Crocifisso circa 1590-1600

Antonio Susini (Firenze 1558 - 1624)
Christ Crucified
1590-1600
Gilt bronze
H. cm.
Cast bronze sculpture based on a model by Jean Boulogne, known as Giambologna (Douai 1529 - Florence 1608). The renowned workshop run in Florence by the celebrated Flemish sculptor Jean de Boulogne, known as Giambologna, who arrived in Rome around 1550 and served Prince Francesco I de' Medici from 1561 onwards, was responsible for an extraordinary monumental activity in marble and bronze as well as a vast, refined production of small-scale works that contributed to its fame at courts throughout Europe. Bronzes of profane subjects, but also devout crucifixes in precious metals and bronze, a production of which the example here under examination is an eloquent testimony, conceived for a domestic tabernacle, which interprets one of the master's most elegant and successful models with an exquisite technical and expressive refinement such as to call into question a particularly faithful and qualified collaborator, Antonio Susini, whose production of small crucifixes for private devotion and the ornamentation of altars, often the fruit of illustrious commissions, increased when the custom of sending them as diplomatic gifts was established among the Medici – in which collaborators and students specialized in bronze working (Adrian De Vries, Antonio Susini, Gasparo Mola, Egidio Leggi and Pietro Tacca) intervened –, has recently been the object of specific critical attention and received by international collectors. In the second half of the sixteenth century, the theme of the 'crucified Christ' had returned to have a central role in the theological reflection sparked by the Counter-Reformation, which favoured him composed in pain, with his head bowed and his eyes closed in death, but also with his imploring gaze turned towards heaven at the moment of passing: thus, precious artefacts were created, mostly intended for private worship, in line with the indications of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which called for a renewal of faith and figurative tradition according to precise precepts and iconographic norms. Giambologna, then in his forties, part of the Counter-Reformation climate rooted in the Florentine Grand Ducal court, offered a first masterful example of 'Christ on the Cross' in the small gilded bronze Crucifix for the Salviati Chapel in San Marco, intended to house the relics of Saint Antoninus. This was one of the artist's most prestigious commissions, obtained with the approval of the Grand Duke, begun in 1579 and completed in 1589. In this work, the sculptor developed a new model of 'Dead Christ', characterised by a scientifically investigated anatomy and sensitive to an ideal of classical beauty wrapped in a vibrant pictorial modelling, expressed by means of an accurate chiseling that reveals the muscles, veins, nerves and the flowing movement of the hair. This is an image that will be reinterpreted in the following years in works of different scales, even monumental ones such as the majestic Crucifix donated by Ferdinand I to the Duke of Bavaria, commissioned in 1593 and transported two years later to Munich where it is preserved in the church of San Michele, replicated for his own funerary chapel at the Santissima Annunziata (1594). The oldest and most eloquent attestation of a mass production of small crucifixes in Giambologna's workshop is contained in a letter addressed in 1583 to the Duke of Urbino by his agent in Florence, Simone Fortuna, who, praising the sculptor's qualities, "admirable" in this activity, recalled - in addition to four examples "considered stupendous", executed for Pope Pius V (therefore before 1572), Grand Duke Francis I, his wife Grand Duchess Joanna of Austria (identifiable with the one donated in 1573 to the Holy House of Loreto, now in the Museum of the Ancient Treasure), and the King of Spain (perhaps to be recognized in the similar Crucifix today in the Escorial) - having seen "models" just under two palms in size (around 40 centimetres) to be made "of silver, bronze or copper". In a previous letter from 1581, Fortuna himself had described the methods adopted for small-scale metalwork by Giambologna, who “having made the wax or clay models, which are quick to make, by his own hand” gave “at the same time the time to make the molds, the casting (fusion) and then to polish them to the goldsmiths he specifically employs”, among whom at this date documents attest Adrian de Vries and Antonio Susini engaged in similar tasks. Giambologna's production of small Crucifixes, mostly equal to half a Florentine braccio in height (about 29 cm), in bronze, gilded bronze, silver, depicting the 'Dead Christ', can be grouped into three main typologies that take their names from the most representative examples. The oldest, of Michelangelo's stamp, can be traced back to the silver example donated in 1573 to the Holy House of Loreto. The second, in which Giambologna wasThe most original example is the one formulated in the aforementioned gilded bronze Crucifix for the Salviati Chapel in San Marco. A third typology, almost identical to the previous one, from which it is distinguished by its more arched chest and a different shape of the loincloth, takes its name from the patinated bronze Crucifix in the Musée de la Chartreuse in Douai. The Crucifix examined here, notable for its sensitive surface finish and the meticulous, vibrant refinement of its details, is characterized by the lean and vigorous anatomy of its slender body, covered by a taut loincloth tied at the hips, the head resting on the shoulder, where thick, wavy hair frames the noble face and falls delicately on the shoulders, the knees bent and side by side, the foot above. The work shares specific executional aspects, evident in the careful chiseling of the hair and facial features, the minute definition of the limbs, and above all in the refined rendering of the loincloth, furrowed by taut buttonhole folds—features that seem indicative of a specific authorship. It is precisely these technical and expressive characteristics, which mark a qualitative pinnacle among Giambologna's serial models, that allow us to recognize the hand of Antonio Susini among the Flemish master's collaborators and followers. Susini was Giambologna's assistant and later his most accredited heir in the creation of small, intricately chiseled crucifixes, as confirmed by the refinishing found in the gilded bronze "Living Christ" from the Descalzas Reales convent in Madrid, completed in 1603 by Susini. In the faithful adherence to the Giambologna prototype, one observes, in the crucifixes and more generally in the bronzes created by Susini, compared to those attributable to other collaborators, a cold elegance in the modeling of the cloths, conducted with segmented linear rhythms and flattened surfaces, as well as a certain composed stylization of the physiognomic features and a more contained plastic exuberance in the chiselling of beards and hair, but also a specific skill in the 'polishing' of the surfaces, capable of making them so smooth as to appear almost translucent. Having entered the studio in Borgo Pinti in 1573, after an apprenticeship with the bronze-worker Felice Traballesi, it was Antonio Susini himself, presumably the “young man” mentioned by Fortuna in 1581 as “already capable of much excellence”, who specialized in the casting and polishing of the master’s bronze statuettes and small crucifixes, as evidenced by the chiseling of the superb gilded bronze Crucifix destined for the Salviati chapel in San Marco, completed in 1589, to the point “of becoming, so to speak, his working hand, translating his inventions and models into bronze and silver with extraordinary sensitivity and precision”, so much so that, as Herbert Keutner (1999) observes, “even if the works were physically cast or finished by Antonio, they left Giambologna’s workshop, by right, as the artistic property of the master-master”. Between 1582 and 1601, Susini created at least nine silver crucifixes from the master's models, "to donate" or "to send to Rome." After setting up his own business at the turn of the century, he continued to produce them using Giambologna's models. In 1609, the inventory of Lorenzo di Jacopo Salviati's possessions, housed in his Florentine palace on Via del Corso, noted two bronze crucifixes with ebony crosses, one measuring half a braccio and the other a quarter of a braccio, as works "by the hand of Antonio Susini." As late as 1621, the Gonzaga court in Mantua commissioned ten crucifixes, "five living and five dead." Furthermore, a biography written at the end of the century by Filippo Baldinucci preserves a striking memory of this commitment, recalling that the sculptor "had in his room two large glass chests, in which he used to store all his finished works, and when religious or secular people from every country, state, or class (of whom he was always surrounded) came to him and asked for a Crucifix of such or such a size, or another figure, Susini would quietly leave his work, go to the chest, take the figure, and show it to them, explaining its value."