Giovanni Antonio Montorsoli (ca. 1506 -1563), also known as Fra Montorsoli, as Michele Agnolo and as Angelo di Michele d' Angelo da Poggibonsi, was an Italian sculptor.

Biography

Born in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 and member of the Servite Order

Servite Order

The Servite Order is one of the five original Catholic mendicant orders. Its objects are the sanctification of its members, preaching the Gospel, and the propagation of devotion to the Mother of God, with special reference to her sorrows. The members of the Order use O.S.M. as their post-nominal...

, he was employed from 1521 to 1534 as one of Michelangelo Buonarroti's assistants at the Medici Chapel

Medici Chapel

The Medici Chapels is a structure in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy. It comprises two structures added to Brunelleschi's original design, each intended to celebrate the power of the Medici as Grand Dukes of Tuscany. One is the Sagrestia Nuova, the "New Sacristy", designed by...

 (Sacrestia Nuova) in San Lorenzo in Florence. He is known to have sculpted St. Cosmas with another of Michelangelo's assistants, Raffaello da Montelupo

Raffaello da Montelupo

Raffaello da Montelupo , born Raffaele Sinibaldi, was a sculptor and architect of the Italian Renaissance, and an apprentice of Michelangelo. He was the son of another Italian sculptor, Baccio da Montelupo...

, after a model by the master. In 1532-1533 he produced his Drunken Satyr. This sculpture was probably intended for a wall fountain, possibly situated in a niche where the water would have flown from the open neck of the satyr's wineskin. This would have been in a style very popular at the time in Rome. Due to the large number of ancient sculptures in Rome, these tended to be utilised rather than commissioning a new figure. However, in Florence ancient statuary was far less available. Montorsoli's Satyr, with its classical theme and distinctly classical style, was intended to fill the void.
In 1532 he was summoned by Pope Clement VII

Pope Clement VII

Clement VII , born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was a cardinal from 1513 to 1523 and was Pope from 1523 to 1534.-Early life:...

 to the Belvedere courtyard to restore many of the antique sculptures there. This included the Laocoön

Laocoön

Laocoön the son of Acoetes is a figure in Greek and Roman mythology.-History:Laocoön is a Trojan priest of Poseidon , whose rules he had defied, either by marrying and having sons, or by having committed an impiety by making love with his wife in the presence of a cult image in a sanctuary...

group and the Belvedere Torso

Belvedere Torso

The Belvedere Torso is a fragment of a nude male statue, signed prominently on the front of the base by an Athenian sculptor "Apollonios son of Nestor", who is unmentioned in ancient literature...

. (Restoration methods in that epoque entailed reworking sculptures in accordance with contemporary aesthetic principles which often were at odds with the aesthetics of antiquity. For instance, Montorsoli included a new right arm in the central figure of the Laocoön group, upraised in a gesture of defiance, adding much to the fame of the sculpture and himself. However, when the original limb was found in 1905 in Rome and reattached to the Laocoön schulpture, replacing Montorsoli's work, the original was revealed to be folded at the elbow with considerably less flourish.) In 1547 he left Florence and went to Messina

Messina, Italy

Messina is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, Italy and the capital of the province of Messina. It has a population of about 250,000 inhabitants in the city proper and about 650,000 in the province...

 where he procured a commission for the Fountain of Orion, the mythical founder of Messina. When erected, the Fountain of Orion was the tallest and largest of its day and was much admired by Vasari. It is a candelabrum type like the fountains at the Medici villa at Castello by Tribolo, but it has evolved. The receiving basin is polygonal, contrasting with the circular basins above. The sculpted creatures supporting the second basin are carved in deep relief, but the female nudes above them appear to be carved in the round. They have become sculptures in their own right, and are not just there to decorate the shaft, or to draw the eye upwards to the figure at the summit. This is the candelabrum type at its pinnacle. In 1551 this fountain was largely finished, and he was commissioned for another fountain - the Fountain of Neptune.

This was a complete break with tradition with regards to fountain design. Previously fountains had mainly been either a basin with a small figure, such as Donatello

Donatello

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...

's winged infant and Rustici

Rustici

- Names :The name Rustici is shared by these people : * Francesco Rustici, known as Il Rustichino was a baroque painter of the Sienese School.* Giovanni Francesco Rustici - Names :The name Rustici is shared by these people : (in alphabetical order)* Francesco Rustici, known as Il Rustichino (~...

's Mercury of 1515, or a wall fountain, or a candelabrum type. The Fountain of Neptune is completely different. It is a fountain type with one main raised central figure, and this type had never been done before. The only precedent for it was a design by Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, painter, soldier and musician, who also wrote a famous autobiography. He was one of the most important artists of Mannerism.-Youth:...

 for the French King at Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...

. In the middle of the fountain Cellini wanted to erect a "pedestal, projecting somewhat above the margin of the basin, and upon this a nude male figure" which was to represent the King himself as Mars. This never came into being though, and therefore the Neptune at Messina is the first of its type. The Fountain of Neptune makes very good use of contrasts. The God of the Sea is arranged in a classical, static pose. Yet below him the figures of the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis

Scylla and Charybdis

Being between Scylla and Charybdis is an idiom deriving from Greek mythology. Several other idioms, such as "on the horns of a dilemma", "between the devil and the deep blue sea", and "between a rock and a hard place" express the same meaning of "having to choose between two evils".-The myth and...

 writhe around and draw back in terror. Scylla and Charybdis were the names of rocks near the harbour of Messina; as they had wrecked so many ships, they came to be personified by sea monsters. Neptune's act of warding off these destructive forces demonstrates his power and his protection of the city. This work was especially influential in Florence where there was a love of the colossal, and it may have led to the plans for the Neptune Fountain in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. In Florence there was a predilection for having many small thin elegant jets of water, even when there was enough water to have a large geyser. Montorsoli carried this Florentine tradition of having smaller, elegant jets, and judging from a design of his in the Uffizi

Uffizi

The Uffizi Gallery , is a museum in Florence, Italy. It is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.-History:...

 he used eight of them for his design for the Neptune fountain. The Fountain of Neptune was finished in 1557. In Messina he also realized the St. Lorentz Church (from 1552, destroyed in the earthquake of 1783

1783 Calabrian earthquakes

The 1783 Calabrian earthquakes were a sequence of five strong earthquakes that hit the region of Calabria in southern Italy , the first two of which produced significant tsunamis. The epicenters form a clear alignment extending nearly 100 km from the Straits of Messina to about 18 km SSW...

), the Lantern Tower (1555) and the Apostolate within the Cathedral (completed in 1555, destroyed several time by fires and earthquakes, and rebuilt).

Montorsoli left some works in Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 in the church of St. Matthew, commissioned by Andrea Doria

Andrea Doria

Andrea Doria was an Italian condottiere and admiral from Genoa.-Early life:Doria was born at Oneglia from the ancient Genoese family, the Doria di Oneglia branch of the old Doria, de Oria or de Auria family. His parents were related: Ceva Doria, co-lord of Oneglia, and Caracosa Doria, of the...

for his tomb and some sculptures.