Giovanni Battista Foggini
Italian, 1652 - 1725
Italian sculptor and architect. The foremost Florentine sculptor of the late Baroque period, he was first apprenticed to two painters successively but soon showed a greater propensity for sculpture. In 1673 he was sent by the young Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de’ Medici, to study in the newly instituted Accademia Fiorentina in Rome. There he remained for three years, studying under Ercole Ferrata, a sculptor of the second Baroque generation, and Ciro Ferri, a painter who was a close follower of Pietro da Cortona. His precocious ability at this period is demonstrated in a terracotta relief of the Slaying of the Niobids (Florence, Mus. Opificio Pietre Dure & Lab. Rest. Opere A.); a marble relief of the Adoration of the Shepherds (St Petersburg, Hermitage); and a bronze relief of the Crucifixion (Florence, Pitti), until recently ascribed to the court sculptor of the day, Ferdinando Tacca. These early works established his characteristic style, a novel late Baroque manner that changed little throughout his career.
On his return from Rome in 1676, Foggini immediately began to receive commissions for sculpture from the Medici court. A decade later he was appointed grand ducal sculptor, after the death of Tacca, and in 1694 became the court architect as well. From then until his death he was chiefly employed on commissions for the Medici, with Massimiliano Soldani as his only rival. Foggini supervised the grand ducal studio and foundry in Borgo Pinti, which was the centre for official bronze commissions, and also the Galleria dei Lavori (now the Opificio delle Pietre Dure; see Florence, §III, 2(i)), the manufactory for works in hardstone inlay. He was a prolific and assured draughtsman, and approximately 400 of his designs (Florence, Uffizi; London, V&A; Paris, Louvre; Rome, Gal. N. Stampe) for sculpture, bronze statuettes, furniture and ornaments involving hardstones have survived
The main projects from the earlier part of Foggini’s career, involving both sculpture and architecture, were the reliefs in the Corsini Chapel of scenes from the Life of St Andrea Corsini (finished 1691; Florence, S Maria del Carmine) and those in the Feroni Chapel (1691–3; Florence, SS Annunziata). His reliefs are very pictorial, betraying his training by followers of Pietro da Cortona and Alessandro Algardi, and are designed with strong, and often contrasting, diagonals. The skies are frequently populated with mythological or Christian figures amid clouds and shafts of light. He also produced a tomb for St Francis Xavier (1691–7; Old Goa, Jesuit church of Bom Jesus) that was sent to Goa. His biographer, Baldinucci (p. 376), mentions ‘gruppi e statuette e bassirilievi di bronzo di rara perfezione’ between his descriptions of these two major projects, implying that most of Foggini’s smaller, private commissions date from the 1680s or 1690s. Foggini also carved a series of busts of Florentine worthies (Manchester, C.A.G.) and several superb portraits of the Medici dynasty, such as his bust of Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici (1697; Florence, Uffizi; see Florence, §III, 2; other examples, London, V&A; Washington, DC, N.G.A.; Donaueschingen, Fürstenberg-Samml.) and Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici (c. 1683–5; New York, Met.).
Following Tacca’s precedent, Foggini also modelled a number of two-figure groups, with mythological or allegorical subjects, for casting into bronze. These were often designed with a principal view in mind and constituted as pairs, as is the case with the Abduction of Orithyia by Boreas and the Abduction of Proserpine by Pluto (examples, Rome, Pal. Barberini; Toronto, A.G. Ont.). Foggini exploited the tensile strength of bronze to permit dramatically projecting limbs and exciting centrifugal compositions with irregular outlines. The drapery flows in soft, plastic ripples, conveying the sinuous lines of his sketches and the smooth touch of fingers and stylus on the wax models: the rippling folds catch the light and convey a sense of rapid movement, contrasting with the broad, bare areas of flesh. His many pupils prolonged his style well past the middle of the 18th century and until the advent of Neo-classicism.
Charles Avery. "Foggini, Giovanni Battista." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T028727 (accessed April 10, 2012).
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