art.wikisort.org - Sculpture

The San Rossore Reliquary is a 1424-1427 gilded bronze sculpture by Donatello. The monks of Ognissanti, Florence had acquired the skull of Saint Luxorius (popularly known in Pisa as 'san Rossore') in 1422 and two years later they commissioned the reliquary to house it. The casting was handled by Jacopo degli Stroza who created it of five individual cold-assembled parts. The sculpture is documented as being in Pisa in 1591 and is now in the city's Museo nazionale di San Matteo.

San Rossore Reliquary
Artist	Donatello
Year	1424-1427
Medium	gilded bronze sculpture
Dimensions	56 cm × 60.5 cm (22 in × 23.8 in)
Location	Museo nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa

Description

The work marks a clear break with the previous medieval tradition of the production of reliquaries. The sculpted saint is very far from the hieratic and metaphysical typification that a devotional object traditionally required, being worked as a realistic "Roman-style" bust, that is, like ancient statues. Some details are selectively taken up from ancient portraits, such as the definition of the short beard with engraved dashes, as in the Roman portraiture of the third century. The face has strong and expressive features, which may lead to the assumption that it could be a portrait or even a self-portrait. In reality, the sacredness of the object makes these hypotheses rather unlikely. Indicated by the saint looking down the reliquary was meant to stand somewhere higher up, where it was safe from theft.

Bibliography

• Anita Moskowitz, "Donatello's Reliquary Bust of Saint Rossore", The Art Bulletin, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Mar., 1981), pp. 41-48. Available online as pdf
• Rolf C. Wirtz, Donatello, Könemann, Cologne 1998. ISBN 3-829002440

External links

• Reliquiario di san Rossore on the Italian Wikipedia, that shows (restricted to Italy) a series of older black and white photographs with views of the bust from all sides.

На других языках

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- [en] San Rossore Reliquary

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[es] Relicario de San Rossore

El relicario de San Rossore es una obra de Donatello realizada en bronce dorado, que data de alrededor de 1424-1427 y conservado en el Museo Nazionale di San Matteo en Pisa. El año 1591 llegó el busto-relicario a Pisa.

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[it] Reliquiario di san Rossore

Il Reliquiario di San Rossore è un'opera di Donatello in bronzo dorato (56x60,5 cm), risalente al 1424-1427 circa e conservato nel Museo nazionale di San Matteo a Pisa.

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