Giovanni Battista Lorenzi

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Fountain figures Alpheus and Arethusa
Michelangelo's tomb , u. a. the bust and the figure on the left are by Lorenzi

Giovanni Battista Lorenzi (* 1527 / 28 in Settignano , † 7. January 1594 in Pisa ), or Battista (Giovanni del Cavaliere) Lorenzi , was an Italian sculptor and artist. He worked mainly in Florence . He also worked in Pisa, where the design of the cathedral's main chandelier is attributed to him.

Life

Lorenzi was born in 1527 or 1528 in the village of Settignano, northeast of Florence. He was a brother of Andrea and a cousin of Gino di Antonio Lorenzi, the latter was the father of the sculptors Antonio and Stoldo Lorenzi . Around 1540 Giovanni Battista Lorenzi entered the workshop of Baccio Bandinelli , whose pupil he became. He may have been involved in his work on a monument to Giovanni dalle Bande Nere and the Florence Cathedral . In 1558/59 he stayed in Rome and worked with Vincenzo de 'Rossi on several commissions, including a statue of a youth at the grave of Paul IV , which was later destroyed.

In 1563 Lorenzi created a statue for the Accademia del disegno in Florence. In the following year he became a member of the academy and held various offices there until 1975. In 1565, on the occasion of the wedding of Francesco I de 'Medici, he received several tasks such as making statues of the gods Hymenaios , Arno and Danube. In 1568 the Maltese Alamanno Bandini commissioned him for a fountain with figures of Alpheios and Arethusa , which he set up in the garden of his villa near Florence. He created another fountain with a Triton figure for Cosimo I de 'Medici .

After Michelangelo's death , Lorenzi took over essential parts of the design of his tomb in Santa Croce . To do this, he went to Carrara in 1565 and selected the marble that arrived in Florence two years later. Lorenzi and his assistant Romualdo d'Antonio Malaspina created the marble facing and the sarcophagus, Lorenzi also contributed a portrait bust of Michelangelo and a seated figure. In 1572 the work was completed. Lorenzi, who meanwhile lived in Michelangelo's former workshop in Via Mozza, then moved to Via della Pergola.

From 1573 Lorenzi worked for Jacopo Salviati, a cousin of Cosimo I, for ten years. Among other things, he created a coat of arms of the Salviati and an elaborate marble fountain with Perseus figure for the garden loggia of the palace of the family and supervised further extensions and conversions. With the help of assistants, he restored ancient sculptures that Salviati had acquired. From 1574 to 1579 he made several trips to Seravezza and Pisa to buy marble. At that time he was also responsible as architect and construction manager at the new headquarters of the academy in the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli.

Lorenzi spent the last ten years of his life mainly in Pisa. After Stoldo Lorenzi's death he became the executor and trustee of the bereaved children and probably took over his work on Pisa Cathedral at the end of 1583 / beginning of 1584 . He worked there as a sculptor and architect. In June 1584 he designed a model for a lamp that was made by the goldsmith Vincenzo Possanti in 1586 and placed on the top of the cathedral's triumphal arch for Christmas. It came to be known as Lampada di Galileo , who, according to legend, inspired Galileo Galilei to study pendulum movements. Lorenzi's workshop carried out several installations in the south and later north transepts of the cathedral; Lorenzo himself made a figure of St. Ephysius. In 1588/89 he stayed in Florence again, where he was involved in the decoration for the wedding of Ferdinando I de 'Medici and created two gesso statues for the cathedral .

Giovanni Battista Lorenzi died in Pisa in 1594 and was buried in S. Marco.

Works (selection)

  • Alpheus and Arethusa , 1568–1570, sculpture, marble, 148.9 × 82.9 × 59.7 cm, 354.7129 kg, Metropolitan Museum of Art , original location: fountain of the Villa Il Paradiso at Pian di Ripoli (owner Alamanno Bandini) near Florence
  • Santa Croce , side aisle: Michelangelo's tomb (design by Giorgio Vasari ); Construction of the tomb, cenotaph , marble portrait bust of Michelangelo, statue of the painting on the left, ca.1568
  • Pisa Cathedral , transept (Cappella di S. Ranieri): niche with statue of St. Ephysius (1592), design for a brass candlestick with bronze figure (Lampada di Galileo; executed by Vincenzo Possanti in 1584)
  • Perseus , 1574–1578, fountain figure, marble, Palazzo Nonfinito in Florence, original location: loggia in the garden behind the Palazzo Salviati in Corso dei Barberi
  • Triton , fountain figure sitting on three dolphins, blowing into a sea snail, around 1574, marble, 2.03 m without base, Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Palermo
  • St. Minias 1588/89, Gesso , Florence Cathedral , interior of the dome
  • St. Antoninus 1588/89, Gesso, Florence Cathedral, interior of the dome

literature

Web links

Commons : Battista Lorenzi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Maurizia Cicconi:  Lorenzi, Giovanni Battista. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 66:  Lorenzetto – Macchetti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2006.
  2. ↑ a b c Hildegard Utz: Sculptures and other works by Battista Lorenzi. Metropolitan Museum Journal, Volume 7, 1973, p. 38.
  3. ↑ Alpheus and Arethusa metmuseum.org. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  4. ^ Lorenzi, Battista di Domenico . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 23 : Leitenstorfer – Mander . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1929, p. 388 .
personal data
SURNAME Lorenzi, Giovanni Battista
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lorenzi, Battista; Del Cavaliere, Battista
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian sculptor and artist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1527
PLACE OF BIRTH Settignano
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1594
Place of death Pisa