Michelangelo (Buonarroti)

AbstractThis study draws on the unpublished correspondence between Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, a Florentine poet and grandnephew of the artist, and the Barberini family, in an attempt to examine the wider concepts of cultural clientelism and brokerage networks in the early modern process of cultural dissemination (in the areas of literature, music, theater, painting, architecture, and science) in Florence and Rome. Reconsidering the definition and role of a Seicento cultural broker added to the traditional model of patron and client, it analyzes Michelangelo the Younger’s activity as broker, patron-broker, and broker-client in connection with such significant figures as Maffeo Barberini (the future Urban VIII), Galileo, and the painter Lodovico Cigoli, exploring the ways in which these roles supported his personal commitment to promote his family’s social status and revealing the fluidity of roles in the patronage system. By obtaining Barberini patronage for his theatrical works and public recognition of the mythology of his illustrious forebear, Buonarroti’s cultural brokerage supported these dynastic ambitions. Spanning nearly half a century, this archival documentation casts new light on a little-known, but significant, area of Italian social relations and suggests directions for further research on other Seicento cultural brokers and new definitions for a broader concept of cultural brokerage in early modern Italy.

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La circolazione dei modelli: calchi da Michelangelo tra Emilia e Veneto, nella seconda metà del Cinquecento

Venezia Arti ◽

10.30687/va/2385-2720/2019/01/004 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Elisabetta Fadda

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Reggio Emilia ◽

Documentary Evidence ◽

Michelangelo Buonarroti ◽

San Lorenzo ◽

The Public ◽

The Will ◽

King Of France ◽

Francis I

In Reggio Emilia, the sculptor Prospero Spani, also known as Clemente (1516-1584), created two statues representing Adam and on the facade of the cathedral. Along with Saint Daria and Saint Crisanto, they were both commissioned in 1552. The two statues indisputably draw inspiration from Dawn and Dusk, which are part of the monument dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici in the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo in Florence, work of Michelangelo Buonarroti. In January 1892, Eva’s leg by Prospero Clemente broke and fell to the ground. During the restoration, it was noticed that the leg and all other statues were empty inside. There is no formal documentary evidence of Clemente travelling to Florence, where Buonarroti's New Sacristy was opened to the public in 1556 and where, only later on, by the will of Cosimo I, were carried out some engravings representing the whole composition. Despite the existence of other drawings, casts were mainly responsible for spreading Michelangelo’s inventions for the Medici tombs. In the sixteenth century, it was only possible to talk of a culture of casts after 1540 King Francis I Valois’ initiative to ask Francesco Primaticcio – who was already occupied working for him at the decoration of Fontainebleau – to procure the moulds of Rome’s best ancient statues in order to reproduce them. Among the commissioned casts there were also those from Michelangelo, an artist who was extremely admired by the French. As known, masterpieces realised for the King of France had an immediate impact in Italy, which was primarily possible thanks to Primaticcio’s numerous trips in Emilia, where the painter had his own home and used to recruit his collaborators.

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