Young River God
by PIERINO DA VINCI, Marble, height 135 cm
Pierino da Vinci, a nephew of Leonardo and a disciple of Tribolo, did more than merely apply the formulas of his masters. His brief career, cut short by his untimely death at the age of twenty-thre, was marked by some major creations. The marble Young River God, arched in melancholy and distractedly holding an urn supported by laughing putti, has the meditative face that Michelangelo gave his Genius of Victory in the Palazzo Vecchio.