![148 le vite, giovan francesco rustichi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/148_le_vite%2C_giovan_francesco_rustichi.jpg)
Giovan Francesco Rustici,
[ or Giovanni Francesco Rustici,][ ] (1475–1554) was an Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor.
__NOTOC__
He was born into a noble family of Florence, with an independent income. Rustici profited from study of the Medici sculpture in the garden at San Marco, and according to Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
, Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...
placed him in the studio of Verrocchio
Andrea del Verrocchio (, , ; – 1488), born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, was a sculptor, Italian painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence. He apparently became known as ''Verrocchio'' after the ...
, and that after Verrocchio's departure for Venice, he placed himself with Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
, who had also trained in Verocchio's workshop. He shared lodgings with Leonardo while he was working on the bronze figures for the Florence Baptistry
The Florence Baptistery, also known as the Baptistery of Saint John ( it, Battistero di San Giovanni), is a religious building in Florence, Italy, and has the status of a minor basilica. The octagonal baptistery stands in both the Piazza del ...
, for which he was ill paid and resolved, according to Vasari, not to work again on a public commission. Moreover, an echo of Leonardo's inspiration is unmistakable in the much-discussed and much-reviled wax bust of "Flora" in Berlin, ascribed to a circle of Leonardo and most probably to Rustici. At this time, Pomponius Gauricus, in ''De sculptura'' (1504), named him one of the principal sculptors of Tuscany, the peer of Benedetto da Maiano
Benedetto da Maiano (1442 – May 24, 1497) was an Italian Early Renaissance sculptor.
Biography
Born in the village of Maiano (now part of Fiesole), he started his career as companion of his brother, the architect Giuliano da Maiano. When he ...
, Andrea Sansovino
Andrea dal Monte Sansovino or Andrea Contucci del Monte San Savino (1529) was an Italian sculptor active during the High Renaissance. His pupils include Jacopo Sansovino (no relation).
Biography
He was the son of Domenico Contucci of Monte ...
and Michelangelo. It may have been made in France, perhaps in the circle of Rustici, who entered Francis I's service in 1528.
Vasari tells of the elaborate suppers given by Rustici and his comrades.
Rustici's ''Mercury'' was commissioned by Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici in 1515 as a fountain figure for the courtyard of Palazzo Medici
The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is a Renaissance palace located in Florence, Italy. It is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Florence and a museum.
Overview
T ...
in Florence. The figure blew a jet of water that spun a whirligig
A whirligig is an object that spins or whirls, or has at least one part that spins or whirls. It can also be a pinwheel, spinning top, buzzer, comic weathervane, gee-haw, spinner, whirlygig, whirlijig, whirlyjig, whirlybird, or simply a whirly ...
with four vanes in the form of butterfly wings, according to Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
's description. According to James Draper, Rustici's figure drew inspiration from the mid-fifteenth century gilt-bronze fountain ''Winged Infant'' now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
. Vasari praised the sculpture, now in the Boscawen collection at the Fitzwilliam Museum
The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...
, Cambridge.
At the time of the siege of Florence, 1528, he went to France, where he was pensioned by King Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to:
* Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407)
* Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450
* Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547
* Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...
but after the king's death died in poverty at Tours
Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...
.
Baccio Bandinelli
Baccio Bandinelli (also called Bartolommeo Brandini; 12 November 1493 – shortly before 7 February 1560), was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, draughtsman, and painter.
Biography
Bandinelli was the son of a prominent Florentine goldsmith, ...
apprenticed with Rustici.
Some glazed terracotta bas-reliefs in the technique familiar from the della Robbia Della Robbia is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Luca della Robbia (1400–1481), Italian sculptor
* Andrea della Robbia (1435–1525), Italian sculptor, nephew of Luca
*Giovanni della Robbia (1469–1529), son of Andrea
*Girola ...
workshops, are attributed to Rustici, notably a ''Madonna and Child'' in the Bargello
The Bargello, also known as the Palazzo del Bargello, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, or Palazzo del Popolo (Palace of the People), was a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy.
Terminology
The word ''bargello'' appears ...
and a ''Saint John the Baptist'' in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Major works
* ''Bust of Boccaccio'' (1503) for Giovanni Boccaccio's funeral monument at Certaldo Certaldo is a town and '' comune'' of Tuscany, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Florence, in the middle of Valdelsa. It is about southwest of the Florence Duomo.
It is 50 minutes by rail and 35 minutes by car southwest of Florence, and it is 40 ...
br>
* ''John the Baptist with the Pharisee and the Levite''. Three figures on the Battistero di San Giovanni (Florence), Baptistery, Florence. The work was commissioned in 1506 to replace Late Gothic figures by Tino da Camaino.
* ''Mercury taking Flight''. Commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...
), to decorate a fountain in the garden court of Palazzo Medici
The Palazzo Medici, also called the Palazzo Medici Riccardi after the later family that acquired and expanded it, is a Renaissance palace located in Florence, Italy. It is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Florence and a museum.
Overview
T ...
, Florence, probably in 1515. It was probably installed above the fountain bowl that originally held Donatello's 'Judith'.
* ''The Infant Jesus and Saint John the Baptist''. Bas-relief marble and onyx tondo. Louvre Museum
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
.
* ''Virgin and Child'' Bas-relief bronze plaque, attributed to Rustici. Louvre Museum.
* ''Battle scene''. Terracotta. A horseman and four assailants, showing the influence of Leonardo's drawings. Louvre Museum.
*Fountain, the design attributed to Leonardo.[Attributed to Leonardo by ]John Pope-Hennessy
Sir John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy (13 December 1913 – 31 October 1994), was a British art historian. Pope-Hennessy was Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1967 and 1973, and Director of the British Museum between 1974 and 1976. ...
, in ''Victoria and Albert Museum Yearbook'' 4. Formerly at Woolbeding House
Woolbeding House is an 18th-century country house in Woolbeding, near Midhurst, West Sussex, England. It is a Grade I listed building.
It was probably built by Sir Richard Mill Bt between 1711 and 1760 and was originally of a quadrangular plan ...
, Surrey (Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
)
Notes and references
Further reading
*
*
External links
Louvre Museum official site: Giovanni Francesco Rustici
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rustici, Giovanni Francesco
1474 births
1554 deaths
Artists from Florence
15th-century Italian sculptors
Italian male sculptors
16th-century Italian sculptors