Wayfarer

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 17

Inventory

PV 10809

Material and technique

Bronze, natural brown patina

Author

Giambologna (1529-1608)

Dating

c.1574-1580

Dimensions

13 x 6 x 5.7 cm.

Origin

Auriti Collection (1963)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

The Wayfarer (also known as Shepherd or the Farmer Leaning on a Stick) belongs to a group of works that are all characterized by Giambologna's interest for genre subjects such as farmers, shepherds and folk characters. Giambologna's attraction to these popular themes derives not only from his Flemish origins but also from the trends of Florentine sculpture in the 16th century. The vast sculptural decoration of the garden of Pratolino near Florence, which was commissioned by Francesco I de’ Medici and designed by the architect Bernardo Buontalenti, included many marble genre figures that leant Pratolino its character and provided the model to follow for the decoration of other equally famous Florentine gardens, from the 16th century until the late Baroque. Giambologna made several stone “Villani”, or “Boors”, for Pratolino, which are now unfortunately lost. Fortunately though in the same period he executed the Wayfarer and the Horn Player, held at Palazzo Venezia, which were perhaps models for the Pratolino sculptures.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Planiscig, La Collezione Giacinto Auriti, Vienna 1931, no. 40; E. Dhanens, Jean Boulogne, Giovanni Bologna fiammingo; Douai 1529 - Florence 1608, Brussels 1956, p. 213; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. La Collezione Auriti, Rome 1964, p. 28; C. Avery - A. Radcliffe (eds.), Giambologna: sculptor to the Medici; 1529-1608, exh. cat., London 1978, p. 165, no. 137; C. Avery - A. Radcliffe (eds.), Giambologna: 1529 - 1608; ein Wendepunkt der europäischen Plastik, exh. cat., Vienna 1978 [1979], no. 138, p. 223; C. Avery, Giambologna. The Complete Sculpture, Oxford 1987, pp. 47 and 266; P. Cannata, in S. E. Zuraw - M. G. Barberini - P. Cannata - M. L. Casanova (eds.), Masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture from the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, exh. cat., Athens (Georgia) 1996, p. 54, no. 8; P. Cannata, in M. G. Barberini - M. S. Sconci, Guida al Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, Rome 2009, no. 77, p. 76.