Giovanni Battista Foggini
Giovanni Battista Foggini was an Italian sculptor active in Florence, renowned mainly for small bronze statuary.
Biography
Born in Florence, the young Foggini was sent to Rome by the Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany to join the so-called Accademia Fiorentina, and apprentice in the Roman sculptural studio of Ercole Ferrata, a pupil of Algardi. He was also tutored in drawing by the Accademia's first director, Ciro Ferri, who was a pupil of Cortona. Returning to Florence in 1676, he became the court sculptor for Cosimo III.After the son of Pietro Tacca, Fernando, died in 1686, the mantle of the premier local sculptor fell to Foggini, who would become the Medici's Architetto Primario e Primo scultore della Casa Serenissima as well as Soprintendente dei Lavori. In 1687, Foggini acquired the foundry in Borgo Pinti that had once belonged to the sculptor Giambologna. This allowed him to specialize in small bronzes, produced mainly and profitably for export.
Nearly 400 of Foggini's designs for sculpture, bronze statuettes, furniture and ornaments have survived. Their sculptural quality, the combination of hardstone with mounts which are not merely decorative but often sculptural works of art in their own right, playing a much more dominant role in the total ensemble, characterizes the works made in this period, and distinguishes them from earlier products of the Florentine workshops, or the pieces made by Florentine craftsmen for the Gobelins in Paris. Among his small bronzes David with the Head of Goliath is particularly noteworthy. His adaptation of Pietro Tacca's Moors was the basis of bronze and ceramic reproductions for the connoisseur market well into the 18th century. Many of Foggini’s designs were carved by Giuseppe Antonio Torricelli, and resulted in some of the latter’s best work.
In Florence, his masterpieces are his sculptural relief work in the Capella Corsini of the Chiesa del Carmine. The Corsini Chapel was erected by Bartolomeo and Cardinal Neri Corsini in memory of their recently canonized ancestral family member, San Andrea Corsini. Foggini's large marble reliefs depict the saint's life: San Andrea in Glory, The Mass of San Andrea Corsini and The Battle of Anghiari. Foggini's works from this period also include the reliefs realized for the Cappella Feroni in the Annunziata.
Foggini's pupils included Fernando Fuga, his nephew Filippo della Valle, Balthasar Permoser, Giovacchino Fortini and Giovanni Baratta. Massimiliano Soldani Benzi was a contemporary student with Foggini in Rome and also active in small bronze sculpture. Foggini's many pupils prolonged his style well past the middle of the 18th century and until the advent of Neoclassicism.