Francesco Formigli (1682-1769), after Giuseppe Piamontini (1664-1744), Florence, first quarter of the 18th century

Private collection, London.

E. Schmidt, S. Bellesi, R. Gennaioli (dir.), Plasmato dal fuoco: La scultura in bronzo nella Firenze degli ultimi Medici, exh. cat., Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 2019, pp. 238-241 and L. Glodenberg Stoppato, pp. 558-561, ill. p. 240, under no. 45 (by Giuseppe Piamontini).

This graceful terracotta was recently identified by Sandro Bellesi as a signed work by Francesco Formigli, a Tuscan sculptor who operated in the orbit of the celebrated Piamontini, whose influence is strongly apparent in the late baroque composition. The Bacchic subject reflects the evolution of taste in Florence during the last decades of the Medici dynasty, towards a lighter and more elegant art.

A Tuscan sculptor from Rovezzano, Formigli was probably trained in Giuseppe Piamontini's workshop in Florence, as evidenced by a reference found by Bellesi in an account book (cf. L. Glodenberg Stoppato, in Plasmato dal fuoco, op. cit., p. 558). In 1706, Formigli was registered in the records of the Accademia del Disegno. He received payment from the Tempi family for his first independent commission in 1711, for a bronze statuette based on an antique model. This was followed by other commissions for reductions based on the most famous marbles in the grand ducal collections.

Formigli seems to have quickly built up a solid reputation as a bronze sculptor. In 1715, Filippo Martelli, son of Senator Marco Martelli, commissioned him to create two bronzes based on the Dancing Faun and the Medici Venus in the Tribuna of the Uffizi. These were followed by other reductions, a total of ten between 1715 and 1721, which joined two bronzes by Piamontini - Faun with a Small Satyr and Faun with a Kid - in the Martelli collection. This coherent collection heralded the passion for small bronzes based on famous antique models which were much sought after by Grand Tourists in the second half of the 18th century. Formigli's presence in Florence is attested by the registers of the Accademia del Disegno until 1728, when he left for Malta, where he collaborated on the the funerary monument to Manuel de Vilhena by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi (St John the Baptist of La Valette; cf. ibid., p. 560). His mission completed in early 1730, Formigli returned to Florence, where he became Capo di Guardi (head of the guard) of the Archconfraternity of Mercy (1738). Little is known about the last period of his career, but it is possible that he continued to collaborate with Soldani Benzi and the Piamontini father and son.

The model of Bacchus and Ariadne, traditionally paired with the group of Venus and Cupid, was once attributed to Giovan Battista Foggini. In 1974, J. D. Draper attributed the second model, by analogy with a marble group of Venus and Cupid, signed by Giuseppe Piamontini and dated 1711 (cf. J. D. Draper, “Piamontini's Amor in braccio a Venere”, in Antichità viva, no. 6, 1974, pp. 44-45). It was not until 1991 that an attempt was made to reattribute the model of Bacchus and Ariadne to Piamontini by S. Meloni Trkulja. This was, however, not taken up by P. Fogelman in 2002, who retained the attribution to Foggini in her study on the bronze example at the J. Paul Getty Museum (inv. 83.SB.333; op. cit., pp. 244-249). The following year, Bellesi's publication about a marble of the same model of Bacchus and Ariadne, signed by Piamontini and dated 1732, confirmed the reattribution of the model to the latter (see S. Bellesi, “La scultura tardobarocca e i modelli por la manifattura di Doccia: precisazioni e nuove considerazioni”, in Le statue del marchese Ginori, 2003, pp. 9-18).

Several bronze examples are known, with a few variations, including pairs of the two models in Washington (National Gallery of Art, inv. 1974.18.1 and 1974.18.2) and Paris (Musée Nissim de Camondo, from the Bardini collection in Florence); to which we can add the example of Bacchus and Ariadne previously mentioned, alone, in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Finally, one should mention two anonymous terracottas based on the two groups, in the Museo Riccardo-Ginori of the Manifattura di Doccia (Sesto Fiortentino), as well as biscuit versions produced later by the same manufacturer.

The present terracotta, certainly made during Formigli's years in Piamontini's workshop, using the master's models for didactic purposes, is the only signed example and is a valuable addition to the still very incomplete corpus of his works.

Published for the first time by S. Bellesi in 2019 (op. cit., p. 240), the terracotta, remarkably executed, is so imbued with Piamontini's vigour that the author sees the master's hand in it. The elegance of the subject and the excellent state of preservation of the present group of Bacchus and Ariadne make it all the more desirable.

RELATED LITERATURE

D. Ekserdjian, ‘Sculptors as Borrowers: Gianfrancesco Susini, Massimiliano Soldani Benzi, and Others’, in C. Minder (eds.), The Eternal Baroque: Studies in Honor of Jennifer Montagu, 2002, p. 102.