Follower of Pierino da Vinci

Follower of PIERINO DA VINCI (Italy, 1530-1553). Paris, end of XIX century.
"Sacra Conversazione".
Bronze, traces of gilding.
With signature of the founder: "F. Barbedienne".
Measurements: 26 x 16 cm; 37 x 27 x 3 x 3 cm.

The so-called Sacred Conversations were a genuine artistic theme of the Renaissance. In them, the Virgin is represented surrounded by Saints, angels and, often, the Child Jesus. The panel shown here follows Renaissance models, in particular the reliefs of Pierino Da Vinci. He developed elegant and refined scenes of great expressive force.

Pierino da Vinci was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance. He was the nephew of Leonardo da Vinci, son of his younger brother Bartolomeo. Biographical information on this artist comes almost exclusively from Giorgio Vasari's Le Vite. He trained in the workshop of Baccio Bandinelli, a friend of his uncle Leonardo, but above all with Niccolò Tribolo, who helped him develop his talent: with him he collaborated in the creation of the most beautiful Italian-style gardens, such as those of the Villa di Castello and the Villa La Petraia (1545 to 1548). After these works he gained access to ducal commissions thanks to a privileged relationship with men of culture closely linked to the court, such as Benedetto Varchi and Luca Martini. He worked extensively in Pisa: a Pietà by his hand is still to be found in the piazza della Berlina, while for the purveyor of the galleys, Luca Martini, he sculpted a piercing group of Samson and the Philistine (1551-52, now in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, a fluvial God (sculpted in 1548 when he was only eighteen years old, now in the Louvre) and a bas-relief with The Death of Count Ugolino (scene from Dante's Divine Comedy). There are two copies of the latter work: a terracotta copy, now in the Bargello, and another in bronze, believed to be original by Pierino and recently acquired for the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna. It had belonged for centuries to the English mansion of Chatsworth House. Another important allegorical work is the group of Cosimo I founding the University of Pisa, today in the picture gallery of the Vatican Museums. There is another sculpture of his in Palazzo Barberini (Sala dei Raffelleschi), a statue of Eros and Anteros, which was part of a fountain. He died when he was only twenty-three years old, due to malaria (1553), so he could not fully express his artistic potential, which his contemporaries already described as of the highest level.