Attributed to Baccio da Montelupo (1496-1535) Italian, Florence, circa 1500

Surface abrasions, some chipping and losses to early paint. Losses to pinky finger, reglueing/restoration of other fingers. Possibly some restoration to nose. Lovely quality
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Although Baccio da Montelupo's first recorded work is a terracotta Pieta of 1495, the success of his wooden crucifix (1495) in San Marco, Florence, led to his workshop specializing in the production of wood corpora. Several direct comparisons can be made with other sculptures attributed to him and his studio particularly in the treatment of the torso and the intersecting, diagonal folds in the perizonium (see Lisner, op.cit., figs. 173-195). Furthermore, Baccio's rendering of heads, with the elongated face, high cheek bones, heavily lidded eyes and lengthy, peaked bridge of the nose framed by the wavy and spiral tresses of hair about Christ's shoulders are emblematic of Baccio's work.

In his Lives, Giorgio Vasari dedicates chapters to this sculptor and calls him "a rare and excellent master". While we know little of his early career, Vasari further notes that Baccio worked with Michelangelo at Lorenzo de' Medici's Giardino di San Marco in Florence. Several notable large-scale examples of his work survive including a corpus in Santa Maria Novella, Florence and SS. Flora e Lucilla in Arezzo. The present sculpture is a fine example of Baccio's accomplishments on a smaller scale.

RELATED LITERATURE
A. M. Schulz, “An Unknown Crucifix by Baccio da Montelupo,” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 42/1, 1998, pp. 190–197
J. D. Turner, “The Sculpture of Baccio da Montelupo,” Ph. D. diss, Brown University, 1997, esp. pp. 61–80 M. Lisner, Holzkruzifixe in Florenz und in der Toskana, Munich, 1970, pp. 82-83, figs. 173-197