Electrotype
1468 (sculpted), 1872 (electrotyping)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Electrotype of a Florentine candelabrum after the bronze original in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. It is inscribed MAGGIO E GIVGNO MCCCCLXVIII around the base.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Electrotype |
| Brief description | Electrotype, bronzed copper, after the bronze original made for the Chapel of the Sala dell'Udienza in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence and now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, by Andrea del Verrocchio, Florence, inscribed with the date 'May to June 1468'. Electrotype by Ludwig Wolter in Berlin, 1872. |
| Physical description | Electrotype of a Florentine candelabrum after the bronze original in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. It is inscribed MAGGIO E GIVGNO MCCCCLXVIII around the base. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | 'MAGGIO E GIVGNO MCCCCLXVIII' (Inscribed around the base)
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| Gallery label | The intricate foliage has been replicated very precisely in this electrotype copy of a candelabrum. The Museum's first curator, John Charles Robinson, championed the instructive qualities of reproductions, saying, 'I am strongly of opinion that a fine cast of a medieval thing is vastly better than a debased imitation of it'. Only after the Museum had purchased the copy was the original candelabrum identified as the work of the great Italian sculptor and goldsmith Andrea del Verrocchio.(2014) |
| Object history | Purchased from Herr L. Wolter in 1872 for £37 10s |
| Historical context | This candelabrum was commissioned for the chapel of the Sala dell' Udienza in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Payments to Verrocchio for it are recorded in 1468 and 1469 and a final payment of 20 April, 1480 states that the candelabrum was installed in the chapel by that date. It is inscribed MAGGIO E GIVGNO MCCCCLXVIII around the base. By the early decades of the 19th century, the candelabrum was in the possession of the Hohenzollern in Berlin. Around 1935 it was sold by the Schloss Museum of Berlin to Mannheimer in Amsterdam, and by 1952 it had passed to the Rijksmuseum. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | REPRO.1872-123 |
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| Record created | July 12, 2000 |
| Record URL |
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