in was quite
His Study (both dated 15 14) - these links
with
accurate in his description of the Bandinelli's
first state, works read more like quotations than
notably
with regard to the publisher'sauthentic inventions.37 Although
inscription.32 The Vico's engraving
Palumbi were a family of book and technique is impressive, itbased
print-sellers cannot disguise the formal
at S. Agostino in Rome, and Pietro incoherence
PaoloofPalumbo
the composition
is with its inconsistent
known to have flourished from c. treatment
1562 to of cast shadows, This
1586.33 perspective and scale. Also,
the theoretical
fact suggests a significantly later date for a argument
print thatof theisVeneziano print is lost
usually dated on stylistic grounds through
to thethe relegation
1540s or of the sculptural statuettes to
1550s,
possibly later than Bandinelli's ownperipheral
death attributes
in 1560.of the academy, among skeletal
Vico
is documented as being in Rome in and
remains 1561 and
books. could
Whereas in the Veneziano print
30. For sculpted self-portraits of Bandinelli, including the relief self- has drawn attention to the connection of this drawing with the
portrait on the sepulchral monument in SS. Annunziata in Vico print and suggested that the youth represented may be
Florence, 1558-59, see I. Galicka and H. Sygietynska, A Newly Bandinelli's son Clemente, suggesting a date of about 1550: R.
Discovered Self-portrait by Baccio Bandinelli', The Burlington Ward, 'New Drawings by Bandinelli and Cellini', Master
Magazine, cxxxiv, 1992, pp. 805-07. Also relevant is a black Drawings, 31, 1993, pp. 395-98. Other drawings identified by
chalk self-portrait drawing in the British Museum, reproduced Ciardi Dupré as preparatory for this print are more likely to
in this article on p. 807, and dated c . 1550 by Ward, for which see derive from it: Ciardi Dupré, op. cit., pp. 162-63.
Ward, op. cit., 1978, no. 23, p. 45. 36. K. T. Parker, Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings in the Ashmolean
31. ror example, the impression in the Museum 01 fine Arts, BostonMuseum, n, Italian Schools, Oxford 1956, no. 79.
(1976.611), reproduced in E. J. Olszewski, The Draftsman's Eye 37., A comparable use of a motif from Dürer's St Jerome can be found
Cleveland 1981, no. 74, p. 99. in Vico's engraving after Parmigianino of Venus and Mars
32. J. D. Passavant, Le Peintre-Graveur , Leipzig 1864, xvi, no. 49, p.Embracing as Vulcan Works at his Forge, 1543 (Bartsch, xv, 294, 27),
122. Borea, op. cit., no. 688, p. 264, follows Passavant in listing where the shadows around the window are transferred from the
three states. scholar's study to the lovers' bedroom. For the attribution of the
33. M. Bury, The Print in Italy 1550-1620 , London 2001, p. 230. Boston portrait to Jacopino del Conte, see S. Béguin and P.
34. V Pagani, 'Documents on Antonio Salamanca', Print Quarterly,Costamagna, 'Nouvelles considerations sur Baccio Bandinelli
XVII, 2000, p. 153, n. 18. peintre: la redécouverte de la Lèda et le cygne', Les Cahiers
35. S. F. McCullagh and L. M. Giles, Italian Drawings Before 1600 in d'Histoire de l'Art, 1, 2003, pp. 7-18.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago 1997, no. 703, p. 398. Ward
A later
Bandinelli's sculptural works are the anonymous
focus of the copy of Veneziano '
indicative
drawing activity, thereby demonstrating in a general sense of how the app
practically
and assimilation
and symbolically the derivation of disegno of the work of others was ch
from rilievo,
in Vico's print the attention of theticdraughtsmen
of Renaissanceisprint culture, while at the
revealing
directed inwards and their efforts appear how trivial mistakes can occur in
unconnected.
The Veneziano academy print functioned as (comparable
tion of a plate an to the typesetter
effective pictorial statement both laying
of Bandinelli's dis-
out a page of text), such as the female
tinctively sculptural conception of cast shadow
disegno and 'corrected'
of the by the copyist. The e
high social position he enjoyed a from
state prestigious
of the Veneziano print published by
patronage. It sought to raise the statusSalamanca testifies
of disegno , andto the enduring demand
with it to extend Bandinelli's fame, by bystressing
Bandinelli, as does the later date propose
its sim-
the inspiration,
ilarities with literature: design requires academy print the by Vico, published by th
print-sellers.
study and imitation of antique precedents, and is In the awkwardness of its co
wor-
thy of the institution of the academy. and its eclecticthe
However, referencing of different
print medium was effective not only Bandinelli's artistic development, Vico's acad
in disseminating
this message but also in distancing the appears
imageto be athe
from manifestation of a mor
method
control, the 'authority', of its designer. of disegno
Shortly after it than the one it purports to
The inscription
was first published in 1530 an explanatory text was on Vico's print, Baccius Ba
added in order to clarify the nature invent , no doubt
and identity of theaccurately represents the p
group: the inscription added by Veneziano correcdy
of a sculptor who had convinced himself of h
identified the artist - the 'Brandini' well-known
with regard toto
thehow his surname should be s
print-buying public as the author of is questionable
the print of whether
The it records Bandine
Martyrdom of St. Lawrence - but in a involvement
manner thatin the print's production.
unin-
tentionally denied the sculptor's claim to noble status.
Dancing with Death in Poland
Aleksandra Koutný
There are two approaches to death ofin

individuell patrons' wishes to promote thei
art: the exalt-
after
ed, and the humble.1 That is, there are they have
monuments passed away, for instance b
that
epitaphs
glorify and impress the beholder, and and,
didactic in some privileged cases, large
works
that frighten and teach. The formerchapels.
is often Diametrically
the result opposed to this is m
i . I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Jeantance ofjuliusz

Michel Massing,Chrošcicki
for of the University of War
Dziubkowa
his unfailing good humour during long discussions aboutof death
the National Museum, Poznan; Jerz
and devils, and to the Arts and Humanities of the University
Research Board for of Warsaw; Stanislaw Mossakow
Institute
their generous sponsorship of my doctoral research. of Art,
I would Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsa
fur-
ther like to thank Eva Schuster for giving meMossor ofDance
access to the Royal
of Castle, Warsaw; and Pr
Mrozowski of the Royal
Death prints in her care at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität in Castle, Warsaw. My thanks als
staff of Totentanz-
Düsseldorf, and Uli Wunderlich of the Europäische the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, and to the
the religious
Vereinigung for her advice on the Kassel bier-cloth. community who made it possible for me
My research
in Poland has benefited enormously from the photograph
kind help and Dances
assis- of Death in their churches.
PRINT QUARTERLY, XXII, 2OO5, I

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Print Quarterly Publications

The Academy of Baccio Bandinelli

redazioni del 1550 e 1568, edited by R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi,

PRINT QUARTERLY, XXII, 2OO5, I

paragone question in 1547. Here, a come into

2. Agostino Veneziano, Academy of Baccio Bandinella 1530. engraving, 274 x 3

the three-dimensional relief constituting

7. Bartsch, op. cit., xiv, 314, 418; The Illustrated Bartsch

print in its different states table,

variously shaped vases and goblets and a Firenzuola's

a dedication to vernacular literature or antiquity).11

Cacus when it was revealed

can be considered mistaken; engravers

A copy of the state of thethis engraving

Veneziano academy print (ratherhave thanexecuted the plate then.34 In this

Dancing with Death in Poland

There are two approaches to death ofin

i . I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Jeantance ofjuliusz

PRINT QUARTERLY, XXII, 2OO5, I

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