CIRCLE OF PIERINO DA VINCI, 16TH CENTURY

Nephew of Leonardo da Vinci, Pierino was apprenticed to Baccio Bandinelli when he was about 12 years old and subsequently joined Niccolo Tribolo who was working on the monumental fountains for the gardens of the Medici villa at Castello. His first works dating from after 1544 were a series of putti similar in style to Tribolo's, and in 1546 he supplied terracotta models of putti for the rim of Tribolo's Fountain of Hercules at Castello. After 1547 he went to Rome and was influenced by the sculptures of Michaelangelo, he also met there his patron Luca Martini, with whom he moved to Pisa.