Bandinelli, Baccio

Bandinelli, Baccio

(born Nov. 12, 1493?, Florence—died Feb. 7, 1560, Florence) Italian sculptor and painter active in Florence. Though trained as a goldsmith by his father, he soon became one of the principal sculptors at the Medici court. He often failed to complete his commissions and was accused of jealousy and incompetence by Benvenuto Cellini and Giorgio Vasari. He is remembered more for accounts of his unattractive character than for the quality of his work, although surviving works prove him to have been a more distinguished sculptor than his contemporaries allowed. His most famous sculpture is Hercules and Cacus (1534), in the Piazza della Signoria.