Michelangelo Naccherino (1550-1622), Italia, Napoli, secolo XVI

Gruppo allegorico monumentale in marmo raffigurante il Tempo che svela la Verità e calpesta la Menzogna



 

There is weathering and some losses to the surface. There is dirt to the surface consistent with age. There are several replacements to the group including the chins and noses of the standing figures, the proper right hand and the index finger of the proper left hand of the female and the drapery around her waist. Inserts are missing from the drapery to the proper left of the figure of Time and the nose of the trampled figure. There are losses to the proper right foot and mask of the trampled figure, Time's right wing and tip of the left wing and the attribute in the female's hand and the base. The face of the two standing figures were carefully cleaned and possibly slightly sharpened. There is some naturally occurring dark veining visible on the surface including veins running down the female's proper left side and across her thighs and one running across Time's face.
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BIBLIOGRAFIA DI RIFERIMENTO
A. Maresca di Serracapriola, Michelangelo Naccherino, scultore fiorentino, allievo di Giambologna : sua vita, sue opere, opere del suo aiuto Tomaso Montani e del principale suo allievo Giuliano Finelli, Napoli 1924;
M. Kuhlemann, Michelangelo Naccherino: Skulptur zwischen Florenz und Neapel um 1600, Münster 1999.

L'allegoria del Tempo che svela la Verità e calpesta la Menzogna è un bell'esempio dell'arte di Naccherino e della scultura tardo manierista in generale. La resa anatomica dei corpi nudi con i lembi dei panneggi che, secondo il gusto post-tridentino, ricoprono le pudicizie, rispecchia quella del Nettuno con satiri e satiresse, porta-bacino della Fontana Medina in Piazza Bovio a Napoli (scolpiti dal Naccherino nel 1600-1601), ed anche quella del Cristo alla colonna nella sagrestia della chiesa  dei Santi Quirico e Lucia a Montelupo Fiorentino (1616-1617). Peraltro essa è molto simile all'Adamo ed Eva con il serpente inviato a Firenze e dall'Ottocento esposto nell'omonima grotta del giardino di Boboli, soltanto poche centinaia di metri distante da Palazzo Magnani Feroni!

Il primo a proporre una scultura a tre figure fu Michelangelo che, negli anni '20 del '500, modellò un gruppo di Sansone con due Filistei per la Piazza della Signoria, che però mai fu eseguito su scala monumentale. Ancora più del concetto del gruppo statuario a tre figure, le anatomie  e le loro pose eroiche si rifanno a modelli del pieno Rinascimento fiorentino.

Questo gruppo di Michelangelo Naccherino, di formato monumentale, raffigura il Tempo in maniera atipica come uomo giovane, ma con la clessidra in mano e con le sue caratteristiche ali; la personificazione della Verità è rappresentata da una giovane donna nuda, innalzata al di sopra delle altre figure; infine la Menzogna regge una maschera nella mano destra, e giace a terra sotto il piede destro del Tempo. Si ha come l'impressione che l'Artista, dato il soggetto allegorico, abbia voluto intenzionalmente consegnare l'opera alla posterità in uno stato di non finito, come si evince dalle superfici sgraffiate dai tratteggi dello scalpello sulle gambe della Menzogna e sui dorsi del Tempo e della Verità.

The allegory of Time, Truth and Deceit is a supreme example of Naccherino's art and of late mannerist sculpture in general. The anatomical capitulation of the nude figures with the flaps of the drapery which, according to post-tridentine taste, cover their modesty, reflect those of Neptune and basin-carrying satyrs and satyresses in the Fontana Medici in Piazza Bovio in Naples (sculpted by Naccherino in 1600-1601) and also that of Cristo alla colonna in the sacristy in the church of the Santi Quirico and Lucia in Montelupo Fiorentino (1616-1617).  But above all it is similar to Adam and Eve with the Serpent which was sent to Florence and from the 19th century exhibited in the homonymous garden cave in the Boboli Garden – a mere few hundred metres from the Palazzo Magnani Feroni!

The first to proffer a sculpture with three figures was Michelangelo who in the '20s of that century modelled a group of Samson with two Philistines for the Piazza della Signoria, but which however was never made on a monumental scale. Even more so than the concept of the statuary group of three figures was the anatomy of the figures and their erotic poses which are copied in models of the Florentine Renaissance.

This group by Michelangelo Naccherino, monumental in form, shows the personification of Time in an atypical way as a young man but holding an hourglass in his hand and with characteristic wings.  The personification of Truth is depicted as a young female nude, raised above the other figures and the figure of Deceit holding a mask in his right hand and lying on the floor under Time's right foot.  This gives the impression that the artist, given the allegorical subject matter, intentionally wanted to consign the work to posterity in an unfinished state – which is highlighted here by the superficial scratches from the scalpel's hatchings on the legs of Deceit and the backs of Time and Truth