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Desiderio da Settignano
Italian, c. 1430 - 1464
Italian sculptor. His career lasted only about 12 years, but during that time he produced some of the most delicate and intimate sculptural works of mid-15th-century Florence. There are problems of dating and attribution even with his partially documented works, and records survive of several unidentifiable commissions; consequently, it is difficult to chart the course of his stylistic development, and the reliefs and portrait busts attributed to him are grouped around two works: the tomb of Carlo Marsuppini (Florence, Santa Croce) and the sacrament tabernacle (Florence, S Lorenzo).
1. Life and work.
He was the son of Bartolommeo di Francesco, described after 1451 as a stone-carver. His two elder brothers, Francesco (b 1413) and Geri (b 1424), were stone masons, in whose guild, the Arte dei Maestri di Pietro e Legname, Francesco matriculated in 1447 and Geri in 1451. At that date Desiderio was too young to join the guild independently. He finally matriculated in 1453 and in the same year, with Antonio Rossellino, assessed Buggiano’s pulpit in S Maria Novella, Florence. His initial training was probably with members of his family, but it is possible that he was associated with Donatello at an early stage of his career, since Vasari stated that the frieze of terracotta putti heads on the façade of the Pazzi Chapel, Santa Croce, was the joint work of Donatello and Desiderio. There is also a constant reflection in Desiderio’s oeuvre of Donatello’s sculpture, particularly in technique. It has been proposed that he was an assistant in Bernardo Rossellino’s shop (Markham, 1963), but Desiderio’s exuberant decorative detail on, for example, the Marsuppini tomb, is closer in spirit to Donatello than the drier, more severe handling of Bernardo Rossellino. According to Vasari, Desiderio made a marble base (untraced) decorated with harpies and bronze swags for Donatello’s bronze David (Florence, Bargello); however, an attempt to identify the base, which presumably would have been commissioned in the 1450s, with the lavabo in the sacristy of S Lorenzo (Passavant, 1981) is not convincing. In November 1453 Desiderio was ordered to make 12 ‘heads’ for Giovanni de’ Medici’s study, for which he was paid in 1455. These have been associated with reliefs of the Heads of the Roman Caesars such as, for instance, Julius Caesar (Paris, Louvre) and with several profile heads of emperors in marble copied after Desiderio (Middeldorf, 1979). In 1455 Desiderio was also paid for a Madonna, in 1456 for two basins and a mantelpiece and in 1458 for ‘heads’; none of these works has been identified.
The tomb of Carlo Marsuppini, Desiderio’s only monumental work, is described by Vasari in Desiderio’s Vita. Marsuppini (d 1453) had been State Chancellor of Florence, and presumably his tomb was begun soon after his death, but, assuming Desiderio was accepting other commissions during its execution, it may not have been finished until 1460. It is placed in the nave of Santa Croce, across from Bernardo Rossellino’s tomb of Leonardo Bruni (d 1444). Bruni was Marsuppini’s predecessor as Chancellor and both men were noted humanists. Desiderio’s tomb deliberately echoes that of Rossellino in both design and ornament. Both tombs are framed by an arch and have the effigy of the dead man placed on an elaborate bier over an inscribed sarcophagus, both have a relief of the Virgin and Child in a lunette above the effigy and youthful angels carrying garlands above the gable. The effigy of Marsuppini is more steeply tilted on the bier, making the portrait more visible, and the free-standing, shield-bearing putti who flank the base of the arch are not present in the Bruni tomb; they act as intermediaries between the observers’ space and that of the monument, as do the youths with their striding poses on the entablature, whose garlands fall outside the confines of the architectural framework. Similarly, in the tondo of the Virgin and Child, the haloes and drapery break beyond the carved frame. Desiderio used softer forms in the sphinxes at the base and in the acanthus leaf that serves as a keystone of the arch. Compared with the Bruni tomb, decoration takes precedence over architectural structure. Filarete praised Desiderio’s skill in decorative carving. Desiderio had a facility for finishing surfaces and creating an effect of palpable life in his faces; this verisimilitude would have been enhanced by the colour with which the monument was originally decorated; traces of gilding, green paint on the drapery and porphyry red on the panelling remain. Although the participation of assistants is evident in several details, and early sources claimed that Verrocchio was involved in the execution, the high quality of the carving suggests that Desiderio was responsible for much of it. The tomb slab of Carlo Marsuppini’s father, Gregorio, placed directly before his son’s monument, may be the work of Desiderio’s shop (Pines).
Several works have been attributed to Desiderio on the grounds of their similarity to the Marsuppini tomb. The marble relief of the Virgin and Child, known as the Foulc Madonna (c. 1455–60; Philadelphia, PA, Mus. A.), originally from the hospital of S Maria Nuova, Florence, is close to the tondo of the Virgin and Child on the tomb. The low relief is, in terms of composition and expressive power, one of Desiderio’s best works. The relief of the Virgin and Child (Turin, Gal. Sabauda) is accepted as an autograph early work; another relief of the same subject known as the Pantiatichi Madonna (c. 1461–4; Florence, Bargello) is also universally accepted. Other reliefs of the same subject that have not been so accepted include the Dudley Madonna (London, V&A; see Pope-Hennessy, 1964, Strom, 1984) and the Beauregard Madonna (Los Angeles, CA, Getty Mus.). The latter appears to be closer to the work of either Domenico Rossellino or Francesco di Simone Ferrucci, both skilled imitators of Desiderio.
Even more contentious is the attribution of a group of female portrait busts to Desiderio, none of which has been universally accepted as his work. Vasari mentioned a portrait bust by him of Marietta Strozzi in the Palazzo Strozzi, and a marble head was listed in a Medici inventory, but neither has been positively identified. The Portrait of a Lady, sometimes called Marietta Strozzi (Berlin, Skulpgal.), has been attributed by Pope-Hennessy (1958) to Antonio Rossellino; a presumed portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (Washington, DC, N.G.A.) has been tentatively connected with Verrocchio (Middeldorf). Another female bust (Florence, Bargello) seems to have the strongest stylistic relationship with Desiderio’s extant work (Pope-Hennessy, 1985), although it has been rejected by Markham (1963).
Other problematic works attributed to Desiderio include the group of small heads that may represent the Christ Child or the Infant St John, or may possibly be portraits of children. Of the three most frequently discussed—the Mellon Christ Child, the Kress bust (both Washington, DC, N.G.A.) and the Laughing Boy (Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.)—the Vienna bust seems most likely to be autograph. The attribution of another infant’s head (Florence, priv. col., see Negri-Arnoldi, 1967) is not convincing. Three marble reliefs in this genre seem likely to be autograph: the Youthful St John the Baptist (Florence, Bargello) with an unusual three-quarter view of the profile, presumed to be an early work; the Youthful Hero (Paris, Mus. Jacquemart-André), which resembles the Bargello relief in the treatment of the hair and the facial expression and features but is probably slightly later; and the tondo of the Infant Christ and the Infant St John, known as the Arconati–Visconti Tondo (Paris, Louvre), which, although sometimes dated c. 1453–5 (see 1985 exh. cat.), may be dated in the 1460s, given the similarity of the children’s faces to those in the sacrament tabernacle of S Lorenzo.
The tabernacle is the central work of Desiderio’s later career. A document refers to its installation in 1461, but a letter written to Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, in February 1462 explains that the sculptor was ‘occupied and will be for a long time on a certain work in San Lorenzo’, which implies that it was not finished. It is conceivable that the letter refers to some other work for the church; alternatively it might suggest that not all the elements of the tabernacle were installed simultaneously. The tabernacle’s original location and configuration are unknown: it has been moved at least three times since its initial installation and its present arrangement is unlikely to be as it was originally. It has been suggested that it first formed part of the high altar (Beck) and that the supporting members only were installed at first (Spencer), although this last hypothesis seems unlikely; more probably the tabernacle and its architectonic surround were positioned first and the free-standing elements were added later. The attribution to Desiderio of some of the sculptural elements has been questioned. Albertini (1510) said that the Blessing Christ Child that crowns the altar was replaced by a copy by Baccio da Montelupo before 1500.
Attempts have been made to identify Desiderio’s original figure with a Christ Child (Cleveland, OH, Mus. A.), and the figure in situ has been given to Baccio (Verdier, 1983). A more likely suggestion is that a faithful copy of the S Lorenzo Christ Child (Paris, Louvre) is Baccio’s version (Gaborit, 1987), and that the Christ Child in S Lorenzo is Desiderio’s work. The central relief has been attributed to an anonymous assistant of Brunelleschi working from his master’s design (Parronchi, 1980), but the central relief with its steep perspectival rendering of a vaulted interior and its delicacy and decorative elaboration is compatible with Desiderio’s certain works and with a date in the second half of the 15th century. The half-length relief of the Lamentation over Christ forming the lower half of the tabernacle, with the outlines of the figures deeply undercut, is stylistically distinct from the sculptor’s other late work and has led to the suggestion that it is not by Desiderio at all (Cardellini, 1962), although iconographically it is appropriate for an altar dedicated to the sacrament. Finally, it is unclear if all the elements were intended to form part of a wall tabernacle or were part of a free-standing altar. A wall tabernacle was probably intended: not only was it a common solution at this date, but the perspective of the central relief would work best in this context. A group of late 15th-century drawings (London, V&A; Florence, Uffizi) with various solutions for the arrangement of a wall tabernacle have been associated with Desiderio (Kurz).
In Desiderio’s later reliefs he employed an increasingly sophisticated relievo schiacciato technique. St Jerome in the Wilderness (Washington, DC, N.G.A.), exhibiting the influence of Donatello both in technique and in the dramatic presentation of the subject, is his only extant narrative composition (an untraced narrative relief by Desiderio with ‘fauns and other figures’ was listed in the Medici inventory in 1492). Only three large-scale, free-standing figures can be connected with the sculptor. The Martelli Youthful St John the Baptist (Florence, Bargello), notable for the extreme shallowness of its carving and delicacy of expression, was once attributed to Donatello, but it can be given to Desiderio on stylistic grounds and on the strength of a documented connection between Desiderio and the Martelli family (Beck). The polychromed wooden statue of St Mary Magdalene (Florence, Santa Trìnita) was, according to Vasari, started by Desiderio and finished by Benedetto da Maiano; it also shows the influence of Donatello, as does a wooden crucifix from the convent at Bosco ai Frati, also formerly given to Donatello but now attributed to Desiderio (Lisner, 1970). These works have been dated to Desiderio’s early period, but instead seem to be the products of his last years, that is during the 1460s, when both he and Donatello were working on different projects in S Lorenzo. In 1461 Desiderio submitted a design (untraced) in competition for the chapel of the Madonna della Tavola in Orvieto Cathedral, and in 1463 he was paid for a death mask made in connection with the tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal executed by the Rossellino brothers in S Miniato al Monte, Florence. He was buried in S Pier Maggiore, Florence.
2. Workshop.
It is assumed that Desiderio’s brothers, Francesco and Geri, were active in Desiderio’s workshop. Geri shared a house and shop with Desiderio from 1456 until 1461, at which point Desiderio gained control of the shop, though both brothers probably continued to work there. Although it has been suggested that Geri’s contribution to works produced by the shop can be identified, it may be that he strove to imitate his more famous brother’s style and never developed one of his own. Contemporary sources say that Verrocchio worked on the Marsuppini tomb, and his hand has been identified in elements of the S Lorenzo tabernacle (Seymour, 1966), but if he did work in Desiderio’s shop, it was probably only for a few years at the end of the work for Santa Croce. Vasari claimed that Desiderio was Mino da Fiesole’s master, but this is patently impossible in terms of date. The work of Francesco di Simone Ferrucci shares some qualities with that of Desiderio, but he was also influenced by other sculptors. It is possible that the majority of regular assistants in the shop came from Settignano, Desiderio’s place of birth.
There are numerous contemporary versions in stucco and terracotta of Desiderio’s reliefs of the Virgin and Child. Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, attempted to obtain such a work in 1462, which suggests that they were renowned. Neri di Bicci, in his Ricordanze, refers to colouring works by Desiderio made of stucco and marble (Middeldorf, 1978), and this practice may have continued after Desiderio’s death. Marble replicas of devotional reliefs seem to have been produced in the workshop both during his lifetime and, probably, later. This would explain the many small-scale works in marble tentatively attributed to Desiderio.
Shelley E. Zuraw. "Desiderio da Settignano." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T022384 (accessed April 12, 2012).
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