AFTER LODOVICO CARDI, CALLED 'IL CIGOLI' (VILLA CASTELVECCHIO DI CIGOLI 1559 - 1613 ROME) ITALIAN, CIRCA 1700 | ÉCORCHÉ FIGURE

Dr. Victor Bloch, Vienna;

His sale, H. Gilhofer & H. Ranschburg, Lucerne, November 30, 1934, lot 69, as Ludovico Cardi called Cigoli as “Anatomische Figur sog. Muskelmann”, with image, unsold; 

His sale (as "Sammlung B., Wien:", Hans W. Lange, Berlin, November 18, 1938, lot 281, as Ludovico Cardi called Cigoli “Große Bronzestatuette eines Muskelmannes”:

Prof. Werner Gramberg, Hamburg;

By descent to his heirs;

This lot is sold pursuant to a settlement agreement between the current owners and the heirs of Dr. Victor Bloch, Vienna

Leo Planiscig, Piccoli Bronzi Italiani del Rinascimento, Milan, 1930, pl. CCXXVI, fig. 383;

H. Gilhofer & H. Ranschburg, Lucerne, Sammlung Dr. Vicktor Bloch, Vienna, November 30, 1934, p. 35, lot 69;

Hans W. Lange, Berlin, Sammlung B., Wien, November 18, 1938, lot 281;

Sechs Sammler stellen aus, exhibition catalogue, 7 April - 11 June 1961, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, cat. no. 49;

L. Price Amerson, Jr., The Problem of Écorché: Catalogue Raisonné of Models and Statuettes from the Sixteenth and later Periods, PhD Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1975 

In the 17th century, the Italian art historian and biographer, Filippo Baldinucci, termed Cigoli’s masterpiece in sculpture, his wax écorché figure, 'La Bella Notomia', an anatomy of beauty, and described it as ‘The most beautiful and useful work to be seen in our Italy and in all of Europe’ (Bourla, op.cit., p. 320). The present impressive bronze anatomical figure was cast after Cigoli's aforementioned wax now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. Committed to the study of anatomy throughout his career, Cigoli produced his 60 cm. high wax in around 1600 for the Accademia del Disegno to provide an educational tool for burgeoning artists. Subsequently cast in bronze, only four bronze versions are known, comprising: one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, in the Bargello, in the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Cologne and the present bronze, the only cast in private hands.

While the Bargello version is ascribed to Cigoli, it is likely that the popularity of the model, the continued interest in anatomical study and Cigoli’s reputation contributed to the production of casts in the 17th and 18th centuries. The London example (currently displayed with a date of circa 1580), the Cologne bronze (presumed to be a later 17th or 18th century cast) and the present figure appear to be generally similar in facture, although the present bronze seems to have more detail and has a richer patina.

After the establishment of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence, an edict was passed requiring its members to attend an annual dissection, based on Michelangelo’s practices, the first of which took place in 1563 under the direction of the painters Giovanni Stradano and Alessandro Allori. Florentine historian and biographer Filippo Baldinucci (1625-1697) recounts the making of Cigoli’s écorché, beginning with the 1599 arrival in Florence of the French physician, Theodore Turquet de Mayerne (Bourla, op.cit., p. 320). De Mayerne gave demonstrations in anatomy in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova which Cigoli attended and after which he began to produce anatomical drawings and his wax écorché. Bourla further notes that not only did de Mayerne’s work impact Cigoli but also Giambologna’s equine écorché sculpture. In fact, the younger artist may have collaborated with Giambologna on that sculpture, as the master requested designs for the Cosimo I monument from Cigoli between 1587 and 1591.

The minute details and textures, the rendering of ligaments, tendons and muscles on the present bronze are meticulously displayed, underscoring Cigoli’s exceptional knowledge of anatomy. Although major sculptors like Tetrode and Francavilla produced their own versions of écorchés, Cigoli’s was considerably more naturalistic. Consequently, versions of his statuette were used for centuries in art academies across Europe as a fundamental tool for an artist’s education. The sculptors Edmé Bouchardon, Jean-Antoine Houdon and Edgar Degas all produced écorché figures which depended on Cigoli's composition.

Cigoli went on to become a greatly admired draughtsman and leading painter in Florence. A pupil of Bernardo Buontalenti, Alessandro Allori and Santi di Tito, one of his first Medici commissions was an altarpiece of the Resurrection for a small chapel in the Palazzo Pitti, painted in 1590. He produced a number of important altarpieces for various Florentine churches in the late 1580s and 1590s culminating in the Martyrdom of Saint Stephen for the convent of Montedomini. In the early 17th century, he decorated the vaults of several rooms in the Palazzo Pitti, assisted by his pupil Cristofano Allori, and he also provided designs for pietra dura panels for the Cappella dei Principi in the church of San Lorenzo. Cigoli left Florence to work in Rome and produced paintings and frescoes for St. Peter’s’, Santa Maria Maggiore and for Cardinal Scipione Borghese.

RELATED LITERATURE

The rival of nature: Renaissance painting in its context, exhibition catalogue, The National Gallery, London, 10 June to 28 September 1975;

Jean Pierre Mouilleseaux, L'écorché

, exhibition catalogue, Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen, 15 January - 28 February 1977;

Deana Petherbridge et. al.,

Corps à

 vif. Art et Anatomie, exhibition catalogue, Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva, 18 June - 13 September 1998; 

Martin Kemp and Marina Wallace, Spectacular bodies : the art and science of the human body from Leonardo to now, exhibition catalogue, Hayward Gallery, London, 2000;

Andrea von Hülsen-Esch und Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen, Zum Sterben schön: Alter, Totentanz und Sterbekunst von 1500 bis heute, 2006;

Burghley House, Heavenly Bodies: sculptural responses to the human form, exhibition catalogue, 1 April 2006 – 28 October 2006;

Lisa Bourla, 'Cigoli's ecorche and Giambologna's circle' in The Sculpture Journal, 2015, pp. 317-332