A Da Vinci SCULPTURE in Pescia, Tuscany!
Happy Valentine's Day, art lover! I hope you have wonderful plans for the day, romantic or not.
To continue from my last post [on Patreon] about the wonderful art inside the Duomo in Pescia, here I show you a small room to the right of the primary altar.
My first thought as I entered the room was that the two male figures on either side of the central one have obvious influences from Michelangelo (ok, the other first thought was the observation of the open legs in a church of all places, hahaha). Second thought as I got closer was that the figures do not seem to be from the same artist, despite obviously needing to be. One was stronger than the other in voice.
Sidetrack: Funny what comments one hears when young that stick in the mind for the rest of one's life. A couple of mine are:
1) My mother was a runway model when we lived in Germany in the early 1970s. When I was a young teenager, I remember her telling me that the models had a rule for posing: Do not expose your inner thigh. I am always curious when I hear a blanket statement about anything. Thus, I started to look at poses. Yes, when a woman (and even a man to a lesser degree) sits in profile with one leg extended while the other knee is bent upwards, foot nearer the bum, the point of view more elegant, more graceful, with a more beautiful line is often with the bent knee towards the viewer. Having the back leg bent seems vulgar or at least like someone trying too hard to invite you in. Of course, these days, one sees models in all sorts of poses as if these "ancient" ideas are never spoken of anymore.
What do you think?
2) My father told me once, perhaps when I was in high school or first years at university, that he personally thought a woman wearing a negligee was more sexy than a nude woman. Because mystery intrigues more than many types of information. Later in Texas when I was doing lots of drawing nude models from life, a 15-year-older male friend of mine confirmed this concept. After drawing for three hours, we had a coffee before returning to work. He confided in me that he gave himself a chuckle out in the break room at the studio. The model had put on her robe during the pause and he found himself standing near her, wanting to lift the bottom edge of her short robe, curious. The laugh inside his head came once he remembered that he had just been drawing her in the nude shortly before.
I told that latter story a lot when I taught art at the Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory in Austin, Texas, back in the 1990s and 2000s. Sometimes people think of life drawing sessions as orgies. But more often than not, we artists are nerds looking for line, shapes, tones, flow-through lines, etc. and making marks based on our observations. In fact, if either artist or model is there for the titillation experience, they become a distraction in the studio full of artists there to draw, paint, or sculpt. In my experiences, anyway.
******
So, back to the Duomo marbles.
The central figure is posed more as a Sphinx than a man, no? I like his expression and that you see the head of a real, not idealized, person. The fingers seem too blocky-rectangular for my taste, but they go well with the 90-degree angle of the flexible spine. And I love the sleeves!
Since I did not have time to look for artist's credit or to even see who was buried in the marble box, I had a look on Google. Thanks to the blog "livingwithabroadintuscany.blogspot.com" for the identifications of subject and sculptors.
Raffaello di Baccio Sinibaldi da Montelupo is the likely artist for the central figure on the mausoleum of Baldassarre Turini. Raffaello is said to have designed the entire tomb with other sculptors creating the individual extras.
Baldassarre Turini il Giovane (the younger, presumably the same man in the tomb) was born in Pescia in 1486, but died in Roma in 1543. He was a "presbitero italiano." Apparently that means he was one of the group of elders entrusted to help govern the community and therefore "invested with priestly dignity."
Baldassarre Turini studied law. His family were well-known patrons and thus their son benefited from contacts with the Medici family, especially Giovanni de' Medici, who became Pope Leo X in 1513. This led Baldassarre to move to Roma. In 1519 (the year of Leonardo da Vinci's death ~ for context), Pope Leo X released Pescia from the diocese of Lucca and from then on Pescia reported directly to the Vaticano. Turini became the archdeacon of this chapter. He would have become a cardinal, had Pope Leo X not died suddenly in 1521.
Turini was friends with what seems a series of rapidly changing popes, as well as artists and architects during his career and lifetime.
Pope Leo X (1513-1521)
Pope Adrian VI (1522-1523)
Pope Clement VII (1523-1534)
Pope Paul III (1534-1549)
In 1543 Turini was buried in the Church of Saint Eustachio in Roma, but later his body was transferred to Pescia, in the mausoleum I show you today. Other artists listed involved in the creation of the tomb are Pierino da Vinci, as well as Antonio and Stoldo Lorenzi.
[Thanks to Wikipedia for the rest of this information.]
I was thrilled to find that my eye was correct in a few things:
Despite the pair of nude male figures being obviously mirrored, I wondered if the sculptors were different. They are! AND... the one I prefer as the stronger piece (on the left) was done by Pierino da Vinci, nephew of the great Leonardo! Da Vinci simply means "from Vinci" (where my art is still on exhibit through the spring). The sculptor's real name is / was Pier Francesco di Bartolomeo.
Italy has records of the payment to the artist, who was commissioned to create the sculptures on the tomb. However, Pierino (little Piero) died of malaria at the age of 23 in 1553 after having completed the figure on the left of the marble coffin. The mirrored figure was probably carved by one of his colleague friends, perhaps Silvio Cosini.
See the blog post here:
http://livingwithabroadintuscany.blogspot.com/2016/04/want-to-see-verified-da-vinci-sculture.html
Note that Michelangelo died on Feb 18, 1564. Thus, his voice was already inspiring other artists during his own lifetime. I wondered what Uncle Leo thought about his nephew carving an obvious Michelangelo twist in the torso and similar facial features? hahaha... could be the basis of a good short story or film, no? Except that Leonardo da Vinci died in May of 1519, so the story would include Mr. Multipotentialite's turning in his grave. Perhaps that emboldened his carving nephew, who was born after the death of his uncle!
Perhaps you may see in my close-up snapshots of the figure carved by Da Vinci that the face, the tilt of the head, and the drapery on the head look a lot like "Aurora" or 'Dawn' by Michelangelo's figures also carved for a tomb. I do not know if the two small holes in the face were defects in the stone, or intended as tears. However, tears would not sink into the skin. And I noticed them in time to walk back to the figure on the right and this detail was not copied into face at all.
I also wanted to share with you the exquisite little details of the grotesque faces, the flames, the coat of arms above the sphinx, and the architectural details that feel almost like fabrics or soft moveable forms.
Enjoy. Because I refuse to spend money heating my entire house, and it has been cold and rainy this year more than usual, I have abandoned my still life oil paintings to start an experimental painting (acrylic on paper) in my kitchen. I moved one of my more portable easels close enough to my fireplace while still having room to step back to look at what I am creating. And moved selected colors into this small space.
This work-in-progress is titled "Enio's Forsythia" and while I decided that I like realism that is not hyper, I want to explore more with layers of colors. That is why the village looks pink... it is the underpainting.
As I realized last night that I was bored with what was becoming "just another landscape painting," I added that swash of cyan blue to the composition. The idea kept entering my head as I was painting a million dabs of various yellows for the flowers. So, I decided to just put that color in there. If nothing else, it will remind me not to create a "paint-by-number" image. I want layers of different colors to create depth and interest. This takes time to cover lots of real estate, but I want the effort to be worth it. Patience!
Oh, and Enio (En-yo) is the name of the man who had a small garden patch to the left of the view in this painting. He had the gorgeous forsythia stems growing on the outside of his fence. Sadly, Enio died a couple of years ago. The new owners of his garden patch greatly trimmed back the forsythia. For nostalgia and to honor a man who was beloved in this village of Castelvecchio, I wanted to make this painting.
I appreciate your comments and questions and let me know if you enjoy these little day trips around Tuscany.
with much affection for each of you, thank you,
Kelly Borsheim
P.S. I am hoping to be able to earn money on my YouTube channel. To earn that from them, I must have a minimum of 500 subscribers (up to 483 as of this writing!), as well as 3000 minutes of watch time in the last 12 months.
If you find yourself needing to relax on the couch and want to give my videos a look, please do. I appreciate the feedback, as well.
https://www.youtube.com/@BorsheimArts
