More on Bertoldo

When I realized that my friends who read this blog probably have no idea who Bertoldo di Giovanni was or why he would deserve an exhibition, I thought I should add a bit of background information. Bertoldo was born in around 1440 and died in 1491. His reputation does not come from a single work of art or from all the works associated with him, but rather from his connection to two other Renaissance sculptors and a major Renaissance patron.

Bertoldo worked in Donatello’s studio and is credited with finishing some of Donatello’s work after Donatello died in 1466. One major project begun by Donatello, with which Bertoldo is connected is a pair of bronze pulpits in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. No one has been able to definitively determine exactly what Bertoldo did there, but we know he worked with Donatello.

Then Bertoldo had strong connection with Lorenzo de Medici (1449-1492), who was the de facto ruler of Florence and a major patron of artists and collector of antiquities. Lorenzo had a sculpture garden containing many ancient works, near the church of San Marco in Florence. We know this from several documents, but we do not know exactly what was in the garden, since after the Medici were exiled in 1494, the works in the garden were dispersed. Lorenzo put Bertoldo in charge of that collection and several young artists habituated the garden, copying the antiquities, drawing, carving and modelling sculpture under the guidance of Bertoldo. The most famous of those young sculptors was Michelangelo.

So Bertoldo often gets credited with connecting Donatello, who died I 1466, with Michelangelo, who was born in 1475. From the exhibition catalogue, more than the exhibition, I’ve enjoyed thinking of Bertoldo as the artist who hung around with Lorenzo, discussing ancient art, sometimes advising on what to purchase, and making sculptures for Lorenzo’s rooms and buildings, always evoking the ancient culture that so fascinated Renaissance patrons. The catalogue essays also remind me that like other Renaissance artists, Bertoldo did not just make sculpture; he also designed ephemeral things associated with celebrations. For example, the documents refer to a 1478 fireworks wagon he designed for the festival of St. John the Baptist. The display failed and Bertoldo spent two weeks in prison.