Jacopo Maria Foggini - The Mattias De Medici Blue Boys

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The Mattias De Medici Blue Boys

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Jacopo Maria Foggini

The Mattias De Medici Blue Boys

Burzio

Date Florence 1650s

Period 1600-1750

Medium Carved, Gilt, Giltwood, Lacca, Lapis, Polychrome-painted, Poplar, Tempera, Woods, Glass, Brass

Dimension 146 cm (57¹/₂ inches)

The present pair of sculptures was destined to hold lights, banners or spears. They are an example of a kind of furnishing popular in Italian palaces in the Baroque period. In particular, the liveries in cobalt blue and the feathers around the figures’ waist, the very naturalistic rendition of the livery with fringed sleeves from which emerge rolled-up shirt sleeves, the boots in silvered mecca, and the base carved in imitation of rocks, are consistent with other similar decorative sculptures found in Florentine court residences in the seventeenth century.

A pair of Florentine Baroque polychrome lacca wood sculptures with glass eyesHere attributed to Jacopo Maria Foggini (c.1620–1684). Florence, third quarter of the seventeenth century.

Date: Florence 1650s

Period: 1600-1750

Medium: Carved, Gilt, Giltwood, Lacca, Lapis, Polychrome-painted, Poplar, Tempera, Woods, Glass, Brass

Dimension: 146 cm (57¹/₂ inches)

Provenance: Possibly Mattias De Medici apartments in Pitti Palace, Florence before 1659.
Pietro Accorsi collection in Turin before 1968
French private collection until 2021.

Literature: Enrico Colle, Il mobile in Italia dal Cinquecento all'Ottocento. Milano Electa 2009, p.70-71, t.58-59.

Exhibition: Related other sculptures still existent in Palazzo Pitti, documented created in the second half of the seventeenth century, as well as in the couple of South American figures holding a Mexican Tonala jar created a little bit later for the Ginori family(see photo)

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