Nano Morgante | |
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![]() Left panel, Portrait of the Dwarf Nano Morgante by Bronzino (1552) | |
Born | Braccio di Bartolo Italy |
Died | Italy |
Nationality | Italian |
Known for | Court Jester Buffoon |
Nano Morgante (nickname of Braccio di Bartolo [1] - English: Dwarf Morgante 1600s) was an Italian dwarf who was a famed buffoon and court jester in the court of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Morgante was ironically nicknamed after the giant from the poem of the same name by Luigi Pulci. He was the most celebrated of the five dwarves of the Medici court at the Palazzo Pitti. [2]
He is immortalized by a statue from 1560 by Valerio Cioli in the Boboli Gardens where his nude likeness is rendered bearded and riding a tortoise. In 1572 the statue which is at the entrance to the gardens was turned into a fountain. Today it is known as the Fontana del Bacchino (Fountain of Bacchino - Bacchus). [3] [4]
The artist Bronzino flush with taking the painting side in the "Paragone" debate laid down by Giorgio Vasari as to which art discipline, sculpture or painting could render a subject more fully, in 1560 created a full-length double-sided nude portrait of Morgante, i.e. his front side and back each depicted on one verso of the canvas. In 2010 this work after many years of neglect was restored and placed on permanent display in its own glass case in the Palazzo Pitti. [5]
In 1582 the sculptor Giambologna was commissioned by Francesco de Medici to create the bronze statue The Dwarf Morgante Riding a Sea Monster for the terrace fountain of the Loggia dei Lanzi's terrace which is now known as the 'Terrazza Panoramica' of the Uffizi Gallery. Giambologna's original Nano Morgante is today in the Bargello Museum in Florence. [6]
One of the pastimes at Cosimo's Court was to watch Morgante battle a monkey. [7]
Bartolomeo Ammannati was an Italian architect and sculptor, born at Settignano, near Florence, Italy. He studied under Baccio Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino and closely imitated the style of Michelangelo.
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The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker.
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The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is a building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, adjoining the Uffizi Gallery. It consists of wide arches open to the street. The arches rest on clustered pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The wide arches appealed so much to the Florentines that Michelangelo proposed that they should be continued all around the Piazza della Signoria.
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Valerio Cioli (1529–1599) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor.
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Fontana del Bacchino is an Italian Renaissance sculpture of 1560 by Valerio Cioli (1529-1599) in the Boboli Gardens in Florence featuring a statue in the likeness of the famed dwarf buffoon from the court of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Nano Morgante modeled after Bacchus and riding a tortoise. In 1572 the statue was turned into a fountain.
Portrait of the Dwarf Nano Morgante is a 1552 double-sided painting offering front and back views on either side of the canvas by Bronzino of Nano Morgante the famed buffoon dwarf of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany who is also immortalized in Valerio Cioli's Fontana del Bacchino at the Boboli Gardens in Florence. The work was commissioned from Bronzino by Cosimo. It portrays Morgante on both sides as a bird-catcher, as he was not permitted to hunt bigger game, this being a pursuit reserved for persons of greater echelon. Morgante is depicted respectively from the front and back at two subsequent moments of the action: at the front we see him before the hunt, holding an owl in a snare to be used as a bait to capture a jay that is flying in the air. A duo of rare swallowtail butterflies cover his genitals; these were discovered recently, when the painting was last restored. From behind, we see him just about to turn towards the viewer, anxious to visually boast of his take.