10 December
On 10 December 1506, the rich Arte di Calimala commissioned Giovan Francesco Rustici to produce the bronze group of the Sermon of the Baptist, to renew the appearance of the Florence Baptistery and replace the marble group by Tino di Camaino on the north door.
Rustici was born in the same year as Michelangelo, and attended the famous Garden of San Marco under the protection of Lorenzo the Magnificent to whom he remained very attached. Friend of Leonardo, of whom he was a pupil, collaborator, and roommate, he probably developed the three statues together with him.
In fact, Leonardo’s poetics are recognizable, for example, in the Baptist’s gesture of the index finger raised to the sky.
However, despite the group having been installed and making a splendid show of themselves, Rustici was struggling to get paid. And, unfortunately, as a result of economic hardships and a gradual reduction in employment prospects following the expulsion of the Medici from Florence in 1527, around 1528 Giovanfrancesco moved to France, where the king commissioned him an equestrian statue from him.
The king paid regularly, but unfortunately, before passing away GiovanFrancesco only managed to make the horse, which was later destroyed.
The small number of the remaining works, and above all the lack of the equestrian statue, which should have been his masterpiece, partially justifies the lack of fame of this sculptor, to whom a first exhibition was dedicated only in 2010.
Art-Test participated with a complete diagnostic campaign on the terracotta rounds of Rustici remained at Villa Salviati in Florence.
