Fragment from the Sportello of Cosimo I

after Vincenzo Danti, Italian, 1530 - 1576

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1550-1575

Bronze

Overall: 11 3/4 × 25 7/16 × 2 in. (29.8 × 64.6 × 5.1 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Roger Arvid Anderson Collection - 250th Anniversary Gift, 1769-2019

2016.64.90

Geography

Place Made: Italy, Europe

Period

1400-1600

Object Name

Sculpture

Research Area

Sculpture

On view

Label

This large, heavy object reproduces the lower third of a bronze safe door, or sportello, that originally guarded Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici’s possessions in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The allegorical composition of the entire door communicated Cosimo’s power over the enemies of Florence. This excerpted portion features the Virtue of Peace at the center, identifiable by the torch she holds in her right hand. Two contorted male figures on either side of her represent prisoners brought under control by Peace, an aspirational goal communicated through ornamentation for the ruler of Florence.

From the 2024 exhibition Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art, and Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Exhibition History

European Bronzes from the Collection of Roger Arvid Anderson, Class of 1968, Gene Y. Kim, Class of 1985, Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 19, 1996-June 22, 1997, no. 34.

Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, Citrin Family Gallery and Engles Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 23, 2024–March 22, 2025.

Provenance

Anno Domin (Gunnar Hillenbrand), Stockholm, October 23, 1988, Munich, Germany; sold to Roger Arvid Anderson, San Francisco, California, 1988; lent to present collection, 1994; given to present collection, 2016.

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