Male bust

The bust from the collection of Florentine Carlo Angeli was acquired by the Museo di Palazzo Venezia in 1919 with an attribution to the sculptor Matteo Civitali, which was confirmed in Hermanin’s 1948 catalog. Antonino Santangelo (1954, 68), however, proposed a more specific attribution to the Florentine sculptor Baccio da Montelupo (c. 1469–1535), a specialist in terracotta sculpture and bust portraiture in early sixteenth-century Florence. This proposal was supported by similarities found with works attributed to Baccio, such as the Saint Sebastian of San Godenzo (1506) and the Eucharistic Tabernacle of San Lorenzo a Segromigno in Monte (Lucca, 1518), suggesting a creation date post-1506.
John Turner (1997, 176–178) and Cristiano Giometti (2011, 32, cat. 2) have suggested dating the work to the mid-1490s due to its similarities with figures in the Compianto di San Domenico in Bologna. This piece was the first documented work by Montelupo, created between late 1494 and early 1495 for the chapel of Capo di San Domenico in the church of the same name in Bologna. The Roman bust, originally adorned with a polychrome finish now largely lost but still visible in the delicate pink coloring of the mouth and cheekbones, demonstrates a greater vitality compared to the statues in Bologna. This is particularly evident in the flowing hair and realistic rendering of the skin, akin to a funeral mask or a life cast. Such characteristics are typical of works from the first half of the sixteenth century, including Saint Sebastian and the Bust of Christ from the Abbey of San Godenzo, which share similar somatic and morphological features, especially in their well-carved eye sockets and meticulously explored chiaroscuro effects.
These observations enable us to date the work in Palazzo Venezia to the first decade of the sixteenth century and associate it with the repertoire of sculptures commissioned by Montelupo for the Badia di San Godenzo. This collection, in addition to the previously mentioned effigy of the Redeemer, included other busts representing Saint John, the Virgin Mary, and the three martyrs Godenzo, Marziano, and Luciano, which are regrettably now lost. The male figure in Palazzo Venezia diverges from the conventional depiction of Christ the Redeemer as formulated by Verrocchio and prevalent in the Florentine region at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This traditional representation is characterized by a monumental half-length bust, a substantial tunic fastened modestly, and a thick cloak draped over one shoulder in the classical style, with a face featuring a distinctive beard and thick, curly hair cascading down to the shoulders. This figure is depicted without clothes, attributes, or signs of martyrdom such as a crown of thorns or wounds. The face is mature with clear and delicate treatment, featuring a broad, smooth forehead and a naturalistic hairstyle that is shorter and more tousled compared to the traditional luxuriant hair of Christ or St. John. The bust is cut very high, above the shoulders, suggesting that it was originally placed on a wooden support designed to hold the lower part, which is typical of reliquary busts or votive images dedicated to the memory of martyrs. A photograph taken before its arrival at Palazzo Venezia shows the bust resting on a base with an inscription identifying it as “Nicolaus peregrinus,” a young hermit shepherd from Stiri (Greece) who arrived in Apulia in the 11th century and is now recognized as the patron saint of the city of Trani. There are no iconographic references to confirm this identification, which may be a result of iconographic changes made over the centuries for specific devotional or liturgical reasons. Considering the typological and iconographic similarities with the series of busts commissioned by Baccio da Montelupo for San Godenzo, it is possible that the Roman work was originally one of the heads of the pilgrim monks Gaudenzio, Marziano, or Luciano. This piece likely entered the Florentine market following the Napoleonic suppressions that removed the church in Mugello's artistic heritage in the early nineteenth century.

David Lucidi

Entry published on 12 June 2025

Fair. Loss of polychromy.

Firenze, Collezione Carlo Angeli;
Rome, Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Venezia, 1919.

von Fabriczy Cornelius, Sculture in legno di Baccio da Monte­lupo, in «Miscellanea d’arte», IV, 1903, pp. 67-68;
Poggi Giovanni, Opere d’arte ignote o poco note. Un S. Seba­stiano di Baccio da Montelupo nella Badia di S. Goden­zo, in «Rivista d’arte», VI, 1909, pp. 133-135;
Hermanin Federico, Il Palazzo di Venezia, Roma 1948, p. 275;
Santangelo Antonino (a cura di), Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo del­le sculture, Roma 1954, p. 68;
Bietti Monica, Petrucci Federico (a cura di), L’Abbazia di San Godenzo e il San Sebastiano restau­rato, Firenze 1988;
Franklin David, Rosso in Italy: the Italian Career of Rosso Fiorentino, New Heaven 1994, p. 17;
Turners, in Barocchi Paola (a cura di), Il Giardino di San Marco. Maestri e compagni del gio­vane Michelangelo, catalogo del­la mostra (Firenze, Casa Buonarroti, 30 giugno-19 ottobre 1992), Cinisello Balsamo 1992, p. 120, cat. 25;
Turner John Douglas, The Sculpture of Baccio da Montelupo, Providence 1997, pp. 176-178, cat. 15B;
Giometti Cristiano, Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, vol. IV, Sculture in terracotta, Roma 2011, p. 32, cat. 2;
Lucidi David, Contributi a Baccio da Montelupo scultore in terracotta, in «Nuovi Studi», XVIII, 2013 (2014), 19, pp. 63- 64;
Lucidi David, Baccio da Montelupo, Todi 2022, pp. 102-104, 422-423, cat. 19.