Laocoonte

by Filippo della Valle, based on the design by Baccio Bandinelli, with variations

The Laocoön group in plaster, preserved at the Museo Ginori, is a reduction of the monumental ancient marble held in the Vatican Museums, in the reinterpretation (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi) commissioned in 1520 by Pope Leo X to Baccio Bandinelli, as a tribute to Francesco I, King of France.

The Florentine version differs from the Vatican group in the pose of the Trojan priest’s right arm and in the knot of the serpent’s coils that entwine him because at the time the original arm had not yet been recovered.

In the Inventory of Models of the Manifattura di Doccia (1791-1806) there is a record of a Laocoön in wax with its form, indicated as the work of the late Baroque sculptor Giovan Battista Foggini, whose son Vincenzo was paid by the manufactory in 1748 for creating this cast.

Mentioned as a copy of Foggini in the nineteenth-century inventory named Gallery of Models, this plaster - presumably made to replace the deteriorated wax model - shares many points of contact with a bronze example, today in a private collection.

Recently Dimitrios Zikos identified the young Filippo della Valle as the author of the model from which the plaster cast presented here was derived. The scholar chronologically placed it before Della Valle’s departure for Rome, when he was still working in the workshop of his uncle Giovan Battista Foggini, his first master.

Of this example there also exists an eighteenth-century porcelain translation preserved at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan.

01
Laocoonte da Filippo della Valle, su invenzione di Baccio Bandinelli, con varianti
02
Laocoonte by Filippo della Valle, after the design by Baccio Bandinelli, with variations
03
Laocoonte by Filippo della Valle, based on the invention of Baccio Bandinelli, with variations
04
Laocoön by Filippo della Valle, after the design of Baccio Bandinelli, with variations
05
Laocoön by Filippo della Valle, after the design of Baccio Bandinelli, with variations, detail

Of this example there also exists an eighteenth-century porcelain translation preserved at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan.

Caratteristiche

Bibliografia

Caratteristiche

Autore

da Filippo della Valle, su invenzione di Baccio Bandinelli, con varianti

Manifattura

Ginori di Doccia

Datazione

Fine XVIII - inizio XIX secolo

Tecnica e materiali

Gesso

Dimensioni

h 59 cm; base 42,5 x 19 cm

Segnature

“374”, in nero (sulla base)

Inventario

9531

Bibliografia

K. Lankheit, Die Modellsammlung der Porzellanmanufaktur Doccia, inventario de' Modelli, München 1982, p. 122, 22:24;
R. Balleri, Modelli della Manifattura Ginori di Doccia. Settecento e gusto antiquario, Roma 2014, pp. 395, 397, cat. 340;
G. Capecchi, Superare l’antico: il Laocoonte “perfetto”, in Baccio Bandinelli. Scultore e maestro (1493-1560), catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 9 aprile-13 luglio 2014) a cura di D. Heikamp, B. Paolozzi Strozzi, Firenze 2014, p. 141;
A. Di Lorenzo, Porcellane di Doccia al Museo Poldi Pezzoli, in “Quaderni. Amici di Doccia”, XIV, 2021, p. 19;
D. Zikos, Λαοκóωντες. Doccia and the Diffusion of an Opus Nobile,
conferenza tenuta nell'ambito del Convegno La Manifattura Ginori e la circolazione dei modelli scultorei in Europa, Auditorium Sant’Apollonia, Firenze, 23 novembre 2022

Laocoonte

by Filippo della Valle, based on the design by Baccio Bandinelli, with variations

Laocoonte da Filippo della Valle, su invenzione di Baccio Bandinelli, con varianti

Laocoonte by Filippo della Valle, after the design by Baccio Bandinelli, with variations

Laocoonte by Filippo della Valle, based on the invention of Baccio Bandinelli, with variations

Laocoön by Filippo della Valle, after the design of Baccio Bandinelli, with variations

Laocoön by Filippo della Valle, after the design of Baccio Bandinelli, with variations, detail

Caratteristiche

Bibliografia

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