ASPETTI, Tiziano

Because the St Daniel reliefs were such a success, on 6 November 1593 Aspetti received a highly prestigious and lucrative commission to design a new marble altar in the chapel of St Anthony in Il Santo and to adorn it with 11 bronze statues: three saints, St Anthony, St Bonaventure and St Louis of Toulouse; four Virtues, Faith, Charity, Temperance and Fortitude (or Hope); and four angels holding candelabra. (The Virtues were set in the choir in 1597 and are on the balustrade of the high altar.) This was the third and last great ensemble commissioned by Il Santo, after Donatello’s high altar (completed 1450) with its bronze statues and the marble reliefs adorning the walls of the chapel of St Anthony.

The statues of the three Franciscan saints are uncharacteristic of Aspetti, being emulations of Donatello. The half life-size Virtues, however, with their small heads, elongated figures and elegant draperies, sum up Aspetti’s then-current figural style.

Because the St Daniel reliefs were such a success, on 6 November 1593 Aspetti received a highly prestigious and lucrative commission to design a new marble altar in the chapel of St Anthony in Il Santo and to adorn it with 11 bronze statues: three saints, St Anthony, St Bonaventure and St Louis of Toulouse; four Virtues, Faith, Charity, Temperance and Fortitude (or Hope); and four angels holding candelabra. (The Virtues were set in the choir in 1597 and are on the balustrade of the high altar.) This was the third and last great ensemble commissioned by Il Santo, after Donatello’s high altar (completed 1450) with its bronze statues and the marble reliefs adorning the walls of the chapel of St Anthony.

The statues of the three Franciscan saints are uncharacteristic of Aspetti, being emulations of Donatello. The half life-size Virtues, however, with their small heads, elongated figures and elegant draperies, sum up Aspetti’s then-current figural style.

The bronze andirons shown here (a pair of metal supports used for holding up logs in a fireplace) are decorated with the figures of Mercury and Minerva. They were made by the Paduan sculptor Tiziano Aspetti.

The statue representing Atlas is on the entrance to the Scala d’Oro (Golden Staircase) in Palazzo Ducale, Venice.

There are few finished church fa�ades in Venice and even fewer fa�ade sculptures (especially prior to 1600). Aspetti’s Moses and St Paul, which fill the niches on the Palladian fa�ade of San Francesco della Vigna, are among the first bronzes ever placed on a Venetian fa�ade and also some of the finest. Their dark bronze contrasts strongly with the white marble background, and, well over life-size, with their animated poses, they project powerfully in their architectural setting.

The bronze busts of Sebastiano Venier, Agostino Barbarigo (victors at Lepanto, 1571) and Marcantonio Bragadin (the martyred defender of Famagusta; all in the Armeria, Palazzo Ducale, Venice) were modelled and cast in the years 1596-99.

The bronze busts of Sebastiano Venier, Agostino Barbarigo (victors at Lepanto, 1571) and Marcantonio Bragadin (the martyred defender of Famagusta; all in the Armeria, Palazzo Ducale, Venice) were modelled and cast in the years 1596-99.

The bronze busts of Sebastiano Venier, Agostino Barbarigo (victors at Lepanto, 1571) and Marcantonio Bragadin (the martyred defender of Famagusta; all in the Armeria, Palazzo Ducale, Venice) were modelled and cast in the years 1596-99.

The gauche marble Giant in what is now the entrance vestibule of the Libreria Marciana, have none of the elegance of his later work.

The two statues on the entrance to the Scala d’Oro (Golden Staircase) represent Hercules (Heracles) and Atlas.

The statue representing Hercules (Heracles) killing the Lernaean Hydra is on the entrance to the Scala d’Oro (Golden Staircase) in Palazzo Ducale, Venice.

Through family connections, in 1577 in Venice Aspetti entered the service of Giovanni Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia. Grimani was a distinguished patron of contemporary art, and his palazzo housed the finest and most extensive collection of antiquities outside Rome. Aspetti worked for the Patriarch for 16 years and hence, unlike any other Venetian artist of his day, began his career as a kind of court artist serving one particular patron.

The over life-size figures of Justice and Temperance in the Grimani Chapel in San Francesco della Vigna - Aspetti’s first attempts in bronze - were begun before 28 November 1592, when, in a codicil to his will, Patriarch Grimani ordered that Aspetti finish them. The statues are in niches beside the altar.

The bronze statuettes attributed to Aspetti vary widely in style and quality. No signed statuette exists; nonetheless most scholars rightly accept as by Aspetti a clothed Mars (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and a nude Mars (Frick Collection, New York). In terms of facial and figural type they closely resemble the St Daniel reliefs, and the extensive stippling and faceting on the armour and accoutrements of the clothed Mars also closely parallel the Padua reliefs.

The story of the Venetian High Renaissance relief is brought to a close by two makers of bronze statuettes, Tiziano Aspetti and Niccolò Roccatagliata. Aspetti produced three reliefs, two in the Cathedral at Padua and one in Santa Trinita, Florence. Unlike the tribune reliefs of Sansovino, the reliefs in Padua do not employ a consistent relief style, but are conceived as groups of statuettes attached to a flat ground. The treatment of the intermediate planes is lifeless, and even the figures in the round are stamped with a fatal flaccidity.

Roccatagliata, a more varied and ambitious artist, modelled one major relief, the bronze antependium of the altar in the sacristy of San Mois� in Venice.

Aspetti’s two reliefs in the Cathedral at Padua show St Daniel being dragged by a horse and then nailed between a table of wood and one of stone. The picture shows one of the two, the Martyrdom of St Daniel.

There are two sets of casts of the reliefs: one still in Padua, and one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The story of the Venetian High Renaissance relief is brought to a close by two makers of bronze statuettes, Tiziano Aspetti and Niccolò Roccatagliata. Aspetti produced three reliefs, two in the Cathedral at Padua and one in Santa Trinita, Florence. Unlike the tribune reliefs of Sansovino, reliefs in Padua do not employ a consistent relief style, but are conceived as groups of statuettes attached to a flat ground. The treatment of the intermediate planes is lifeless, and even the figures in the round are stamped with a fatal flaccidity.

The relief depicting the Martyrdom of St Lawrence is the altar frontal in the Usimbardi Chapel in Santa Trinita. It shows a more profound sensibility than the reliefs in Il Santo. It is less theatrical and even more pictorial; light flickers over its whole surface, which seems to vibrate dynamically. At the centre of the composition is the appropriately Counter-Reformatory steadfastness of the martyr: as he is being laid on the grill, Lawrence looks up diagonally to heaven, where angels appear to award him the martyr’s palm. Aspetti’s figural style and types are much more muscular and robust than in earlier work, as is especially apparent in the superbly modelled crouching figures in the front. The artist’s greater mastery of the nude is also obvious.

There are few finished church fa�ades in Venice and even fewer fa�ade sculptures (especially prior to 1600). Aspetti’s Moses and St Paul, which fill the niches on the Palladian fa�ade of San Francesco della Vigna, are among the first bronzes ever placed on a Venetian fa�ade and also some of the finest. Their dark bronze contrasts strongly with the white marble background, and, well over life-size, with their animated poses, they project powerfully in their architectural setting.

The story of the Venetian High Renaissance relief is brought to a close by two makers of bronze statuettes, Tiziano Aspetti and Niccolò Roccatagliata. Aspetti produced three reliefs, two in the Cathedral at Padua and one in Santa Trinita, Florence. Unlike the tribune reliefs of Sansovino, the reliefs in Padua do not employ a consistent relief style, but are conceived as groups of statuettes attached to a flat ground. The treatment of the intermediate planes is lifeless, and even the figures in the round are stamped with a fatal flaccidity.

Roccatagliata, a more varied and ambitious artist, modelled one major relief, the bronze antependium of the altar in the sacristy of San Mois� in Venice.

Aspetti’s two reliefs in the Cathedral at Padua show St Daniel being dragged by a horse and then nailed between a table of wood and one of stone. The picture shows one of the two, St Daniel Dragged by a Horse.

There are two sets of casts of the reliefs: one still in Padua, and one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The bronze statuettes attributed to Aspetti vary widely in style and quality. No signed statuette exists. Silver figures of St Peter and its pendant St Paul (both Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam) may well be the pieces referred to by the artist in a letter of 1602 to Laura Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua.

In this silver sculpture, St Paul holds a book in his hand with a text from the Bible meaning: ‘Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God’. St Paul’s traditional attribute is a sword, which is here replaced by the text.

There are few finished church fa�ades in Venice and even fewer fa�ade sculptures (especially prior to 1600). Aspetti’s Moses and St Paul, which fill the niches on the Palladian fa�ade of San Francesco della Vigna, are among the first bronzes ever placed on a Venetian fa�ade and also some of the finest. Their dark bronze contrasts strongly with the white marble background, and, well over life-size, with their animated poses, they project powerfully in their architectural setting.

The bronze statuettes attributed to Aspetti vary widely in style and quality. No signed statuette exists. Silver figures of St Peter and its pendant St Paul (both Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam) may well be the pieces referred to by the artist in a letter of 1602 to Laura Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua.

Through family connections, in 1577 in Venice Aspetti entered the service of Giovanni Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia. Grimani was a distinguished patron of contemporary art, and his palazzo housed the finest and most extensive collection of antiquities outside Rome. Aspetti worked for the Patriarch for 16 years and hence, unlike any other Venetian artist of his day, began his career as a kind of court artist serving one particular patron.

The over life-size figures of Justice and Temperance in the Grimani Chapel in San Francesco della Vigna - Aspetti’s first attempts in bronze - were begun before 28 November 1592, when, in a codicil to his will, Patriarch Grimani ordered that Aspetti finish them. The statues are in niches beside the altar.

The bronze statuettes attributed to Aspetti vary widely in style and quality. No signed statuette exists.