Antonio Montauti (1685 - 1740) was an 18th-century Italian sculptor active in Florence and Rome.
Biography
editHe was a pupil of Giuseppe Piamontini. His patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria de' Medici, obtained the first known works circa 1708–9. They were destined for his first patron. In 1733, he was recruited to Rome by Cardinal Alamanno Salviati and soon won the favor with Pope Clement XII, who in 1735 appointed him as surveyor for the Vatican. He completed both statuary, busts, as well as smaller bronzes and medals.[1]
About 1715, he carved two reliefs of St. Philip Neri, depicting the Ecstasy of Philip and the Distribution of Bread for the church of San Firenze in Florence. In 1721, a supposedly lost Ganymede and four other marbles he was carving for John Molesworth were described as his "first works"; however "Ganymede and the Eagle" plus a statue of Hebe, stated as being by Montauti and "probably commissioned by the Hon. John Molesworth", recently surfaced at the Christie's auction house, described as "the property of a lady" and having been originally purchased by Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield in around 1723-25 and kept thereafter at the latter's newly refurbished historic property Shirburn Castle until recent times, when they were sold for £79,250 each in 2009.[2][3]
In 1726, he made large marble statue of Saint Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi for the cloister of San Frediano in Cestello.[4]
References
edit- ^ Mannerist Paintings and Sculptures; Issue 4, Page 146; Heim Gallery, 1970.
- ^ Christie's: A Carved Marble Figure of Hebe
- ^ Christie's: A Carved Marble Group of Ganymede and the Eagle
- ^ The twilight of the Medici: late baroque art in Florence, 1670-1743; Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society, Palazzo Pitti, 1974, page 86.
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