Ink-pot with Marcus Aurelius
- Object belonging
- One's own
- Category
- Bronze sculpture
- City
- Rome
- Location
- Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia
- Specific location
- Room 16
- Inventory
- PV 09268
- Material and technique
- Bronze, patina, lacquer
- Author
- Paduan School
- Dating
- Early 16th century
- Dimensions
- 20.5 x 21.5 x 18 cm.
- Origin
- Barsanti Collection (1934)
- Image copyright
- SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma
Short description
The bronze reproduces the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius from an engraving or drawing that was executed in Rome. When this bronze was fused, the statue itself, which now stands on the Capitoline hill, was in the Lateran Palace. The subject was taken up in numerous small bronzes, having first been reproduced by Filarete in Rome, around 1440-1445, when he was working on the doors of St. Peter’s Basilica; a dedication that was later added to the base of the bronze that was given to Piero de’ Medici in 1465 acknowledges this fact. The inkwell was forged in Padua in the 16th century and features a cornucopia that serves as a penholder and receptacles for ink and powder; its main elements – the base, the equestrian group and the pair of containers – were clearly executed at different times. The equestrian group contains elements that are characteristic of the late 15th century, particularly the nails on the horseshoes; the holes in the base were designed to hold another statue and the two receptacles, which are too large for the small base, were certainly added later.
Pietro Cannata
Bibliography
L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), Bergamo 1922, no. 41 p. 58, pl. XIX; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. La Collezione Auriti, Rome 1964, p. 26; D. Blume in H. Beck - P. C. Bol, Natur und Antike in der Renaissance, exh. cat., Frankfurt am Main 1985, n. 57, p. 357; A. Mura Sommella - C. Parise Presicce, Il Marco Aurelio e la sua copia, Cinisello Balsamo 1997, no. 19 p. 38.