Head of a faun

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The head of a faun is a lost work by Michelangelo from around 1489. It was the first marble work by the 15 or 16 year old Michelangelo, who probably made this sculpture as a copy of an ancient model. According to Giorgio Vasari , it was this work that helped Michelangelo sponsor Lorenzo de 'Medici .

Vasari tells the anecdote that Lorenzo de 'Medici came into the garden of San Marco , where some young artists were working, and saw Michelangelo's faun head. He asked the young master if some teeth should not be missing in such an old face. Michelangelo agreed and, to the great amusement of the Duke, knocked out a tooth from the Faun with a hammer and chisel.

Cesare Zocchi (1851–1922) created a marble sculpture that shows the young master working on this very faun head. It is located in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence .

  • This plaster version of a head of the Faun (in the Bargello Museum in Florence until 1944 ) was considered to be a cast of Michelangelo's work

  • Cesare Zocchi : Michaelangelo at work on the Faun's head

literature

  • Artists Life - Michelangelo. Enrica Crispino, 2001, Giunti Editore.
  • The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti. John Addington Symonds, BiblioBazaar.
  • Giorgio Vasari: The Life of Michelangelo. Alessandro Nova (Ed.), Wagenbach Publishing House, 2004.