Jupiter (Marcello Sparzo)

Jupiter
The Sparzo Colossus
ArtistMarcello Sparzo
Year1586
Typesculpture
Dimensions800 cm (310 in)
Location
  • Genoa

The Jupiter, also known as the Giant, was a colossal statue made of marmorino stucco by Marcello Sparzo, datable to 1586. It was demolished between late 1935 and 1936.[1][2]

It was one of the most important 16th-century examples of colossal work, and was also one of the largest figures of the entire 16th century.[3][4][5][6]

Description

The statue in a 1935 photograph, showing the plaque dedicated to Gianandrea Doria's dog and the eagle

The colossus, approximately eight metres tall,[7] was modelled in a Mannerist style with classical influences, and commissioned by Gianandrea Doria in honour of the prince-admiral Andrea Doria.[8] It was placed in a monumental aedicule or niche decorated with three spires with spherical pinnacles (the central one was in some older depictions represented as a pediment with two lateral volutes adorned with festoons).[9][10]

The composition showed stylistic affinities with Ammannati's Neptune, Giambologna's Oceanus and Neptune, but especially with the unfinished Neptune by Bandinelli, also commissioned by the Doria, which together with other works probably served as a source of inspiration for the sculptor and the patron.[11]

It depicted a Jupiter Pluvius semi-nude, with a drape around the belly and a belt or scabbard worn over the shoulder to secure a cloak on the shoulder. In his right fist he held a gladius or short sword, and in his left a thunderbolt, typical of traditional iconography. The face was turned eastward, towards the city. Given the shape of the head above the curls, he probably wore a crown or other metal ornament, already lost by the time of demolition.[12]

A large eagle was placed next to the figure's right foot,[13] with its beak facing east. The bird of prey represented both the animal beloved by the deity and the heraldic symbol of the Doria family, and perhaps also recalled the Imperial Habsburg coat of arms, in memory of Andrea Doria's pro-Habsburg shift.[13][14] The figure's left foot, instead, rested on the head of an animal, not clearly identified by the sources – perhaps a sea monster or a dolphin, as in the traditional iconography of Neptune (but it could also be a wolf, as in the Jupiter by Pietro Francavilla from 1585 displayed at Palazzo Bianco, almost certainly seen by Sparzo himself).[15]

As can be seen from comparison with the numerous 17th-century Genoese commissions, the statue was probably built with a marmorino stucco composed of marble dust, white sand from Savona, and hydraulically setting elements such as lime, kaolin or pozzolana.[16] Given the extraordinary durability shown by the colossus, particularly advanced technical skills for the period were certainly employed.[17]

The statue appeared in a bright white colour, with a scenographic contrast effect against the surrounding dark Mediterranean shrubland.[18] It stood in front of the underlying statue of Neptune,[19] sculpted thirteen years later by Taddeo Carlone and still located today in the southern garden of the villa. The two statues were about 220 metres apart in a straight line, and the Palazzo del Principe stood between them, designing an ideal perspective axis that united the sea with the hill, placing the building under the symbolic protection of the two deities.[8]

Although it did not always receive the same attention over the centuries, following the fortunes of the Doria family as well,[20] according to Alizeri the statue was of such mastery and quality that it deserved "for the author a praise most difficult for anyone who sculpts or models: that of giving the right appearance to colossi according to the place that receives them and according to the point from which they are to be viewed".[21]

In two ancient works, the map of Genoa by Alessandro Baratta from 1637[9] and the view of the Villa del Principe by Antonio Giolfi from the mid-18th century,[22] the colossus is curiously depicted with the right arm raised upwards, while it seems to be depicted correctly in the older map by Giovanni Battista Costanzo published in the early 1600s.[23]

History

The Villa del Principe with the Sparzo giant as it appeared to merchants arriving from the sea between the 16th and 17th centuries
The Sparzo colossus towered over the statue of Neptune, creating a perspective connection between the two deities protecting the Palazzo del Principe

The work had a complex history, both in its genesis, its life, and particularly in its end. The initial project of the Doria family may have been to erect a Neptune to consecrate the figure of Admiral Andrea Doria. Certainly in 1530 a commission in this regard was given to Baccio Bandinelli, who brought the sculpture to an advanced stage of work but left it unfinished due to contractual disputes (today it stands in the Fontana del Gigante in Carrara).[24] This would explain both the iconography used by Sparzo, with elements proper to both deities, and why the Jupiter was indeed often mistaken for a Neptune already in the years following its construction and for two centuries afterwards, particularly after the erroneous interpretation published by Soprani.[24]

In 1568 Vasari reports[25] also of "a great Neptune in stucco, which was placed on a pedestal in the Prince's garden" in the 1540s, attributing it to Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, an eminent sculptor already actively in the service of the Doria. There is no certain news of this statue and its location is controversial, although it should have been lost already in the second half of the 16th century, perhaps due to weather damage.[26] It is conceivable that it was installed in the area of the southern sea-facing garden, where it would later be replaced in 1599 by the marble fountain of Neptune by Taddeo Carlone.[27] In this hypothesis, Sparzo's Jupiter would have been conceived from the outset as the counterpart to Montorsoli's Neptune. The two colossal figures could therefore have been part of a complete sculptural and architectural decoration, clearly visible from the sea, which connected the north and south gardens through the villa building.[28][26]

In any case, the colossus of Jupiter was commissioned from the Urbino sculptor by Gianandrea Doria, son of Giannettino and heir of the prince-admiral Andrea. For its construction, a sum of 20 gold scudi was paid (50, according to Alizeri[27]). It was completed in 1586 in the northern gardens of the Villa del Principe in Genoa, in what is now the upper part of via Pagano Doria (above the Genova Piazza Principe railway station) and which at the time was the hill behind the ancient village of Fassolo and the port of the Republic of Genoa. The initial 16th-century structure of the garden was probably a grove modelled on the Villa medicea di Castello, or an Italian garden but with less geometrically ordered features; from the 17th century onwards, however, descriptions always indicate the garden as wooded.[18]

In summary, there are three possible interpretative models for the colossus: that of the glorious and direct portrait of Doria (as often noted by Renaissance travellers, including Fynes Moryson who in 1594 described it as a statue of "Andrea D'Oria"[29]), that of Jupiter in the mythological personification of the patron Gianandrea or his ancestor (as for example argued by art historian George Gorse[30]), or that of a multiplicity of meanings alluding to the position of power of the Doria family (as at least some contemporaries and Alizeri himself would have noted[27]).[14]

According to Hanke, the Sparzo colossus is one of the most significant examples of the use of sculptural art for political as well as artistic purposes.[4] In addition to the manifestation of wealth and magnificence, it represented the power that the Doria family exercised over the city and the Republic of Genoa.[31] This message was probably well understood by contemporaries, so much so that the earliest independent mentions of the work, often summary and based on word of mouth or individual impression, almost always describe it as a representation of Andrea Doria, rather than the deity itself. Also significant is the fact that it was located outside the city centre, in what was technically one of the noble family's private gardens, but facing towards the city centre, with an elevated position and dimensions such as to tower over the entire old town and the port in front of the future maritime station, very visible even from the sea.[32]

A similar allegorical comparison has also been noted regarding the two royal halls of the Villa del Principe: one frescoed with a Neptune, the other with a Jupiter. The Neptune is recognised as a reference to Andrea Doria, while the figure of Jupiter is debated as to whether it refers to Doria or to Charles V of Habsburg. In this regard, according to Gorse the meaning was simply changeable according to convenience: "during normal functions [...] they represented the Augustan power of Andrea Doria within the republic and the Mediterranean, while during Charles V's state visits they exceptionally symbolised the Emperor's universal authority".[33][30]

The statue was particularly well known to citizens as il gigante (the giant), and for a period it also gave the popular name for the area.[34][35] At the base of the statue, in 1605, the "great Roldano", Gianandrea Doria's beloved dog, was buried, commemorated with a marble plaque still present today on one of the retaining walls of via Pagano Doria.[36]

Starting from less than a century after its construction, the sculpture was for a long time erroneously attributed to Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, due to the responsibility of the late-17th-century biographer Soprani first, and then the 18th-century Ratti: Soprani superficially attributed it to the Florentine sculptor (misunderstanding the text of Giorgio Vasari dedicated to Montorsoli, in which he mentioned the "great stucco Neptune" later lost),[25][34][27] while Ratti helped spread the false attribution by simply echoing Soprani's observations, as later historians also did.[37] These errors, repeated over the next two centuries, contributed for a certain period to the incomplete recognition of Sparzo's work.[27] It was first the historian Andrea Lazzari (published by Giuseppe Colucci) already at the end of the 18th century, who noted some biographical inconsistencies.[38] The re-attribution of the monumental work, however, only came in 1874, when the scholar Antonio Merli collected the ancient original documents remaining in the Palazzo del Principe, proving the authorship of the work, and wrote about it in the Giornale ligustico of the Società Ligure di Storia Patria.[34][27] Alizeri, initially also mistaken, read the text and explicitly corrected himself in his subsequent publications, giving notoriety to the fact.[39][27]

The colossal sculpture by Sparzo towered over the valley and the marina of the Genoese port for three hundred and fifty years within the monumental garden of the Villa del Principe. The garden was irremediably destroyed by the construction of the railway in 1854, via Pagano Doria (1899),[40] and finally the Miramare hotel by Gino Coppedè (1913).[41] The statue, instead, was actually demolished between late 1935 and 1936[1][2][42] (some sources erroneously indicated 1934 or 1939[12][43][6]), despite the namesake palace below having been subject to protection by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities since 1932.[44] According to the art historian Maria Grazia Rutteri, who in 1965 edited the annotated reprint of Soprani's 17th-century work, "the owners demolished it because it was excessively bulky and because the municipality, although requested, neglected to take care of it".[43]

At the time of demolition, although in need of conservation work, it was in "surprisingly good condition",[17] considering it was a marmorino stucco sculpture installed outdoors, testifying to the high technical skills applied by Sparzo and his workshop in the Renaissance period.

The statue was the subject of a sonnet by Giovanni Battista "Baciccia" Rapallo published in 1927, entitled A-o gigànte da Vìlla D'Öia (To the giant of Villa D'Oria).[45]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 As reconstructed by Hanke, in 2006 the DocSAI Centre identified eight negatives on glass plates dated 1935 depicting the statue, while the volume by Miscosi (I quartieri di Genova antica, Arti grafiche Fabris) in its second edition of 1936 already reports the demolition.
  2. 1 2 Miscosi, Giulio (1936). I quartieri di Genova antica [The districts of old Genoa]. Arti grafiche Fabris.
  3. ↑ Stagno 2018, p. 12.
  4. 1 2 Hanke 2012.
  5. ↑ Alizeri 1880.
  6. 1 2 Sanguineti 2015, pp. 16–27.
  7. ↑ Pesenti 2005, p. 614.
  8. 1 2 Stagno, Laura (2005). Palazzo del Principe. Sagep. ISBN 8870589358.
  9. 1 2 Alessandro Baratta, La Famosissima e Nobilissima Città di Genova, 1637
  10. ↑ Giovanni Battista Costanzo, Pianta del porto genovese, before 1617
  11. ↑ Hanke 2012, p. 176.
  12. 1 2 Hanke 2012, p. 171.
  13. 1 2 Padovano, Aldo (2016). Il giro di Genova in 501 luoghi [A Tour of Genoa in 501 Places]. Newton Compton. ISBN 9788854199552.
  14. 1 2 Hanke 2012, p. 181.
  15. ↑ Hanke 2012, pp. 178–179.
  16. ↑ Boato, Anna; Decri, Anna (2001). "Stucchi genovesi". Lo stucco: cultura, tecnologia, conoscenza – Atti del XVII Convegno "Scienza e beni culturali" [Stucco: Culture, Technology, Knowledge – Proceedings of the 17th "Science and Cultural Heritage" Conference]. Arcadia Ricerche. pp. 71–80. ISBN 9788895409054.
  17. 1 2 Hanke 2012, p. 172.
  18. 1 2 Hanke 2012, p. 169.
  19. ↑ Petrucci, Vito Elio (22 July 1997). "La statua del Gigante" [The Statue of the Giant]. Il Secolo XIX.
  20. ↑ Hanke 2012, pp. 173–174.
  21. ↑ Alizeri 1880, p. 216.
  22. ↑ Antonio Giolfi, Veduta del palazzo del principe Doria a Fassolo, before 1769
  23. ↑ Giovanni Battista Costanzo, Pianta del porto genovese, 16th/17th century
  24. 1 2 Hanke 2012, pp. 176–177.
  25. 1 2 Vasari, Giorgio (1568). "Fra' Giovann'Agnolo Montorsoli". Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori [The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects]. He made a large Neptune in stucco, which was placed on a pedestal in the Prince's garden
  26. 1 2 Hanke 2012, pp. 175–176.
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Alizeri 1880, p. 215.
  28. ↑ Stagno 2018, p. 192.
  29. ↑ Moryson, Fynes (1907). An itinerary. London: J. Beale. p. 357.
  30. 1 2 Gorse, George (1980). The Villa Doria in Fassolo, Genoa. Brown University.
  31. ↑ Galassi, Maria Clelia (1999). "Marcello Sparzo plasticatore per Giovanni Andrea Doria". In Boggero, Franco; Stagno, Luisa (eds.). Giovanni Andrea Doria e Loano. La chiesa di S. Agostino [The Church of Sant'Agostino.]. Comune di Loano.
  32. ↑ Hanke 2012, p. 183.
  33. ↑ Pesenti 2005, p. 620.
  34. 1 2 3 Merli, Antonio (1874). "Il Palazzo del Principe D'Oria a Fassolo in Genova". Giornale ligustico di archeologia, storia e belle arti [Ligurian Journal of Archaeology, History, and Fine Arts]. Tip. del Regio Ist. sordo-muti. p. 39. [...] the colossus of Jupiter that rises within a niche in the upper villa, and gave the locality the name it always retained thereafter of the Giant. [...] Nor is the Jupiter or Giant by Montorsoli, as some opined, perhaps confusing this stucco colossus with a statue of Neptune which the aforementioned Vasari narrates was indeed modelled by Giovannangelo at Fassolo, and which, not being mentioned by others, must be considered to have perished shortly thereafter. Whatever the case, it is evident from the records that the Giant was executed in 1586 by Marcello Sparzio da Urbino, a modeller of fine repute and author of several stuccoes in some rooms of the Palace.
  35. ↑ Alizeri, Federigo (1847). Guida artistica per la città di Genova [Artistic Guide to the City of Genoa]. Gio. Grandona. above he modelled in plastic a figure of Jupiter in gigantic proportions, hence among the common people it acquired the nickname of giant, which extended to the whole coast owned by the Doria
  36. ↑ "Il Gigante" [The Giant]. Archived from the original on 23 March 2008. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  37. ↑ Manara 1959, p. 81: "We must not forget that it was precisely with Soprani-Ratti that an unjustified breadth of attributions began (the stucco statue of Jupiter by Sparzo is also attributed to Montorsoli), uncritically accepted and later exaggerated by local guides until, at times, making the Florentine sculptor the architect of the entire Palace".
  38. ↑ Colucci, Giuseppe (1797). "Marcello Sparzo". Antichità Picene [On Picene Antiquities]. Vol. XXXI. Fermo: dai torchi dell'autore per G.A. Paccaroni.
  39. ↑ Alizeri, Federigo (1875). Guida illustrativa del cittadino e del forestiero per la città di Genova e sue adiacenze [Illustrated guide for citizens and visitors to the city of Genoa and its environs]. Tipografia Luigi Sambolino.
  40. ↑ "La storia" [History]. I palazzi dei Rolli di Genova. Archived from the original on 11 July 2021.
  41. ↑ Guida d'Italia Liguria [Guide to Italy: Liguria]. Touring Club Italiano. pp. 171–173.
  42. ↑ Labò, Mario (1937). "Marcello Sparzo". Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler [General Encyclopedia of Visual Artists]. Vol. XXI. Leipzig. p. 337.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  43. 1 2 Soprani, Raffaele; Ratti, Carlo Giuseppe (1965) [1674]. Rutteri, Maria Grazia (ed.). Vite de' pittori, scultori, ed architetti genovesi [Lives of Genoese Painters, Sculptors, and Architects]. Tolozzi. p. 67. In 1934 the owners demolished it because it was excessively bulky and because the municipality, although requested, neglected to take care of it
  44. ↑ "Palazzo Doria detto del Gigante". Palazzo del Gigante. 13 July 2026.
  45. ↑ Rapallo, Giovanni Battista (1927). Sonetti [Sonnets]. Genoa: Stabilimento Poligrafico Mortara Ferraris. p. 106.

Bibliography

  • Hanke, Stephanie (2012). Die Macht der Giganten: Zu einem verlorenen Jupiter des Marcello Sparzo und der Genueser Kolossalplastik des 16. Jahrhunderts [The Power of the Giants: On a Lost Jupiter by Marcello Sparzo and Genoese Colossal Sculpture of the 16th Century] (in German). Hirmer Verlag. pp. 165–186.
  • Alizeri, Federigo (1880). Notizie dei professori del disegno in Liguria dalle origini al secolo XVI [News of the Professors of Design in Liguria from the Origins to the 16th Century]. Tipografia Luigi Sambolino.
  • Pesenti, Franco Renzo (2005). "La scultura e la pittura dal Duecento alla metà del Seicento". In Puncuh, Dino (ed.). Storia della cultura ligure [History of Ligurian Culture] (PDF). Vol. XLV.
  • Stagno, Laura (2018). Giovanni Andrea Doria (1540-1606). Genova University Press. ISBN 9788894943030.
  • Sanguineti, Daniele (2015). "Plastica e intaglio nella cappella Doria: il ciclo di Marcello Sparzo e altre testimonianze" [Plastic and Carving in the Doria Chapel: The Cycle by Marcello Sparzo and Other Testimonies]. In Zenelli, Gianluca (ed.). Restauri nella chiesa di Nostra Signora delle Grazie [Restorations in the Church of Nostra Signora delle Grazie]. Sagep. pp. 16–27.
  • Manara, Carla (1959). Montorsoli e la sua opera genovese [Montorsoli and his Genoese Work]. Scuola tipografica Opera Pompei. p. 81.
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