BERTOLDO DI GIOVANNI
(b. ca. 1420, d. 1491, Poggio a Caiano)

Orpheus (or Apollo)

1475-80
Bronze, height 45 cm
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

Bertoldo was an exploiter of the techniques developed by Donatello. His figurine Orpheus, shown playing a lira da braccio, illustrates the type of bronze created for the Medici circle. It is an unfinished cast with serious cracks, but Bertoldo treated it to a wealth of varied tooling before he abandoned it.