Bust of Augustus
Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi (1656–1740)
, after antiquity
1695
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Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein proposed to Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi to copy the heads of Michelangelo’s four statues of the ‘Times of Day’ in the Medici Tombs that are located in the New Sacristy of the basilica of San Lorenzo. Arguably rather courageously, given how temperamental patrons could be and how much he had to lose, Soldani’s reply of 11 December 1694 politely explained that, in view of their context, the heads were unsuited to such an adaptation. Instead he suggested an alternative – a series of busts of the most notable marbles of Roman emperors, empresses, and philosophers, copied from examples in the Medici collections housed in the Uffizi. These, he assured the Prince, were ‘cose nobilissime, e da galleria’ (most noble things, [worthy of] a gallery). They certainly make for an extremely impressive ensemble, regardless of the fact that at least some of the identifications have turned out to be erroneous.
The Prince enthusiastically embraced the scheme, and over the years until his death in 1712 no fewer than a dozen busts were sent to Vienna, of which only eleven (including the ‘Anima Beata’, SK 516, and ‘Anima Dannata’, SK 517, after Bernini) survive. Eight of the remaining nine still retain their original black and white-veined marble socles adorned by identificatory cartouches, the exception being the bust of the young Marcus Aurelius, whose base disappeared after the Second World War. The first two bronzes proposed by Soldani were of the ‘Empress Faustina the Elder’, the wife of Emperor Antoninus Pius, and of the ‘Empress Faustina the Younger’, the wife of Marcus Aurelius, both of which he praised for their ‘vera maniera greca’ (true Greek style). Both are based upon identifiable prototypes in the Uffizi, but whereas the latter is still accepted as a likeness of Faustina the Younger datable to around 161 AD, the former is believed to be an otherwise unidentified Roman matron of the correct period.
These two bronzes both look in the same direction, and Soldani’s next move was to pair them off with busts believed to represent ‘Cicero’ and ‘Seneca’, both likewise based upon ancient marbles in the Uffizi. In this instance, it is the former that is still generally thought to represent Cicero, while the model for the latter is agreed to be a Hellenistic piece, dating from the second century BC and possibly portraying the poet Hesiod. Be that as it may, it is unquestionably the most stunning work of art in the group, not least by virtue of the brilliantly worked hair and beard.
There then followed a further four busts of emperors, namely ‘Augustus’, ‘Agrippa’ (who was not, strictly speaking, an emperor), ‘Hadrian’, and ‘Vitellius’. The first three are all based upon antique busts in the Uffizi, and in this instance it is only the identification of the first which is sometimes doubted. There is also a pseudo-antique bust said to represent Vitellius in the Uffizi, but in this instance Soldani’s model seems to have been the far more celebrated supposed bust of Vitellius in the Museo Archeologico in Venice, which was left to the republic by Cardinal Domenico Grimani in 1523, and was already being avidly copied in the sixteenth century, above all by Tintoretto, who drew it for a whole variety of angles, and donated its features to one of the crowd in his ‘Christ before Pilate’ in the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice.
Turning finally to the young ‘Marcus Aurelius’, while it is undeniable that it differs from the eight busts in a whole variety of ways, which are referred to as a group in a letter written by Soldani to the Prince, it would seem perverse to doubt that it was intended to relate harmoniously to the others. It too is based upon an ancient marble in the Uffizi.
Understandably, Soldani expressed particular pride in the exceptional care he had taken over both their casting and chasing. He also remarked upon the fact that he had spared neither time nor expense in order to make them as like the originals as possible, and yet to a modern eye they are the very opposite of slavishly faithful to their prototypes, and are instead enchantingly blatantly imbued with Soldani’s very personal response to his models.
- Material/technique
- bronze, reddish-golden lacquer patina
- Measurements
- 49 × 36 × 23 cm, 62.0 cm high incl. plinth
- Acquisition
- acquired in 1695 by Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein
- Artists/makers/authors
- Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi, after antiquity
- Inventory number
- SK 513
- Provenance
- acquired in 1695 by Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein
- Place of origin
- Florence
- Iconography
- Augustus
, S. 14–31, S. 16–17, S. 18, Abb. 5
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