Giovanni Francesco (Gianfrancesco) Susini (c.1585 – after 17 October 1653) was a

Mannerist Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

Florentine sculptor in bronze and marble.

Life

Susini was born in Florence, and trained in the workshop of

Giambologna Giambologna (1529 – 13 August 1608), also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small ...

. He continued to work in Giambologna's style, and Susini's sculpture was already mistaken for that of his master by the end of the century. His uncle, Antonio Susini, was the principal bronze-caster of Giambologna, and the young Francesco received early training as a junior member of Giambologna's workshop. A trip to Rome in 1624-26 gave him first-hand experience of classical antique, 16th century, and the emerging

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

statuary, latter exemplified by

Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, ; ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor ...

's youthful ''Apollo and Daphne'', but his own

style was already matured. He made wax copies of the recently discovered Borghese ''

Hermaphroditus In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus (; , ) was a child of Aphrodite and Hermes. According to Ovid, he was born a remarkably beautiful boy whom the naiad Salmacis attempted to rape and prayed to be united with forever. A god, in answer to her pra ...

'' for casting upon his return to Florence. His bronze reduction of the

Laocoön Laocoön (; , , gen.: ) is a figure in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology and the Epic Cycle. Laocoön is a Troy, Trojan priest. He and his two young sons are attacked by giant serpents sent by the gods when Laocoön argued against bri ...

is likely based on the copy of it in Florence. As a sculptor, Susini is known for some public commissions, such as the ''Fontana del Carciofo'' ("Artichoke Fountain", 1641), that stands centered with the ''piano nobile'' windows of the

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

's garden façade. The model for this final ensemble, according to the chronicler of artists

Filippo Baldinucci Filippo Baldinucci (3 June 1625 – 10 January 1696) was an Italian art historian and biographer. Life Baldinucci is considered among the most significant Florentine biographers/historians of the artists and the arts of the Baroque period. ...

, had been completed and approved in 1639; but like many productions for the Medici Grand Dukes, the fountain was a team project with a complicated history. For example, some of the

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University ...

had already been sculpted by Susini and assistants by 1621. His first independent Medici commission was a bronze bas-relief for a chapel altar in 1614. Medici patronage required teamwork: the sculptor Orazio Mochi (died 1625) was given the challenge—unlikely to have been the sculptor's choice— of turning a genre subject suited to painting, two players at the roughhouse game of Sacchomazzone, into a sculpture for the

Boboli Gardens The Boboli Gardens ( /’bo.bo.li/) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, which l ...

. Assisted at first by Romolo Ferrucci del Tadda (died 1621), Susini reduced the subject to a small bronze, and set it on a small oval plinth to emphasize the tour-de-force of wildly thrashing figures. Other Susini sculptures contribute to the over-all effect of the

: ''Cupid Breaking a Heart with a Hammer'' and ''Cupid Shooting an Arrow'' are part of the elaborate allegorical scheme of the "Island Basin" (the ''Vasca dell'Isola'') located on the secondary axis. In 1615, he created the two acquasantiere of bronze on the columns in front of the main entrance of Santissima Annunziata. Few Susini works bear his signature. A signed ''Bacchus'' is at the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. There are some signed bronze statuettes; the ''Abduction of Helen'', signed and dated 1627 in the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

, Los Angeles; ''Venus Burning the Arrows of Love'' signed IO. FR. SUSINI-FLOR. F. MDC. XXXIX and ''Venus Chastising Love'' signed IO. FR. SUSINI FLOR. FAC. M. DC. XXXVIIII, both of which

André Le Nôtre André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed Gardens ...

gave to his patron

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

in 1693, together with a ''Gaul Committing Suicide'' that is inspired by a well-known a Hellenistic marble (all now at the Louvre).The bronze ''David with the Head of Goliath'' in the Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna, is signed FRAN.SVSINI F.. Susini continued to operate the family bronze foundry. According to Baldinucci, Giovanni and Antonio Susini continued to use Giambologna's models after the elder master's death to cast finely finished bronze sculptures for discerning patrons. Like Giambologna, Susini's own designs characteristically employ two or three figures in complicated, balanced relationships meant to be appreciated from multiple viewpoints, as represented by the ''Abduction of Helen'' (Dresden and

Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

), two versions of ''Venus and Love'' (Louvre), ''David with the Head of Goliath'' (Liechtenstein collection, Vaduz) an analogue of the Ludovisi Mars in Rome, or ''Venus and Adonis''National Gallery, Washington DC. One of several bronzes by Antonio and Giovanni Francesco Susini in the Smith Collection provide characteristic examples of Susini's finely cast and finished table sculptures, meant to be appreciated at close range and admired from all sides. Most of his output of small bronzes could be profitably sold and transported to buyers outside of Tuscany. A theme of Giambologna's in which Susini excelled was the dynamic and age-old theme of animals in combat, for which

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

prototypes, available to artists in Rome in rediscovered Roman copies, provided inspiration. For example, the first of the pair of bronzes, ''Lion Attacking a Horse'' and ''Leopard Attacking a Bull'', given to

Frick Collection The Frick Collection (colloquially known as the Frick) is an art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was established in 1935 to preserve the collection of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The collection (museum) ...

, New York, 2004, was inspired a fragmentary marble lion with torso of a horse, exhibited on the

Campidoglio The Capitolium or Capitoline Hill ( ; ; ), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. The hill was earlier known as ''Mons Saturnius'', dedicated to the god Saturn. The word ''Capitolium'' first referre ...

in the artist's lifetime. Susini,

Pietro Francavilla Pierre Francqueville, generally called Pietro Francavilla (1548 — 25 August 1615), was a Franco-Flemish sculptor trained in Florence, who provided sculpture for Italian and French patrons in the elegant Late Mannerist tradition established by ...

, and

Pietro Tacca Pietro Tacca (16 September 1577 – 26 October 1640) was an Italian sculptor, who was the chief pupil and follower of Giambologna. Tacca began in a Mannerist style and worked in the Baroque style during his maturity. Biography Born in Carr ...

were contemporaries and pupils of Giambologna. Tacca is considered Giambologna's main pupil, and he worked mainly on larger bronzes.

Notes

References

*A. Brook in J. Turner (ed.), ''The Dictionary of Art'', London, 1996, vol. 30, p. 32
''Bacchus and Young Satyr'':
marble, Louvre Museum. Signed F. SUSINI
''Venus Burning the Arrows of Love''
an
''Venus Chastising love''
bronzes, Louvre Museum, both signed and dated 1639
Francesco Susini bronze table sculptures at the J. Paul Getty MuseumFrick Collection:
archived press release concerning the Frick's Susini bronzes
Detroit Institute of Art:
four table bronzes attributed to Antonio or Giovanni Francesco Susini
''The Saccomazzone Players''
bronze, Liechtenstein Collection, Vienna. After Mochi.
''Striding Horse''
bronze, Liechtenstein Collection, Vienna.
''David with the Head of Goliath'':
bronze, Liechtenstein Collection, Vienna.

With bibliography.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Susini, Giovanni Francesco 17th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors Catholic sculptors