Benedetto (Florence c. 1459 - 1521) or Santi (Florence 1494 - 1576) Buglioni Italian, Florence, circa 1510-1520

This glazed relief is modeled with trophies of arms modeled with a screaming fury resembling a gorgon, a jug with a handle, a cuirass, and a helmet, as well as a series of shields, maces, bows, quivers. The relief was probably part of a series which is supported by the existence of four other works with similar elements, but with different motifs on the frames, including a relief in the Bargello Museum (inv. 46 R), another formerly in the collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein, and two reliefs exhibited in Glazed. The Legacy of the Della Robbia, Sotheby's and Fabrizio Moretti, New York, October - November 2016, cat. no. 1. 

The relief now in the Bargello entered the collection in 1875, and the inventory states that it was consigned to the officials by the “mensa arcivescovile di Fiesole” (the body of ecclesiastical goods owned by the diocese), a provenance repeated in modern literature (cf. Gentilini 1992, p. 481; Paolozzi Strozzi and Ciseri 2012, p. 128, no. 44). The same documents attributed the work to the Della Robbia family, without further specification, and this attribution reappeared in the guide of 1898 by Igino B. Supino, who suggested the name of Giovanni della Robbia (cf. Supino 1898, p. 447 no. 40). However, 20^th century literature contradicts this reference, beginning with Marquand (cf. Marquand 1921, p. 184, no. 193; Marquand 1928, p. 199), who between 1921 and 1928 ascribed it (together with the one formerly in the Bardini collection) to Santi Buglioni. Giancarlo Gentilini has also now removed these reliefs from the Della Robbia oeuvre, comparing them with the work of Giuliano da Sangallo or Benedetto da Rovezzano (cf. Gentilini 1982, p. 19; Gentilini 1992, pp. 481, 489 note 54) and proposing they were executed in the Buglioni workshop. This proposal was taken up again by Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi and Ilaria Ciseri in the recent catalogue of glazed works in the Bargello Museum (Paolozzi Strozzi and Ciseri 2012, p.128, no. 44).

RELATED LITERATURE:

A. Marquand, The brothers Giovanni della Robbia, Princeton 1928;

G. Gentilini, Museo Nazionale del Bargello. Andrea e Giovanni della Robbia, Nuove sale, Florence 1982;

G. Gentilini, I Della Robbia. La scultura invetriata nel Rinascimento, 2 vols., Florence 1992;

G. Gentilini (ed.), I Della Robbia e l'"arte nuova" della scultura invetriata, exhibition catalogue, Fiesole, 29 May - 1 November 1998, Florence 1998;

B. Paolozzi Strozzi and I. Ciseri, Museo Nazionale del Bargello. La raccolta delle robbiane, Florence 2012, p. 128