Lorenzo de` Medic Bronze Sculpture

"LAURENT DE MÉDICIS" 

(Lorenzo de' Medic)

 DUKE OF URBINO 

AFTER MICHELANGELO

 LATE 19TH CENTURY

BRONZE WITH BROWN PATINA

SCULPTURE SIZE : 38CM X 17CM X 20CM 

BASE SIZE : 10,5CM X 20CM X 21CM

TOTAL HEIGHT : 48CM

WEIGHT : 11.4 kg

STAMPED : 4635

CONDITION : EXCELLENT

A patinated antique bronze of Lorenzo de Medici, the 15th century Italian Statesman and the powerful ruler of the Florentine Republic. He was well known for his patronage of Renaissance scholarship, poetry and art most notably that of Botticello and Michaelangelo. He is depicted deep in thought, this figure is deserving of its nickname "Pensieroso" or "The thoughtful one" and is after the original by Michelangelo on the tomb of Lorenzo de Medici in the Chapel of San Lorenzo in Florence. 

Lorenzo de Medici, known as the Magnificent, from the renowned Florentine family, died in 1492. He is remembered as a powerful politician and a passionate patron of the arts, a central figure of the Italian Renaissance and of the Florentine Golden Age. At the beginning of the 16th century, Michelangelo (1475-1564) sculpted an imposing statue to adorn his tomb.  Between 1519 and 1534, Michelangelo Buonarroti, known as Michelangelo (1475-1564) worked on the realization of two monumental tombs, that of Julien de Medici, father of the current Pope Clement VII (1523 to 1534) and died in 1516 and that of Laurent de Medici, Duke of Urbino, known as the Magnificent, father of the late Pope Leo X (1513 to 1521), and died in 1519. The two tombs face each other in the chapel, in perfect symmetry. Overlooking the sarcophagus, installed in the upper middle niche, separated from the other two by molded pilasters, a monumental sculpture represents each of the two Medici.

Laurent the Magnificent is dressed in a Roman military costume, probably to evoke his status as head of the Maison Medici. He wears a helmet dressed in an animal head. He is leaning on a box, one of the faces of which bears the effigy of a bat. His hand in front of his mouth, he wears a pensive attitude, his gaze turned to his right. His legs crossed low at the ankles accentuate his static posture, and his introverted demeanor. Laurent de Médicis personifies the contemplative life.

Michelangelo also reinforces this aspect by the figure of the bat, on the box. Indeed, the bat is the symbol of melancholy, melancholy of passing time, while the box symbolically contains the wealth of experience accumulated during an entire existence. Throughout the 19th century, bourgeois interiors were adorned with decorative sculptures on themes as varied as hunting, history and antiquity. The enthusiasm for the Renaissance and Italian culture did not weaken, especially as young artists in training had to tour Italy to discover all the beauties of Roman art and the art of the Renaissance.