"La Bellissima Maniera": Alessandro Vittoria e la Scultura Veneta del Gin quecenro.

Andrea Bacchi, Lia Camerlengo and Manfred Leithe-Jasper, eds. "La Bellissima Maniera": Alessandro Vittoria e la Scultura Veneta del Cinquecento.

Trento: Provincia Autonoma di Trento, 1999. 472 pp. $70. ISBN: 88-86602-08-1.

Thomas Martin. Alessandro Vittoria and the Portrait Bust in Renaissance Venice: Remodelling Antiquity.

(Clarendon Studies in the History of Art.) Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. 164 pls + xvii + 194 pp. ISBN: 0-19-817417-9.

Both these volumes represent important and very welcome contributions to a major and unjustifiably neglected Renaissance artist. As Martin points out on his first page, Vittoria was, together with his contemporary Giambologna, the foremost sculptor of the late sixteenth century in Italy. He is also of special interest for the closeness of his association with the architects Sansovino, Sanmicheli and Palladio, and with the painters Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese, and hence with the central protagonists of the art world of Cinquecento Venice. Vittoria was a sculptor of great originality and versatility, practising a style that ranges from an elegant, attenuated Mannerism to a powerful physiognomic naturalism, and to a sensuous dynamism that foreshadows Bernini. Yet there exists no adequate monograph on Vittoria or catalogue of works in any language, and until now there has hardly even existed a basic source of reference.

"La Bellissima Maniera" is the catalogue of an exhibition held in Vittoria's native city of Trento in the summer of 1999, and the bulk of the volume accordingly comprises entries on the exhibited works. Considering that no exhibition can ultimately do justice to a monumental sculptor, most of whose works are obviously unlendable, those catalogued (and beautifully illustrated) here are remarkable for their range and quality. They include a large number of bronze medals of patrons and friends such as Tommaso Rangone and Pietro Aretino; a judicious selection of portrait busts, in marble, terracotta and bronze; some marble statues, including the three figures from the Montefeltro altarpiece in S. Francesco della Vigna in Venice; and a number of bronze statuettes. But the long-term usefulness of the catalogue is greatly increased by the series of introductory essays on broader aspects of Vittoria's work. An excellent introduction to his art and career is provided by Manfred Leithe-Jasper, and this is followed by valuable essays on such topics as Vittoria's patrons by Thomas Martin, on Vittoria and Venetian painting by Stefano Tumidei, and on Vittoria as a collector by Victoria Avery. This is a catalogue that does everything that such a publication should: it conveniently summarizes the existing state of the literature; it provides new information and insights of its own; and it will certainly act as a stimulas for further research.

As its title indicates, Martin's book focuses on Vittoria's work in a genre to which he made a particularly important contribution: that of the classicizing portrait bust. The author points out that the type was virtually unknown in Venice before the middle of the sixteenth century, but argues that it was thanks to Vittoria that it thereafter became a highly prestigious medium of commemoration, both in public buildings (and especially on tombs) and in the private context of the art collection. Martin traces Vittoria's various sources, antique and modern, and plots the development of his engagement with the type from the still relatively conservative bust of the Paduan lawyer G. B. Ferretti of 1557 (Louvre), to the more dynamic and expressive busts of the 1560s, to the composed grandeur of the 1570s and 1580s. Martin also provides a catalogue raisonn[acute{e}] comprising a detailed discussion of all the busts attributed to Vittoria or to his workshop. But like the exhibition catalogue, the value of the book e xtends beyond what is implied by its remit. Martin has plenty of interest to say about the antiquarian culture of earlier Cinquecento Padua. He provides a very useful account of the network of patronage linking those who commissioned the busts. Above all, his account of Vittoria as a maker of busts is set against the background of the sculptor's wider activity and artistic interests, and in the process does much to inspire new respect for his overall achievement.