Giovanni Battista Foggini

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Giovanni Battista Foggini (April 25, 1652 - April 12, 1737) was a Florentine renowned mainly as a sculptor of small bronze statuary.

Born in Florence, he was sent to Rome by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to attend the so-called Academa Fiorentina, and apprentice in the Roman sculptural studio of a pupil of Algardi, Ercole Ferrata, as well as drawing with Ciro Ferri, the pupil of Cortona. Returning to Florence in 1676, he became the court sculptor for Cosimo III (see Foggini's portrait of the duke) in 1687, and took over the foundry in Borgo Pinti that once had belonged to Giambologna. He had become Architetto Primario e Primo scultore della Casa Serenissima as well as Soprintendente dei Lavori (1687-1725)^[1], after the son of Pietro Tacca, Fernando died in 1686.

In Florence, his marble masterpieces are his relief work in the Capella Corsini of the Chiesa del Carmine. The chapel was erected by Bartolomeo and Cardinal Neri Corsini in memory of their ancestral family member, the Saint Andre Corsini (died 1374, canonized 1629). It contains three large reliefs: San Andrea in Glory,The Mass of San Andrea Corsini, and The Battle of Anghiari (1685-87). He aslo completed as well as other works in Cappella Feroni in Santa Annunziata.

He specialized in small bronzes ^[2], often produced for export.

Another work is the main staircase of the Medici-Riccardi Palace in Florence. Other Ferrata pupils include Fernando Fuga, Balthasar Permoser, and Giovanni Baratta. Pupils of Foggini include his nephew, Filippo della Valle. Massimiliano Soldani Benzi was a contemporary active in small bronze sculpture, who had received the same training as Foggini.

[edit] External links

Wittkower, Rudolf (1993). Pelican History of Art: Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750, 1980, Penguin Books Ltd.
Bruce Boucher (1998). Thames & Hudson, World of Art: Italian Baroque Sculpture, 164-66; 188-89.
Gli Ultimi Medici, Review by Peter Cannon-Brookes, in The Burlington Magazine, 1974, p 777-80.