Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli

Statues of the apostles in the Cathedral of Messina

Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli (* 1507 (?) In Florence ; † August 31, 1563 ibid) was an Italian sculptor and architect of the Cinquecento .

After a three-year apprenticeship with Andrea di Piero Ferrucci, Montorsoli worked as an assistant in Rome , Perugia and Volterra . Then he went to Florence around 1524 and became a pupil of Michelangelo . He joined the Servite Order in 1530 and made his vows in 1531. Montorsoli worked with Michelangelo on the Sagrestia Nuova ( New Sacristy ) of San Lorenzo , where he carved the statue of San Cosma (1536–1537). He restored ancient statues in the Vatican, such as the Laocoon group and the Apollo of Belvedere , and erected numerous tombs, for example the tomb of Mauro Mafferi (1537) in the cathedral of Volterra and the tomb of Andrea Dorias (1541) in the church of San Matteo in Genoa .

From 1543 to 1547 Montorsoli worked for Andrea Doria, who had a new palace built and decorated in Messina . In 1547 Montorsoli created a Triton fountain for the palace garden. The city authorities of Messina named Montorsoli cathedral builder that same year, and he worked in Messina for the next ten years. His first assignment was to make a monumental fountain at the end of the new Camaro -Wasserleitung in the cathedral square to build ( Fountain of Orion ), for which even the church of San Lorenzo was demolished, the Montorsoli from 1552 elsewhere newly built (1783 destroyed). He also worked on the interior of the cathedral (statues of the apostles, 1550–1555), built the "lighthouse" ( Torre della Lanterna , originally called Torre del Garofalo , 1555), and created the Neptune Fountain (1557), with which the Messinese emperors Charles V and his son Philip II honored.

literature

• Nicola Aricò: La Torre della Lanterna di Giovannangelo Montorsoli (= Opuscoli di ethos. Vol. 1). GBM, Messina 2005, ISBN 88-7560-006-6 .
• Birgit Laschke: Fra Giovan Angelo da Montorsoli. a 16th century Florentine sculptor. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-7861-1693-8 (At the same time: Berlin, Free University, dissertation, 1990: Studies on the oeuvre of the Florentine sculptor Fra Giovan Angelo da Montorsoli. ).
• Karl Moseneder : Montorsoli. The wells. Mäander Kunstverlag, Mittenwald 1979, ISBN 3-88219-056-6 (At the same time: Salzburg, dissertation, 1974: The fountains of GA Montorsoli. ).