Resumen de Pulling out All the Stoups: A Newly-Discovered Acquasantiera by Antonio Federighi
The author recognizes a beautifully carved and intricately designed Acquasantiera in a private collection in London to be the work of the Sienese sculptor, Antonio Federighi (c. 1420—1483).
Federighi helped to reintroduce the heavily foliated carving and pagan imagery of antiquity into the vocabulary of Sienese Quattrocento sculpture. As capomaestro of the Opera, first in Orvieto and later in Siena, Federighi designed a number of holy water basins that were long mistaken for pagan altars. Based on the form of Roman candelabra, the stoups are profusely ornamented with sphinxes, putti astride dolphins, and marine creatures that are combined with more traditional Christian symbols and the burgeoning humanistic ideas of the Renaissance.
This new work has much of the same imagery as the earlier basin in Orvieto (c. 1451—1456), but the carving reveals greater subtlety and finesse. It must therefore be dated to c. 1458—1462 after the artist's return to Siena but before his capolavoro, the Acquasantiera in Siena Duomo, the latter having been recorded as newly finished in 1467. Two coats of arms on the London basin identify the Benincasa, a family of banchieri, and the Counts of Marsciano, a family related by marriage to the great condottiere Gattamelata, as the patrons of the work. No doubt the Acquasantiera was commissioned to celebrate a marriage between the powerful clans or the birth of a mutual heir. The discovery of the London basin adds significantly to our understanding of Federighi's artistic development and further clarifies his role in the history of Tuscan sculpture.
