CARVING FOR A FUTURE: BACCIO BANDINELLI SECURING MEDICI PATRONAGE THROUGH HIS MUTUALLY FULFILLING AND PROPAGANDISTIC “HERCULES AND CACUS”
Abstract
by
MICHAEL DAVID MORFORD
Baccio Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus was a tool used by both the patron and artist to fulfill their own personal goals. For the Medici, the colossus was to be a statement (and warning) of their renewed power in Florence, as well as developing the idea that Florence was the “New Rome” due to Medici rule. For Bandinelli, it was proof of his undying loyalty to the Medici, and an acknowledgement that his style would provide the Medici with the proper voice with which to display their new power. My own goals are to provide not the usual Vasari or Cellini based critical analysis (favored by most scholars and writers since the sixteenth century), but a new interpretation of the moment depicted by Bandinelli for this Virgilian narrative. The political significance of my interpretation for the sculpture helps to understand how this marble directly led to further Medici patronage. To substantiate my interpretation, I consider Bandinelli’s own drastic changes throughout the preparatory process, his sources and influences, and other contemporary Medici projects. The significance of his use and understanding of classical influences over the Michelangelesque to create his own “Bandinellesque” style enforces the need for my re-evaluation since most critiques rely on what I perceive as a false assumption that Bandinelli’s goal was to mimic Michelangelo.