8 GIOVANNI BOLOGNA
(Jean Boulogne),
called Giambologna
Italo-Flemish (born Douai,
active Florence), 1529-1608
Female Figure (possibly Venus,
formerly titled Bathsheba),
1571-1573
Marble
114.9 cm {A9A'm.)
82.SA.37
Working in Florence as an official court artist to the Medici dukes, Giambologna was
the most prominent and innovative sculptor during the Mannerist period of the late
sixteenth century. This marble female figure exemplifies the characteristic features of
his style. The figure's pose conforms to an upward spiral, called a figura serpentinata,
in which a twisting torso and bent limbs suggest a graceful, if artificial, s-shaped curve
in three dimensions. She is not quite seated, with one side of her buttocks completely
unsupported, but not quite standing, as she reaches down with her right hand to dab
her foot with a small cloth and raises her left hand to hold a vessel above her head.
With one leg and both arms positioned in front of her, her balance is tilted precariously
forward. For Giambologna, the naturalness of the pose was less important than its
elegant and pleasing silhouette, meant to be seen from several angles. The cool appeal
of the figure's smooth, naked body is offset and emphasized by her tightly braided,
coiled hair and the crisp folds of a discarded blouse or robe whose sleeve is draped
across her groin.
Giambologna's figure may be identified with a marble statue sent by the Medici to
the duke of Bavaria as a diplomatic gift. The subject of this marble was not mentioned
by Giambologna's early biographers, but the statue likely represents Venus, a common
subject for a nude female figure depicted bathing. In the seventeenth century, according
to documents, the marble was taken to Sweden by King Gustav Adolph as booty
during the Thirty Years' War with Germany. By that time the statue had been renamed
Bathsheba, presumably in order to invest the figure's nudity with biblical significance
during the Counter-Reformation. The figure remained in Sweden until the late
twentieth century. A series of interconnecting channels inside the figure, running
from the vessel in her raised hand down through the base of the column on which she
sits, suggests that the marble once served as a fountain. The figure's hands and feet were
damaged in the eighteenth century; the top of the vessel and portions of the left hand
are incorrect, twentieth-century restorations. PAFEUROPEAN SCULPTURE 33