Adam and Eve

Description

The group is presented in an antiquing fixity" and rigidity that point to the Bandinellian path of Nacherino's apprenticeship filtered through the personality" of Vincenzo de' Rossi his master, as precise" Parronchi (1964), visible in the more' lush and vivid manner of the heads and figure of the demon. The clarity of the surface is reminiscent of the beautiful 'Christ at the Column' now in Montelupo Fiorentino, which together with a present group was sent by the artist to Florence as a gift to Cosimo II between 1616 and early 1617. We owe to P arronchi the rediscovery of the Florentine phase of the artist, who moved to Naples in 1573 without substantially returning to his native city. In his letter to Cosimo I dated May 4, 1616, the sculptor informs us "that it would be beautiful to show...to V.a Alt.a...said invention and figures with the serpent Adam and Eve who in the instant they sighted the pechato vann squeezing the ffetto of pain et the serpent who...se rid e dell'inganno." The response from the Medici, who accepted" the gift, appears to be dated July 21, 1616; perhaps within the year the group was sent to Florence, or at the latest" arrival" in the city" following the artist, who returned for a brief period with his wife in early 1617. The work placed ne1 last century in the present grotticina, met" the appreciation of the purist and academic culture of the time; already" Soldini recalled that there were those who supposed it to be the work of Buonarroti