Portrait of Baccio Bandinelli with Lion France, 16th century

Portrait of Baccio Bandinelli with Lion

1548

after Baccio Bandinelli

(Italian, 1493–1560)

France, 16th century

engraving

Support: Cream(1) laid paper

Sheet: 41.7 x 31.1 cm (16 7/16 x 12 1/4 in.); Platemark: 41.5 x 30.9 cm (16 5/16 x 12 3/16 in.)

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1965.308

Catalogue raisonné: LeBlanc 1 (as Salamanca, III.414)

Location: not on view

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Description

Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli was a self-proclaimed rival of Michelangelo. This print, made from Bandinelli’s design, is a masterpiece of self-promotion that also encapsulates the Renaissance artist’s inspiration from antiquity and rising social status. Bandinelli portrayed himself sitting like a king surrounded by both ancient sculpture and his own works. The lion that bites into a block of marble symbolizes Bandinelli’s formidable power over the stone and perhaps the triumph of his skills over all others (including Michelangelo). His fur-lined cloak is that of a gentleman, and the cross on his chest indicates his knighthood in the Order of Saint James, a Catholic chivalric brotherhood.