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Aesop thumbnail 2
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This object consists of 2 parts, some of which may be located elsewhere.

Aesop

Statuette
second quarter of 16th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This bronze statuette is made by Niccolo Tribolò, in Florence in the second quarter of the 16th century.

The bronze represents Aesop, depicted as a hunchback dwarf holding a rod, and standing astride an owl. Italian sculptor, engineer and garden designer, who was apprenticed in Florence first as a wood-carver with Giovanni d'Alesso d'Antonio and then as a sculptor with Jacopo Sansovino, whom he continued to assist well into the second decade of the 16th century.

Tribolò worked (with a team of other sculptors) on the basilica of the Santa Casa at Loreto and in 1533 he completed Andrea Sansovino's marble high relief of the Marriage of the Virgin which began 1527 and he also helped Michelangelo to complete the Medici tombs in S Lorenzo.

Tribolò also worked around 12 years for Cosimo I in Florence and undertook an extraordinary wide array of works: decorations for state occasions, firework displays, theatrical costumes and décor as well as water conservation and other hydraulic projects. His most influential undertaking was the laying out of the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace in Florence.

Object details

Category
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Statuette
  • Fragment
TitleAesop (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Bronze
Brief description
bronze statuette Aesop by Niccolo Tribolo, Florentine, between 1500-1550
Physical description
Aesop as a hunchback dwarf holding a rod, and standing astride an owl
Dimensions
  • Height: 31.62cm
  • Width: 11.30cm
Subjects depicted
Summary
This bronze statuette is made by Niccolo Tribolò, in Florence in the second quarter of the 16th century.

The bronze represents Aesop, depicted as a hunchback dwarf holding a rod, and standing astride an owl. Italian sculptor, engineer and garden designer, who was apprenticed in Florence first as a wood-carver with Giovanni d'Alesso d'Antonio and then as a sculptor with Jacopo Sansovino, whom he continued to assist well into the second decade of the 16th century.

Tribolò worked (with a team of other sculptors) on the basilica of the Santa Casa at Loreto and in 1533 he completed Andrea Sansovino's marble high relief of the Marriage of the Virgin which began 1527 and he also helped Michelangelo to complete the Medici tombs in S Lorenzo.

Tribolò also worked around 12 years for Cosimo I in Florence and undertook an extraordinary wide array of works: decorations for state occasions, firework displays, theatrical costumes and décor as well as water conservation and other hydraulic projects. His most influential undertaking was the laying out of the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace in Florence.
Bibliographic references
  • Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1855. In: Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol I. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 104
  • Planiscig, Leo. Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, XIII, 1944, p.248.
  • Keutner, Herbert. "Der Giardino Pensile der Loggia dei Lanzi und seine Fontäne." In: Sonderdruck aus Kunstgeschichtliche Studien für Hans Kauffmann. Berlin : Verlag Mann, 1956, p. 251.
  • Bode, Wilhelm. The Italian Bronze Statuettes of the Renaissance. III, p.22
  • Ceppi, Claudia Beltramo, and Nicoletta Confuorto, Firenze e la Toscana dei Medici nell'Europa del Cinquecento, Milan: Electra, 1980.
  • Pope-Hennessy, John Wyndham and Santangelol Antonio. Italian Bronze Statuettes . London : Arts Council, 1961
Collection
Accession number
2626:1, 2-1855

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Record createdMay 8, 2008
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