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Copper alloy, probably bronze, on a marble ball
Height (figure): 47.9 cm; Diam. (ball): 17.5 cm
On display in Room 2
A magnificent Renaissance sculpture, by the 16th-century Florentine artist Giovanni Francesco Rustici has been generously lent to the National Gallery. It joins a superlative group of paintings from the Fitzwilliam Museum, on display within the Gallery's collection until spring 2003.
Rustici's freestanding bronze of the god 'Mercury taking Flight' was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII) to decorate a fountain in the garden court of the Medici Palace in Florence, probably in 1515. It was probably installed above the fountain bowl that originally held Donatello's 'Judith'. Giorgio Vasari, the Renaissance painter and first art historian, praised the sculpture when he saw it in Florence.
This exciting bronze gives the National Gallery a rare opportunity to show the close connections between sculpture and painting during the Renaissance. The piece will be displayed in Room 2, in which Sebastiano del Piombo's 'Raising of Lazarus' has recently been re-hung. This, the first painting to enter the National Gallery's collection, was also commissioned by Giulio de' Medici between 1517-19.
Rustici was one of the greatest Florentine sculptors of the early 16th-century, and 'Mercury taking Flight' is among his most impressive works. The bronze figure recalls the influence of earlier Renaissance masters such as Antonio Pollaiuolo, Verrocchio and Donatello and also looks forward to Giambologna's 'Mercury' later in the century.
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September 2002
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