Dwarf Peter Barbino

Description

The sculpture, recorded in sixteenth-century sources as the work of Valerio Cioli barely mentioned by Baldinucci, is not mentioned in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century texts on the garden, being excluded even from the artist's works. Vasari's account faithfully answers the figure, as Wiles noted at the time: "And likewise he had the statue of Piero detto Barbino, a dwarf ingenious man of letters and very kind, favored by our Duke, conducted." The absorbed air of this portrait, with the stubble motivating the appellation, reflects the personality described. Originally placed in the niche that currently houses it, it has probably remained there uninterruptedly until today, despite the silence mentioned above. Cioli, a pupil of Tribolo at Castello, returned from Rome in 1560, marking a deadline for the execution of these works for Boboli.