BENEDETTO dei GRAZZINI, called da ROVEZZANO. - Sculptor, b. at Campale (Pistoia) in 1474, d. at Vallombrosa in about 1552. Trained in the taste popularized by Benedetto da Maiano, he resolved his compositions with lively plasticity, which, however, never attained a clear formal equilibrium because of the dispersive effect of their exuberant decorativeness.

His first certain work is the cantoria of S. Stefano in Genoa (1499); in 1509 he carved the base for Michelangelo's bronze David, and in 1510 the tomb of Pier Soderini (church of the Carmine in Florence). His most significant work is the sepulchre of St. John Gualbert (1505-15), now fragmentary, in the cenacle of S. Salvi and in the National Museum of Florence. In England, in 1525, he carved for Westminster Abbey the sepulchral monument of Henry VIII and the tomb of Card. Wolsey, of which only four candelabra remain, along with the sarcophagus inserted in the monument to Nelson in St. Paul's in London.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: Schottmüller, s. v. in Thieme-Becker, III, pp. 314-316 (with bibl.); G. De Nicola, Recenti acquisti del Museo naz. di Firenze, in Boll. d'arte, 1916, pp. 1-3; A. Venturi, VIII, pp. 165-67.

Elsa Gerlini

BENEDETTO dei GRAZZINI - Detail of the sepulchre of St. John Gualbert - Florence, S. Salvi.(phot. Alinari)

@incollection{ec2_benedetto_dei_grazzini_detto_d, author = {Gerlini, Elsa}, title = {Benedetto dei Grazzini, detto da rovezzano}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1298--1299}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/benedetto-dei-grazzini-detto-da-rovezzano} }

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Benedetto dei Grazzini, called da Rovezzano

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