Santi Buglioni

Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 3a Biennale mostra mercato internazionale dell'antiquariato, 1963;

Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 8a Biennale mostra mercato internazionale dell’ antiquariato, 1973;

Arezzo, Fraternita dei Laici - Oratorio dei Santi Lorentino e Pergentino, Eleonora de Toledo duchessa di Toscana. I soggiorni in terra d’Arezzo della consorte di Cosimo I de’ Medici, 2022

C. Torracchi and N. Baldini (eds.), Eleonora de Toledo duchessa di Toscana. I soggiorni in terra d’Arezzo della consorte di Cosimo I de’ Medici, exh. cat., Arezzo, 2022, pp. 254-6, no. 43

Distinctive for its rare classical monumentality, this Madonna and Child is an example of the singular art of Benedetto and Santi Buglioni. While the technique of glazed terracotta was perfected by Luca della Robbia and perpetuated by his descendants, Benedetto Buglioni was the only artist to establish a rival studio. According to Giorgio Vasari’s Lives (1550), Buglioni gained access to the secret method in 1480 through one of the firm’s employees. However, specialists now agree that Benedetto was probably apprenticed to Luca della Robbia, before founding his own bottega. As his workshop’s success grew and the commissions multiplied, he took on his wife’s nephew, Santi Michele, who adopted his surname. While the della Robbia family’s production slowed in the 1530s, the Buglioni workshop remained active for much of the sixteenth century and Santi was one of the last artists to master the technique, which gradually fell out of fashion. Santi showed himself to be inventive in technical terms, combining bright glazes with unglazed areas, but also in terms of his quest for realism and expressiveness in his figures. In the sixteenth century, the Buglioni workshop gradually moved away from the models developed by Quattrocento sculptors such as Rossellino and Verrocchio, with whom Benedetto had probably trained. Works by Benedetto and Santi Buglioni were created in close collaboration and share many common characteristics, so it can be problematic to distinguish their individual hands. 

Alongside works in relief, Benedetto and Santi Buglioni produced many figures and groups in the round, intended for placing in niches. As can be seen from the back of this piece, the size of these works meant that they had to be hollowed out and then fired in sections, so as to facilitate the firing process.

In 1963, at the Biennale dell’Antiquariato in Florence, the Bartolozzi gallery presented this piece as the work of Giovanni della Robbia, but today an attribution to Benedetto and Santi Buglioni is accepted. The group illustrates the inventiveness for which the artists were known, especially in terms of their divergence from the aesthetic canons of the della Robbia family. Although the influence of Renaissance masters such as Rossellino and Settignano can be seen in the figure of Christ, it is above all an affinity with classical art that sets this Madonna apart. The erect, solemn posture of the Virgin, with her gaze fixed firmly on the faithful, enables this work to be linked to Santi. The figure of Christ in the Ecce Agnus Dei altarpiece, made by Santi in about 1525 for the church of Santa Maria del Sasso at Bibbiena, has the same monumentality as the present Virgin. The regular treatment of the drapery, revealing a slight contrapposto, can also be found in the St Agnes in the Musée Bandini in Fiesole. As in that figure, the Virgin’s blue mantle, with its green lining, only covers one shoulder before falling over her hips, leaving her manganese-purple habit largely visible. The treatment of the tunic, with its regular vertical folds, the waist emphasized with a yellow belt, can also be found on the St Maniatus attributed to Santi (Sotheby’s New York, Glazed, The Legacy of the della Robbia, Oct–Nov. 2016, lot 16).

The position of the Christ Child sitting awkwardly on his mother’s arm, an unusual feature inspired by Raffaello da Montelupo, appears in several works Santi produced during the 1530s – for example the lunette made for the church of San Piero a Ponti (San Pietro) and the altarpiece in the oratory of the Madonna del Ponte (Stia, Arezzo). Equally distinctive are Christ’s clearly defined musculature, his idealized facial features and his direct gaze, which recall the Virgin and Child enthroned in the Louvre, attributed to Santi Buglioni (inv. no. ML 25).

RELATED LITERATURE

G. Gentilini, I Della Robbia e l'arte nuova della scultura invetriata, exh. cat. Fiesole, 1998, pp. 349-351; G. Gentilini, I Della Robbia, La Scultura inventariata nel Rinascimento, Milano, 1992, vol. 2, pp. ; A. Marquand, Benedetto and Santi Buglioni, Princeton, 1921; M. Cambareri, Della Robbia, Sculpting with color in Renaissance Florence, exh. cat. Boston, 2016, pp. 17-20; J. Gaborit, M. Bormand, Les Della Robbia. Sculptures en terre cuite de la Renaissance Italienne, Paris, 2002, cat. V3, pp. 112-113

The present lot is the subject of an expertise by Dott. David Lucidi.

This lot has an artistic export license. Please refer to the specialist department for further information about export procedures and shipping costs.