Nicholas Penny: Lively Statuary in Florence before and after Andrea del Sarto

Alex Gordon Lecture in the History of Art This lecture surveys the frequent appearance of sculpture in Florentine paintings in the decades before the rise of Andrea del Sarto and assesses the influence of sculpture on Florentine painting during the same period. It also explores the sculptures (both real and fictive) depicted in Andrea’s paintings as well as the models made for him, concluding with an examination of the extraordinary use of sculpture in the art of Jacopo Pontormo, Andrea’s pupil. Nicholas Penny retired as Director of the National Gallery, London, in August 2015. Previously, he was Senior Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Penny is the author of numerous books and articles on both painting and sculpture and the history of collecting and of taste, including scholarly catalogues, introductory texts for the student, and critical reviews for the general reader. Among his many publications are The Materials of Sculpture (1996), Raphael, with Roger Jones (1987), and Taste and the Antique, with Francis Haskell (1981). This lecture was recorded Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at The Frick Collection, New York [previously hosted on Vimeo: 517 views]