Willem Danielsz. van Tetrode, known in Italy as Guglielmo Fiammingo (before c. 1530,

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

— after 1587), was a sixteenth-century sculptor of Dutch origin who served as a pupil of Benvenuto Cellini in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. On his return to

in the Netherlands in 1567–68, it has been suggested that he may have trained the young Adriaen de Vries and encouraged him to go to Florence.

Life and work

Willem, as he still was, is documented at the court of François I by his late teens, which provides the most reasonable place for him to have met Benvenuto Cellini, who left the French court and returned to Florence in 1545. He is documented in the Florentine workshop of Cellini in 1549–50; he was among the sculptors who worked on the marble base for Cellini's ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'' in Florence. In Rome a surviving letter of Guglielmo's records Cellini's distaste and contempt for restoring antique

Roman sculpture The study of Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Sculpture of Ancient Greece, Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the ''Apollo Belvedere'' and ''Barberini Faun'', are known only from Roman ...

. In about 1549 Guglielmo restored an antique fragmentary torso as a ''Ganymede'' for

Cosimo I de' Medici Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second and last duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first grand duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Cosimo I succeeded his cousin to the duchy. ...

. In Rome he worked under the direction of Guglielmo della Porta, restoring antiquities for the

Cortile del Belvedere The (Belvedere Courtyard or Belvedere Court) was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance at the Vatican Palace in Rome. Designed by Donato Bramante from 1505 onward, its concept and details reverberated in courtyard design, formalize ...

and other Vatican projects. On his return to Florence in 1562, Guglielmo reminded Cosimo of his former work on the ''Ganymede'', The work in question, executed under Cellini's direction and commonly attributed to him, shows uncommonly refined cutting; Anthony Radcliffe remarked "it must be asked to what extent the beautiful statue now in the Bargello is the product of the technical skill of Willem van Tetrode".

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...

records a writing cabinet adorned with bronze replicas of the antique ''

Dioscuri Castor and Pollux (or Polydeuces) are twin half-brothers in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri or Dioskouroi. Their mother was Leda (mythology), Leda, but they had different fathers; Castor was the mortal ...

'', the '' Apollo Belvedere'', the '' Farnese Hercules'' and the '' Venus de' Medici'' and at least sixteen other statuettes by Fiammingo; it was commissioned by Nicolò Orsini, conte di Pitigliano and completed in 1559, intended as a diplomatic gift for

Philip II of Spain Philip II (21 May 152713 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and List of Sicilian monarchs, Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He ...

. The desk was eventually dismantled, and the bronzes are conserved in the Bargello (the bronzes identified by Anna Maria Massinelli in 1987 and exhibited at the Bargello in Florence in 1989, with the catalogue edited by Massinelli), six were included in a 2003 exhibition curated by Frits Scholten, "Willem van Tetrode (c. 1525-1580): Bronze Sculptures of the Renaissance", which was mounted by the Rijksmuseum; it travelled to the

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, and brought the sculptor into some focus. Three of the bronze fauns on Bartolommeo Ammanati's ''Fountain of Neptune'' that were long attributed to Guglielmo Fiammingo cannot be his, since their facture is documented as being begun in March 1571 and finished in June 1575, by which time, Anthony Radcliffe has pointed out, van Tetrode was back in Delft by 1566–67; there in 1568 he signed a contract for the new high altar in the Oude Kerk, which he finished in 1573. In 1574-75 he was in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. It now appears that Tetrode was a seminal figure in introducing to the Netherlands the small-scale bronze sculpture, suited to a collector's study. An engraving was published by Hendrick Goltzius of a design for a silver salver by Tetrode. Anthony Radcliffe explored possible connections between the two artists. Until recently, little has been written in English of the enigmatic figure of Willem Tetrode/Guglielmo Fiammingo.An article was devoted to him by Marguérite Devigne, "Le sculpteur Willem Danielsz. van Tetrode dit en Italie Guglielmo Fiammingo", ''Oud Holland'' 56 (1939).

Notes

External links

Vermeer and The Delft School
a full-text exhibition catalogue from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Willem Danielsz van Tetrode {{DEFAULTSORT:Tetrode, Willem Danielsz. van 1520s births 1580s deaths 16th-century Dutch sculptors Dutch sculptors Dutch male sculptors Artists from Delft