52 - Antonio Averlino, known as a follower of Filarete (Florence, 1400 – Rome, 1469)

Antonio Averlino, known as a follower of Filarete (Florence, 1400 – Rome, 1469) Bust of John VIII Palaiologos, approximately 1439–1445 burnished bronze, 47 x 42 x 25 cm Bronze bust depicting the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos (Constantinople 1392 – Constantinople 1448), portrayed wearing the skiadion—the characteristic hat with an elongated brim—and a pointed beard. The bust presented here—given the complete correspondence in quality, technique, casting period, and material—must unequivocally be associated with the bust of the same subject held in the Vatican Museums. This latter bust is a portrait bust of Palaiologos from the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide and is believed by authoritative experts to be a 15th-century work by Antonio Averlino, known as Filarete. The bust in the Vatican Museums was published as an autograph work by Filarete by M. Lazzaroni and A. Muñoz in 1907; they also reaffirmed this attribution the following year (Lazzaroni and Muñoz 1908) by including the sculpture in their monograph dedicated to Filarete. Subsequently, a photograph of the work appeared in Federico Zeri’s photographic collection, implicitly confirming the attribution to Filarete proposed by Lazzaroni and Muñoz (no. 71596). In 1986, J. Schuyler published a scholarly article attributing the work to Donatello and questioning whether it was the first portrait the sculptor created based on a living person. In 2004, the bust was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with the attribution listed as either Filarete or Donatello (“attributed to Antonio Filarete or Donatello”) (M. G. 2004). In 2008, the work was exhibited at the Fondazione Roma Museum, and once again, it was listed in the catalog as attributed to Filarete (Zaccaria 2008). After meticulous examination of the style, alloy, casting technique, bronze thickness, additions to correct casting defects, surface polishing, and type of patina, we can confidently assert that the bust under examination here, cast in a single piece, originates from the same workshop, the same model, and the same chronological context as the one preserved in the Vatican Museums, whose critical history we have reconstructed above. Therefore, any evaluation involving the piece in the Vatican Museums must unequivocally also include the piece under study here. The creation of multiple copies based on a single model does not seem inappropriate, given the universality of the figure depicted: John VIII Palaeologus, Emperor of Byzantium, who played such a significant role in the geopolitical dynamics of the time and in relations between East and West. Dating the busts to the years of the Council of Ferrara—which opened in Ferrara in 1438 and was then transferred to Florence the following year, and which saw John VIII’s crucial participation in the pursuit of union between the Greek and Latin churches—seems most convincing. It would therefore be a commission of similar significance to the one that involved Pisanello in creating a series of medals depicting John VIII, several copies of which—identical and all signed by the artist—are held in the world’s most important museums. In this sense, even the potential dynamic of serial production—in which we might imagine the bust being sent to eminent figures, the seats of potentates, or embassies—would acquire a certain historical and artistic significance. The existence of other variants and derivations—which are of inferior quality and were created in later centuries—should not be included in the considerations proposed here: our analysis is based on the refined craftsmanship of the two busts (the one preserved in the Vatican and the one discussed here) and on their indisputable equivalence in style, period, and quality.