Renaissance Bronze

From Sacred Silver to Secular Steel: The Master IOFF

This paper reaffirms the enigmatic Renaissance metalworker Master IO.F.F. as Bolognese die-cutter Giovanni Francesco Furnio. Navigating Bologna’s volatile socio-political landscape and Francesco Francia’s workshop monopoly, Furnio pivoted to the secular arms trade. Through collaborative exchanges with humanists, he translated university rhetoric into bronze sword pommels. These hilts functioned as portable manifestos of martial stoicism and…
The Leonardesque Spirit in a Sienese Bronze – Re-evaluating the “Standing Man”

This paper re-evaluates the Standing Figure of a Man (ca. 1500) whose impetus is suggested in the 1490 meeting of Leonardo da Vinci and Francesco di Giorgio Martini. By identifying a pivotal autograph annotation in the Codex Ashburnham 361—”il modello de l’omo si debbe fare di cera”—the author provides the documented missing link for a…
Ratko Brajkovic, the Sebenico Workshop, and the Dalmatian Origins of a Bronze Flagellation of Christ

While traditionally associated with Donatello’s late style, this paper argues the bronze Flagellation of Christ plaquette is a fifteenth-century Dalmatian master matrix. Created in the workshop of Giorgio da Sebenico and possibly executed by Ratko Brajković, the design was directly quoted in stone at the Rector’s Palace in 1464. Cast in the Ragusan state foundry,…
The Branch-Breaker of 1490: An Allegory of Labor and Resistance in Renaissance Nuremberg

This essay proposes a radical reinterpretation of the 1490 bronze Branch-Breaker by Adam Kraft and Peter Vischer the Elder. Long dismissed as a technical exercise, the sculpture is reimagined as a multi-layered socio-political allegory. By casting a straining laborer in patrician-controlled bronze, the artists subverted Nuremberg’s draconian labor laws and guild suppression. Cloaked within the…
Bizarre Silver: Aspertini, Peregrino, and a pair of Bolognese Paxes

Superficially attributed to the school of Francesco Francia, the silver paxes of Saint Sebastian (San Petronio) and the Crucifixion (San Martino) exhibit a stylistic rupture characterized by a “bizarre” anti-classicism. By analyzing their blocky anatomy and archaeological motifs alongside the graphic work of Amico Aspertini and Peregrino da Cesena, this article attributes the paxes’ design…
The Scandalosa Master: Pathological Realism and the Redemptorist Gaze in Eighteenth-Century Naples

This paper investigates the anonymous eighteenth-century Neapolitan ceroplast known as the “Scandalosa Master.” Operating within the Ospedale degli Incurabili and the Congrega dei Bianchi della Giustizia in Naples, the Master constructed a visceral “pathological map” of Baroque society through his hyper-realistic waxworks. This study contextualizes these unflinching portrayals of disease, decay, and vermin as direct…
A New Material Link in the Lifecycle of a Donatellian Invention

Donatello’s highly emotional Dead Christ Tended by Angels achieved widespread Renaissance success, surviving predominantly in mass-produced terracotta and papier-mâché. This note introduces a previously unrecorded, unique iteration cast in gilt bronze. Analyzing its unusually elongated format, the study explores how Paduan workshops adapted sacred clay prototypes into bespoke metal components for specific architectural settings.
New Considerations on the Terracotta Tondi of Milan’s Medici Bank

This study re-examines the contextual origins of Milan’s Medici Bank terracotta busts, presenting an analysis that points to Giovanni Battaggio as a possible author.
Late 19th Century Maiolica Plaques after Renaissance Pax Prototypes

A brief study of paxes and plaquettes and their reproduction in maiolica relief.
Reapproaching the Coriolanus Master

An exploration of the stylistic nuances, thematic content, potential influences, and historical context of the artist dubbed Master of Coriolanus, herein judged to be a workshop assistant of Moderno while active in Venice during the first decade of the 16th century.
Supplementary Notes on Michelangelo’s Crucifix for Vittoria Colonna and the rediscovery of a Crucifix by Michelangelo brought to Spain by Juan Bautista Franconio

Comparative evidence is presented in support of a rediscovered crucifix by Michelangelo, brought from Rome to Seville in 1597. Also discussed is the alloy analysis of this crucifix which points to the theorized presence of Michelangelo’s original model being retained in the successive workshops of Guglielmo della Porta and Bastiano Torrigiani. Further elaborations are presented…
Giuliano di Scipio – The all’Antica Plaquette and new ideas concerning the Martelli Mirror

A study on the Renaissance gem engraver, Giuliano di Scipio: the patronage he received from Pope Paul II and Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga; his ties to the illuminator-miniaturist Gaspare da Padua; his involvement in the origins of bronze plaquettes; and his passive involvement in the design of the Martelli Mirror. Also elaborated is the Mantuan context…
Antonio Gentili da Faenza: Roman Goldsmith of the Renaissance, his comprehensive works

A comprehensive exploration of the life and work of the Roman Renaissance goldsmith, Antonio Gentili. Presented are new discoveries, a detailed analysis of his work and an overarching picture of the relationships emanating from the school of Guglielmo della Porta. Also discussed are the interactions with patrons and new data concerning the work of the…
Giovan Battista Scultori as a Silversmith and the Paternity and Seriality of his Lamentation over the dead Christ

A detailed analysis of the various examples of Giovanni Battista Scultori’s Lamentation relief and his work as a silversmith and sculptor.
A possible boxwood crucifix by Matthieu van Beveren or his atelier

An art market crucifix may be the possible work of the Baroque Antwerp sculptor, Matthieu van Beveren
The Battle of Cannae medal – A German-Italian crossover?

A medal depicting the Battle of Cannae could be the work of a German journeyman, possibly Hermann Vischer the Younger of Nuremberg, appropriating a composition by Moderno.