Lot 427: CIRCLE OF VINCENZO DANTI

POPE JULIUS III DEL MONTE

height 23 3/8 in.; 59.5 cm

terracotta bust

<P>second half 16th century</P>

Washington, New York, Cambridge 1979-1982, no. 13 (illus.)

Locko Park Collection, Captain P.J.B. Drury-Lowe; Sold Sotheby's, London, November 16, 1972, no. 68; Cyril Humphris, London

RELATED LITERATURE

G.F. Hill, The Medallic Portraits of Christ, Oxford, 1920

As Avery discusses (Washington, New York, Cambridge, 1979-1982, op. cit.), three major sculptors were employed by Pope Julius III: Guglielmo della Porta (who was commissioned with Michelangelo to make the tomb of Pope Paul III as well as his own), Bartolomeo Ammanati (who with Michelangelo and Vasari designed and built the del Monte family chapel in San Pietro in Montorio), and Vicenzo Danti (who executed the monumental bronze statue of the Pope in Perugia).

The present bust was likely made by a sculptor employed by the workshop of one of the above-mentioned masters who were intimately involved with commissions from the Pope. Avery further notes that Hill (op. cit., p. 66) remarks that the series of Papal medals with the bust of Christ appeared with the Jubilee of 1550, which was the year Julius became Pope.

Julius III was born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte in 1487. As Cardinal, he was persuaded by emperor Charles V to recall the Council of Trent, which had been suspended in 1548. He became Pope from 1550 until his death in 1555. Julius fit the earlier pattern of a pleasure-loving Renaissance pope fond of banquets, theater, and hunting. He supported Michelangelo as architect of St. Peter's and discovered the genius of Palestrina, whom he put in charge of the papal choir. Nevertheless, his leadership of the church was largely frustrated when political difficulties with Charles V caused him to suspend the Council of Trent indefinitely.