Portrait of Baccio Bandinelli with Lion

1548

Portrait of Baccio Bandinelli with Lion, 1548. Nicolo della Casa (French, active 1543–48), after Baccio Bandinelli (Italian, 1493–1560). Engraving; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1965.308 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.