Desiderio da Settignano (redirected from Desiderio de Settignano)

Desiderio da Settignano (dāzēdĕ`rēō dä sĕt'tēnyä`nō), 1428–64, Florentine sculptor, a follower of Donatello. His marble carving, of exquisite delicacy, is best seen in his church decorations and in his busts of women and children. His Laughing Child in Vienna is characteristic of his style and charm. His tomb of Carlo Marsuppini in the Church of Santa Croce, Florence, is one of the most beautiful of early Renaissance monuments. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., has several examples.

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Desiderio da Settignano

(born c. 1430, Settignano, republic of Florence—died January 1464, Florence) Italian sculptor. Born into a family of stonemasons, he entered the Stone and Wood Carvers' Guild of Florence in 1453. He based his style on Donatello's work of the 1430s, and his skill as a marble cutter established him as a master of bas-relief. His delicate, sensitive, original technique was best expressed in portrait busts of women and children. His most important public work was the tomb of Carlo Marsuppini in the church of Santa Croce; the tomb's rich architectural detail makes it one of the most outstanding of all Florentine wall monuments.

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Desiderio da Settignano 

Born circa 1430, in Settingnano, Tuscany; died Jan. 16, 1464, in Florence. Italian sculptor. Exponent of the Early Renaissance Florentine School.

Desiderio probably studied with Donatello and Bernardo Rossellino. While working with Donatello he did not lose his independence. Desiderio’s work is distinguished by lucid lyrical contemplativeness and a poetic integrity of images. His tombstones, reliefs, and portrait busts are clearly composed and have graceful lines and fine modeling, while the marble surface is treated with a mellow virtuosity that creates a wealth of gradations of light and shade. His main works (all marble) are the tomb of C. Marsuppini (after 1453, in the church of Santa Croce, Florence), the relief Panciatichi Madonna (c. 1450-54) and portrait of a woman (c. 1460-64—both in the National Museum in Florence—and portraits of children depicting John the Baptist and the infant Jesus (c. 1455-60, in the Hermitage in Leningrad and the National Gallery in Washington).

REFERENCE

Cardellini, A. Desiderio da Settignano. Milan, 1962.

M. IA. LIBMAN