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Michelangelo’s Pieta in Bronze

by Michael Riddick

2Michelangelo’s Pieta in Bronze Michael Riddick

MICHELANGELO’S PIETA IN BRONZE

The small bronze Pieta relief cast integrally with its

frame for use as a pax (Fig. 1) follows after a prototype

by Michelangelo (1475-1564) made during the early

1540s. Michelangelo created the Pieta for Vittoria

Colonna (1492-1547),1 an esteemed noblewoman with

whom he shared corresponding spiritual beliefs inspired

by progressive Christian reformists. Michelangelo’s Pieta

relates to Colonna’s Lamentation on the Passion of

Christ,2 written in the early 1540s and later published in

1556. In her Lamentation Colonna vividly adopts the role

of Mary in grieving the death of her son. Michelangelo’s

Pieta was likely inspired by Colonna’s writing, evidenced

through the synchronicity of his design in relationship

with Colonna’s prose.3

Fig. 1: A bronze Pieta pax, attributed here to Jacopo and/or

Ludovico del Duca, ca. 1580 (private collection)

Fig. 2: A sketch (graphite and watercolor) of the Pieta,

attributed to Marcello Venusti, after Michelangelo

(© Teylers Museum; Inv. A90)


Michelangelo’s original Pieta for Colonna is a debated

subject. Traditional scholarship suggests a sketch at

the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is the original

he made for her while others propose a panel painting

supported by additional contemporary sources which

discuss it. The documentary evidence suggests

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Colonna, later given by her to their mutual friend, the

Cardinal Reginald Pole, in 1546.4 Prior to its change in

ownership, the subject was doubtless copied in sketched

form by Michelangelo and others close to his circle. A

sketch attributed to Marcello Venusti (1510-79) at the

Teylers Museum (Fig. 2) is the likely prototype for a 1546

engraved reproduction of the subject by Giulio Bonasone

(1498-1574). A further 1547 engraved reproduction,

following after Bonasone’s, was executed by Nicolas

Beatrizet (1507-65) and later printed editions were made

by Giovan Battista de Cavalieri (1526-97) in 1560 and

Agostino Carracci (1557-1602) in 1579.5 By the mid-16th

century Michelangelo’s Pieta for Colonna was widely

celebrated and diffused through prints as well as painted

and sketched copies.

The bronze pax version of Michelangelo’s Pieta

is of Roman origin, also being the locus of the

original conception of its design.6 Only one dated

example of the pax is known at the Basilica della

Santa Casa in Loreto, featuring the inscription:

IO.D.BASTIANO.D.NARDI,F.1586. The Pieta pax

design diverges from sketched, painted and engraved

versions and more closely follows two stone reliefs of

the subject which are faithfully linked to Michelangelo:

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the Santo Spirito in Sassia, ca. 1551 (Fig. 3). Both reliefs

have been associated with Michelangelo’s assistants,

with proposals for Pierino da Vinci (1529-53) or Jacopo

Fig. 3: An incomplete marble relief of the Pieta, after Michelangelo (left; Vatican); a marble relief of the Pieta, after Michelangelo,

ca. 1551 (right, Santo Spirito in Sassia)


del Duca (1520-1604) as their authors.7 Charles de

Tolnay has commented on the distinction of two Pieta

prototypes noting the differences between the sculpted

and drafted versions. The prime distinction between

each prototype regards the putto on the right who faces

the viewer on sculpted versions and is turned toward

Christ on drafted examples.8

The bronze Pieta��

treatment of Mary’s collar as portrayed on the stone

reliefs and her brooch featuring a winged cherub head

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engraved and sketched versions. Further related to

the stone reliefs are the exposed feet of Mary and the

previously noted putto on the right who faces the viewer.

Unique to the bronze relief, however, is Mary’s tilted

head and the alternate feature of the right putto’s proper

left-leg which is instead shown extending into the scene.

Though late 16th century Rome was home to a quantity

of bronze founders, Charles Avery has suggested the

Pieta relief may be indebted to the Duca brothers,

Jacopo and Ludovico (1551-1601).9 10 In addition to the

stone relief’s previously noted association with Jacopo,

the brothers also experimented with Michelangelo’s

Pieta subject in bronze. Jacopo borrows the depiction

of Mary for a bronze Lamentation relief panel on a

tabernacle at the Church of San Lorenzo in Padula

(Fig. 4). The tabernacle was originally connected with

Michelangelo’s designs for an unrealized tabernacle

intended for the Sta Maria degli Angeli, to be designed

by him and cast by Jacopo.11 Though abandoned,

Jacopo resurrected the tabernacle for a project later

intended for Spain’s El Escorial. The project was

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completed and sold to the Church in Padula.12 Jacopo’s

Fig. 4: A bronze relief panel of the Lamentation by Jacopo del

Duca, featured on a tabernacle at the Church of San Lorenzo

in Padula, ca. 1573-74


Lamentation relief was made ca. 1574 when the

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in Padula. More than a decade later, Jacopo shared

the panel molds of the Padula tabernacle with Ludovico

for his work on the Sta Maria Maggiore tabernacle in

Rome, ca. 1587-89.13��!�� "��#��

model of the Lamentation��

that correspondences can be established with the

�� Pieta pax. In particular,

�� !��#��Lamentation panel, Mary’s slightly

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thickly incised lines that correspond with the manner of

the Pieta pax (Fig. 5). Additionally, the period in which

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with the dated example of the Pieta pax, ca. 1586-89.

Of all Roman founders, Jacopo would have especially

�� #��Pieta in bronze,

having served as his bronze founder and assistant

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of his projects after his death. Jacopo’s immediate

access to and use of Michelangelo’s designs and

Ludovico’s similar use of them increase the probability

their workshop was responsible for the fabrication of the

Fig. 5: A bronze relief panel of the Lamentation by Ludovico del Duca, ca. 1587-89, on a tabernacle for the Sta Maria Maggiore

in Rome (left); detail of a bronze Pieta pax attributed to the Duca brothers (private collection)


Pieta pax. The quantity of surviving examples suggests

their serial nature, which would have provided tertiary

revenue for the workshop through sales to ecclesiastic

clients, donors and private households.14

Nurturing an association of the pax with the Duca

brothers is William Wixom’s observation that the frame is

based on Michelangelo’s 1561 designs for the Porta Pia

in Rome, a project that Jacopo was closely involved with

as his assistant.15 In honor of his master, it is sensible

that a Michelangelo-inspired architectural device would

be married with a celebrated design by him. Further,

Giuseppe Fazio has called attention to the frame’s

similarity with Jacopo’s design for the portal of the

Church of Santa Maria in Trivio, Rome (Fig. 6), though it

lacks the standard, triangular pediment.

Francesco Rossi notes the image of God the Father,

featured in the tympanum of the pax, recalls a relief

of the same subject by Giovanni Mangone (d. 1543)

in his 1538 monument to Cardinal Lorenzo Magalotti

at the Church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome and

likewise on a monument dedicated to Cardinal Willem

van Enckevoirt at the Santa Maria dell’Anima, also in

Rome and completed around the same time.16 The Duca

brothers could have drawn local inspiration from these

tombs perhaps with a mindfulness that this model of God

the Father recalls Michelangelo’s painted depiction

of God in the Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel

(Fig. 7).

Fig. 6: Jacopo del Duca’s portal for the Church of

Santa Maria in Trivio, Rome

Fig. 7: Detail of a bronze Pieta pax attributed to the Duca

brothers (left; private collection); detail of Giovanni Mangone’s

1538 monument to Cardinal Lorenzo Magalotti at the Church of

St. Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome (right); detail of Michelangelo’s

Creation of Adam ,ca. 1511-12 (bottom; Sistine Chapel, Rome)


Avery has also drawn attention to a stylistically related

and similarly diffused17 gilt bronze lockplate of Roman

origin, ca. 1580s-90s, judged by him to emanate from

the same workshop as the Pieta pax. Jeremy Warren

likewise comments on the parallel architectural forms

and stylistic relationships between the pax frame and the

characteristics of the lockplate, calling attention to the

facial features of the herms on the pax and those of the

��&18 A relationship with an applique

of Mary on a ca. 1565 silver processional cross by

Jacopo at the Rieti Cathedral may also be noted (Fig. 8).

Typical of widely diffused plaquettes and paxes, the

Pieta design is known by a quantity of faithful and

embellished aftercasts as well as several copied

variations. Contemporary casts of the pax are frequently

gilt, sometimes inclusive also of the reverse and handle

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and subtle hammering. Inscribed versions referencing

donors often appear equally crisp in quality; however,

they almost exclusively feature some open-work

treatment within the architecture of the frame, typically

within the arches of the tympanum.19

Fig. 8: A bronze hasp and lockplate attributed to Ludovico and/or Jacopo del Duca, ca. 1580s (left; private collection);

detail of a silver processional cross by Jacopo del Duca, ca. 1565, at the Rieti Cathedral (right)


Inscribed examples of the pax include a privately held

monogrammed example: F.A.R.F.F.20; an example in

the Scaglia collection inscribed: DONVS LEONARDVS

POTIER21��'��*��!��

referring to the cleric Leonardo Potier who was present

at the creation of a chaplaincy in favor of the Bonifaci

family of Sermoneta on August 11 156722 23; an example

from the Buttazzoni collection (ex-Imbert collection),

with the inscription: DNS FAVSTVS BRIXI F.F whose

donor, Master Fausto, was from Brescia; an example

from the Vasset collection with the inscription: HIE.

MELCHIOR.EPVS.MACERATEN, referring to Gerolamo

Melchiorri who served as Bishop of Macerata between

1553-73; and the earlier noted pax at the Santa Casa

in Loreto, inscribed: IO.D.BASTIANO.D.NARDI.F.1586,

which Troncavini has revealed to have probably been

commissioned by Sebastiano Nardi as a votive offering

to Antonio da Leonessa, a Franciscan monk who lived

in the second half of the sixteenth century, admired for

his prophecy, miracles and healings and who had given

encouragement to Nardi during his imprisonment for

treason. Troncavini cites the published Annals of the

Capuchin Friars Minor24 documenting the story and

followed by a successive event dated 1587, suggesting

Antonio’s consolation of Nardi happened just prior to

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the pax.25

Two later casts belonging to churches within the Diocese

of Piacenza-Bobbio feature inscriptions along their base.

One is a silvered example, illegible due to the quality of

the photo observed, and another reads: COMMENDO

VOBIS PACEM CONCORDIAM, also adding a dove

applique atop the cross in the relief’s upper register.

Several divergent later examples of the Pieta pax

are noteworthy such as a unique cast at the Casa

Buonarroti and one at a church within the Diocese of

Piacenza-Bobbio which feature blue enameling in the

recesses of the pax. An example at a church within

the Diocese of Siena-Colle di Val d’Elsa-Montalcino

adds a cross, now broken, atop the center shell niche.

An example in a church within the Diocese of Bologna

features a wholly different frame with the plaquette

incorporating an extended upper register with an arched

Fig. 9: A freehand Pieta pax (Diocese of Isernia-Venafro),

after Michelangelo, last quarter of the 16th century, probably

from the Roman workshop of Sebastiano Torrigiani


top. A unique cast at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Peter, coinciding with an inscription along its base:

SOCIETAS.S.PETRI., apparently commissioned by the

Society of St. Peter, possibly in Rome.26

A late variant noted only by Warren27 and Troncavini28

features the Pieta integrally cast with a related frame

originally suited for a Deposition scene, to be discussed.

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accompany the original prototype of this frame (see

Fig. 10) are replaced instead by plain columns. The

present author counts eight examples of this variant.29

Two independent later casts of the Pieta relief, free of

their frames, are known: one formerly in the Bardini

collection, probably intended for setting into a desktop

object judging by the extended lower margin featuring

a support lip and another previously undocumented

example in the present author’s collection which once

Fig. 10: A gilt bronze Deposition pax attributed here to

Ludovico and/or Jacopo del Duca, second half of the

16th century (© Ashmolean Museum)

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Vignola for the bedroom of Cardinal Ranuccio


formed the lid to a desk casket judging by the integral

hinge on its reverse and heavily rubbed surface.

A quantity of freehand versions of the relief are known,

the most common of which is a Venetian variant, to be

discussed. However, worthy of initial note is a unique

silver gilt pax belonging to a church within the Diocese

of Isernia-Venafro (Fig. 9). This divergent example

follows the typology of engraved reproductions of the

Pieta and of particular note is its accompanying frame

which lies in the posthumous ambit of Guglielmo della

Porta’s workshop and could belong to Sebastiano

Torrigiani’s (d. 1596) workmanship.30 Torrigiani was

Ludovico’s collaborator on the Sta Maria Maggiore

tabernacle31 and their partnership on the project may

have entitled Torrigiani to experiment with the subject.

Two crude silver aftercasts of this variant are known32

but are instead featured with a different widely diffused

pax frame originating with Guglielmo and Torrigiani’s

activity.33

A quantity of diverse 18th century freehand silver paxes

of the subject are found throughout churches in Italy34

and an interesting example judged ca. 1560-70, at a

church within the Diocese of Trento, features the scene

in an octagonal relief set into an elaborate pax with

attractive marble inlays. A crude free version of the

relief at the Gomez-Moreno Museum is purposed as a

tabernacle door.

A DEPOSITION PAX

Troncavini has called attention to the relationship of

another less common pax35 whose frame also parallels

Jacopo’s portal for the Church of Santa Maria in Trivio,

Rome.36 The pax features a Deposition whose stylistic

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the Duca brothers (Fig. 10). The inspiration for the

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and caryatids, may also have its impetus in an engraved

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Barozzi da Vignola (1507-73) for the bedroom of

Cardinal Ranuccio37 (Fig. 11), reproduced in Vignola’s

celebrated 1562 publication of his Canon of the Five

Orders of Architecture.

Other characteristics suggest a relationship of this pax

with the same workshop responsible for the Pieta paxes.

One observation is its uniform integration of the relief

with the frame, gilt obverse on contemporary casts and

scarcity of independent examples.38

The open-work tympanum on both paxes is synchronous

and the use of the Pieta��%�� !��

of the Deposition’s pax frame39 also speaks to a possible

Fig. 12: Pax handle of a bronze Pieta pax (left; private

collection); pax handle of a bronze Deposition pax

(© Ashmolean Museum), both attributed here to the

Duca brothers


relationship as the crude casts we observe might point to

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or possibly the product of workshop descendants.

Although the type of foliated handles featured on both

paxes are related, in particular, the winklepicker-shaped

base (Fig. 12), the style of the handle itself is common to

a diverse array of 16th century paxes.

An example of the Deposition pax at the Bowdoin

College Museum of Art is inscribed: .IO.ANTONIVS.

PETRASANTA and another later cast is inscribed along

its architrave: S.STEFANO at the Budapest Museum of

Fine Art.40

THE VENETIAN PIETA

Possibly the earliest association between Michelangelo’s

Pieta in bronze and the Duca brothers was forwarded

by Maria Accascina’s attribution of a slightly later

and half as common41 freehand variant of the relief

(Fig. 13) attributed by her to Ludovico.42 Operating

from knowledge of only one example of this variant,43

Fig. 13: A gilt bronze Venetian Pieta and pax frame, ca. 1608

(private collection; © Cambi asta d’arte, Milan)

Fig. 14: The Pieta Dusmet, terracotta relief, attributed to

Jacopo del Duca, ca. 1565 (Palazzo Barberini, Rome)


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to the relief’s connection with the Duca brothers. This

freehand variant of the subject diverges from the earlier

Roman design with the right putto’s leg bent at an

angle rather than extending forward and Mary’s head

centered rather than tilted. Clouds have been added

to the scene, as well as the sun, moon and a titulus is

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more conforming to the stone reliefs than the Roman

Pieta pax. It is probable its author had access to an early

prototype, notably one forwarded by Fazio as a freehand

terracotta Pieta at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome44 (Fig.

14), attributed by Paola Berardi to Jacopo, ca. 1565.45

Fazio observes the terracotta’s congruence with the

plaquette varying only in the characteristics of its upper

register. Most notable are the clouds which replace

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terracotta relief. While the terracotta Pieta provides a

model for the plaquette, the treatment of the plaquette’s

vermiculate clouds and increased Mannerist tendencies

point to the product of a Venetian workshop, active from

the 1590s through the 1620s, known to have serially

produced paxes for private and public devotional use.

The hallmark of this workshop is the intensely Mannerist

style pax frames46 they produced, known to alternately

feature a variety of plaquettes of Venetian origin.47

The scale of the Venetian Pieta plaquette was tailored

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existing pax frame.

The frame is commonly found featuring a plaquette

of the Coronation of the Virgin, possibly originally

conceived with the frame48 and produced probably after

1582 when the Chapel of the Rosary was completed in

Venice. While the maker of the Coronation of the Virgin

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the ambit of Alessandro Vittoria (1525-1608) borrowing

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Sansovino (1486-1570), Michelangelo and Bartolomeo

Ammannati (1511-92).

In addition to the Coronation of the Virgin, other

stylistically related plaquettes belonging to the same

master49 are incorporated with this frame as well as

designs by other artists50 possibly active or collaborating

with the same workshop or perhaps products realized

by assistants following the death of their master.

Fig. 15: A large freehand bronze Pieta, anonymous

(follower of Jacopo del Duca?), ca. 1565 (Gomez-Moreno

Museum; © Fundacion Rodriguez-Acosta)


The Venetian Pieta may be one such product as the

rendering of the clouds appear related to the workshop’s

master but not by him.

Several dated examples of the Venetian pax frame offer

insight into its historical use and production. The earliest

dated example is in the Venetian Treasury of the Frari,

dated 1595. Two examples featuring the Virgin and Child

with the Infant Saint John, are dated 1608.51 Another

featuring the Coronation of the Virgin belongs to a

church within the Diocese of Bologna, also dated 1608.

An example in the present author’s collection, featuring

a silver plaquette of the Marriage of the Virgin features

a dedication and the year 1624 inscribed on its reverse,

suggesting its use into the 1620s and supporting

the notion future assistants may have continued the

workshop’s activities.

The creation of the Venetian Pieta may rest in the ambit

of 1608 when this workshop appears most active. It

would also perhaps entitle the workshop to more readily

take the reins on reproducing this motif since by 1604

the Duca brothers appear to have been deceased.

A distinct version of the Venetian Pieta pax, formerly in

the Adams collection, features an added bronze appliqué

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central base, possibly a later addition.

Later cast examples of the Venetian Pieta are known,

some cast integrally with their frame. Independent casts

of the plaquette, lacking their contextual frame, tend to

be of lesser quality and are reduced versions. A large

and eloquent freehand plaque after Jacopo’s terracotta

Pieta (or the Venetian Pieta) is at the Gomez-Moreno

Museum (Fig. 15) and a freehand carved rock crystal

version, enclosed in a gilt bronze pax, is at the Victoria

and Albert Museum (Fig. 16).

Fig. 16: A freehand carved rock crystal Pieta, in a gilt bronze

pax frame, anonymous (after Jacopo del Duca), ca. 1550-1600

(© Victoria & Albert Museum; Inv. A.1-1943)


Endnotes

1 See A. Condivi: The Life of Michelangelo,

ed. A. Sedgwick Wohl, Pennsylvania State

University 1999, p. 103; G. Vasari: Lives of the

most eminent painters, sculptors and architects.

Vol. IX., ed. G.C. de Vere, Macmillian/Medici

Society 1915, p. 108; and M. Forcellino: ‘The

Pieta by Michelangelo, for Vittoria Colonna:

sources, documentation and art-historical

literature,’ The Ragusa Pieta: History and

Restoration, Fondazione Roma Arte-Musei

2010, pp. 87-90, for historical documentation

discussing Michelangelo’s Pieta for Colonna

2 Pianto della Marchesa di Pescara sopra la

Passione di Christo

3 G. Fazio: Jacopo mio garzone: Sculture siciliane

nell’ambito di Giacomo Del Duca’, Valdinoto,

no. 2 (2006), pp. 39-68

4 M. Forceillino, op. cit. (note 1)

5 A. Forcellino: ‘Michelangelo as painter:

technique and formal language,’ The Ragusa

Pieta: History and Restoration, Fondazione

Roma Arte-Musei 2010, pp. 99-113

6 W. Wixom (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975,

No. 140) suggested Rome, followed later by

C. Avery (Bonhams, 15 April 2008, Lot 5) and

most recently by F. Rossi (Scaglia Collection,

2011, No. VIII.36)

7 C. Tolnay: ‘Michelangelo’s Pietà Composition

for Vittoria Colonna,’ Record of the Art

Museum (Princeton University, 1953)

8 C. Tolnay, op. cit. (note 8)

9 C. Avery’s assessment is noted in the 2008

15 April Bonhams auction catalog (Lot 5)

and is likewise noted by J. Warren (Wallace

Collection) 2016, No. 91, footnote 51

10 F. Rossi (Scaglia Collection, 2011, No.

VIII.36) likewise discusses the Duca

association

11 J. Montagu: Gold, Silver & Bronze: Metal

Sculpture of the Roman Baroque, Princeton

University 1996, p. 24

12 The dating of the panel is based on the

presence of wax residue on the reverse of the

tabernacle’s Crucifixion panel, incised with

the date 27 January 1574 while another date

of 30 May 1572 was found incised on the

earlier cast bronze base of the tabernacle (see

G. Redin: ‘Jacopo del Duca, il ciborio della

certosa di Padula el il ciborio di Michelangelo

per Santa Maria degli Angeli’, Antologia di

Belle Arti, 63-66 [2002], p. 132)

13 J. Montagu: op. cit. (note 12), p. 28

14 The present author counts 60 examples,

not inclusive of two independent examples

lacking the frame

15 W. Wixom (Cleveland Museum of Art) 1975,

No. 140

16 F. Rossi discusses an aftercast of this

tympanum featured on a reasonably diffused

pax depicting the Lowering of Christ in the

Tomb. See F. Rossi (Musei Civici di Brescia)

1974, No. 214, pp. 127-28

17 C. Avery counts a total of 61 examples with

J. Warren adding an additional 7 to the

known census (see J. Warren [Wallace

Collection] 2016, No. 91)

18 The dating of the lockplates is ascertained by

the dating of marriages relative to the coat-

of-arms featured on various examples (see J.

Warren 2016, op. cit. [note 18])

19 It is to be pondered if there is a reason for

the silhouetted characteristics on inscribed

versions. Though a modest conjecture,

perhaps the purchaser could select this

option because the reduction of bronze saved

in casting the pax equated to the value of

adding an inscription? It’s noteworthy that

some contemporary casts are entirely gilt,

with no concern for expense, while others

feature the economic gilding of only the

obverse.

20 Sotheby’s auction, 5 May 2015, Lot 12

21 F. Rossi (Scaglia Collection) 2011, No.

VIII.36; pp. 346-48, 572

22 A. Tronacavini: ‘Una Pieta di Michelangelo

e la sua Diffusione,’ Antiqua.mi.it, September

2016 (accessed via private communication,

July 2016)

23 The event took place at the house of a Bishop

from the Church of Saint Paul in Sezze, south

of Rome (see A. Troncavini: op. cit.

[note 23]).

24 Annali de’ Frati Minori Cappuccini composti

dal M.R.P. Zaccaria Boverio da Saluzzi

e tradotti in volgare dal P.F. Benedetto

Sanbenedetti da Milano Predicatore

Cappuccino, Tomo II parte prima, p. 107 n.

42, Giunti e Bava, Venezia 1645.

25 A. Troncavini: op. cit. (note 23)

26 See MET Inv. 01.23.151

27 J. Warren (Ashmolean Museum) 2014,

No. 414, pp. 947-48

28 A. Troncavini, op. cit. (note 23), Fig. 6

29 Four in Italian churches and four privately

held examples

30 M. Riddick: A Renaissance-Baroque Treasury

of Minor Arts: Riddick Collection, Vol. 1,

manuscript (2016) (see entry: Doubting

Thomas pax)

31 J. Montagu: op. cit. (note 12), p. 28

32 One belonging to a private Spanish collection

and featuring a lovely engraved reverse and

another at a church within the Diocese of

Massa Carrara-Pontremoli.

33 M. Riddick, op. cit. (note 31) (see entry on

Pieta pax)

34 A small concentration of these 18th century

freehand silver variants tend to belong

to churches within the Diocese of Massa

Carrara-Pontremoli

35 The present author counts 20 examples

36 Private communication (Aug 2016)

37 Regola delli cinque ordini d’architettura

38 E. Molinier records only one independent

example (see E. Molinier, 1886, Vol 2, No.

564, p. 115)

39 J. Warren cites (2014: op. cit. [note 28]) one

example of the Deposition at the Cathedral

Treasury in Pienza with this modified frame

featuring columns instead of caryatids

40 J. Warren, 2014: op. cit. (note 28)


41 The present author counts 29 examples

inclusive of those found independently and

within the Mannerist frame

42 M. Accascina: Oreficeria in Sicilia dal XII al

XIX secolo (Palermo 1974) pp. 228-230

43 Example at the Museo Regionale di Messina

44 Within the palazzo at the Galleria Nazionale

di Arte Antica

45 P. Berardi, ‘La Pietà Dusmet’, Jacopo Del Duca

“nell’hombra di Missere”, (Firenze 2002)

pp. 17-18.

46 This pax frame has traditionally been

identified as a “Sansovino frame,” though

Charles Davis (C. Davis: ‘Jacopo Sansovino

and the Italian Plaquette’, [NGA 1989], pp.

265-89) and Tim Newbery (T. Newbery:

Italian Renaissance Frames [The Metropolitan

Museum of Art, NY, 1990], No. 25, p. 54)

have clarified that the pax is Mannerist in

its arrangement rather than Sansovino-like.

Newbery has further noted that the volutes,

clasps and cartouches on the frame appear

similar to a drawing attributed

to Ammannati.

47 J. Warren amply discusses this, see J. Warren

2011, op. cit. (note 29), No. 415, pp. 949-50

48 The winged cherub heads on the pax frame

follow close in manner to those depicted

on the Coronation of the Virgin and silver

Assumption of the Virgin plaquettes

49 J. Warren discusses two such stylistically

related plaquettes, a scarce Assumption of

the Virgin, known by a bronze example

at the MET (Inv. No. 1975.1.1351), and a

likewise scarce silver cast Assumption of the

Virgin (see footnote 49), of different design,

belonging to the Venetian Treasury of the

Frari (J. Warren 2011, op. cit. [note 28], No.

415, pp. 949-50)

50 Other plaquettes found commonly integrated

with this frame include a very widely diffused

Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John

(for an example see F. Rossi, 2011, No. IX.

5) and a plaquette of Christ Lifted Out of the

Tomb by Angels (for an example see F. Rossi,

2011, No. IX.25)

51 One at the Louvre and another belonging to

a church within the Diocese of Bologna

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:

(Roman Pieta)

D. Banzato / F. Pellegrini: Bronzi e placchette

dei Musei Civici di Padova, Studio Editoriale

Programma Padova, 1989; No. 57; p. 81

A. Huber: Un Mondo Tra Le Mani, Bronzi e

Placchette della Collezione Cicognani, Bononia

University Press, 2012; No. 2, p. 28

E. Molinier: Les Plaquettes, Paris, 1886; No. 562,

Vol 2, p. 114

K. Pechstein: Bronzen und Plaketten.

Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Staatliche Museen

Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, 1968; No. 279

F. Rossi: La Collezione Mario Scaglia, Bergamo,

2011; No. VIII.36; pp. 346-48, 572

J. Warren: The Wallace Collection Catalogue

of Italian Sculpture, Trustees of the Wallace

Collection, 2016; Vol. 1, see No. 91, pp. 404-09

W. Wixom: Renaissance Bronzes from Ohio

Collections, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975;

No. 140

(Venetian Pieta)

E. Bange: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Die

italienischen Bronzen der Renaissance und des

Barock, II, Reliefs und Plaketten, Berlin, 1922;

No. 945, p. 124


Vol 2, p. 204

(Deposition)

B. Bergbauer: Images en Relief, La Collection de

Plaquettes du Musee National de la Renaissance,

Paris, 2006; Nos. 57-58, p. 87

U. Middeldorf: Medals and Plaquettes from the

Sigmund Morgenroth Collection, Chicago, 1944;

No. 310, p. 43


Vol 2, p. 115

J. Warren: Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture

in the Ashmolean Museum, Vol. 3, Plaquettes,

Ashmolean Museum Publications, 2014; No. 414,

pp. 947-48

I. Weber: Deutsche, Niederlandische und

Franzosische Renaissanceplaketten 1500-1650,

Munich, 1975; No. 363, p. 104

(Other)

M. Leino: Fashion, Devotion and Contemplation.

The Status and Functions of Italian Renaissance

Plaquettes. Peter Lang, Bern, Switzerland, 2013;

pp. 184-85

SPECIAL THANKS to Attillio Troncavini for

his research on inscribed casts of the Roman

Pieta pax, Javier Moya Morales (Fundación

Rodríguez-Acosta) for his notes on examples of

the relief at the Museo Gomez-Moreno, Doug

Lewis for his confirming feedback regarding the

Venetian Mannerist pax frames, Marty Kober for

his valuable references and Charles Avery for his

kind edits.

Michelangelo’s Pieta in Bronze LAST.pdf · the Diocese of Siena-Colle di Val d’Elsa-Montalcino...

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