Florence Decked in Rustic Garb: Pietra Serena Sculpture in Sixteenth Century Revival in the Medici Garden of the Villa di Castello

The use of sandstone for sculpture is recorded going back to classical sources like Vitruvius and Pliny. In Renaissance Florence, artists prolifically employed pietra serena and pietra bigia, two variants of the so-called macigno of Fiesole. Re-examining Vasari, Borghini, Del Riccio, and others provides a more precise sense of the nomenclature and an understanding of how the materials were used. From devotional sculpture to secular (coats-of-arms, fireplaces, basins, etc.) the local stone, already employed by Donatello and followers, invaded the garden in the sixteenth century. In 1538, for the Medici villa at Castello, Niccolò Tribolo, on the wave of the nascent Etruscan revival and his interest in Serlio, associates macigno sculpture with rusticity, the perfect vehicle for the Tuscan order. His collaborators there (Pierino da Vinci, Antonio Lorenzi, Valerio Cioli, and Francesco Ferrucci del Tadda) will be the ones with lasting associations for sculpting in the local stone.