Acquired from the Collection of Stefano Bardini, Florence
Private Co😼llection, a castle in West💛ern Switzerland

F. Vossilla, " Un' Attribuzione a Baccio Bandinelli", in Mitteilungen des Instituts in Florenze Kunsthistorischen , 2001.

RELATED LITERATURE

A. Venturi, Storia dell' Arte Italiana, 10i🦄i, Milan, 1936 (reprinted New Yor🗹k 1983),pp. 187-240.

Roger Ward, Baccio Bandinelli 1493-1560. Drawings from British Collections (exh.cat), Fitz🅷william Museum Cambridge, 3 🎀May- 3 July, 1988.

John Pope-Hennessy, Italian Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture, vol. III, 4th edition, London, 1996.

M. Gregory and D. Heikamp, Magnificenza alla corte dei Medici: arte a Firenze alla fine del Cinquecento, Milan, 1997.

L. A. Waldman, Baccio Bandinelli and the art of the Medici court: a corpus of early modern sources, Philadelphia, 2004.

Grove online, Oxford University Press, 2006.

This dignified and commanding bust of a Young Man captures the subject's power with startling beauty. The all’ antica drapery, expansive chest, and fearless gaze recall the sculpture of the antique, a period that became an obsession for Bandinelli and from which he drew inspiration. Encouraged by his patron, Cosimo I de’ Medici, and his own highly competitive nature, Bandinelli seized any opportunity to surpass his competitors, Michelangelo and Cellini. In the present sculpture, he invokes Michelangelo’s use of heroic proportions as well as the facial types of both his sculptures of David and Giuliano de Medici. In fact, the David was foremost on Bandinelli's mind early in his career when the rivalry with Buonarotti began over the decision as to which sculptor would carve a pendant to the colossal male nude. Cellini’s exacting manner of handling details was also 🦋in the sculptor’s consciousness and it was Bandinelli’s father, a prominent Florentine goldsmith, who taught Cellini his craft.

In his 2001 article on the present bust, Dr. Francesco Vossilla (Mitteilungen, op.cit.) convincingly dismisses attributions to other 16th century🦋 sculptors within or close to Bandinelli’s circle. It is the extreme affinity to the sculptor’s work, particularly that of the 1540s and 1550s, and his intimate relationship to the Medici court in Florence that underscores this attribution.

In comparing  the long, thick neck, broad shoulders and muscular back of the Adam, from the overlifesize pair of figures of Adam and Eve (circa 1548-50) (fig.1) in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, one clearly sees the hand of Bandinelli. Furthermore, the carving of the large, wide-set eyes with delineated pupils and irises are also common features in Bandinelli's work. Features such as the muscles, bone structure, and the pronounced trapezoid muscles arching from the neck down the shoulders are comparable to the present bust. The neck is long and seemingly off-center to the body as it turns, a trait seen in both the Adam and the Young Man.

The sensuous mouth and full lips, much like Bandinelli's mouth of the Dead Christ , circa 1549 (fig.2) in the crypt in S. Croce, Florence and the figure of Nicodemus, circa 1554, in the group of Christ supported by Nicodemus in SS. Annuziata, Florence are also analagous to the those features on the present bust. Even though the shoulders on this bust of a Young Man have been "abbreviated", the expanse of the chest is evident. Perhaps, as Vossilla notes (op.cit), th🐼e sculptor chose not to complete the rounding of the shoulders to allow the head to take precedence, lending a sense of great power to the sculpture.

The mass of hair on the Young Man is so elaborately worked with excessive virtuosity and drill work. It is formed of thick, snail-like curls, placed on top of one another and meticulously undercut. Compare the volume of curly hair on Bandinelli's group of Hercules and Cacus, circa 1534, (fig. 3) in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, his Bacchus, circa 1547, in the Palazzo Pitti (Venturi, op.cit., fig.182) as well as the hair on the figures of the apostles Peter and Paul, circa 1536-41, on the tomb of Pope Leo X in S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome. In addition, this refined manner of carving is similar to that on the Adam (fig.6), which one sees clearly when comparing the carving of the hair on the backs of the heads. However, in the bust of a Young Man,  the sculptor went a step further by including delicately carved, smaller loops or droplets of hair, which, stylistically, could be vestiges of Bandinelli's early training under his father. His passion for such refined chiselling sets him apart from other 🦩major sculptors of the period. 

It is clear that this bust was meant to be a portrait, albeit an idealized one. The handling and finish recall Bandinelli's early Cosimo busts of circa 1538-9 and circa 1540-41, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Bargello (fig.4) respectively. It is certainly meant to be an important person, with the prominent head and the all’ antica garb both of which signify the subject's power and authority. The treatment of the back of the bust , finely hollowed out and incorporating  a central support, is similar to several of Bandinelli's busts including the Cosimo's in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Bargello. Certainly the overall treatment illustrates a style that was popular in the middle of the 16th century. An important drawing of a Young Man, by Parmigianino (fig. 7) shows a🙈 contemporary interest in this physical type and, this drawing appears to represent a similar idealized portrait.

A likeness to Francesco I (fig. 8), Cosimo I and Eleanora di Toledo's son, born in 1541, has been suggested. We know that Bandinelli made multiple gifts to curry favor with the Medici family. It is possible that, with the amount of work Bandinelli was executing for Cosimo I and our knowledge of a variety of projects and gifts he completed for members of the Duke’s family, the present marble was made in the mid 1550s and given to Cosimo I as a gift from the sculptor. Indeed, Waldman, (op.cit.) cites a letter from Bandinelli to Cosimo (1558) mentioning blocks of marble which were carved and given as gifts. Nevertheless, Bandinelli worked for many members of the Medici family, including Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino an𒐪d Cardinal Ippolito, both of whom died young. It is possible that the present bust commemorates one of the younger Medicis, in the guise of a David or Hercules.

Baccio Bandinelli was a sculptor, painter and draughtsman whose father was a prominꩵent goldsmith who was supported by the Medici. Baccio was loyal to this powerful family, even during their exile from Florence, 1493-1513, which gained him constant commissions. He worked for the sculptor Giovanni Francesco Rustici some time before 1508, where he learned how to model wax and clay.

His first major sculptural commission was for a St. Peter in marble (1515-17) for the crossing of the Duomo in Florence. He produced sculpture and decorations for the ceremonial entry into the city for the new pope; this included a colossal terracotta figure of Hercules (destroyed) made for the Loggia dei Lanzi where it sat adjacent to Michelangelo's David. This sparked the rivalry between the two sculptors and the competition over who would carve the pendant to the David.

Pope Leo X's return to Florence afforded Bandinelli a series of commissions of nude, muscular Classical gods and heroes, many of which are documented in his drawings. When Giulio de' Medici was elected pope Clement VII, Bandinelli gained more commissions including the decorations for the papal coronation in 1523. With the Sack of Rome in 1527 and the Seige of Florence, along with the expulsion of the Medici, Bandinelli left his native city. After producing a good number of sculptures, validating his name throughout Italy, he returned to Florence and carved the group of Hercules and Cacus, in the Piazza della Signoria, which established him as the official 𓃲sculptor to the Medici Dukes, first Alessandro and then Cosimo I.

When Duke Cosimo I had moved to the Palazzo Vecchio, Bandinelli was given the task of decorating the Udienza together with Giuliano di Baccio. The room was to house statues of Cosimo I and his ancestors within an architectural framework. The statues were not accurate portraits but rather historical idealizations. Bandinelli believed, as did Michelangelo, that a portrait should not necessarily be accurate in detail but rather give an overall feeling of detail and the ideal. The Udienza was finished by Vasari, Caccini and de Rossi. In 1547, Bandinelli was put in charge of the Opera del Duomo and sculpted, among other works, the Adam and Eve for the high altar.

The present bust illustrates the artist's dazzling technique: his ability to suggest power and au🤪thority through modelling and to achieve🌺 a singular refinement in chiselling.  A sculptor of this ability and bravado had to have been closely associated with the Medici and would have gained a position of great prominence in Renaissance Italy.